The successful simula
tion of the person of
President Obasanjo by the young chap who acted the Nigerian President and the instant recognition of the truthful lie by the audience was the greatest testimony of the popular infatuation with this newest leadership training strategy.
Political, military and professional leaders on the high table as well as parents of these little excellencies could not help being enchanted by the picture of selected and groomed pupils of the Command Day Secondary School, Abuja acting as various African heads of state at a supposed summit of the African Union, AU.
It was the kind of ceremony that either President Obasanjo or Vice President Atiku Abubakar should Have been briefed to attend and sit through, from the opening to the end. But this day, the President was represented by Rochas Okorocha, a Presidential adviser. It was the Speech and Prize Giving Day of the school and the authorities had, among others, John Madaki, the Jungle expert former Governor of Katsina state, Major-General (Dr) Gbor, Commandant of the Army Corp of Education and Brigadier-General Oshanupin, the Commander of the Guards Brigade to witness the occasion featuring so many items of which the simulation of a summit of the AU was one.
At the appropriate time, the audience was called to attention with an African stirring PANA Correspondent filing Summit update to her Africa wide stations as she could be heard calling Abuja, Pretoria, Harare, Tripoli, Dare Salam, Kampala, Bamako and so on, indicating which President was arriving, what is unique about him and such tit bits from the to-ing and fr-oings in the hall.
Then the summit proper opened, with the Chairman of African Commission in charge, a contrast to the OAU situation in which the host President was the one who delivered an opening’ speech, In his report, the Chairman, former Malian President, Alpha Konare called for return to community values in African culture. He was behaving true to his record in Mali. Then the Presidents took their turn to speak. At the end of the day, the African crisis profile was dominated by HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty, indebtedness, corruption, conflicts and now, locust invasion. But there was the unmistakable absence of any Presidents decked in military fatigue, suggesting the end of the era of soldier-statesmen.
Namibian President, Sam Nuyoma, said in his statement that he was attending his last session of the AU, a manner of assuring his colleagues that he was not about organizing an amendment of the constitution to extend his tenure typical of African leaders. In apparent awareness of the Peer Review focus of the session, Nuyoma lambasted Angola’s leaders for the low literacy rate in that country, hinting at the corruption which has eaten up the billions of dollars earned from sales of diamonds, gold and oil.
President Yoweri Musoveni of Uganda, on the other hand, congratulated his Kenyan counterpart, Mwai Kibaki for insisting that tribalism is not a good basis for nation building or power, contrary to Ralla Oginga - Odinga’s position. He proudly dissociated the great success of his HIV campaign from the use of condoms, attributing it rather to abstinence from sex. That, he said, had been more effective than the use of condoms.
Ammani Tamani Toure of Mali did not forget to thank his colleagues for electing his countryman and predecessor in office, Alfa Konare the first Chairman of the African Commission. His report then dealt with impending locust invasion in his country.
Then there was the dramatic umbrage of Benjamin Mkakpa of Tanzania against the remarks of British High Commissioner to neighboring Kenya about corruption. How could the ambassador from a country of terrible colonial exploits in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Apartheid South Africa and so on ever say what, he seemed to be saying.
It was Obasanjo who, however, stole the show arising from the dramatic foot works of the pupil actor who succeeded in presenting the real Obasanjo; from the voice inflection to the casual handshaking style of the President, his habitual throat clearing and similar other mannerisms, generating such crowd ecstasy. He was heard assuring about fighting corruption and promising to build Africa during his Chairmanship of the AU.
Then the opening ceremony was .over, with the Presidents moving away into the closed session, but not before Thabo” Mbeki was successfully seized on the way by enterprising journalists seeking clarifications about his call for Africa’s leaders to “give Africa free and fair elections” and insisting that HIV/AIDS is rooted more in poverty and malnutrition.
The entertainment value of the simulated session was self-evident as much as the skills of stage confidence, public speaking and the protocol sense that it automatically taught the pupils. But above all, the high mindedness it would certainly impart in the actor-pupils to, quite early in their life, start thinking like national leaders and as persons who must exhibit personal excellence and communal welfare at all times.
Certainly, nothing like it has been seen again since the more mature version of it at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in the late eighties fell victim of the decline of the fortunes of education in Nigeria. Would the army education corps benefit itself from what the conventional universities could not take advantage of? It would be to Africa’s glory, especially in the year that Nigeria is in the chair of the African Union.
Masterminds behind AFRICA’ VISION 525, which devised the concept as well as the teachers who packaged the presentation expressed the hope that their little excellencies would imbibe certain positive leadership and personal space orientations, particularly the girls who played presidents. Professor Okello Oculi of AFRICA VISION 525 explained that his study especially of women who came to be leaders at various levels in life, including those who contested the last elections in Nigeria in 2003, were those who played certain leadership roles much earlier in life. The NGO therefore decided to have leadership training through simulation as one of the arms of its operations, which span research, facilitation and policy intervention across Africa. The operational headquarter of AFRICA VISION 525 is based in Nigeria.
Onoja writes from Abuja
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