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Friday, July 30, 2004
In the concluding part of this piece by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, President, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, on the SEARCH FOR GOOD LEADERSHIP, delivered at a seminar by the Centre for Public Policy Analysis, CPPA, he traces Nigeria's multi-faceted problems right from the time of amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates. He makes a distinction between a leader and a ruler. He appraises Nigeria from Independence and concludes that except the present administration does what is best for Nigerians, which, in his view, is a thorough restructuring of the polity, every other effort on the economic and social front would become a waste.
Also in his opening address to the Legislative Council on October 31, 1923, the same Sir Hugh Clifford said:
“....... In other words, there is here no question of a Government and an opposition, but instead, an endeavour to ensure closer cooperation and sympathy between the Government and the governed, not for the promotion of individual interests, but for the purpose of securing the wise, just and efficient administration of the country....The presence upon this Council of the representatives of many local Interests should greatly assist the Government by subjecting its measures to criticism directed at them from many and various standpoints. It should also prove no less advantageous to unofficial Members by bringing them into closer touch with the Administration, and by affording them a deeper insight Into local affairs, and a better understanding of the difficulties and problems with which the Government is confronted.’
If a Colonial Master or Governor like Sir Hugh Clifford could urge Nigerians to openly criticise his government without any inhibition and if he could admit critics of government as partners in progress as far back as 1922 and 1923, the present civilian government under President Olusegun Obasanjo should not be heard or excused for any reason for being unnecessarily touchy, edgy, provoked, emotional, irritated, inflammable or insensitive to genuine criticisms. It is sacrilegious to label critics of government as blackmailers, saboteurs or enemies of the nation. According to John F. Kennedy, “people and not the government come first”. The government also should stop thinking that it has the monopoly of ideas, whether in the realms of politics, economy, welfare, education, security etc.
That is why this government has a duty to allow Nigerians discuss and resolve their problems and chart a war forward for the future of the county, starting from now or 2007 through ‘a national discourse, meeting or conference. Several Nigerians including Chief Anthony Enahoro, the respected Nationalist and elder statesman who moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence in Parliament have advocated for this conference but the President believes that such a conference will tamper with his sovereignty, powers and privileges. I think not so as there are many dangers posed to the nation, its existence and stability through the 1999 Constitution, which undoubtedly is not a federal constitution but more of a unitary aberration.
I adopt and agree with the Editorial opinion of “The Guardian” newspaper of Monday, June 14, 2004 titled “Double Talk on National Conference” where the Newspaper graphically summed up the situation as follows:“The 1999 Constitution remains, as it were, a hybrid of the speckled owl and the barn own: it is neither federal nor unitary; it is not secular or theocratic; military or civilian. It bristles with ambiguities and equivocations, and tilts more in the direction of stardom than democracy. The geo-polltical configuration of the body politic remains a moot point, both because of and in spite of the Presidency and the National Assembly. For this and other reasons, meritocracy is sacrificed on the altar of political expediency and balance. The nation is beleaguered by ethno-religious and political crises, portending terminal instabilities. The ballot box has been desecrated and is consequently unreliable. It is for these and many other reasons that all right—thinking Nigerians call on the Federal Government to convene a national conference to peacefully negotiate their future under a federation.”
8.2 In order to remove the hiccups, land mines, bottle-necks and obstacles to 2007, we must now transit properly to real democracy, anchored on the Rule of Law and permitting for actual participation in government by the people. Having resolved to bid eternal bye bye to militarism and military adventurers. Nigerians eagerly yearn for responsive, sympathetic and humane government whether at the federal or any of the states. Nigerians do not want bosses but true leaders, as there is a word of difference between a boss and a leader. According to H. Gordon Selfindge:-
“The boss drives his men; leader coaches them. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says “I”, the leader, “We .The boss fixes the blame for the break down; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss knows how it is done, the leader shows how. The boss says “Go”. The leader says “Let’s go!”
