The Englishman says experience is the best teacher, and this goes to say that after nearly four years as a democratically elected leader, President Muhammadu Buhari must have learnt some lessons about the fundamentals of effective modern governance.
By now, Buhari must realise that as far as impactful leadership is concerned, competence will always trounce integrity. There is no doubt that honest leadership bears enormous dividend but that only happens when such integrity is backed up with adequate knowhow, when it is not, leadership, even though incorruptible would flounder without purpose forever!
He should also have got the memo that mere good intentions take no one nowhere. When intentions are not marked with good and well-laid-out actions, those good intentions may as well lead people to hell.
The last four years must have taught the President that the three arms of government must be deliberate about amity and collaborations to impact on the country. He must have seen that attempt to paint any arm of government in black and exonerate another, especially the one to which he belongs would only alienate the other arms and become counter-productive in the long run.
He must also have understood by now that, working harmoniously with other arms of government is not necessarily about executive lackeys in leadership positions over the other arms.
No matter what mercenary politicians tell the President, experience, and here, not just his own but those of his predecessors, must have shown him that it can only take so long before those you impose in office with the intention to guide become people of their own. Those who say power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely understand the seductive nature of power to the extent that anyone heading one arm of government would fight for their independence when they feel trampled on. Within the first five years of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, for instance, there were three Senate Presidents, all attaining authority under his seal but they all got independent of him at some point and fell out with him. At the House of Representatives, there were four Speakers within five years, all at some point Obasanjo’s beautiful and malleable brides but they all grew enough muscles to stand up to their benefactor on whose back they rode to prominence.
The sermon here for Buhari and the administration that he will form post May 29, 2019 is that nothing but mutual respect among all arms of government, even if the President paid for their nomination forms or if they were his offspring would guarantee the harmony he needs for the very onerous task ahead of him.
The past four years must have shown the President that the concept of evil and good is indeed very fluid in politics. That national interest rather than some ill-defined personal convictions should determine those who have access to power. He must have seen that no leader who hopes to make impact can remain an island and that consensus is the fastest vehicle for national development rather than the messianic instincts of self-righteousness or even the stiff characterisation that pious leaders adorn. A leader who desires a change in the values of his people must communicate his vision to them with passion, never tiring, never relenting and history has shown that this is possible.
One of the most phenomenal stories of the rebirth of nations in this century is that of Singapore under the leadership of the inimitable Lee Kuan Yew. Although the father of Singapore sometimes tended towards benevolent dictatorship, he never allowed himself the indulgence of being the lone motivator of the improvements that visited his country under his watch. He, in fact, used every opportunity he had to speak about his deliberate efforts at raising social consciousness and gaining the understanding and support of his people through mass mobilisation in every major reform effort. For Yew, his government’s “greatest asset was the trust and confidence of the people.” This is a skill President Buhari must intentionally deploy during his second term.
And in speeches that he has made after his re-election, President Buhari has spoken about his determination to pursue his three-point agenda of improved economy, security and tackling corruption more intensely. That is commendable.
However, this administration will need to do much more than this to truly earn any worthy legacy.
A most critical emergency that Nigeria currently suffers is in the education sector. There must be an overhaul of the system if Nigeria plans to be a country of reckoning in the future of the world. Enough has been said about 13.2 million children out of school in the country and the unrest, if not turmoil that this foretells unless it is tackled with measured and sustained urgency.
And this intervention is not about any bogus school feeding programme, it is about reposting teacher education, paying attention to the remuneration and conditions of service of teachers, to the nation’s human capital and to the profession. It is about redefining curriculum preceded by an understanding of the end that the country hopes to attain with its education policy. The same attention must be paid to health care delivery from the primary to the tertiary levels.
Questions came up about education during the electioneering and the President talked about how primary and secondary education are within the purview of the states and local government, the same for health care. As true as this is, the federal administration must come to terms with what the performance of the states in these sectors would tell on the country’s development index and be ready to lead a revolution like that the one President Obasanjo attempted during his second term.
Buhari must also realise that he cannot afford not to cure Nigeria of the pervasive ethnic and religious distrust that currently reigns. That would sure not be an easy task since there are entrenched interests that may frustrate the most genuine motives, but the he holds the shield of state and therein lies his advantage. A combination of discernible humble and sincere love for every part of the country in action as well as in deed will unlock the people’s resistance and make Nigerians from every part of the country rally round the President for a better country. By deploying the resources of state without fear or favour and with fairness to every section of the country in mind, Buhari would most definitely bequeath a country that is currently non-existent. The President should work towards having a nation where leaders are not elected on the strength of the part of the country they come from.
Most importantly, President Buhari must consider the restructuring of this country. The current system of government is too costly as it is divisive, essentially because of the incentives that the central government is for sections of the country to lay their hands-on national resources. For the country to make progress, there must be a reconsideration of this presidential system.
More serious attention should be paid to the election of members of the parliament from the local levels since the national leaders would emerge from there.
President Buhari strove to be President 12 years before he got it; and now he has won a second term, it does not seem that he has anything more to prove that would let generations of Nigerians remember him for good deeds and laying a solid foundation for Nigeria.
May Buhari find the grace to take Nigeria there.
Adedokun tweets @niranadedokun
END
Be the first to comment