Retrospectively, the fall of the great Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was one historical event that took the rest of the world by surprise. But keen watchers and analysts of the radical reforms undertaken by the former and last USSR Prime Minister Mickhail Goberchev pre-empted the imminent danger lurking behind the reformer who delved into a two pronged reformative strategy of the perestroika and Glasnost which entailed a copulation of the basic tenets of communism with that of capitalism.
The conjugation of the perestroika and glasnost eventually crumbled the thin walls of the eastern bloc when it pounded its heart beat, the USSR with several economic austerity measures that the reformation brought with it and finally disintegrated the world’s acclaimed second super-power, the USSR left to check-mate the excesses of a life long arch-rival the U.S.A. As Goberchev embarked upon the drastic reforms, what used to be a feared nation the USSR played swiftly into the waiting arms of the perfidious USA whose stock in trade had been to cash in on the slightest opportunity to showcase their merchandise (the new world order of modern democratization) which is considered better disposed to be in synch with the ideology of capitalism and its liberal tenets.
Out of short-sightedness, Goberchev was toadied into the erroneous believe that the only solution to the USSR’s tottering economy that was so much bedeviled by acute food insecurity was the injection of the lethal does of capitalism into a tightly closed communist principles. Unbeknownst to the radical reformer booby traps was set and propelled by the painful traction of food shortage (wheat precisely and of course American grains) exacerbated by a treasonable economic sabotage master-minded by the USA through the USSR Saboteurs (the anti-reformists) who surreptitiously siphoned and smuggled out copious quantities of foods stuffs particularly animal proteins and stock piled them in latent spots in cold freezing Siberia. So, while the reformation was on the top gear, the crunch of hunger was gaining momentum gradually until the communal warehouses and multi-purpose departmental stores were dried up to the points of embarrassment thereby forcing a great and such powerful people to decry their time tested system in defiance of every convention and tradition. The crises deteriorated all the more to make it apparently pertinent to admit the radical reformation for those who are Pro-Goberchev, whereas the anti-reformation stocked to their guns to polarize the second world’s most dreaded supper-power until it eventually Balkanized. While the reformist was engrossed in the arduous task of resisting the opposition pressures encountered from the anti-reformation, little did he realized that the USSR national was lost already until a plebiscite proved him to be absolutely on his tod. That marked the historic collapse of the prestigious communist state of the USSR and the realization of the America’s dream as the only world’s renowned superpower today. Nowadays, China is one of the surviving nations still practicing a modified type of socialism at variance with pure or absolute communism (of the USSR brand) as is being mimicked by the North Koreans the arch-enemy of the new world order of today.
The Chinese proverb has it that; a leader without followership is like someone who is taking a long lonely stroll” Such a leader according to the Chinese wisdom is simply on his own tod. The lessons to learn from the USSR reformist’s pitfalls are many but only one is necessary followership is vital as key to a successful reformation. When opinions are divided and irreconcilably diverse especially among constituents members of an organization (be it a corporate body or country or community) there is bound to be in-fighting that oftentimes conceive sabotage as the greatest threat to peace and unity. From the foregoing, the USSR seized to be a nation with the emergency of in-fighting among the stakeholders of the communists body polity. External forces always capitalize on any besetting in fighting to destabilize an avowed arch-rival or enemy. In Nigeria, a section of the country perceiving the leadership to be their birthright is determined to ferment trouble to make the country ungovernable. They did not just stop at mere verbal outburst, rather actions were taken to suit their threats without qualms. It is therefore typical day-dreaming to think that the Nigeria nation state will eventually return to a peaceful daily co-existent after the wanton killings committed by extremist Islamic religious sect, Boko Haram.
In this unholy union, the cohabitation of the incompatible multi-ethnic nationals was possible only under pretensions. According to Winston Churchill, “A love for tradition has never weakened a nation; indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril”. But the sponsors of the Boko Haram nuisance fanatically negates the wisdom in the above quotation by allowing their excessive love for their religion and traditional believe in Sharia doctrines to becloud every sense of judgment. If the agitation of the Boko Haram Champions is the Islamization of the entire Nigeria and the exaltation of the Sharia-laws based system of government over and above our extant secular constitution, then, the nation seizes to exist. In this case, President Goodluck Jonathan needs to be alerted that the transformation agenda of his administration is yet to gain a buy-in of all and sundry in this country. In stead of pretentiously falling into the same ditch as did Goberchev of the defunct USSR regime, it is better to take precaution to address the issues of ethnic dissention, sectorial agitation, regional restiveness and religious fanatical insurgence headlong.
It was Aristotle that postulated that; “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals separated from law and justice he is the worst”, to watch the ‘nation’ drift into anarchy or lawlessness is the fastest way of losing her. The leadership of Nigeria in the saddle should be pre-occupied with the security and economic problems confronting it, desist from procrastination, pretensions and profligacy that manifests the misplacement of priority which is our bane. The in-congeniality entailed by the proposed grand celebration of 2014 as the centenary anniversary of the Nigeria project is instructively indicative of a lost bearing and crass insensitivity on the side of the Federal Government of Nigeria. In lieu of such triviality, the FGN should seek to resolve the teething issues of agitations against marginalization, deprivation, despoliation, humiliation, intimidation, inequities, official corruption, crime and social vices etc provoking public and several socio-ethno ululation from across the length and breadth of Nigeria on daily basis. Take it or leave it, Nigeria is at the moment notorious among the comity of Nation as a crisis ridden country and soon to be blacklisted on the terrorist list. If the FGN is sincere about resolving the up surging crisis in some parts of Nigeria as well as stemming the tide of ethnic poverty, sectarial violence and criminality, a sovereign national conference is imperative. Across the entire thirty six (36) states of Nigeria plus the FCT, political spectra are projecting towards the politics of the 2015 general election it is politicking everywhere; propulsion towards party coalition in every effort to muster reasonable opposition to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and possibly wrestles power from it. At the three tier levels of local, state and federal governments, the consciousness is indicative of virulent intention by respective players to score political goals of finally clinching political powers at all costs. At the Federal level, political hirelings are at best threatening brimstone and fire in their resolve to return the President for a second term wily nilly. The ruling PDP have equally proposed a vacuous non-democratic strategy of returning all elected party incumbents un-opposed in the party primaries. The infantile Governor’s Forum (Nigerian Governor’s Forum (NGF) has just demonstrated vicious strength of imposition in the circus of power drivers, conductors and contenders. The Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi taunted the Presidency by proving an overwhelming influence on the NGF. In the same vein the PDP leadership displayed outrageous loyalty to the Presidency by signally their ever-readiness to tilt-the political will of the electorates towards the ambition of the ruling party generally and all elected incumbents respectively. The PDP rolled down a sledge harmers of sanction of the recalcitrant Chairman of the NGF Rotomi Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State. At the moment, NGF is factionalized into Jona Dang group and Chibuike Amaechi group. In all spheres, at all the categories, the incumbents are talking tough ready to adopt possible manipulations to skew the political pendulum towards their favour.
Meanwhile, the big question begging for answer to which all pretentiously gave deaf ears remains; given the precarious security situation and the accompanying political tension, what is the propensity of the Nigeria project surviving beyond 2014? This is thoughtful, going by the predictions and trend of events chronicling the one hundred years of the 1914 amalgamation of the impecunious North Protectorate with the flourishing Southern Protectorate to cultivate the project Nigeria, even when the ides of 2015 is nagging and starring.
