EDITORIAL: An Awakening
HISTORY is made in unexpected ways. It is full of twists and turns, and those involved could not have envisaged the context, neither could they have wished for it. In today’s unfolding scenario, there is a fierce urgency about the need to respond to the national malaise correctly. The formation of a credible alternative aligns with our position last week that the nation needs a broad-based Popular Front to unite the country around a program of national reinvigoration.
The coalition must be broad-based, as this is not the time for ideological purity. Fundamentally, the new platform must develop a clear program focusing on reviving the productive base of the nation to pull millions out of poverty and create enduring prosperity. Without a focus on national rebirth, a perception will emerge that the ADC constitutes an amalgamation of self-serving individuals.
The new ADC is lucky to have an amalgamation of astute thinkers and doers, such as Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who as Governor of Osun State, implemented a far-sighted program of social reconstruction similar to that admirably done by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil. Other coalition members can formulate a program focusing on fiscal discipline, redirecting funds to areas of social and economic reinvigoration.
Many have pointed out that a palliative economy cannot build a productive base, which is needed to focus on export programs to ameliorate our perennial balance of payments crisis. The new ADC must focus on building the productive base, as associated with people like Aregbesola, Peter Obi, and others.
The days of a palliative economy must end. A new focus on production, rather than rent-seeking, is the only way to get out of the present crisis. The new ADC coalition must be pro-people, focusing on policies like a mass affordable housing program, similar to what was done in the 1950s and 1960s and by Lula da Silva in Brazil.
Such a program would involve over two million people directly, require massive skills training centers, and have a profound effect on the country. By rebuilding infrastructure and involving people in the process, we can build a better, more productive society.
In other areas, the emphasis must be continuously based on production and job creation. A new policy on exports is necessary. As Pandit Nehru famously said, “We either export or we perish.” Today, we see the effect of that policy statement, with India on its way to becoming the largest economy in the world by 2050.
The ADC offers a fundamental opportunity to break away from the past. The party must focus on a program of action that will entice the grassroots. Right now, there’s pervasive cynicism across the country, with voter turnout falling due to loss of faith in the ballot box as a means of change.
To get people engaged again, the program will have to appeal directly to their self-interest and to their wallets. Right now, people are hard-pressed with not just a cost of living crisis but, in reality, for many, a cost of existence crisis. The program must work out an immediate, short-term, and long-term plan, encompassed in four years, as to how to rebuild the purchasing power of the mass of the people and begin to, within months, pull people out of poverty.
This program must be well-articulated, and the appeal must be made to segmented focus groups, looking at their self-interest and how this program will be implemented in their interest. The disconnect between the overwhelming majority and the political establishment is dangerous for any democracy.
The ADC should see itself as Nigeria’s equivalent of a historic compromise. Nigeria actually needs an historic compromise. The demons of the past, which continually rear their ugly head, must be addressed. The national question, the issue of peaceful co-existence in one country, must be addressed. We cannot continue to postpone the evil day on many fronts.
The ADC should be seen as a heaven-sent opportunity for the country to have an alternative that can rebuild hope. If they do not meet up to what, at the moment, appears to be great expectations, the consequences could be devastating.
