TheCable

Last week Saturday, March 9, 2022, was a Saturday like no other. It was a day two prominent and eminently qualified Nigerians in persons of the minister for transportation Rotimi Amaechi, and Pastor Tunde Bakare each threw their hats into the ring for the 2023 presidential race. They declared their intentions to contest the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Sincerely speaking, there is nothing special about their declaration, except for the fact that they did it on the same day. Out of about a dozen other aspirants who have declared, I do not think there has been a day, two people declared officially. That underlines the uniqueness of the declarations.

But why the concern about Amaechi’s declaration? The concern is a result of the fact that one of the two aspirants, Amaechi touched on supposed qualifications or attributes of who should be the president, in addition to what is provided for, in section 131 of the 1999 constitution. You would recall, in my last article, but two, titled: ‘2023: Nigerians, negotiate from a position of strength‘, published on this platform, on March 30, 2022, I admonished Nigerians to negotiate from a position of strength so as to be able to dictate their terms.

In the piece, I highlighted those soft skill sets to look out for in their (Nigerians’) prospective president at this critical juncture of our nationhood. Those qualities I highlighted are some, if not all, the most critical presidential qualities needed to fix our current problems as a nation. Even though it is necessary, physical fitness was not listed among and it is for a reason. Most of our problems in Nigeria persist, not because our leaders are not muscularly endowed or are not athletically built enough, but because few among our current leaders rarely engage in intellectually-renewing exercise. Nigerians don’t enjoy up to 10 hours of electricity a day; it is not because President Buhari is lanky. That terrorists are gradually seizing territories close to Abuja — the seat of power– is not because the number one tenant at Aso Rock cannot outrun Enoch Adegoke, Blessing Okagbare or Divine Oduduru. Nigerians are not enjoying the benefits of the increase in the global price of oil and it is not down to President Buhari’s inability to out-jump Ese Brume or challenge Hussain Bolt to a race. Our hospitals in states of dilapidation, our educational system is comatose, youths unemployment is rising, our unmotorable roads are not owing to the fact that our political leaders lack physical fitness, but a result of a combination of intellectual bankruptcy, dearth of sense of patriotism, integrity challenge and gross lack of vision by our political elites who seek power for no other reasons than self-aggrandizement, and advancement of sectional interests.

On account of a pedestrian idea of physical fitness being a key attribute in selecting who should succeed the incumbent president, I would not want to say, his campaign is dead on arrival after all, our politics is based on neither ideology nor issue. But he would do well by going back to the drawing board and repackage his resumè to reflect the reality of what Nigeria needs to get out of the current mess. I have always respected Rotimi Amaechi for who he is, or at least who he claims to be, but I never knew he could be involved in an intellectually indolent bid of trying to derail the focus of Nigerians on what they should look out for in their prospective leaders at all levels, especially the level of the “almighty” presidency who posseses the power of life and death. In case you need to be reminded, the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is the most powerful democratically elected president you can find anywhere in the world. His pen has the capability of turning a pauper into a sudden trillionaire and transform an affluent man into a beggar, all within the twinkling of an eye. This happens with little or no check and balance from any arm, agency, or institution of the government. Imagine what happens if we let physical fitness be a major criteria in selecting the occupant of such an office. The former Rivers state governor to tell his audience and whoever cares to know that he was not kidding, ran round the stadium with hundreds of his supporters joining. Comedy on steroids. I warned in the aforesaid article that Nigerians must be vigilant, so that the debate would not be reduced to a war of; “whose-campaign-poster-is-the-most-colourful?”. The race has barely started and we have already had this attempt at reducing the debate to jejune issues like the physical fitness of aspirants.

Meanwhile, the most badly needed, but sadly lacking leadership quality in Nigerian leaders is empathy. Among those lacking in empathy is the minister for transportation. You would recall that, in the aftermath of train attack on Kaduna-Abuja rail line, while pretending to be livid about the failure of the federal executive council (FEC) to approve his proposed contract for the installation of surveillance gadgets along the rail lines, Amaechi, out of dearth of empathy and what could be described as a “Freudian Slip” bemoaned how much the Abuja-Kaduna rail line would have generated in revenue during the period the government would devote to fixing the bombed track, were it not for the attack. One would be compelled to ask; which one is more important, between human lives and revenue from railway service? He did not stop at that as he organised his so-called “Thanksgiving Service”, used in hoodwinking some of his colleagues into attending, and then in a supposed clever move, declared his intention to run for the office of the Nigerian president, while some of the passengers who were abducted are still in captivity, with the dare-devil terrorists, pleading with the federal government to give-in to their demands for ransom.

The reason why Amaechi decided to divert the debate to being athletic in proving his presidential suitability is not lost on those of us who have been following keenly, the battle of “who-succeeds-Buhari”. Tinubu, could be regarded as the most formidable and most serious of the APC aspirants, at the moment; what with, his consultations and humanitarian gestures across the country, especially to states where bloc votes are guaranteed – states like Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and other terrorism-ravaged states in the north, making cash donations. Also, a bigger financial war chest than other aspirants is Tinubu’s area of strength. Questions have however been raised as to his level mental and physical fitness, especially the latter. A US-based professor of mass communication, Farouk Kperogi, has been one of the most vocal critics of Tinubu’s bid. He points out his (Tinubu’s) physical frailty as a disaster waiting to happen, if he emerges as president of the republic. Some pointed out, in one of Tinubu’s videos circulating on social media, his uncontrollably shaky hands and argued that he is not physically fit to be president of the most populous black nation in the world. So it is very easy to connect the dots that, the subtle dig by Amaechi as a missile aimed at the former governor of Lagos state.

Some people would argue that, President Buhari is not immune from the sly self-declared fitness by the minister, as he too has been a regular medical tourist to the UK. He has been helped by an ardent Tinubu supporter, Honourable Abdulmimin Jibrin, who on his verified twitter handle, @AbdulAbmJ satirically interpreted Amaechi’s fitness declaration thus: “It’s unfair to minister Amechi for some people to think by running round the stadium, he was trying to mock the age of incumbent President Buhari, brand new APC Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu and incoming president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I believe he was only trying to save time”.

Amaechi did not limit it to the physical fitness race. He, in his speech, told the audience that: “But my aspiration is not about fulfilling any personal ambition”. Another dig. Remember Tinubu said, it has been his “life-long ambition” to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Do not get me wrong; I have no issue with that diatribe, because that is the way of politicians, especially the Nigerian species – throwing darts at their real or imagined opponents. What I do not find palatable is trying to sell “physical fitness” as a major factor in determining the presidential suitability of aspirants. It would amount focusing on curing Guinea worm, instead of Leprosy. Are we talking about the president of the “World Athletics” (formerly known as the International Amateur Athletics Federation, IAAF)?

In case he does not know, below are some of the leaders with one form of physical disability or the other: the 32nd US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt  (paraplegic due to polio) ruled from 1933 till 1945, when he died on wheelchair. Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, was blind in one eye due to a war wound yet, he ruled. Gordon Brown, former prime minister, blind in one eye.

While do not opine that physical fitness is not required by a political office holder to function effectively well, I do not think, believe or agree that lack of it is responsible for our current national malaise.

Abubakar writes from Ilorin. He can be reached via 08051388285 or [email protected]