8.3 We should stop consoling ourselves with the indefensible consolation being sold to us by our rulers and those at the corridors of power to the effect that we should exercise some patience as, according to them, it took the advanced nations of the world several years of Crawling”- before they could start staggering. It is a most dishonest comparison and none of them has been able to tell us precisely when since 1776 the United States of America was or has been in a most wretched and plundered state like Nigeria. When was Canada as badly polluted and her people dehumanised as Nigerians? South Africa became truly independent less than a decade ago and within that short period, it has overtaken Nigeria in leaps and bounds. Clearly and progressively, Ghana’s economy is becoming far more stabler than ours and its democracy is more focused, honest arid pro-people. Even when we are regrettably confronted and bedevilled with avalanche of problems, we always regale our country as the world’s largest country and ever the most important country in Africa.
Agreed that Nigeria is three times the physical size of Britain and its population may be even more than twice as large as Britain’s, can it be safely said of Nigeria as, it can of Britain, that it is a land of opportunities, of wealth, of peace, of prosperity, of happiness for the lots of the people, of respect for the rule of law, of sensitivity to ‘the plights of the led, of government policies which seek to procure and indeed secure the overall benefit for the masses, etc.? of a land rid of undernourishment, malnutrition, wretched and degrading shelter, shabby clothing and total lack’-of all kinds of luxury and comfort?
This is a poser for us all, and I dare say that it is far from being a conundrum as I am decidedly convinced that with a conscious effort of all Nigerians, we can move the to the El Dorado.
ARE WE PREPARED FOR A TRIBAL OR RELIGIOUS DEMAGOGUE AS PRESIDENT IN 2007
9.0 The race to the Presidency in 2007 has interestingly gathered a motley assembly of people from both the Northern and other parts of the country. While the North says it is now its turn to produce the President, the lgbos in the East Central are already putting down their feet, vigorously contesting that it should be an lgbo man or never. At the same time, the South -South is not left out as the clamour for it to produce the President has reached a crescendo. Arguments for or against the President coming from a particular background and belonging to either the Christian or Islamic faith are raging. In the midst of these irrational arguments and agitations, few people (if at all any exists) will care to raise questions about the ability, suitability, background or antecedents of the contenders.
Let us ponder for a while and ask ourselves these rather curious questions, does the mere fact that a Yoruba man is the President of Nigeria today alleviate the suffering of an average Yoruba man? Has the Presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for the past five years given any Yoruba man an advantage which hitherto he did not have? While we talk of true leaders of the world, we celebrate their achievements, sagacity, dynamism and exploits rather than their tribes and religions. Let a Nigeria leader who will bail us out of the woods emerge naturally and through a credible political system midwifed by an impartial electoral umpire, irrespective of his tribe, ethnic background or religious commitments.It is a mediocre experiment which has led to a calamity of great proportions to ask for the zoning of the Presidency to any particular part of the country. I do not care the tribe or religious background of the person who governs me, provided he can provide credible and sincere leadership and bring happiness to the greatest number of our people.
The democracy of bad leadership which in turn translates or graduates to democracy of poverty and wretchedness does not discriminate between Yoruba and Hausas and neither does it segregate Muslims from Christians. It is all permeating and embracing. It is as effective as the democracy of death which conquers both the rich and poor. As a Yoruba man like President Olusegun Obasanjo and coming from Ekiti in the South-Western zone like him, I have not seen much improvement in the economic, educational, health and infrastructural life of Ekiti State than what it was in 1999 when he became President. The funny and laughable consolation of the Ekiti people is that a Yoruba man is the President. I wonder if this has made the only major road in Ekiti, that is, Omu-Aran to Ado-Ekiti passable for the past five years. The road indisputably is the worst and most dangerous road in Nigeria today. Yet it is the most important road in Ekiti State. As at today, Ekiti does not have a full fledged minister, despite the fact that it had none at all between May 2003 till May, 2004 when Dr. Babalola Borishade was belatedly made (or demoted?) a Minister of State.
