By
E. Terfa Ula-Lisa Esq.
culled from http://www.gamji.com/NEWS3096.htm
Public office is about service to the nation besides the fact that it has been seen as a source of income for many. Nigeria is a conglomeration of diverse people groups. Persons, both individual and corporate, have a stake in the administration of their country. We are purportedly practicing what is known as a Democratic Republic. The people elect persons to make decisions for them and on their behalf in a Democratic Republic. That is the very reason why the leaders must not only be accountable but also transparent in all things. In this manner, the people can monitor and determine what direction they want from the Representatives. The politician in a Republic is not ‘an absolute leader’ but an informed ‘public servant’ of the persons who elected him. Permit me to use Brain Ward’s management model, FACET, to dissect the Nigerian situation and suggest solutions.
Post election, the
first hundred days is important, not because of the nice round
figure. The first 100 days is used by the electorate to gauge the
direction in which the administration is headed. Governments on
their own, use this milestone to showcase what they want to do, to
make an impression and to show focus. The caliber of persons in
cabinet positions and the initial policy statements show direction
as clear as any compass would. The immediate actions, especially of
the President would show purpose, style and pace. In the special
case of a second term, it is often easier on the returning incumbent
who would normally be thinking of a legacy. We have previously made
the case for a clear vision. This present government hit the nail
on the head when it declared that it would not be ‘business as
usual’. The talk was good; we need to see the pace.
How authentic the
leadership appears is paramount. This is because all the others in
the herd take their cue from leadership, more so, in the
Presidential System where the President has executive powers. If
the President for instance has no vision, it does not matter what
advice is given to him, any plan at all would appear good so long as
it seems like some motion. Some of the so-called leaders have had
only one goal, to loot the treasury and lay-it-up for their families
for generations after them. You cannot build on such a lousy
foundation. Murtala Mohamed is surly missed today not because he
was generous with OPM (Other People’s Money), but because he was
seen by all, including his detractors, as authentic. If he
displayed any excesses, he is forgiven because he was not seen as
devious or double-minded as Head of State. His pace was also
brisk. We all yearned to follow him even when we were not sure
where he was leading. We kind of guessed by his actions where he
was headed and gladly followed. He was authentic. The contrast was
IBB, who kept swearing ‘Insha Allah’ while playing a
primitive version of chess with better-educated but greedy
politicians as pawns and his Welfare Generals as rooks. The
rest of us were mere spectators.
It would take
courage to address the main issue of corruption in Government and to
introduce a system of transparency. But it can be done. This is
not a military government; therefore, government needs to not only
listen but to also accede to the wishes of the electorate. The
people are screaming loudly against corruption in public service
represented by nepotism, bribery, kickbacks and sundry abuse of
power. The electorate is demanding accountability. It behooves the
government to re-assure the people at whose behest the government is
run. No democratic government should be able to tell the people to
‘shut up’ or muzzle them by shutting their presses down. The recent
firing a the minister is a step in the right direction and should
lead to other investigations of graft. If the coterie of Advisers,
Assistants and Senior Assistants are bereft of ideas on how to
tackle the corruption monster, they should all be fired. If on the
other hand, the President is getting the advice he does not use,
then he does not need those Advisers, they should be laid off with a
good severance and persuaded to go home. They may be useful
elsewhere.
While it takes
courage, corruption is the easiest thing to tackle. If you take a
stance, lay out the rules clearly and make no exclusions, everyone
would get the message and sit up. I read that the issue of the I.D.
Card scandal came to the President’s attention when he asked for an
explanation for the lack of progress on the matter commensurate to
the monies expended. Do the same audit for the roads in the east,
the so-called Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) at NNPC. The Nigeria
Airways, Ports Authority, Ministry of Defense, Abuja Stadium Project
and wherever huge government sums are dispensed starting with the
Central Bank should all be scrutinized. Forex allocations
should all come under scrutiny. Secret agents can pose as
businessmen and record all their transactions with government
officials in little cameras and microphones.
If there ever was a
person, besides Murtala Mohammed, who has a chance to be in the good
books of a cross-section of Nigerians at home and abroad for all
time, President Obasanjo is that person. The President started on a
very good note by trying genuinely to be people-oriented and
goal-directed. The electricity goal was good, so was the
anti-poverty program as well as the Universal Basic Education.
Currently, it seems as if the government is losing both focus and
momentum in the pursuit of its programs for the Chairman of his
Party to cry out. This may be because another agenda introduced by
the political jobbers may have interposed itself in the political
realm. The time to take stock is now, while every well-meaning
person, including Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, is in agreement
with Nigerians in crying ‘fire on the mountain’.
Every sane person
wishes the President success, but not at the expense of the truth.
In fairness to the President, the Legislators are not taking their
fair share of the responsibilities. This is because Nigerians have
not yet mentally embraced the notion of Representative Democracy.
The Politicians are still revered as some ‘big men’ who do the
people a favor when they are around. The President, his Advisers
and the Representative from my political District should be
interested in what I have to say and so should my Senator. Someone
from the Legislature should be telling us when there is an attempt
to buy his or her silence. A good working relationship does not
equate to complicity in criminality.
One of John Maxwell’s 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, taken from his book of similar name, is the Law of Momentum, ‘The Great Mo’. Right on the heels of the CHOGM, with all the encouragement from our strategic partners, the President needs to ride the momentum by doing a cleansing of the Aegean Stable of the body politic. It would be striking when the iron is hot to request for not only the information but the repatriation of all ill-gotten wealth stowed away in western bank vaults by poli-looters. We expect the President to build on the momentum generated by the I.D. Card Scandal. The time to act is NOW.