The Nation Newspaper

Tag: statesmanship

  • Posthumous statesmanship

    A pop diva sang about love being wicked but Hardball wager that it is History that is actually most wicked. For one, history seems to abhor villainy. Two, since many still have not been able to fathom the ways and wiles of history, they tend to ignore it or even banish it from national syllabi.

    But history is like a wizened old man, full of wisdom and well-being; seated at a corner of the theatre watching and taking in every minute of man’s strivings on the stage of life.

    History, as unobtrusive as the old one at the corner, is apparently lost on all, especially the principalities, the powers and the rulers of the world. How could anyone kowtow to history if an entire population is at his very mercy? The aphrodisiacal fervor of power would make any leader to repudiate history, banish it and denounce it as a mere tome of verbiage on the dunghills of time.

    Such is the trap that many leaders across ages have fallen into that at the end of the day, when the dust of life and living has settled on the red earth everyone, history is all that mankind is left with… its pages begin to turn as the last page of man is closed. If there was no repentance in the grave as some wags have opined, there surely is no changing the verdict of history.

    Men have tried to write their own history… or re-write history’s history. Some in bold and vicious assertiveness while others in stealth or even by stealing. But it hardly works. History can be mean and unforgiving.

    The sum therefore is that you live your history daily unbeknownst to you but it is penned on your demise, when your opinion didn’t matter anymore and you cannot smuggle stuff in it. In other words, you couldn’t have lived an entire life of a scoundrel and expect history to present you as a statesman.

    In other words again, there is no such thing as posthumous statesmanship. This is why Hardball merely chuckled some jejunal Nigerian politicos try to foist statesmanship on one of their kind after a peculiarly Nigerian perfidious sojourn.

    They start by heaping vacuous eulogies on such a fallen traveler as if that would change anything. History is neither stupid nor is he a Nigerian big man.

    Here: “Senate has urged the Federal Government to accord former Lagbaja all official burial rights due a national figure, with such honour and diligence.”

    Let’s just close by telling them bump heads that honour never comes through the back door nor is statesmanship acquired after the fact.

  • Bamigboye: Farewell to statesmanship

    The pioneer military governor of Kwara State, Brigadier General David Bamigboye died in Lagos on Friday September 21 after a brief illness, at the age of 78.  He was   born on December 7, 1940.  The life and times of the late statesman could very well pass for the take-off stage/timelines of my dear Kwara State. At the age of 37, David Lasisi Bamigboye became the first chief executive of Kwara State. Today Nigeria makes unnecessary fetish of “Not- Too- Young To- Run” bill signed into law recently by President Muhammadu Buhari. But lest we forget, there was once a country (aptly celebrated by the legendary Chinua Achebe) in which at 37, the late Brigadier General Bamigboye not only ran a pioneer state but built it from the foundation!

    The late Bamigboye was the first military governor of Kwara State from May 1967 to July 1975. Kwara State was created with 11 other first generation states from the old defunct three regions of North, East and South of Nigeria. At 20th anniversary of the state in 1978, the late Bamigboye told The Herald, the state newspaper he founded that; “No state out of the 12 states created by General Yakubu Gowon’s administration on May 27, 1967, had infrastructure, financial and institutional problems like the Central West State, later renamed Kwara State”. Consistent with the old received wisdom that when “the going gets tough the tough gets going”, Bamigboye with his other compatriots went ahead to lay a solid foundation for Kwara State with sustainable signature achievements which made Kwara State one of the fast growing states in the 70s. Witness these: Kwara Polytechnic, Herald newspaper, Kwara Hotel, Kwara State Secretariat, Kwara State Government House, numerous public secondary schools, food security for the state and many state General Hospitals.

    With commitment to industrialization, he signed a number of agreements which led to the establishment of a number of industries such as sugar refinery in Ilorin, tobacco factory a brewery and biscuit factories at Ijagbo, paper converter at Erin-Ile most of which are now moribund without the state support. He also upgraded Asa Dam water project for Ilorin and some hospitals and health centres in the state.

    The pioneer governor also offered scholarships to Kwara students in higher institutions. In 1968, his administration created the Kwara State Ministry of Education, with a department to handle scholarship/bursary matters. He matched a promise with prompt fulfilment. For instance, in 1971, he announced a decision to establish the Kwara State College of Technology (later Polytechnic), which came into existence in 1972. He built and sustained unity in Kwara State. Paradoxically, in April 1968, Kwara State’s   first budget was just N10 million “out of which N4m was in deficit”. With selfless leadership and commitment, the late military governor transformed a hitherto backward Ilorin and Kabba provinces into a fast growing state of the federation.

    Today Kwara state budgets annually some N160 billion but could not maintain a number of Bamigboye’s pioneer projects. Indeed Kwara is almost back to pre-creation 1967 era with pot holes called roads and the citizens of the state turned to gatherers and hunters of basic needs like water which had since stopped running despite billions suck in “dams’ modernization”!

