Category: Segun Ayobolu

WATCHING the video that has gone viral of the chaos caused in an Abuja High court by the Department of State Services (DSS) in its attempt to re-arrest former student union leader and social activist turned politician, Omoyele Sowore, earlier released from prolonged detention after over 125 days, could be quite befuddling. For one, no discernible DSS officers could be seen in the court room forcefully attempting to evacuate Sowore from the premises. Rather, it would appear to be the former presidential candidate’s supporters forming a human shield around him and chanting slogans that he could not be re-arrested. Outside the court room, however, the cameras showed the burly men of the DSS mobilized in full force to cart away their quarry once he stepped out of the court. That was why the DSS claims that the entire drama was enacted by the Sowore sympathizers to discredit the agency and mislead the viewing public.

If so, one must credit the brilliance of the Sowore strategists. This is in stark contrast to the elaborate tactical dumbness exhibited by the intelligence agency in the entire affair. Pray, can Nigeria’s prime intelligence outfit do no better than to exhibit such disproportionate might in a bid to arrest an unarmed individual apparently in violation of due process and that within the premises of a court in these days of the ubiquitous social media? Could the DSS, given the resources and expertise at its disposal, not have unobtrusively picked up Sowore in a clinical and professional operation and thus avoiding the negative image in which it has portrayed itself and the government whose bidding it is assumed to be doing? Now, it has been placed continually on the defensive and defiant government spokespersons have had to put  up a bold face on the avoidable embarrassment.

The DSS misadventure has focused attention, once again, on the human rights record of the Buhari administration. For instance, it has continued to hold former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (Retd), and leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Mallam Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, in indefinite detention despite their being granted bail by several courts. In the Sowore case, the DSS appears desperate to keep him behind bars perpetually irrespective of the law. Yes, he was reckless in calling for a revolution and making statements capable of inciting public disturbance. Yes, Sowore may have been motivated by his loss in an election in which he willingly participated and thus lent legitimacy to a system that he now ostensibly seeks to overthrow by revolution.

But then, a revolution is not a tea party. It is not actualized by cheap oratory. By all means let the DSS perform its institutional duty by swiftly bringing Sowore to trial if there is evidence that he planned to overthrow the existing order. The agency has ample resources to gather all the information and amass all the evidence it needs. It has the wherewithal to hire the best legal brains in the country to prosecute its case. This does not have to take forever.

The same goes for Dasuki and el-Zakzaky. They may have allegedly committed the most heinous of crimes. There is certainly no infraction that is beyond the capacity of our laws to deal with. And crimes remain alleged until proven in open, unfettered and conclusive court processes. To continue to detain individuals in blatant defiance of court rulings is a feature of fascism, not the democracy we proclaim to be. Reference to human rights violations by preceding administrations is not a credible defence by any incumbent administration. The extant administration has the advantage of learning from the lapses of its predecessors and avoiding its errors. Mistakes will, of course, inevitably be made by any human government. But they must be new ones, not a repetition of the same old ones (apologies to the inimitable Jose Mourinho).

During his campaign for election in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari described himself as a ‘reformed democrat’. There is nothing to suggest that he is not living up to his word. His level of personal tolerance has been impressive. For instance, at least two of his cabinet Ministers were caught on camera either supporting one of his formidable political opponents or making uncomplimentary remarks about him. Yet, Buhari kept both of them in his government till the expiration of his first term and has reappointed one back to his previous position. No insult seems to be able to provoke the imperturbable General from Daura.

Now, there is no guarantee that Presidents coming after Buhari will have the same thick skin and level headedness. That is why they must not be given the opportunity to cite precedents of violations of the rule of law now to commit even more atrocious assaults on the constitution and the rights of citizens. If critical elements of civil society keep quiet now in the face of brazen contempt of court decisions by this administration, they will have no moral right to speak up when future governments do worse.

The  Sowore ill-defined revolution clarion call has become such an issue because the Buhari administration is doing a very poor job of proclaiming from the rooftops its own near revolutionary accomplishments in diverse areas. For instance, according to Professor Itse-Sagay, the administration has recovered over N1trillion of looted funds and this excludes physical assets both within and outside the country. Former top public office holders are facing the consequences of their actions more than at any other time in this dispensation. The fear of the anti-graft agencies is the beginning of wisdom for any custodian of public funds in Nigeria today and the impunity with which the country’s resources were once looted can never be the same again after Buhari. That is ongoing radical change if you do not want to call it revolutionary.

Similar positive stories can be told as regards the resurgence in local food production and reduced import dependency in agriculture, the aggressive work being done in the resuscitation and modernization of railways and the massive ongoing reconstruction/rehabilitation of no less than 600 critical roads and bridges across the country by the Federal Ministry of Works to cite a few instances. But then, the administration’s vulnerable underbelly remains its disobedience of court orders and violation of individual rights particularly as manifest in the cases of Dasuki, el-Zakzaky and Sowore. Here, the crucial responsibility lies with the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) to take urgent steps to remedy these flaws that are badly distracting attention from PMB’s still largely unsung revolution.

Even then, does whatever shortcomings of the Buhari administration justify our denuding it in anyway of its democratic legitimacy and thus creating the impression that we are back to a full blown military dictatorship and are no more under a civil and constitutional administration?  I do not think so. Despite the many failings and flaws of our unfolding democratic evolution there are also many successes and triumphs we can be proud of. We remain on the perpetual journey to the proverbial ‘more perfect Union’. It is a long haul, not a sprint.

 

 

More good news from Imo

 

THE National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its “The 2nd Corruption Survey Report in Nigeria”, recently released at the State House Conference Center in Abuja, revealed that Imo state has the least rate of corruption in the country. Presenting the report, the Statistician General of the NBS, Dr. Yemi Kale, and the Country Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Mr. Oliver Stople, said that in the first corruption survey conducted in the last half of 2018, Imo was ranked high on the corruption scale. According to Dr Kale: “The survey was developed as a tool to assess the impact of the measures put in place by states in fighting corruption in the period since after the 2019 elections. The report gave a state-by-state record of the corruption index in Nigeria, with Kogi State leading as the most corrupt state (48%) followed by Gombe at 43%…The report also suggested that there is a remarkable decrease in the prevalence of corruption in Imo State in the short time span”.  From all indications, governor Emeka Ihedioha’s ‘Rebuilding Imo’ project is very much on course”.

 

…And Cross Rivers Carpet Bombs Poverty

 

In Cross Rivers State, the governor, Professor Ben Ayade, has been waging a furious and unrelenting onslaught against poverty. In 2018, his government implemented a N1.3 trillion budget christened ‘budget of kinetic Crystallization’. For 2019, the budget size was N1.043 trillion. It was christened, ‘budget of Quabalistic Densification’. And for 2020, the proposed budget size is N1.1 trillion and the tempo of the anti-poverty war is higher than ever. It is the ‘budget of ‘Olipotic Meritemasis’. Yours truly will soon be in Calabar to witness firsthand the unprecedented pulverization of poverty in the state and will keep readers posted.

His entry into the often contentious, traitorous and slippery terrain of Nigerian politics was characteristically unobtrusive. It was former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, at his most unassuming as he joined the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) a few months ago.   Of course, Jega’s choice of the PRP as his political platform is hardly surprising. He has a proven track record as a brilliant and radical academic. Again, as Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for a prolonged period in the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s Jega demonstrated  uncommon courage and resilience in leading the union to fight not only for better welfare for academics but also for better funding of universities. ASUU won many battles in its struggles even at the height of the most despicable military dictatorship even though many of its members were subjected to the worst forms of victimization, humiliation and oppression. There is no way to write the history of ASUU especially in its golden era under military rule without Jega’s name emblazoned in gold along with scores of several other pro-democracy activists.

