Niran Adedokun
ON the day appointed for the slaughter of the elephant, there will be an assemblage of all sorts of knives and implements, so says a Yoruba adage. You will find crooked, straight, curved, and even blunt objects at such an event. It will be a celebration of awkwardness and this image comes to mind when I think about the ongoing scramble for Nigeria’s presidency.
To be clear, by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, every Nigerian who is of age, sound mind and ability has a right to aspire to be the president. There is, however, a standard demand of respect for Nigerians’ intelligence from those soliciting their mandate, even now that extant experience seems to have cheapened that exalted office.
Last week, for instance, an aspirant embarked on a 400-metre race in a sports facility in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Ostensibly, that was to assure Nigerians that he was not only young but in good physical shape to be president.
Of course, we understand that message. Our recent history has shown us the untoward consequences of ill health in high places, and currently, there are worries about the age and state of health of some aspirant.
More importantly, sickness in the body is not necessarily an impediment to being an effective leader. For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt, arguably one of the most successful presidents of the United States of America, suffered the paralytic effect of poliomyelitis. He would therefore have been unable to take on the race that Hon. Chubuike Amaechi did during his declaration on Saturday. Yet, FDR piloted America’s economy out of the Great Depression of 1933 through the steps he took within his first 100 days in office. Many other American leaders, including John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, are believed to have had one or two health challenges during their tenures. Even in modern times, we have seen leaders suddenly fall ill, have surgeries and return to their beats to continue the excellent work.
The most important thing for anyone who wants to lead the country is the mental alertness and vision to take the country out of the woods. And added to vision is the capacity to assemble a knowledgeable team comprising people who understand the realities of Nigeria and can juxtapose them with the global realities and demands of 21st-century governance. After that, whoever aspires to be Nigeria’s president must come with a teachable spirit, which allows leaders to bow to the superior positions of their subordinates. A leader who thinks he knows it all is on his way to unmitigated failures, like the one we see in the current regime. As a result, the race at the stadium last Saturday came across as not only pedestrian but also an attempt to hoodwink Nigerians.
Transportation Minister, Ameachi, who should still be mourning the accident that hit the Kaduna-Abuja train service attacked by terrorists last week, said something significant during his speech on Saturday.
He said: “There is an ancient proverb that says, a society grows great when old men plant trees under whose shade they know they’ll never sit.” Admirable and appropriate philosophy, but how many of those seeking to lead us to consider the long term? What you have in Nigeria is the usual rush to attribute “that bridge” and “that railway track” to one person or the other so that they have stuff to brag about during campaigns. When people are elected or appointed in Nigeria, they spend most of the time pursuing personal and ethnic interests and spend the remaining period appropriating the meagre development in the country to themselves. We have a mindset that only plans for now, which is not the way to develop.
In 1933 London, United Kingdom’s underground railways came under public ownership, alongside buses and trams. That was 70 years after it first opened. In close to 100 years since the 1933 event, the system has undergone countless improvements and innovations. Not one of those instrumental in bringing about these changes goes about the town proclaiming their achievements. That is so because transformative and progressive leaders are after general and generational impact rather than short-distance goals aimed at the votes of citizens whose expectations of government are diminished, if not warped, by successive leadership failures.
The other thing is that government appointees who aspire to hold public offices should resign! Even before the Court of Appeal order restraining the Attorney General of the Federation and others from taking steps capable of frustrating the appeal against the judgement of a Federal High Court on S.84 (12) of the new Electoral Act, anyone aspiring to govern Nigeria should realise the need to hold off until the conclusion of that matter. It is just the right thing to do. In any case, the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is more of a burden than an advantage for any of its appointees aspiring to public office. So, if you cannot run on the regime’s record, what other incentive do you have to remain in office other than access to public resources for your campaign? And that already tells us the kind of leader you might become.
Most importantly, political aspirants must articulate their road maps and present them to Nigerians. It is not about what you have done or how many local governments you have been to in the past 20 or seven years (as the case may be), but how much you have utilised your position to affect the lives of Nigerians positively. It is about how forward-looking you are, how much compassion you have shown the people of Nigeria and how much of that the people can validate. Although he has proved to be an utter disappointment, President Buhari, for instance, rode to power on the confidence of the ordinary people of Nigeria, who saw him as their ultimately trustworthy ambassador.
What Nigerians want to hear from these aspirants is their plans to change the fortunes of a rich country with the highest number of impoverished people in the world. It is about their plans to restore peace to this troubled country. It’s about where you stand on youth unemployment, healthcare delivery, tax administration, and shared prosperity for the people. It is about how you can unite the country, give hope to the people, and stop this massive exodus where everyone, including artisans, is in a rush to leave the country.
In 2023, those who aspire to lead Nigeria must bring tangible things. We have had enough of people who want to adorn titles or fill the quota of their ethnic groups. The following years will make or mar this country, and we cannot afford to gamble.
Twitter: @niranadedokun
