SHEHU SHAGARI’S BIG SHOES
The one who wants to be president of Nigeria in 2023 must chose his figures-of-speech analogies properly, just to let us know he really knows what he wants. What’s this about “not wanting to step on toes,” in reverence to the sitting president who is unfortunately regarded as the ultimate kingmaker? The analogy that should have been appropriate is the one about a desire to be able to “fit into Shagari’s big shoes.” Anyone who styles his presidential campaign for 2023 on the basis of nostalgia for the great days of the President Shehu Shagari’s presidency really knows why he wants to be president. President Shagari ruled for a comparatively four short years but, in retrospect, and in comparison to the bumbling fiascos of Nigeria’s current leadership, Shagari was a great leader indeed. Shagari was around between 1979 and 1983: Chiyoda completed the Kaduna Refinery in 1980, the Shiroro Hydroelectric Generating Plant was completed in 1980, the Itakpe ore mining project and the Ajaokuta steel plants plus associated steel mills and rolling plants across Nigeria at Aladja, Osogbo, Jos, Katsina were activities you’d put into the 1979-1983 development context of President Shehu Shagari. At Kaduna, the textile factories and an automobile assembly plant plus sundry industries attracted and supported thousands of workers. At the state governance levels, governors were in healthy competitions to nourish localised industries and create jobs as a consequence; one index of the burgeoning factory scene was beer consumption pattern amongst the population, for when factory-assembly plants run in shifts round the clock, workers coming out of shift-sessions and those taking the day off are likely to chill out in beer gardens to socialise. If these factories are scattered in states around the country, there will be uptick in beer production and consumption patterns and there’d be the need to have a localised beer production plant in your state if you are a governor. No, this does not make you a “cursed sinner” one bit, that idea being an oddity in the context of economic growth and development and poverty reduction overall. In my opinion, Governor Sabo Bakin Zuwo (was he immortalised at Kano at all?) was thoroughly misunderstood, for it was pure business consideration that made the Kano lager beer, Double Crown, the best brand then. None of the 19 states back then was a laggard, depending on federal allocation hand-outs and spending taxpayers’ money on religious endeavours that spirals in circles and demand more funding in order to remain in the people’s consciousness. We understand Governor Laateef Jakande of Lagos State had a grand design for a rail-connectivity transport system for the Lagos Metropolitan Area. Thus, “filling Shagari’s big shoes” requires a commitment to be a good president for Nigerians in 2023.
Sunday Adole Jonah,
Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State