Professor Jega, however, came to the forefront of public consciousness when he was appointed National Chairman of INEC by former President Goodluck Jonathan. The height of his glory in his role as head of the country’s electoral umpire was Jega’s amazingly successful organization of the 2015 general elections. The polls were widely commended both by internal and external election observers. It was a milestone in the continuing evolution of Nigeria’s electoral system especially when for the first time ever, an incumbent was defeated at the centre and a new party assumed the reins of power. It is unfortunate that rather than consolidating and improving on Jega’s legacy at INEC, however, the quality, credibility, and integrity of the electoral process have been gradually but systematically eroded under the incumbent INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood.

But then, given his intellectual acumen and national, pan-Nigerian outlook, should Jega not have joined one of the two dominant parties rather than casting his lot with a PRP that lacks the resources to build a formidable national platform on which elections can be won or lost? Had Jega opted to join the APC or PDP, he would have betrayed all the progressive values and radical ideology he has stood for all his life. But the question then would be, “Why has Professor Jega chosen to come on the political terrain?”. If his goal is to seek and win power at any level of his choice on the platform of a political party, then he has made a huge error in not joining the PDP or the APC. But if his aim is to join other progressive individuals and groups to work towards the emergence of a genuine third force to contrast sharply with the APC and PDP, the professor is certainly on the right track.

PRP is the most consistent party organization in this dispensation in terms of commitment to a set of principles, ideological clarity as well as having a core set of positive values. The party draws its values from the late Mallam Aminu Kano, who had consistently fought for the emancipation of the ‘talakawa’, the masses of the north throughout his life. These are also the values and attributes we can find in Professor Jega’s writings over the years as well as his labour activism as Chairman of ASUU. It is not surprising that in a bid to re-position itself, the party has assigned Jega to head a committee, SWOT Anaysis committee. The function of this committee is to undertake an intense interrogation of the PRP’s  strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats with a view to repositioning the party for a more national spread and appeal in the run up to forthcoming elections.

The PRP sets a good example here. How many of the parties and individuals that flaunted their illusory electoral strength in the run up to the 2019 general elections have been heard from or seen since the conclusion of the election? They have gone home to rest until they will be back on the campaign train when the next set of elections is approaching. But conceiving, forming, nurturing and running effective political parties is hard, back-breaking work. Elections are not won on the television and radio talk shows or the capacity for lofty rhetoric and elegant prose. No, you must build formidable party structures with roots in a substantial number of wards across the country to become electorally invincible in Nigeria.

But then, will Professor Jega stay put to face the challenges of the assignment he has been given in the PRP or will he migrate to either of the two dominant parties? If that happens, he will I assume be more predisposed to the APC than the PDP, even though both parties are ideologically and philosophically indistinct. Is there the possibility that Jega can be drawn into the race for 2023 by elements who have vociferously asserted that power will remain in the north after 2023? Those who hold this view would be hoping that bringing a candidate with the stature and antecedents of Jega will help overcome any regional or sectional resentment by those who insist that the political elite must abide by the zoning formula that has largely predominated elections into office in this dispensation.

Now, will Professor Jega swallow this bait if offered? I doubt it. He is too astute a political thinker to offer himself up for demystification. Yes, there must from now on a common front that merit rather than zoning should be the key factor in deciding who run for office on party platforms. This view was espoused by Kaduna State governor, Nasir el’Rufai early in the year and this column backed him. No region or zone should be gifted the presidency on a platter of gold just because it claims it is its turn to have the office zoned to the area. But zoning and merit are not incompatible if each part of the country produces her best and most qualified candidates to contest elections.

Another dilemma that Jega should care about if he allows himself to be drawn into the race by any of the two major parties, is this: Having just left office as INEC Chairman after the 2015 elections, has he become emotionally detached from the commission to run as a credible candidate? If he contests, will he not be doing so having an undue advantage over others in the race? Does he not still have substantial number of staff in the commission who will be obliged to him in one way or the other? Is he not still acutely aware of insider systems and procedures within INEC that will at once give him an edge over his opponents in an election? I sincerely believe that no INEC Chairman should contest elections on the platform of any party until two decades after leaving office.  Professor Jega is a man of intellect and character. He must not allow mischievous politicians to mislead him.

Segun Ayobolu

 

It was the great Greek philosopher, Socrates, who is quoted as famously declaring that the unexamined life is not worth living. I take the profound thinker as implying that man cannot be truly human when he exists only at the level of the instinctual and reflexive, living thoughtlessly without reflection on the meaning and purpose of life – if any. This was also probably what the immortal philosopher meant when he urged his fellow men to pursue self-knowledge through his famous phrase, ‘Man, know thyself’. But the challenge of living the examined life or coming to true knowledge of the self is certainly no easy task and only a minority of men across time and space even bother to make the effort.

For example, the philosopher, Cornel West, in an interview with Astra Taylor, in her collection of dialogues with eight contemporary thinkers published in 2009, declares, “How do we examine ourselves in a Socratic manner? How do you examine yourself? What happens when you interrogate yourself? What happens when you begin calling into question your tacit assumptions and unarticulated presuppositions and begin then to become a different kind of person? You know, Plato says philosophy’s a meditation on and a preparation for death. By death, what he means is not an event, but a death in life because there’s no rebirth, there’s no change, there’s no transformation without death, and therefore the question becomes: How do you learn how to die”?

Professor Tamunoemi Sokari David-West, whose phenomenal life came to an end on November 11, 2019, at the age of 83, was surely one of those rare human beings who was able to look life squarely in the eye, ask himself uncomfortable questions about his mission this side of eternity and derive motivating values and ethical standards that as much as humanly possible he guided his life by. My interactions with the late Professor were from a distance. I never met him in person but his views and values had a significant impact on my attitudes to and perspectives on life.

Ever before he began reading my columns in The Nation newspaper and calling me fairly regularly to express either his consent or disagreements with some of the views and ideas I espoused, Prof. had made a deep impact on my young mind through his book, ‘Philosophical Essays’, which I had acquired as an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan in the early 1980s. During one of our discussions on telephone, I had casually mentioned that his book as well as two others, ‘Philosophical Essays’ by the late Professor Sanya Onabamiro, the biologist and educationist also of the University of Ibadan as well as ‘Popular Fallacies in the Nigerian Social Sciences’ by Dr. Patrick Heinecke who taught Public Administration at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in the 1980s, had been of tremendous impact on me as an undergraduate. Unfortunately, I said, I had since lost my copy of his book and had sought in vain in various bookshops over the years to obtain another copy without success.

Read Also: Tam David-West (1936 – 2019)

To my utter surprise, within a short period, on 19th April, 2012, a beautifully bound copy of Professor Tam David West’s ‘Philosophical Essays’ was delivered to my address in Lagos in blue hard cover and my named inscribed in bold letters on the cover page. Inside, Prof. had written, “Mr. Segun Ayobolu; my compliments as promised. Out of print since 1980. A veritable periscope to situate the ME. Hope you find it worth your while”. Although Prof. was a scientist and not a trained philosopher, it is impossible for anyone of any age but particularly those of a young and impressionable mind not to be thoroughly informed and impacted by the strong ethical values as well as passionate, patriotic and humanistic sentiments, obviously a product of rigorous and honest self-examination, expressed in the book.

