The presidential aspirants Nigeria needs – Part 2

There is, so far not enough reason to think that aspirants to this high office are, generally, availing themselves of think tanks worthy to advise a president of this republic.  Statements and utterances hardly reflect deep and broad thinking. A leader fails for lack of wise, honest counsel. The quality of his think tank or team of advisers can make all the difference in the success of a leader.  But, as Machiavelli says, ‘‘For the prince or leader to be advised wisely, the leader must be wise in the first place.’’

Nigerians want to hear and see seriousness from aspirants to the presidency, not a rehash ad nauseam of what those office seekers have offered over the years. A long-suffering electorate wants to hear and see aspirant with a deep appreciation of the hydra-headed ‘Nigerian problem’ and the articulation of a well thought-out proposal to remedy it.

The problem with Nigeria is multifaceted. Leadership is arguably central to it -as the sorry state of the country shows.  In the words of Leadership trainer, John C. Maxwell, ‘‘Everything rises and falls on Leadership.’’ The constitution invests the president with the overarching function of ‘Chief Executive of the Federation.’ This is a position that comes with multifarious functions, exacting duties, and enormous responsibility.  For, as it is well known, the CE is responsible for the overall success of the entity in his charge. In the language of business management, he takes the major and final decision over corporate operations and the judicious application of resources with the sole purpose to expand business, drive profitability and improve share price. Some aspirants have managed private businesses. Notwithstanding that a country is not solely run as a profit-maximizing business, Nigerians would want to know in clear and simple language how aspirants will apply their experience to managing Nigeria for efficiency and effectiveness, and with full cognizance of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.

It is tempting to think that some persons see the presidency of Nigeria as a worthwhile investment that yields little work and a better life at public expense.  It is not supposed to be. For the service-minded, public spirited patriot, it is a place of hard, diligent work for the common good.  Indeed, given the current state of the country, to lead Nigeria is a task for only a person with character, competence and courage.

The chief executive that Nigeria needs now must not merely be willing – as the many aspirants claim to be – but must be ready and able.  In terms of ability, he must be thoroughly fit – physically, mentally, intellectually, and spiritually for the demands of the position. In terms of readiness, in this knowledge-driven world, Nigerians would want to hear and see the facts and figures that reflect intellectual rigor and show an aspirant as well informed on national and international issues. Chief Awolowo wrote that ‘‘while many men in power and public office are busy carousing in the midst of women of easy virtue and men of low morals,  I, as a few others like me, am busy  at my desk  about the problems of Nigeria and proffering solutions to them.’’  A leader must first know the way to be able to show and go the way.

This is not to say the president must be omniscient.  He can’t be.  But the country’s chief executive must possess ‘strategic competence,’ the ability not necessarily to know everything but to know how to find what he needs to know, writes Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Paul J. Quirk.

The president of Nigeria has his job well defined in Section 14(2)(b). Aspirants to the office have been making all sorts of promises. They are hereby challenged to publish for scrutiny, their S.MA.R.T. – Compliant Plan of Action to fulfill the primary purpose of their government, if elected. It is not good enough, and certainly no more acceptable, to promise Nigerians a gross domestic product that will be bigger than some Western economies, or to promise a focus on unity, security and more, or a violence-free, successful country. How, in terms of strategy, are you going to do it?  Or, to take another crucial issue, how do aspirants hope to revive the Civil Service to play its proper role in the government? No one is saying anything about this yet.

Section 14(2)(b) obligates government through the President to assure the welfare of the people.  Much of Nigeria’s problem derives from an unfaithful implementation of the federalism that is so much claimed in words. An urgently needed restructuring of Nigeria – on this The Guardian has written 61 editorials – calls for a constitution that reflects a true federation as practised in the civilised world.  To be taken seriously now, aspirants must tell the electorate first, how they stand on this fundamentally important issue, and second, how they will implement what they stand for.

Nigeria’s severely flawed implementation of federalism has given rise to all sorts of avoidable abuses and inequities and aberrations. The President and the governors are too powerful and insufferably overbearing, with the attendant abuse of power and public trust, and also brazen violations of the letter and spirit of the Constitution – whatever good is left of it.

Governance is not policy-driven but merely at the whims of the ‘lord of the manor’ and at the federal level of government, ‘tribal hoe is steadily and without compunction used to cultivate the national field.’ The needlessly bicameral federal legislature drains the national purse with no value for money. It even complained that its N134 billion budget for 2022 is inadequate. Yet, unlike other arms of government that must defend their budgets, the National Assembly is not known to defend its budget to anyone.  A unitary system pretending to federalism is, therefore unable to secure life and property because it refuses to localise law enforcement. Awolowo wrote in 1970: ‘‘…police is a residual subject because  the immediate problem of maintaining  law and order can only be properly and more effectively tackled by the state government.’’ He was, and still right.  A fake federation enables less productive sections of the country to conveniently live off the productive sections. These aberrations impede growth and development in every facet of national life; they explain the downward spiral of the fame and fortune of a once vibrant economy and an emerging medium power. This ‘business’ cannot, must not continue. If it does, it is doomed to fail.

It bears repeating that the primary trouble with Nigeria, as the great Chinua Achebe posited, is failure of leadership. Whoever wants to be elected President, Head of State, Chief Executive of the Federation, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria in 2023 must prove beyond reasonable doubt that he or she is sufficiently integrated in character, competence, and courage to make a difference for good.  Nigerians are watching and assessing the motley crowd among which, it  must be remarked,  are some contriving to foist on their party, and in turn the electorate,  a so-called, anti-competition ‘consensus candidate.’

Concluded.