Baba Go-Slow?
An analysis of Nigeria's president from outside of Nigeria, reported in The Economist:Please hurry up: People are worried about Umaru Yar’Adua’s slow pace of government
"AS GOVERNOR of a sparsely populated state in northern Nigeria, President Umaru Yar’Adua was known fondly as 'the silent achiever'. But a year-and-a-half into his first term as his country’s president, more and more people are muttering that his unhurried style is failing to move the machinery of Africa’s biggest and most boisterous nation. Nowadays he has a new nickname, taken from Nigeria’s notorious traffic jams: 'Baba Go-Slow'."Many Nigerians are complaining that their soft-spoken president has failed to fulfil his inaugural promises...
"So far, as president, there have been no big decisions, so no big mistakes. He rarely pontificates in the media. But he did make a slew of promises at his inauguration in May last year. Top of his list was restoring peace in the Delta and revamping Nigeria’s dreadful electricity system. Now he is even further away from doing so than when he took office...
"But Mr Yar’Adua’s admirers say his deliberative style is right for a country with a feeble infrastructure and an array of problems that cannot be solved simply by having oil cash thrown at them. Few think he is personally corrupt—a rare compliment for a Nigerian leader. Some think he should take credit for a relative absence of religious and ethnic strife since he took over a country of 140m people speaking some 250 languages..."
Another expression of similar sentiments: The Nigerian-American blogger at Grandiose Parlor, expresses his frustration this way, "Nigerians are tired and irritated by the Yar’Adua’s administration, whose agenda has remained one of the most guided secrets in national history."
Labels: leadership, Nigeria, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:13 AM
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