In his characteristic honesty and modesty, Professor David-West, in his acknowledgements in the book paid fulsome tribute to the then Head of Department of Philosophy at the University of Ibadan, Dr. P.O. Bodunrin, for reading through the essays and offering constructive criticisms as an academic philosopher. He equally acknowledged the roles of the editors of the various newspapers – The Daily Sketch in Ibadan, The Sunday Tide and Nigerian Tide in Port Harcourt as well as the Sunday Times in Lagos – in which the compilation of essays had first been serialized at various times between 1974 and 1978. The philosophical essays take the form of dialogues between the author and his son over diverse issues of life raised as questions by the son and the thoughtful responses of the wise and reflective father.

Prof. explains his choice of the dialogic form with his ‘son’ thus, “…although I have a number of options open to me in this exercise, I have, however, decided to adopt the Dialogue Method, in which I am going to attempt providing answers to a number of questions about Life put to me by “My Son”, and crystalising thereby my personal, ethical, moral or philosophical views or positions on these subjects”. There are 80 chapters comprising diverse topics on various issues of vital importance to life, living, justice, religion and spirituality, morality, greed and acquisitiveness, politics, patriotism, ethnicity, the godfather syndrome and much more in this book that runs into 224 pages.

Professor David-West writes with a simplicity and vividness of style that does not in any way detract from the profundity and vigor of his thought.  Let us just consider one or two of Prof’s responses to his son’s questions just as an appetizer to those who may want to get a copy of the book either for themselves or their children. For instance, the author’s son asks ‘What constitutes the Good Life, Dad’? After first discussing the ethical implications of Bertrand Russell’s definition of ‘Good’ as the “satisfaction of desire”, David-West advises his son, “Therefore, son, my advice is that you must first of all decide what you want out of life. But I must caution that whatever your desires, you must always ensure that you do not “destroy” or hurt your fellow man in the pursuit of these desires”.

Continuing, the author advises his son further on the essentials of the ‘Good Life’ saying “Son, Happiness, the philosophers (e.g. Aristotle) maintain, is an end in itself. And the good life is the one that gives you happiness: “Good” being defined by Aristotle in his ‘Nicomachean Ethics’ as that “which everything aims”. You can achieve this by studying your options and alternatives, and then selecting your priorities. Once you have done this, son, faithfully work towards the goal, being guided all the way by the “Three Treasures” of the Chinese Taoist, namely, Love, Moderation and Humility”.

And in our excessively acquisitive society where money has become the ‘be all and end all’ of existence, the philosopher earnestly admonishes his son that “Finally, son, I must tell you that the greatest legacy I would leave behind for you is a generous investment in your education- a SOUND EDUCATION – which I firmly believe would equip you with the necessary tools kit for the battle of life…Son, I must warn you that you should not expect me to hand over to you impressive Bank Passbooks of Savings or Keys to this or to that estate or landed property. I do not believe that my happiness and thus, my Good Life, is inextricably tied to the massive acquisition of such material advantages. However, Son, I guarantee you a comfortable living before you are weaned enough to independently face the challenges of life”.

How about the idea of God and belief in His existence? The elder David-West advises his son after extensive philosophical excursions: “Furthermore, although it is fashionable among some scientists to grow to doubt the existence of God, I must tell you that as a medical scientist, and specializing in the study of sub-microscopic “lives” and their pathological manifestations,  I have come across nothing in my professional discipline that argues against the existence of God, and so render otiose my belief in God, or also in my name “TAMUNOEMI” meaning “There is God”. Thus, I identify myself with the Psalmist when he concluded, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalm 14:1) – Bible.

However, on the possibility of life after death, David-West’s scientific cast of mind comes to the fore although he extensively discusses the concept of death and the afterlife across space, time, cultures and religions. But the experimental scientist in him cautions his son, “In conclusion, Son, logically, the only person who can be definite and dogmatic about life after death is one who had crossed the barrier and come back to us, as we saw him cross the said Life-Death barrier. Just like an astronaut successfully rocketed to the moon and back, can feed us with authentic account of the moon. Anything short of this empirical approach is at best mere romanticism and speculations”. My personal conviction is that the Lord Jesus, in his death and resurrection, met David-West’s standard of proof in this regard.

It is a pity that Professor Tam David-West’s book is out of print. He lived the examined life and shared his life affirming values with readers as his imperishable legacy. There can be no better way of honouring him than making this book available in schools and bookshops nationwide especially for the benefit of thinking Nigerian youth. May Prof’s soul rest in peace.

 Segun Ayobolu

 

Continued from last week

In Canada, the experience is no different. Carla Gilders, Director-General of the Communication and Consultation Directorate of Health in that country, in a paper ‘Government Communications in Canada’ notes that “Since the introduction of the 1988 Communications policy, communication planning has been, in theory at least, an integral part of the policy-making process in Canada. Communications advisors should be part of the policy-making teams in Departments. However, the full integration of policy and communications remains elusive, with communications advice sometimes being sought as an “add on” at the end of the policy process. To ensure that Cabinet Ministers consider the communications dimensions of an issue before making decisions on policy, every memorandum to the Cabinet must include a communications plan. Departments prepare a yearly strategic plan, supported by a strategic communications plan to lay out the major goals, objectives and strategies for the year”.

Carla Gilders continues most insightfully when she states that “With the growing emphasis on public consultation and the influence of special interest groups, policy development has moved from behind government doors and into the public domain. For communicators, this has meant trying to help shape the debate about policy proposals, rather than “selling” the policy change after a decision has been taken. These changes have meant that government communicators must spend more time studying the public environment and developing strategies than on the operational tasks of the past, like writing pamphlets or preparing videos. Communications as a career in the public service today is not for the faint of heart”.

Professors Magnus Frederickson and Josef Pallas also shed more light on the management function of communicators in their paper on Public Sector Communication. They write that “Communication is expected to illustrate, explain and support the core practices and responsibilities of public sector organizations. The ambitions to integrate communication in other activities have repositioned the role of communicators and today more communicators than ever before have gained senior management positions within their organizations. Here they encounter expanding demands and expectations to provide insights and suggestions in situations with strategic significance for organizations. This in turn has reinforced expectations regarding communication processes to be planned, executed and evaluated in relation to preset goals and priorities. Ad hoc communication or communicating for its own sake is then disqualified as unprofessional”.

I have cited all these examples to help highlight the significance of Mr. Adeyemi’s achievement in helping to enhance the image, prestige and organizational status of Public Affairs Officers within the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies. Of course, it is unfortunate that his memo proposing that Units of Public Affairs in all MDAs service-wide be upgraded to Directorate status as is the case in the Ministry of the Environment is still awaiting approval. But at least a step has been taken. It will be to the eternal credit of his successor.

I am aware that over the last two decades, Lagos State has placed premium on recruiting young, brilliant and dynamic Public Affairs Officers into the public service. This young men and women do not only learn on the job, they have the opportunity of being mentored by experienced and accomplished senior officers in the various MDAs. As the generation of Mr. Adeyemi thus gradually exits the service, therefore, there is already a cadre of officers with the acumen, skills and requisite ethical values to step into their shoes.

