Friday Musings with Ayo Olukotun ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com 07055841236
“There is overabundant leadership quality locked up in the nation, and it is a collective shortcoming that the political space has not been sufficiently opened up to let soar such potential”
– Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, February 8, 2019
That there is tomorrow’s governorship and state assembly elections to go, notwithstanding, attention and conversation have focused overwhelmingly on last fortnight’s presidential, and to a lesser extent, National Assembly elections. President Muhammadu Buhari has been inundated with proposals for governance activity, most of them familiar; runner-up Atiku Abubakar is being encouraged, or alternatively dissuaded to pursue legal redress concerning election results. The statistically minded are poring over the election outcomes, querying why voter turnout in most northern states averaged 50%, while that of the South hovered around 30%; and why there were so comparatively fewer cases of card reader failure in many northern states, Buhari’s stronghold.
Various explanations are being offered for Buhari’s victory and its surprisingly wide margin. The Nation’s informative columnist, Tatalo Alamu, attributes it to Buhari’s magical hold on captive northern masses. Argued he, “In the circumstances, as long as he (Buhari) maintains his hypnotic sway over the adoring and adulating northern multitude, he does not have to engage anybody in debate or explain his party’s programme. He is not even obliged to remember their (his party members) names or the correct positions they are vying for” (The Nation, Sunday, March 3, 2019).
There will of course be time for scholars and analysts to probe into how we got to the current treacherous pass, considering that Atiku is also in some ways, flawed. What is important however, in the context of the opening quote sourced from Prof. Wole Soyinka, is that if the short-term appears to be lost, we cannot afford to mortgage the medium term to irrational or hard-to-fathom issues and forces. Which brings us to some of the redeeming features of a somewhat tepid campaign, including, the role of brilliant, relatively young Nigerians such as, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, Dr Obadiah Mailafia, and Omoyele Sowore. I believe that the overabundance of leadership talent alluded to by Soyinka, includes some of these middle-aged Nigerians, and the elan that they brought to the campaign. Some may argue that it is too late to cull up these personalities, given that the election has been fought and won. Not so; because there is still this perplexity about having such stars around, and not being able to make a turnaround in the nation’s fortunes.
If you ask the question, “Why do the like of Mailafia and Moghalu never seem to matter in our brand of politics?” Part of the reason would be the lack of a political party base and their having no roots in what has become big money politics. What we saw in the election is not necessarily the strength of the individual personalities, but the supporting infrastructure of relatively strong parties delivering results over and above the mettle of the candidates, not to mention the power of big spenders that they collated. Will there ever be a coherent governance reform that would take Nigeria out of the current doldrums? For this to happen, it is either reform-minded professionals and politicians work from inside the current parties to rearrange matters, or the Moghalus and Sowores of this world will have to build their ideas and skills into movements that wear the attire of redemptive parties. Frustration and disillusionment with the current state of affairs are not enough to bring about lasting changes. Bottom-up organisations must develop and be instigated to transform the subsisting political meltdown. In the immediate however, it is admonished that those who have won the elections need to learn from some of the topical ideas and reformist impulse of some of those who lost but who in a better clime, may have got far more airing. Before getting to that, this writer craves the reader’s indulgence to enter a characteristic short take.
It was exciting that legal icon and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola, was awarded on Wednesday, this year’s edition of the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership. As the moving spirit of the award, Dr Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, made clear, Babalola shares with Chief Awolowo, a rags-to-riches story, underlined by determination and sheer fortitude. As this columnist remarked on a previous occasion, self-made Nigerians who rise to stardom, not through godfathers, but through the dint of hard work, have a lot to teach a nation both adrift and lazy. It is also edifying that the Leadership prize, unlike the cash-and-carry type which litters our landscape, has maintained its founding ideals and nobility of identity. Recently described by Bishop Matthew Kukah, as a tree that makes a forest, Babalola is an exquisite achiever, and we congratulate him.
To get back to the initial discourse on the glowing president that we never had, it may be necessary to draw attention to some of the interesting ideas of that crowd of aspirants. It is not entirely irrelevant, for example, that Ezekwesili’s campaign riff of empowering the youth and women, would appear to have been adopted, at least in rhetoric by Buhari in the early flush of victory. Some of her other ideas, such as making the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to face the market, without necessarily selling it off, also deserves attention, in view of the moral torpor that pervades the Octopus. Moghalu, who was endorsed by Soyinka’s Citizenship Forum had promised to raise a world-class, first eleven managerial team that would pursue evidence-based public policy, as well as integrate education with the economy, in ways that mainstream innovation and skill acquisition. He had also pledged to stop medical tourism by upgrading to 15%, the percentage share of health to the total budget. Worthy of attention too, is Mailafia’s proposed educational project, which would at once increase the literacy rate and make intellectual capital, the basis of development. To tackle security issues, he sketched out a plan to modernise the police, by emphasising intelligence gathering capacity, as well as create a military-industrial complex to fast-track Research and Development. At first blush, Sowore’s plan to raise the minimum wage to N100,000 may sound absurd, but it speaks to the need to restructure an economy that is badly skewed in favour of an affluent and largely unproductive minority.
An interesting post on social media had one of Sowore’s fanatical supporters replying to a commentator who had mocked the principal over his electoral loss. Sowore’s advocate reminded the critic that the former has a Green Card, and is therefore innoculated from the woes of poor leadership in our clime. It is Nigerians, he argued, who will have to put up with a malfunctioning system that does not guarantee health services, stable electricity, decent roads, quality education, and employment.
Food for thought, I dare say, but all hope is not lost, if the learning curve of our leaders finds a way to incorporate some of the sound ideas canvassed in the course of the campaign, and perhaps deploy some of these campaigners in the position of ministers or special advisers, so that the nation can benefit from their ideas.
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