Carter to Buhari: Leadership in times of crisis

My heart went out momentarily to Senate President Bukola Saraki the other day at a funeral service when, upon his recognition as being present in church, the officiating minister chose to give him a message for onward transmission to President Muhammadu Buhari: There is hunger and suffering in the land, the cleric said repeatedly! Tell the president: there is hunger in the land!

If it is not a moral bully pulpit, of course, it is not a worthy pulpit!
The Vicar and Archdeacon of Ikoyi Diocese of the Anglican Church, therefore, used it most appropriately by asking the Number Three Citizen to tell the Number One that the economic situation in the country is making Nigerians feel their lives have only changed for the worse and that government is not doing enough.

Saraki, ever the consummate politician, took it all on the chin and sat stoically, as the cleric correctly noted that mass unemployment, inflation and hunger are now at the point where “Nigerians really feed from the dustbin.” And, according to him, it might soon get to a point when Nigerian leaders would not be able to walk freely on the streets.

I trust that Saraki got the message and will deliver same not only to the president but to all members of the legislative arm as well as every person in any leadership position at any level.

But just in case the proverbial wisdom of ensuring the efficacy of a message to the deaf by sending such through his son fails to hold in this instance, I am persuaded that the crisis of living, not just an economic crisis, in which Nigerians wallow today should remind Nigerian leaders, especially President Buhari of the energy crisis Americans faced in the 1970s and what compassionate leadership means.

Such was the energy crisis that petroleum products rationing was adopted in some areas.

On July 15, 1979, President Carter outlined his plans to reduce oil imports and improve energy efficiency in his “Crisis of Confidence” or what is at times called the ‘malaise’ speech. In delivering that speech to start with, Jimmy Carter led by example as he encouraged citizens to do all they could to reduce their energy use. He installed solar hot water panels on the roof of the White House and a wood-burning stove for cooking in the living quarters. He then addressed the nation from a dimly lit room to show that even as President, he was conserving gas!

Earlier in April 1977, he had reminded his fellow compatriots that America had to do something about its energy consumption and reliance on imported fuel. “The 1973 gasoline lines are gone, and our homes are warm again. But our energy problem is worse today than it was in 1973 or a few weeks ago in the dead of winter. It is worse because more waste has occurred, and more time has passed by without our planning for the future. And it will get worse every day until we act.”
Then the Iranian political crisis and war triggered another crisis in 1979.

And on July 15, 1979, Carter hit the airwaves again to speak to a people he had promised he would be a listening President, not isolated from them and one who derived his strength and wisdom from the people.

Indeed, since he assumed office, he had spoken to Americans on many occasions about national issues, including the energy crisis. But in 1979, Carter felt the people had heard more about what the government thought or what the government should be doing and less about the people’s hopes, their dreams, and vision of the future.

Then, as he planned to talk to the American people again, an idea struck him: even as obvious as the energy crisis was being the most pressing concern of the time, didn’t he need to truly ask them what worried them? And why had all Americans seemed unable to get together as a nation to resolve those problems?

Working on a private theory that the problems may be much deeper than energy shortages, inflation or recession, he chose to reach out and listen to the voices of all Americans.

He then invited people from almost every stratum of the American society, from businessmen to the unemployed, men and women, old and young, governors and ordinary citizens to the presidential retreat in Camp David. For 10 days, he listened to all and took personal notes of the views expressed, candidly. According to Carter’s notes, from one of the summiteers came this line: “Mr. President, you are not leading this nation, you’re just managing the government!”

From many ordinary citizens came words like: “You don’t see the people enough any more.”

“Some of your Cabinet members don’t seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples.”

“Don’t talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good.”

“Mr. President, we’re in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears.”

“If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow.”

A young woman said to the president: “I feel so far from government. I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power.”

A young man told him: “Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives.” And in direct reference to the subsisting energy crisis, another one told him:

“Some people have wasted energy, but others haven’t had anything to waste.”

Because an energy crisis was afoot, the discussions were largely on energy and the participants minced no words.

“We can’t go on consuming 40 percent more energy than we produce. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment.”

“Be bold, Mr. President. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment.”

“The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing.”
Then, this line which Carter found the most potent exhortation: “When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don’t issue us BB guns.”

After listening to the American people as he did, Carter testified that he was fired up that he and the people could fix whatever was wrong with the country. Yet, he had to address what he called “a subject even more serious than energy or inflation… a fundamental threat to democracy., a threat nearly invisible in ordinary ways.”

He called it “a crisis of confidence.”

“It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will… a crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation.”

As Carter did, President Buhari should recognize that there is a crisis of confidence in Nigeria today and he has to embark on a journey to find and tap into the strength and the wisdom of the Nigerian people to solve it.

The hunger in the land at the moment, a real and present danger, should be seen as the equivalent of war against which he cannot deploy second-rate guns.

Also, as he looked for ways out of his nation’s crisis then, Carter made and reported a strange discovery: “our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nation’s life. The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.”

If that is not true of Nigeria today, I wonder what else is!
Carter then proceeded to set a clear energy policy for the United States of America, beginning with the plan that America would never use more foreign oil than it previously did. From then on, every new addition to America’s energy demand, according to him, would be met from local production and conservation. He then set import quotas.

To ensure energy security, he requested the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in American history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel, “from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the Sun” and sought to create what he called the Energy Security Corporation as well as an Energy Mobilization Board which, like the War Production Board in the Second World War, had the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape and the delays to completing key energy projects.

But just as the words were inspiring, in all of these deeds, Carter insisted he was using the energy crisis to unify the nation and resolve its crisis of confidence.

Nigeria is in economic recession. As that reverend gentleman bellowed repeatedly to the hearing of Senate President Bukola Saraki, there is hunger in the land! And in fighting the war, the guns being deployed in ideas and personnel seem BB, not AA!

More importantly, Nigerians are in a crisis of confidence. There is little faith in the union because of its fraudulent structure and the yawning gap between the government and the people.

Buhari can do with a few lessons from Jimmy Carter’s words and deeds.