Naturally, as he formally steps down from the leadership apex of the Lagos State Public Service after attaining the statutory age for doing so, Mr. Adeyemi casts his gaze to the future and emphasizes the urgent need for a new focus on scientific based research in the entire gamut of the communication process. In his words, “There is an urgent need to embrace research. It is a well known fact that no successful government programme happens by chance. Rather, it is a product of careful planning nurtured by thorough research. If Information Managers must advise the government on means of passing out information to the public, they must have the nose to sniff out the feeling of the public on the administration’s programmes. This can only be done through constant researches”. But achieving this goal in my view would require the elevation of Strategic Communication planning into a full-fledged Department in the Ministry in order to truly reflect its nomenclature of Ministry of Information and Strategy.

To quote Professors Magnus Frederickson and Josef Pallas, once again, with reference to the pertinent point made by Mr. Adeyemi on the imperative of research-based communication strategies, “For a long time, public sector communication remained the same regarding its form, functions, patterns and content. It was the state – via its administration- that communicated with its citizenry. It was very much top-down communication – a form of issuing orders – and if citizens were given any chance to take an active part, it was often in terms of reporting their attitudes or behaviours to make communication more effective. Mass Communication was then the predominant form of communication and the overall ambition was to govern society. These ambitions are still important in many contexts, but it is evident that public sector communications has become a much more diverse and multi-purpose activity that is based on and mobilized by a wider set of principles”. This is the research function in communication planning that Mr. Adeyemi refers to in my view.

Wikipedia, in its entry on Strategic Communications with particular reference to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), notes that “It is important to underline that Strategic Communication is first and foremost a process that supports and underpins all efforts to achieve the Alliance’s objectives; an enabler that guides and informs our decisions, and not an organization in itself. It is for this reason that Strategic Communication considerations should be integrated into the earliest planning phases – communication activities being a consequence of that planning”. It continues: “There is a shift in communications approaches among public sector organizations. In particular, moving away from the traditional “tell and sell” model to a more participatory and inclusive approach of fostering meaningful two-way communication and engagement”. Implicit in these submissions is the need, as Mr. Adeyemi advocates, for more research-based and citizen-centric communication strategies.

For instance, the performance of the various administrations in Lagos State since 1999 has been widely acknowledged as well as the professional competence and technical versatility of its information dissemination machinery. However, the successive ruling parties in Lagos State (AD, AC, ACN and now APC) have had to struggle hard to win electoral victories in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 with the margin of victory in most cases not reflecting the widely acknowledged performance of the administrations. And voter turnout in the elections consistently failed to demonstrate popular enthusiasm for policies and programmes of administrations from which millions of people are benefitting.

Between 1999 and 2007, the information dissemination machinery apart from its routine responsibilities was also bogged down with managing a succession of crises deliberately instigated to destabilize the Tinubu administration. It also had to cope at the time with responding to the antics of an obstructive federal government that actively tried to impede the progress and smooth governance of the state.

After 2007, information dissemination under the Fashola and Ambode administrations was preoccupied with propagating the achievements of the various administrations with little or no effort to situate the specific policies and programmes of each administration within the overarching framework of the Lagos State Development Master Plan (1999-2024). Thus, most citizens are unable to connect the achievements of each administration to the ongoing evolution of a carefully crafted Master Plan thus empowering them with the knowledge and insight to buy into the imperative of policy and party continuity in the best interest of Lagos State.

This is why there must be a decisive move more in the direction of research-based Strategic Communication over the next four years. All too often, the ‘top-down’ information dissemination model is difficult to differentiate from propaganda. Unfortunately, partisan propaganda is often a matter of preaching to the converted rather than continuously bringing in new converts through credible and consultative policy communication.

In restructuring the former Ministry of Information and Culture to become the current Ministry of Information and Strategy as from 1999, the Tinubu administration had realized the critical role of strategy in information management. Strategic Communication Planning appreciates that the public information highway is not a one way thoroughfare dominated by government generated informational messages but a market place of competing communications from diverse sources including competing political parties, interest groups, business organizations, professional associations, non-governmental organizations and civil society actors among others.

Strategic Communication Planning for effective governance must thus entail continuous and rigorous target audience segmentation and analysis, continuous stakeholder engagement and interaction, continuous policy impact evaluation as well as feedback analysis and overall coordination of the messages of various Ministries, Departments and Agencies to fit into and feed an overarching coherent theme, which government as a whole consistently and vigorously communicates to the public. Strategic Communication implies the capacity to effectively monitor, analyze and respond to counter messages from diverse interests while also being able to set information dissemination and public communication agenda through preemptive thinking and proactive planning.

During the 2015 and 2019 general elections, for instance,, unscrupulous politicians tried to instigate ethnic disharmony in Lagos by portraying the state government as discriminating against non-Yoruba ethnic groups particularly the Igbo. This spurred ethnic bloc voting that had some impact on electoral outcomes in areas dominated by certain ethnic groups. Yet, Lagos remains one state where residents irrespective of ethnic origins or religious belief benefit from the investment of the state government in infrastructure, social services such as subsidized education and health care, security as well as employment opportunities in the public service. This is one lacuna that research-based communication planning and information dissemination can help fill.

Most traditional information dissemination machineries suffer from the playwright, George Bernard Shaw’s perceptive observation that “The single biggest problem with communications is the illusion that it has taken place”. This is particularly so with respect to utilizing communication as a tool to bring about positive behavioral change. Simply bombarding the target audience with information on the need to exhibit change in different areas such as traffic behavior, drink-driving, refuse disposal etc, does not guarantee that the message will be heeded by the supposed beneficiaries. Strategic Communication must therefore devise strategies to ensure that information dissemination actually achieves as much as possible the desired behavioural change envisaged. Communication Strategies designed to influence desired behavioural changes will become particularly important over the coming years as Lagos continues to succumb increasingly to youth gangsterism in our communities, chronic drug abuse, teen-age prostitution, cultism, traffic irresponsibility and other ills.

In focusing on achieving positive behavioural change as one of its central objectives, the Ministry of Information and Strategy can borrow a leaf from the UK Government Communication Service (GCS), which is considered as one of the most innovative and effective globally in the field. In this regard, the UK government has come up with its OASIS behavioural change communication model, which entails setting Objectives, gaining Audience insight, devising Strategy/Idea, effecting Implementation and undertaking Scoring/Evaluation. This model enables communicators to identify the barriers to a desired policy outcome being achieved and then devise ways that communication can be utilized to overcome a number of these barriers so that the behavioural change can be achieved.

Interestingly, the UK Government Communication Service came up with specific and measurable ways of determining the impact and effectiveness of its various behavioural change communication campaigns. For the 2018/2019 season , for instance, it recorded 1.5 million fewer prescriptions as a direct result of explaining the dangers of overusing antibiotics; Its THINK campaign led to an 11% increase in young men saying it was unacceptable to let a friend drive after drinking; Nearly 10% of UK adults said they learnt something new from coverage generated on the First World War Centenary and 40% were inspired to research their family links to the war; 94% of customers filed their tax returns by the deadline as a result of the Self-Assessment campaign. Its #Knifefree campaign, for instance, used realistic stories to confront addictive and antisocial behaviour such as knife carrying by young people. This improved positively young people’s emotional response to such habits that predispose those who indulge in them to violence.