    Bamigboye’s era was that of collective all-inclusive earned leadership compared to the present ascribed exclusive single-leadership. His era in governance produced many outstanding star-leaders, scholars, civil servants, jurists, professionals, entrepreneurs and many great Kwarans in various fields.  Some names readily come to mind: Chief Joseph Adeniyi Aderibigbe, the first substantive Secretary to the Military Government (SMG) and Head of Service in Kwara State but the third and the last to hold the office under Governor Bamigboye, Alhaji Abdulrahman Okene and Alhaji Liman Umoru, the two who ably acted as secretaries from 1968 till April, 1972.

    Significantly, late Brig. General Bamigboye helped to build a developmentalist Kwara State which today, suffers (scandalously!) huge development deficits due to bad non-inclusive governance. His era marked statesmanship as distinct from the current personalization and privatization of governance with attendant mass poverty. The best way to honour the late pioneer governor for the good people of Kwara State is to reinvent statesmanship. Indeed the demise of Brigadier General on the eve of a critical transitional election in Kwara State is a divine reminder of an era of selfless statesmanship.

    I call on all aspirants for public offices in Kwara State to learn from the bold positive imprints of the former military governor. Even though I was never an enthusiast of military leadership in general, however the point cannot be overstated that there was once a developing Kwara State that was a pride of all Kwarans under General Bamigboye compared to the present stagnant underdeveloped Kwara State that is an embarrassment to all Kwarans. The 2019 gubernatorial election offers a unique historic opportunity to reclaim our dear state and enthrone selflessness, statesmanship, entrepreneurship, compassion, managing diversity, equality, and inclusiveness, sense of justice and fairness and prosperity for all. Kwara State urgently needs state-led development of Bamigboye-era.

    Kwara embarked on bold development through Kwara State First Development Plan (1970 – 74/75) set within the context of the country’s second National Development Plan (1970 – 1975). Later there was the Second Kwara State Development Plan (1975 – 1980). The plans laid solid foundations for accelerated economic growth, increased productivity in agriculture, providing favourable climate for industrial development and improving the quality of life of the people through the provision of necessary infrastructure. In the 70s, Kwara State with productivity and enterprise of Kwara farmers was food secured.  Kwara State as it was in past must support hundreds of thousands of Kwara farmers not few absentee foreign (read; white Zimbabwean) farmers whose products are not on daily menu of most Kwarans and Nigerians. Investment charity must start with our hard working people just as it was during Bamigboye.

    For instance on agriculture, Bamigboye once narrated how his administration set up the Pategi Rice Mill and Kwara Rice which “was famous in all departmental stores throughout the country”. He also recalled with nostalgia the “state poultry farming and large hectares of maize grown to feed the surging population.” “The aim of ‘Kwara Foods’ according to the late statesman “was to feed the nation”. In later years, he regretted that the pioneer food security programme “was no longer thriving.” It is unacceptable that  Kwara today miserably ranks 28th on the ranking of states by GDP beaten to it by even newest states like, Imo, Edo and Oyo states.  Kwara should return to the path of productivity through re-industrialisation and mass decent jobs. At creation, Kwara was the fastest growing state. The best tribute to late military governor is for Kwara State to return to development planning and impress on the federal government within the Council of States to improve on national planning and national vision within the context of Africa Union (AU) 2063. His laudable projects such as Kwara State Printing and Publishing Corporation, (publishers of The Herald and Sunday Herald) must also be sustained. It’s time Kwara and indeed Nigeria become once again investment/job destinations.

     

    • Aremu mni is Labour Party governorship aspirant, Kwara State.

  • Divine art of statesmanship

    Some sage said the greatest art is writing well but Hardball will differ a little here. The greatest art must be statesmanship; if only for the fact that it subsumes every other human endeavour. No, that is not quite right – it actually circumscribes all. Statesmanship at its very apogee is the highest calling of man; a state of grace.

    After God of course, are statesmen. Even God differs to statesmen. The Holy Bible is all about God and statesmen at play. The Old Testament is almost purely a universe of statesmen – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Caleb, Samuel, David, Solomon, Princes, Chiefs of Households, Captains of hundreds and thousands, high priests, name them.

    Men lifted among their peers and in their generations for specific purposes. Presidents, governors, chairmen, generals, editors, managers of multitude of men and resources – these are one in million men and women, chosen for higher purposes.

    But sorry to say that not many quite understand their state or station; just as Saul fluffed his high estate and Samson poured his special oil in the bosom of a femme fatale, so it is today. Very few still really are able to grapple its true essence.

    Statesmanship is a heavy responsibility which Hardball wants to wager is almost larger than the mortal being. It seems an assignment meant only for the gods or the supernatural. The failure rate is very high indeed. That may explain the universal chaos that has continued to engulf humanity from creation.

    The roll call is long. Adam failed, swept by the lure of the flesh. Pilate crumbled under the weight of mob pressure. Herod fell to the wiles of Herodias. Caesar mixed it up; Hitler, like Lucifer thought himself God and suffered a woeful finale.