CONCLUSION
10.0 I have striven in this paper to address the theme of our transition in democracy and Nigeria’s desperate search for good leadership which appears to have eluded us all along. I have also posited that democracy is good and that we should embrace no other form of government beside it. While everyone of us appreciates the fact that our major problem is that of leadership, only very few Nigerians would want to contribute to the emergence of a true democracy under a good leadership. The government and political party in power are also not helping matters as they appear to be under the illusion that they have solutions to all our problems.
Ethnicity and religious bigotry are worsening matters in alarming proportions and tearing us apart, both horizontally and vertically. The ethics and traditions that we used to imbibe and appreciate have disappeared, while loyalty to any person in power has replaced the ultimate loyalty to the state. Like France under President De Gaulle, we now gullibly pronounce that any sitting President is Nigeria and Nigeria is equated with the transient President or Head of State. This idea did not start with the Obasanjo Presidency but has definitely been sustained and promoted by it. Although democracy thrives on plurality of views and ideas, Nigerian leaders, particularly since 1983 to date have been very antagonistic to criticisms, both positive and genuine. We are fast forgetting that the actual sovereignty lies in the people and that the voice of the people is also the voice of God — vox populi, vox del
10.1 The solutions and alternatives proffered in this paper are very simple, straight forward and painless. There should be institutional traditions and ethics for our leaders.
They should imbibe cultures and pathos which are universally accepted. There should be minimal standards within which our leaders should not fall below, both in their public and private lives. We should hold our leaders responsible for their promises and stop celebrating as ingredients of democracy things that average citizens of other countries ordinarily take for granted.
Government should always owe it a duty to care for the welfare of the people and provide education at affordable cost for the citizenry. Leaders at every level or stratum of government should consider themselves lucky and privileged to be given the grace by God to lead their people. It is only then they can cultivate the virtue of humility. In addition to all these, it is a desideratum that genuine and veritable political parties should be allowed to emerge as the political parties in place now cannot honestly and realistically lead or take us to the democratic promised land.
Like Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” which cannot be played without the Prince of Denmark, democracy cannot thrive without solid, visionary, well articulated and organized political parties with sound and credible manifestos, which are geared towards improving the welfare of the people. Before and after independence, we have transited from the NCNC, AG and NPC in the first republic to the SDP and NRC under the Babangida transition and then to DPN, UNPP, CNC, GDM etc. under the Abacha experiment and now PDP, ANPP, AD, APGA etc. have been foisted on Nigerians as political parties. Sincerely speaking, none of the present parties can compare at all with any of the three major parties in the first republic in terms of organization, skill, leadership, diligence or intelligence. The best thing for us at this point in time is to call for the emergence of true political parties with ideas, goals, missions, visions, aims and objectives.
10.2 Nigeria’s President, come 2007 should not be chosen or elected based on parochial, primordial or myopic considerations but purely on credibility, track record of achievements and performance, good behaviour and character and sympathy for the people. If the President cannot come from our “first eleven”, , he should not come from the “last eleven”. The “good Samaritan” to a Yoruba man might not be a Yoruba President, while the “friendly Samaritan” to an Hausa man might not be a Muslim or a Hausa politician. Same goes for every ethnic nationality in Nigeria. A Nigerian “good Samaritan” who should be our President after President Olusegun Obasanjo should be as described by Jesus the Christ in Luke 10 verses 29 — 37. The narration in the passage goes thus:“29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Sa-mar-i-tan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I came again, I will repay thee.
36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then Jesus said unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
10.3 The relevance of the Biblical analogy of the “Good Samaritan” is that our next President should come from any part of the country and belong to any religion provided he is ready to deliver and be as kind and thoughtful as the “Good Samaritan”. Simply put, our next President must be a “Good Samaritan."
10.4 Once again, I thank the Centre for Public Policy Analysis for this privileged invitation and opportunity.
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