Mr. Adeyemi’s joining the Lagos State Public Service was not by happenstance. As he tells the story in his book, “It must be emphasized that applying into the Civil Service was my father’s desire as he wanted me to use the platform to offer quality service to humanity. He had always seen the Civil Service as the ‘Conscience of the Nation’ and often told me that the Civil Service has its own peculiarity, culture and challenges, but that it could really mould one into a better person. My father wanted me to join the Civil Service and make a mark by helping to build a just and fair society. That was the genesis of my journey into the Lagos State Civil Service”.

It is thus no wonder that Mr. Fola Adeyemi had a high sense of self-esteem and attached appropriate value both to his person and his profession as a government policy communicator. That which is not valued, it is often said, tends to be abused and squandered. All those who have known Mr. Adeyemi over the years will readily testify to his unassuming humility, uncompromising dedication to his duties, strong sense of focus and high moral integrity. It is no doubt a great honour and privilege to be a member of a 100,000 strong public service in a megacity population of more than 20 million residents. It is even a greater pride to belong to the elite cadre of Government Communicators in the Lagos State Public Service. But this privilege should, like the case of Mr Adeyemi, lead not to hubris, but genuine humility and a commitment to selfless service.

As Mr. Adeyemi puts it in his book evoking strong emotions on me as I read it, “You must have an identity before institutions and professionalism will back you to become an authority. If I can come from nowhere and make a mark, then the over 400 Public Affairs Officers in the Lagos State Public Service can do it. I cherish the “Can do Spirit a lot”.

There are two immortalities every human being must aim at according to the political economist, Professor Pat. Utomi. The first immortality is that of leaving an indelible legacy here on earth before one’s transition through a life of selfless service to humanity no matter how humble one’s station in life. The second immortality is that of after this ephemeral, transitory and fleeting life, to meet God face to face and dwell with him forever in eternity. I pray that this may be the fate of each and every one of us by His grace.

Mr. Adeyemi retires formally today but he is in no way tired. He still bubbles with physical energy, mental acuteness and moral fervor. It is for this great son of Nigeria certainly morning yet on creation day and the best, for him, is yet to come.

 

Concluded

Mission to rebuild Imo. That was the rather ambitious and expansive catchphrase that paved the path of Honourable Emeka Ihedioha, to the governorship of Imo State as the current elected occupant of Douglas House in Owerri. But then, to rebuild Imo? Was this not just a partisan play on semantics by a power thirsty aspirant seeking to succeed an incumbent, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, who prided himself as the master of construction and dotted the landscape of the state with all manner of projects? From my base in Lagos during Okorocha’s tenure, I was amazed each time I watched on television the various projects of that administration being advertised in impressive technicolor.

But alas, the litany of laments from the state after Okorocha’s exit and the victory of Ihedioha on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); the perceived wide gulf between the scores of grandiose, prestige projects and the quality of life of the vast majority of Imo indigenes; the ongoing running battle between Okorocha and some members of his family and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the ownership of and alleged fraudulent practices that characterized many of the projects  and the fact that the Ihedioha administration is being actually forced to rebuild from scratch in critical sectors of Imo State indicate that the election slogan was no deceptive sales pitch after all.

It is instructive, for instance, that governor Ihedioha has had to direct the Imo State Ministry of Works to close down the flyover at Orji in Owerri, one of Okorocha’s flagship projects, because it is perceived as life threatening due to poor construction standards and structural defects. Several other road projects by the immediate past administration are reported to have either deteriorated badly or collapsed outright. The Council of Registered Engineers in Nigeria (COREN) and other professional bodies are currently assisting the Ihedioha administration in assessing the structural quality of projects inherited from the immediate past administration and laying the framework for more enduring construction standards for the future.

In his address to one of the stakeholders’ fora he has addressed in a bid to run a consultative and all-inclusive administration, Ihedioha pointed out that, under Okorocha, “Contracts were most times awarded orally and without documentation, no paper trail and without the input of relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies”. This is not just an Okorocha phenomenon or peculiarity. It is characteristic of most state governors who can be described in an adaptation of the evocative title of  T.M. Aluko’s novel as ‘their worshipful majesties’. State governors are the most powerful political office holders in Nigeria. They are not incommoded by an intrusive legislative arm and sometimes assertive judiciary as the supposedly all powerful President of Nigeria is. Most governors simply have their entire states – legislature, judiciary, local government, civil society groups, civil service – firmly in the secure confines of their dollar laden pockets.

Of course, Ihedioha has set out with gusto and energy to deliver on his rebuilding Imo credo. His administration has mobilized reputable construction companies to site and rehabilitation and reconstruction work have commenced on 14 critical roads both within the state capital, Owerri, and across the state. The Otamiri Water supply facility, reportedly nonfunctional for over seven years, has been restored and has been meeting the water needs of Owerri and its environs as from 24th July, this year. In Urualla, the administration has flagged off the 9.8 billion Naira Erosion Control Project, handled by Arab Contractors and supervised by the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP). To get the project going, the administration paid up its counterpart funding share of N500 million. Right now, work is ongoing on the reconstruction and modernization of the Government Technical College, Owerri. There can certainly be no space in a column like this to list all the ongoing developmental projects and initiatives of the Ihedioha administration in power supply, agriculture, education and much more. That is not the aim of this piece and the governor’s information management team is already doing a great job in that regard.

Our concern here is with with the far less tangible but infinitely more important and potentially more enduring aspects of Ihedioha’s rebuild Imo agenda. This has to do not just with brick and mortar projects, embarked upon with demonic gusto by the Okorocha administration, but with values of good governance as reflected in respect for methods, processes and structures of responsible and productive governance. It is important to note, for instance, that even before his state executive council had been constituted, Ihedioha hardly took decisions alone. He always acted in consultation with the body of Permanent Secretaries. This attitude and disposition is rare in a political culture in which the governor is a veritable ‘Kabiyesi’ whose word is law. Indeed, some governors unjustifiably delay the constitution of their cabinets in a purported bid to cut costs when the real motive is to serve as sole administrators for as long as legally and politically permissible.

Again, the quality of his Cabinet testifies to governor Ihedioha’s determination to rebuild Imo beyond superficialities and rhetorical nothingness. In terms of academic acumen and professional suitability for the portfolios they have been assigned, Ihedioha’s Cabinet members rank among the best in the land along with Lagos and Osun in my view. My pet theory, which I hope to validate through rigorous research in the near future, is that no government hardly ever rises in performance above the quality of its executive council, which is the engine room of governance in a liberal democratic polity. Even the most brilliant and mentally endowed of leaders descends to a significantly lower level of mental performance when his associates in the Cabinet are merely yes men and women who accept his every word as the pronouncement of deity and do not constantly challenge him to interrogate his assumptions and adjust his views to superior arguments.

Ihedioha has assembled a ministerial team of competent professionals and astute political actors who will most likely be able to offer him sound advice without fear. This in itself is a mark of Ihedioha’s own self confidence and inner security. Too many superficially brilliant state governors without intellectual depth surround themselves with mental Lilliputians among whom they can strut with a counterfeit sense of superiority.

Beyond this, the inaugural retreat of the Imo State Executive Council, which I closely monitored in the media, was as serious minded, focused, purposeful and qualitative as those organized for commissioners and special advisers in the Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Gboyega Oyetola administrations in Lagos and Osun states. Some of the themes covered during the Imo Exco retreat include regulatory reforms, identifying the most pressing needs of the people, public procurement policies, code of conduct for public officers, roles and responsibilities of government appointees, essentials of compliance with due process, development and provision of standard bidding documents for contracting and procurements, protecting the poor, the weak and the vulnerable and attaining best practices in regulatory governance.

