AS a retired army general, president Buhari and a host of other retired military officers in his cabinet, including Abdulraman Danbazau, minister of defense; Hameed Ali, Comptroller General of immigration; Babagana Mongonu,national security adviser, amongst others, must have also been earning their pension remunerations before their current appointments .
Now that they have been given a second chance in public service, equity demands that they forgo their pensions, so l hope they have done so.
That’s not all.
Although president Buhari would have his justifications, it appears to me that it is also political malpractice and another form of corruption when mr president goes below twenty one,21 senior police officers to appoint an Inspector General of Police, IGP compelling the premature retirement of the highly trained officers who are senior to the acting IGP.The loss of 21 highly trained senior police officers owing to non adherence to seniority rules and procedures,constitute indirect drain on Nigeria’s lean resources as the funds applied in training the sacked officers who were expected to contribute their knowledge and skill towards effective and efficient policing, is lost as they are being forced to leave service before attaining retirement age.
Political convenience
As Thisday newspaper in its Sunday Comment on July 10, 2016 pointed out, “Whichever way one looks at it, this particular police retirement was untidy. And so were some of the promotions. The newspaper then concluded that “The canvassed criteria were a mixture of political convenience and poor attention to service records”.
By the same token, not adhering to the provisions of Federal Character Comission, FCC in the appointment of Nigerians into public offices which is creating unnecessary tension in the polity and failing to apply same procedure in the distribution of infrastructure are also political malpractices of some sort.
Thankfully,what could have amounted to a breach in 2016 budget was prevented when president Buhari ordered the return of the lagos-Calabar rail line project into the appropriation bill to serve as a balance to the lagos-Kano rail line already provided for in the 2016 budget. The initial removal of the project which was an apparent contravention of the letter and spirit of FCC rule,could have been deemed also as a form of political malpractice, had it not been rectified .
Before any of the public officers identified in the list of beneficiaries of political malpractices catalogued above take it personally and in the typical Nigerian fashion, start planning vendetta, they should first ponder Wole Soyinka’s remarkable statement in his famous book ‘The Man Died’
The seminal work ‘Principles of Political Economy’ by John Stuart Mills, the last of the classical economists,probably provided the bulwark for Soyinka’s postulation. John Stuart Mills, the renown leader of thought in the caliber of Adam smith and John Maynard Keynes , is also regarded as the father of the economic theory of utilitarianism. He had observed, over one hundred years ago, that “A man who has nothing to which he is willing to fight for,nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creation who has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself”
So as a social and economic rights advocate, l make bold to point out flaws or breaches in leadership with a view to pricking the conscience of our leaders.
As l have often shared with friends and colleagues, public intellectuals like me are leading from the streets while federal govt officials lead from Aso Rock mansion and National Assembly, NASS, just as governors and state legislators lead from from the various govt houses and state houses of assembly in their respective states across the country.
Ultimately,the objective of those of us leading from the streets and those in govt houses would align when voters feel that they are living in a relatively fair, just and equitable society. That in my view is what the practice of democracy should be about and a pathway to liberal democracy to which all Nigerians aspire .
Having said that, l believe that l have sufficiently established that a combination of both economic and political malpractices negatively impact society, if allowed to fester.
And it is now pretty clear why a gauntlet should also be thrown down against political malpractices which although are the more subtle and sublime type of corruption,are equally as devastating as financial corruption.
In fact, some political scientists would argue that since they are disruptive, political malpractices could lead to social upheavals like riots and fractured societies or worst still,fragmentation of nations.
Take Sudan for instance. Owing to perennial conflicts over political inequality, there are two countries out of the former, yet internecine wars have not departed the scorched land in over 30 years.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn cautions in his book ‘Gulag Archipelago’ that “When we neither punish or reproach evildoers,we are not simply protecting their trivial old age,we are thereby ripping the foundations of Justice beneath new generations”.
Justifiably, president Buhari has in the past year of being at the helm of affairs in Aso Rock, tackled financial corruption in high places frontally, and so far, the yield has been bountiful, although most Nigerians, including my good self, would argue that the collateral damage to the economy and society has been debilitating , because the process which should have been driven systematically, has been carried out dramatically with calamitous consequences.
Admittedly, the endeavor of getting rid of corruption in a society where it has developed tap root is a daunting task, but president Buhari must fight the war against both financial and political corruption holistically.
Mr president can’t afford to be seen as being determined to fight one to a stand still, and acquiesce with the other.
So that posterity can judge him fairly and thus earn himself a deserved pride of place in the annals of Nigerian history, political corruption should be fought with same fervor.
Apart from former president Olusegun Obasanjo,OBJ nobody else has gotten a second chance to lead Nigeria twice as army general and later as a politician, except president Muhamadu Buhari.
Late army general Sanni Abacha tried and failed and so also did,general Ibrahim Babangida, IBB who also was unsuccessful.
For that singular privilege,mr president can not afford to let down the Nigerian voters estimated to be in excess of 14m who voted for him to become president,irrespective of differences in tongue, tribe, religion or creed.
Permit me to conclude with Suzy Kassem’s concept of the qualities that voters should look out for in choosing a good leader, as contained in her book ‘Rise up and Salute the Sun’
She recommends that voters should “ Pick a peace maker. One who unites not divide. A cultured leader who supports the arts and true freedom of speech, not censorship. Pick a leader who will not only only bail out banks and airlines, but also families from loosing their houses and jobs…”. Kassem further advises voters to “Pick a leader who chooses diplomacy not war. An honest broker in foreign relations. A leader with integrity, one who says what they mean, keeps their word and does not lie to the people. A leader who encourages diversity not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher,the doctor, and the environmentalist…not only the banker, the oil tycoon,the weapons developer or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist “.
The admonitions above that were prepared long ago for a different audience, happens to be so apt for modern day Nigerian voters.
In my considered opinion,president Buhari embodies all the positive virtues outlined in Suzy Kassem’s checklist for good leadership,so it could only be a question of time before the earlier listed perceived or real injustices in the polity are reversed.
Finally, our leaders can’t afford to ignore the leadership wisdom espoused by the great philosopher, Charles Darwin who posits that “If misery of the poor be caused not by laws of nature,but by our institutions,great is our sin”.
Magnus Onyibe, a development strategist, futurologist and former Commissoner in delta state govt is an alumnus of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA.
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