Rotimi Olajide Opeyeoluwa
Book Tittle: Who Will Love My Country: Ideas for Building the Nigeria of Our Dreams Author: Ike Ekweremadu Publisher: Goldline and Jacobs Publishing, New Jersey, USA, 2016 Pages: 158 ISBN: 978-193-859-820-3 This book comprises of fourteen chapters and is authored by a fifth term Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and former Deputy Senate President. The book has fourteen chapters with a foreword by Professor Ibrabim Gambari, a leading Political Scientist and Former Nigeria’s Permanent Representatives at the United Nations, former Foreign Affairs Minister and Former United Nations Under-Secretary for Political Affairs and currently Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari. A lawyer with a first and advanced degrees from the University of Nsukka and a doctorate from the University of Abuja, all in Law, he left academics after a seven years stint in 1997, for politics in “search of a larger platform to touch the lives of his people and render service to his fatherland”. Before his election into the senate in 2003, he was elected Executive Chairman of Aninri Local Government Council on the platform of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), in 1997 and was voted as the Best Local Government Chairman in Enugu State on account of his sterling performance. Other appointments he held at the state level included: Chief of Staff, Government House Enugu, (1999-2001) and Secretary to the State Government (2001-2002). This book is one of the few books by a serving politician in Nigeria that is frank, candid and extremely down-to-earth. He didn’t delude himself as he admits that the country is still work in progress. His preference for a country that works is by inference that the country is not working but he holds up hope that the future is bright. Perhaps a latter day convert about certain ideals canvassed in the book, he without mincing words like a flaming apostle, has systematically and methodologically recounted his experiences and observations in a no-holds barred manner. It is to this end that the saying of the French intellectual Pierre Bourdieu about the need for politicians to behave more like scholars and to engage in scientific debate, based on hard facts and evidence bears resonance to what Ekeremadu has done. The author bears out thoughts that could be used to essentially revamp, revive and redeem a thoroughly battered and bruised country bleeding helplessly from years of repeated bad-governance and tepid love, mere sloganeering from its political leadership. This book is both a lamentation and an admission of guilt that a country so blessed by providence and other integral vitamins necessary for a strong nation is truly prostrate and near state collapse on account of a predatory and rapacious political class that has not learnt or is unwilling to show what is expected of a sound leadership. The implication is what we have of our country today, a truly abused, naked and fainting country. Beyond lamenting the ugly reality of the country that continues to spiral at the rock bottom of all development indices, the book makes a passionate plea, “Who will love my country”. It is, therefore, a passionate argument, he says, “ideas for building the Nigeria of our dreams”. For this effort, the author may have broken ranks with the perceived indifference of the political class on the matter at hand. Today few would argue that the country is doing well. Faced with insurgency in the North-East, kidnapping in the South-East and the resurgence in Biafra agitation, relapse into another round of pipeline bursting and other criminal attacks on state infrastructures in the South-South and herdsmen killings in areas of the country and a thoroughly battered economy, only pretenders would think all is well, matter of fact, Nigeria is currently grappling with its worst economic scenario since independence. It is not for nothing that this book, if read with an open mind would elicit for the country a re-think. But, even if not guilty of hypocrisy, the political class must show the way. Who will love my country: Ideas for building the Nigeria of our dream is quite sonorous and enchanting. It addresses salient, fundamental and contemporary issues such as “reforming the electoral process, reforming party politics, inequitable resource sharing and curbing the menace of corruption”. This is indeed a very bold and decisive roadmap from a man, whose political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), held the reins of political power for sixteen years until the Buhari tsunami swept them into the opposition last year. Indeed, these are not the best of times for the hitherto African biggest party and for a leading member of the party to step up to articulate a roadmap for the nation at its most trying period is both commendable and speaks volume. Essentially, this book is not ashamed to make its claim plain. It seeks that lovers of the country and those who are willing to embark on a rescue mission should roll up their shelves for the arduous task of nation building. The author admits the origin of the book as a product of Founder’s Day Lecture which he delivered at the University of Nigeria on October 7, 2014. Furthermore, he says, “we must demonstrate our love by doing whatever we can to make it work for us”. After the admonition for love of the country, he went on to say, “I lay no claim to having the best possible ideas, however, I state my views honestly and invite discussion in good faith, for I strongly believe that debate and explication of alternative viewpoints are entirely appropriate and should be encouraged in a democratic society”. However, the author admits that “challenges” abound and infer that, “amid such challenges and difficulties, we have realized that a nation’s security, political stability, and economic development cannot be taken for granted, they must be protected chiefly by the actions of those in power”. The author from the inception of the book to its end was unmistaken about the need for effective leadership by the political class. However, some may dismiss such a notion against the backdrop of the unpalatable experiences and abuse of process by the same political class, he made references to and expects much from. Senator Ekweremadu might not be unmindful of people’s dismissive nature of the political class, for in Chapter Five, titled, “Public Participation”, he started with a quote by Robert Hutchins, who said, “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment”. We must engage the political process. We must debate. We must participate and especially in Nigeria, we ought to be vigilant, after all, eternal vigilance is said to be the price for liberty. The author’s fundamental ideas are encapsulated in sentence, “changes in attitude are a precondition for a more durable democratic order. Democracy is deepened through the acceptance and assimilation of democratic values by the vast majority of citizens. Democracy achieves vitality and relevance through their active participation. But at present the climate of frustration, distrust, and cynicism, fostered by ineffective leaders makes it difficult for citizens to embrace democracy with zeal and optimism”. While many people may hail this assertion, it is a dangerous place to be for a country. It sets the people into a difficult place and many recoils into very dangerous mindset. This tendency must be avoided at all cost. The absence of a people in democracy is a harbinger for doom. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the book is the candid assessment of issues and courage of conviction. Another is the appealing topic of the book. A ravaged country obviously needs those whose love would nurse it back to life. That such a call would come from one of the leading politicians who are experts at doublespeak is both soothing and perhaps could mean that need for a forensic audit of the political process and the structure of the country is at hand. If the goal of the author was borne out of a sincere desire for the much-needed change of a country, so badly bruised, raped, prostrate and gasping for breath and the call heeded, then the country might revive to the dawn of a glorious future, which she is endowed with human and material resources for. In the final analysis, Nigeria though has not worked for the greater good of all but can still be rebooted. Here is the paradox, made actually worse by bad economic indices. This was not the country that the founding fathers received at independence. The many contours, distortions and instability must make the practice of federalism and democracy inevitable. This book is a must read for all who love, who wants to love and work for the redemption of the country. Rotimi Olajide Opeyeoluwa is a lecturer in the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy, Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. Follow some of the top Nigeria book blogs and website for more books review here.
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