Read Also: Gov. Ihedioha charges workers on improved service delivery

There is no doubt that an administration whose frontline appointees are actuated by these good governance-enhanced values, will deliver not just on brick and mortar projects but also with strict adherence to the highest ethncal values. Corruption, even if impossible to eliminate, will be reduced to the barest minimum. Moreover, by setting up a Governance Delivery Unit that will set key performance indicators to measure the productivity of cabinet members, Ihedioha has sent a signal that there will be no room for complacency. Government, for him, is serious minded business. His appointees will be under pressure to give their best.

Again, Ihedioha is proving to be a governor of methods and not just a one man James Bond solo hero, which most Nigerian state governors appear to be, governing by whim and caprice. He recognizes the civil service as a repository of the highest expertise in every sphere of governance as well as being the institutional memory of the state. Thus, he submits that in his administration, “The Civil Service has taken its pride of place as the engine room for the delivery of government services. Reforms are ongoing to improve service delivery across board, motivate the workforce and right the wrongs inflicted on the psyche of the people by eight years of mismanagement”. Apart from payment of backlog of salaries owed local government workers by the preceding administration, the Ihedioha administration now pays 100 percent salaries to all public sector workers in the state.

Ihedioha runs a government of methods. At inception, he set up the Transitional Technical Committee (TTC), made up of the brightest, best and most successful of Imo citizens, to advise on harnessing the state’s human and economic resources towards achieving the rebuilding agenda. The committee, which functioned without any financial demands, laid the groundwork for the Imo Growth and Strategic Development Plan (G-SDP), which is a five year economic blueprint bifurcated into two stages. To enhance transparency in the financial management of the state,  the Ihedioha administration has adopted the Treasury Single Account (TSA) system to stem revenue leakage. Again, by mandating the use of the PayDirect platform with a single source of sweeping revenue into the state’s coffers, multiple accounts have been eliminated including all cash tax payments. The result has been a phenomenal rise in the Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) of the state.

Perhaps the most impressive of the Ihedioha administration’s reform initiatives is in the area of pensions administration, which remains a sore point in governance in Nigeria. Nothing can be more cruel and callous than depriving those who have given their best to their country in their prime of the rights and comfort they deserve in retirement. Ihedioha made this a priority. He set in motion a machinery to establish a reliable electronic data base of pensioners. Over a period of 12 weeks, about 800 specially trained youths working with relevant state agencies verified 25,646 pensioners. The affected pensioners have since been paid their pension arrears with the state making savings of about N280 billion from the elimination of ghost workers and fraudulent practices. The governor has set up a unit in the Pensions Board to handle pending issues of Imo state pensioners who are in diaspora or residing elsewhere in the country.

As someone with considerable legislative experience, it is not surprising that Ihedioha has consistently sought to ground his far reaching governance reforms in the law and the constitution. This implies a respect for the legislative arm of government; an attribute which has been absent in most states in this dispensation since 1999. Thus, since assumption of office, he has proposed to the State House of Assembly and signed into law the Imo State Universal Basic Education (Ammendment) Law No. 30 of 2019; Imo State Public Procurement (Amendment) Law No. 27 of 2019; Imo State Local Administration (Amendment) Law No. 28 of 2019 and the Imo State Electoral (Amendment) Law No. 8 of 2018 (Repeal) Law No. 29 of 2019. The implication is that the far reaching reforms in these critical sectors are predicated on laws by which even the governor is bound .

In dissolving the Local Governmnent Councils, which he inherited from the past government and constituting  interim management committees for that level of government in the state, governor Ihedioha emphasized that the newly appointed council officials would be in office for only a few months before elections would hold. Even then, he has subordinated the local councils not to his personal autocratic suzerainty as happens in most states, but to the supervising authority of the Sate House of Assembly. In his words to the Council officials, “The House of Assembly as enshrined in our constitution would perform oversight functions over the administration of the Local Governments, I would therefore advise you to cooperate fully with the House of Assembly to ensure that our goal of a democratic governance is attained”.

Given the dominant practice of our political culture, can governor Ihedioha afford to have a totally autonomous local government system in Imo State open to control even by opposition parties competing in free and fair elections?I doubt it. Were he so minded, his party would oppose it and not unjustifiably too. But he has set an exemplary model by guaranteeing the local governments fiscal autonomy by law and thus empowering them to serve as effective tools of productive grassroots governance. At the end of the day, the positive fall outs in terms of developmental impact will be to the benefit of the governor and his party. It is still morning yet on creation day in Ihedioha’s Imo but the signs of things to come appear quite bright and promising.

By Segun Ayobolu

To the vast majority of members of his Latter Rain Assembly and a number of members of his captive audience outside his church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, is perhaps the John the Baptist of our time. Like the ascetic frontrunner who through his powerful, fiery and uncompromising messages calling the people to repentance from sin in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, Pastor Bakare does not flinch from boldly speaking what he believes as truth to power. This has won him considerable admiration both within his church and beyond. However, in recent times the pastor comes across more like a modern day John the Baptist whose sermons, rather than tailored to the salvation of souls and preparing adherents of his church for the second coming of the Messiah, is to prepare the route for the emergence of Pastor Bakare as President Tunde Bakare, the envisaged elected political Messiah of Nigeria.

Preaching the word of God from the pulpit as an oracle of God is one of the greatest responsibilities that any cleric can be called upon to shoulder. It is a privilege and an opportunity that calls for considerable restraint and a great sense of responsibility by anybody that has been given the divine mandate to speak for God among men. It is so easy to embarrass God when the focus of the priest is more on partisan politics than on preaching the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ. Shortly after he emerged as President-elect in 1999, for instance, Pastor Bakare prophesied with pastoral authority and finality that General Obasanjo would not be sworn in as President. There was panic in the land. Would there be a coup? Would the president elect die before the swearing in date?

That would have been a tragedy of gargantuan proportions for a country just coming out of the throes of the June 12 struggles. But nothing of the sort happened. Not only was Obasanjo sworn in as President, he spent eight years in office. This must have been thoroughly embarrassing not only to the God in whose name Pastor Bakare prophesies but to the eloquent man of God himself. During the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s prolonged absence from the country due to illness, Pastor Bakare was at the forefront of the Save Nigeria Group, which ran aggressive campaigns, including public demonstrations to ensure that the needful was done and then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan declared Acting President. Not a few people commended the role of Pastor Bakare in that struggle.

After severally excoriating President Muhammadu Buhari even once describing him derisively as ‘the long one’ obviously referring to Buhari’s slim and tall frame, Bakare agreed to be Buhari’s running mate on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) for the 2011 presidential election. Of course, the catastrophic outcome of that adventure is too well known to detain us here. Once more, Pastor Bakare has declared with magisterial finality, again from the pulpit, that he has been ordained to be the country’s president after Buhari. Is this again a revelation from God after the Obasanjo prophesy debacle saga? Is it not possible that an undue familiarity with God, consciously or unconsciously, can cause a man of God to cavalierly make proclamations in the name of God that has no bearing with the mind of the Lord?

Shortly after making public God’s revelation to him that he is destined to be President after Buhari, Bakare decided to unleash a vitriolic attack on a National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, again from the assumed moral high ground of his pulpit. Although he did not mention Tinubu by name, his innuendo was clear. Let me quote an excerpt from Bakare’s ‘sermon’ in question: “The foolish person would no longer be called generous. You can say ‘so so and so’ has stolen all the money in the state, but he is a very generous man, you are foolish. That’s why potholes are killing you…you can’t drive now anymore because what is meant for road use has been stolen since democracy began, they are living larger than life having jets here, having jets there, having house in Bourdillon, having house in this place, having house in that place, having house in every place at the expense of the public. And you will not go without vomiting what you have stolen. Wait and see. Because a king will rein in righteousness and princes will rule in justice. Unfortunately, Nigerian people, you celebrate your villains and crucify your heroes”.

What can one make of this litany of mischievous innuendoes, manipulative suggestions and baseless insinuations? Must the pulpit of God, presumably sacred and holy, become the spiritual equivalent of social media gossip and bold faced mudslinging? Does this not diminish God and his church? Pastor Bakare is a lawyer and a brilliant man. Can he not carry out his investigations and forward a petition to the anti-corruption agencies if anyone had amassed wealth and he has credible evidence? Is it a crime to be wealthy or to own houses and jets if one can afford it? If assets have been amassed in a criminal manner, this must be investigated and whoever is found guilty made to face the sanctions of the law. Pastor Bakare’s pulpit cannot be an alternative to the courts of law. He cannot utilize his pulpit as a platform that grants him immunity to impugn the characters of others with impunity and without proof. He is a lawyer. He knows this better than this columnist. To paraphrase one of the memorable phrases of the great Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, one of Nigeria’s finest journalists, a pastoral toga should be no magna carta for mandibular wakaabout.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose administration did everything to frustrate the progress of Lagos under Tinubu as governor between 1999 and 2007, had vowed that Tinubu was going to jail immediately after he left office and thus lost his immunity. Chieftains of the PDP in Lagos echoed the same vengeful view. I can recall that, shortly after he left office, Tinubu was invited to interact with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on issues arising during his eight years in office. If my memory serves me right, he was grilled by officers of the EFCC in Abuja from morning till night for not less than four days. The PDP was still in power at the centre. They would have been all too glad to skewer Tinubu if they had found anything incriminating against him.

Oh yes, by all means let Pastor Bakare continue his crusades for a better, more just and equitable Nigeria from his pulpit. It is a commendable, patriotic and courageous enterprise. But this cannot be a substitute for his infinitely far more critical assignment of preaching Christ’s message of salvation to a spiritually starving and dying world. Even more importantly, since Bakare has announced that he has been ordained by God to be Buhari’s successor, he should honorably quit the pulpit and plunge fully into politics so that his pronouncements from the pulpit will not be perceived as being motivated by his political ambition rather than the spirit of God. Surely, it cannot be that God wants to unilaterally pronounce him as President in 2023 without campaigns, without political parties, without sweat. But then, let us wait and see.

Only recently someone sent me a clip of a sermon by Reverend Father George Ehusani of the Catholic Church on WhatsApp. It is, for me, a masterly example of a blend of the spiritual with sound and detached social and political analysis. In his words, “One of the things we really lack in this society is what I call critical social analysis. We don’t do good social analysis. And we really need training in social analysis exactly what those guys did in South Africa because they don’t do critical social analysis. But what they lack, we also lack because when we are suffering the cumulative effects of a small class of people that have destroyed this country, what do we do, we look at the other tribe as responsible. We look at people of the other religion as responsible, true or false? No social analysis. And all leaders of thought should constantly call their people together and let them know, teach them those who have put us in this mess. Those who have put us in this mess, they come from north and south and East and West and Igbo and Hausa and Yoruba and Tiv and Jukun all over”.

Reverend Ehusani continued: “Recently a list was released of those who owe the government over 5 trillion Naira, AMCON. Right, some of you saw it. Where do they come from? From north and south and east and west. N5.3 trillion, that is the equivalent to one year’s budget of Nigeria and how many of them? About 20 Nigerians. Tomorrow, you will come and tell me that it is one part of the country that has put us here. We really need serious social analysis. Why are we where we are? We are all oppressed in this country”.

I feel like quoting this most illuminating sermon by Reverend Ehusani in full but for lack of space. That is a very responsible way of utilizing the pulpit to educate the people politically and enable them to know the underlying character of society beyond superficialities. No name-calling. No self-righteous posturing. A sermon elevated above political partisanship even though profoundly political. That is the way priests should go when pontificating on politics from their exalted pulpits.

 

By Segun Ayobolu

 

In his book, ‘The University-Media Complex’, published last year polyvalent author, Jimanze Ego-Alowes, sets himself, it seems, the simple task of disproving renowned novelist, the Late Professor Chinua Achebe’s, thesis that the problem with Nigeria is purely and basically a failure of leadership. Achebe avers that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the Nigerian character or water or climate. Rather, it is dearth of leadership of the requisite quality that has rendered the country prostrate and incapable of actualizing her immense potentials. There is not an inconsiderable number of Nigerians who share Achebe’s view but Jimanze is not one of them.

For the author, the critical problem with Nigeria is the failure of her intellectuals in their duty to produce new knowledge as well as the requisite cultural context within which the right kind of development-oriented leadership can emerge. Achebe makes his point about the country’s leadership deficiency in his slim classic, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’, with characteristic simplicity, yet profundity. In seeking to rebut Achebe, Jimenze adopts a ponderous, laborious style and language that are none too easy to follow. He diverts into various fields of knowledge in economics, genetics, mathematics, geography, even sports that are sometimes difficult to reconcile with his main theme and will require considerable effort for the average reader to grasp his often startling views.

But then, it appears that Jimenze Ego-Alowes does not write for the average reader and this seems to be deliberate. He apparently relishes the obscurity of his style even if this may cost him wider readership and also minimize the impact the book deserves to make. After all, he submits that “Genius does not write to be read; genius writes to establish a new truth or to be freed from the burden of bearing it alone”.  No wonder then that that this book has not evoked the expected critical debate, even outrage, at many of the unpopular and disruptive views expressed by the author with enthusiasm and boldness. Not many readers will find many parts of the book readily accessible.

Ego-Alwes believes that the quality of the country’s intellectuals is overrated. He acknowledges that the country has produced global icons in the arts and music, for instance, such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in the older generation and Teju Cole or Chimmanda Ngozi Adichie in the younger. But he wonders why there are no replications of such brilliance in the sciences. He disagrees with the argument that scientists in Nigeria lack the requisite facilities, equipment, resources and the needed environment to excel. Why then, he asks, have Nigerian scientists working in advanced countries with all the resources and modern, sophisticated facilities at their disposal not made noticeable breakthroughs in mathematics, physics and other sciences?

If this is possibly simply a question of ‘plain lack of brainpower’ as the author puts it, he does not tell us if he believes this is congenital or simply accidental. For, he evinces an undisguised contempt for “those who read soft courses” and he believes that except in the arts “Nigerians have not transited from being pupils and consumers of knowledge to being scholars or contributors and innovators of knowledge”.

Ego-Alowes has several other axes to grind with Nigerian intellectuals. He decries what he regards as their perceived lack of originality and non-contribution of new knowledge in their disciplines. In his view, there is a difference between producing the individual intellectual’s original ideas and consuming ideas conceived by others, or worse, criminally appropriating the ideas of others. He deplores the tendency for many of even the most acclaimed among them to build their reputations not on discoveries in their areas of specialization but rather as commentators on public affairs or as social critics.’

Jimanze decries the perceived reticence or impotence of many Nigerian intellectuals to make concrete contributions to solving critical, real life problems in their areas of expertise.  He condemns what he sees as a Nigerian penchant to equate what he calls a genius for consumption with a genius for contribution. He argues that too much is made of Nigerian students posting outstanding academic performances in Ivy League universities and beating other foreign students easily or the number of PhD holders produced in the country. Neither high flying performances in examinations nor the acquisition of PhDs, he submits, is evidence of superlative intellect or a capability of making original, path-breaking contributions to knowledge.

The author believes that it is imperative for Nigerians to realize that we suffer a deficit in the arena of intellectual attainment as well as admit that we are not the scholastic geniuses we easily assume ourselves to be. In his words: “The education we were given is wrong, and we lack the gift and intrepidity to change it to suit us, to change it to the universal order. It is this failure of scholarship that has invariably led to other failures including those of leadership, so called”. But then, can there be any far reaching reforms or revolutionary changes in the entire gamut of the country’s education, or any other sector for that matter, without the requisite quality and visionary leadership?

That is a nagging question that the author, in my view, fails to convincingly address in his book. Yes, he makes a valiant effort to disprove Achebe’s leadership thesis forcing the reader to think the unthinkable and open his mind to fresh perspectives and ways of perceiving and interpreting reality in the process. Arguing forcefully that the role of leadership in development is exaggerated, Jimenze says that while in Nigeria people are looking for new, big leaders, “almost everywhere else, people look for big, new ideas”. Again, I confront a dilemma here. Can big, new ideas actualize themselves for the good of society without the agency of visionary, patriotic and competent leaders?

But, like I said, the author makes an impressive bid to demonstrate that the leadership factor is not as critical to development as the Achebe thesis would have us believe. Making a distinction between what he calls the political and the civilizational, for instance, he points out that Italy has sturdy, resilient ‘cultural-civilizational’ foundations, which has enabled it to make sustained progress during periods of political instability characterized by high leadership turnover.

In the 1970s in particular, he explains, Italy’s unstable parliamentary democracy witnessed a rapid change of Prime Ministers – a manifestation of political instability. Yet, the country suffered no ‘cultural or civilizational instability’ and remained a viable economic proposition, indeed one of the top ten biggest global economies. He thus submits rather audaciously that “That is almost to say that the less civilized a people are, the more leaders they need, because logically we get civilized to dispense of leaders”.

He further cites the examples of Japan, Canada, Switzerland and Austria as examples of countries where the leadership factor is de-emphasized without any negative implications for national progress and development. These countries, he argues, have relatively weak respective executive leaderships and are “hero-free, bureaucratically led countries” that have dispensed with heroes as leaders and are doing well. He contends that a country can be run bureaucratically and work by “organizing a civilization first before wanting a country. Getting a Bhudda before hunting for a Caesar is the right functional and working formula”.

This is one theme that recurs throughout the book – a country must first of all have its Bhudda or Confucius, its founding intellectual, philosophical and spiritual pathfinders that define the civilizational and cultural contexts within which every other thing, including leadership, evolves.

This all sounds so theoretically elegant and intellectually fascinating but what does it mean in practical terms to concentrate on founding a civilization before wanting or running a country? I am completely at sea here. Yes, EgoAlowes may have a point that the intellectual vocation is far more critical and important to a country’s progress and development than politics or holding public office, which has become an obsession in Nigeria largely for the purpose of material acquisition rather than promoting the public good. He is right to take umbrage at highly trained scholars in diverse fields, especially professors, who abandon the scholastic terrain to seek to become occupants of various state houses as governors. Yet, not even this detracts in any way from the plausibility of Achebe’s leadership thesis.

For, the primacy of the political, including leadership and good governance, in facilitating rapid national development is indisputable. This is probably why Aristotle described man as a political animal and politics as the master science. There is certainly a good deal of truth in Nkrumah’s axiom that Africa should “seek first the political kingdom” and everything else would be added unto her. Of course, our post-colonial experience has taught us that the ‘political kingdom’ is not just achieving political independence as Nkrumah probably presumed. It also implies deepening democracy, strengthening political institutions and nurturing development-oriented servant leaders. This I think is the import of Achebe’s leadership thesis.

When Ego-Alowes from his detours in economics, geography, mathematics and philosophy returns to actually confront Achebe’s contention that the trouble with Nigeria is, first and foremost, a failure of leadership, does he succeed in disproving this widely accepted viewpoint? I don’t think so. The author argues that since Achebe contends that Nigeria is abundantly endowed with every other vital ingredient that would make for greatness except for the vital absence of good leadership, “…so by default, the good leader who is thus a rare phenomenon is our redeemer, savior and genius”. He then submits that Achebe’s position explains what he describes as excessive leadership worship in Nigeria and the consequent “Nigerian belief that leadership is the last mile to the country’s destination…”

Was Achebe by arguing that Nigeria’s problem is fundamentally that of leadership failure directly or indirectly calling for the deification of leadership in Nigeria and thus supporting, impliedly, the cult of the infallible big man in power? The great man would find that interpretation of his thought horrific. Nothing in Achebe’s writings, to the best of my knowledge, justifies such an interpretation. Does Achebe envision the emancipation of the country and her development as a function of charismatic, Messianic leaders who bestride society like colossi? I don’t think so. This is a fundamental misreading of Achebe. In advocating the imperative of development-oriented leadership as the primary need of Nigeria, Achebe, in my view, is not calling for heroes, despots or Messiahs. He is calling for simple, honest, decent and competent leadership – not heroism or hero-worship.

Thus in ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’, he ruthlessly excoriates bad, arrogant, obscenely loud, corrupt and plainly irresponsible leadership. Of course, there is some tension in Achebe’s leadership thought that calls for resolution. For, if there is nothing wrong with everything else in Nigeria, including the Nigerian character,

how come that this supposedly healthy context is still the very one that the much condemned venal and decadent leadership springs from? Even then, this inconsistency is not sufficient to throw away Achebe’s leadership thesis wholesale especially when no better alternative is on offer.

Incidentally, implicit in Ego-alowes’s analysis is a critique of Nigeria’s errant leadership in a manner reminiscent of Achebe either indirectly in his novels or more directly in ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’. Ego-Alowes is unsparing in his trenchant condemnation of ‘thieving governors’ for instance. He gives the example of a book he once read in a public library in Nigeria at a time when libraries were well stocked in the country. Indeed, he submits that “we will be more advanced and better off as a people as well as advance civilization through the production of libraries”, which he describes as the bookshelf of the wise. But it is only visionary leadership that can value and promote the building and stocking of libraries and the cultivation of reading as well as the acquisition and promotion of knowledge.

This is indeed a well written, closely argued book, which deserves to be more widely read and debated than its rather forbidding style and language will allow. Even then, the writer is unlikely to be impressed by views expressed in journalistic reviews such as this because in his view, “…journalism is about reportage: journalism is not about thinking. It is not that thinking is superior or that journalism is inferior, it might well be, but that is not our point here. It is just that the two are different disciplines and briefs…Hence, the journalist is to report philosophies; the journalist is not called to philosophize”. It certainly cannot get more provocative and that is part of the beauty of this book.