    The story is the same from creation to the Jesus millennial – statesmanship has failed man or vice-versa. Statesmanship, the graceful art of the gatherer, the pathfinder, the multiple-eyed one, the one who must never snore even in slumber, the one who must never sup until all have had their fill; the one who must be first and who must be last.

    Most important, the one who though is ensconced at the Olympian height, beyond the sight of most, he it is who must stoop to serve all, even the lowliest. Such is the divine majesty of statesmanship. But oft, it is lived in lies and apocryphal propensities. For instance, why would a president, leader of a nation don top and pants and seek to be a footballer.

    Why would another president insist he is bereft of the munificence to afford re-election documents so some nondescript stalwarts purport to gift it to him? That’s a travesty; it’s statesmanship debauched before the alter of state.

    Statesmanship is often draped in virginal white; sepulchral and pure.

  • Tinubu: Statesmanship and success stories

    Tinubu: Statesmanship and success stories

    The occasion of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s birthday is a good time to reflect again on his politics, statesmanship, contributions to nation- building, and the useful lessons that can be learnt therefrom for the attainment of the change that Nigeria sorely needs. This is what we grapple with in this piece as we felicitate with Asiwaju as he celebrates his 65th birthday.

    The former governor of Lagos State and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, shines brightly in the orbit of the few political leaders in Nigeria who provide archetypal leadership, and enthusiastically and courageously commit themselves to the realisation of enduring democratic governance, sustainable economic development, unalterable collective prosperity, enhanced human dignity, unfeigned justice, untainted equality, solid moral purpose, and consistent adherence to the rule of law. All of these are appreciable ideals that this political tactician has been known to pursue unwaveringly since he set his feet on the path of politics in Nigeria, beginning from 1989 when he campaigned to be elected as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    In his numerous undertakings, the picture comes clear that Asiwaju Tinubu forayed into politics with a pristinely clear mission. His leadership style, politics, and judgements regarding the choice of who to walk and work with reveal a mind that understands and wields political power as a tool with which to reconstruct the social condition of a vast number of people for good. His is a knowledge-powered leadership, for he knows too well, to appropriate the words of the columnist, Tatalo Alamu, that “knowledge matters and human capital is the driving agency behind all societal advances.”

    This reflection on the statesmanship of Asiwaju Tinubu and the success stories that characterise Lagos State between 1999 and now is not as much a celebration as it is an attempt to underscore the fact that considerable lessons and inspiration are locked in the chest of the purposeful leadership that this progressive politician has been identified with, time and again. The richness of his views on nation-building, his demonstrable fidelity to the lofty principles of democracy, his uncanny ability to identify, attract, and maintain excellent minds, his detribalised disposition, his remarkable ability to connect with Nigerians of varied tribes and religious persuasions, and, of course, his untiring commitment to the attainment of a viable federal system, constitute an encyclopaedic tome of visions from which many usable ideas can be unloaded for the transformation of the country.

    As Governor of Lagos, and a leader that knows his own mind, Tinubu decided to challenge the workings of our federalism within the rules set by the system, knowing full well that a liberal democratic system is one, according to David Easton’s system theory analysis, with input, processing, output and feedback components which, therefore, has capacity for learning, readjustment and redefinition –in short, it does have a capacity for self-correction. It does offer a sufficiently shrewd and savvy political leader enough opportunity to manoeuvre to get the work done. Thus, in a democratic setting, a leader must possess the will, intelligence and democratic temperament to work within the ambit of the system to achieve the desired objectives.

    The leadership lesson here is that a development-oriented, democratic leader must also be a system builder; and you cannot build a system by standing aloof from it. You can only do that by engaging it, subjecting it to the tests of performance and exposing its weaknesses and imperfections to compel adjustment and correction. This is how a leader supports and helps contribute to democratic growth and development.

    Of a truth, democracy is meant to give practical effect to the idea that a leader’s place is with the people and not above them. This underscores the need for a leader in a democracy to possess a democratic temperament, which recognises and accepts the idea that development must be people-oriented, people-focused and people-driven.

    But the significance of the role of leadership is not all there is to democratic development and development through democracy. While the salience of the leadership factor is not in doubt, the supporting role of the people cannot be ignored or discountenanced. The idea is that, even in spite of democracy, leaders cannot be left alone to their own devices. The goodness of leaders is never to be taken for granted. It is to be constantly demanded.

    One other urgent lesson for us to learn as a country is in the area of leadership recruitment. There is no gainsaying the fact that one of the key problems we have had with poor leadership in the country is not unconnected with how we recruit people into leadership positions. This, of course, is a process that has suffered chronic subversion from our unique brand of retrogressive politics, which has similarly affected and afflicted other areas of the country’s development.

    We have thus promoted and entrenched mediocrity in vital leadership positions at perilous cost to our future development. The major determinants of our leadership recruitment have been standards other than excellence. We have relied on such retrogressive criteria as “God-father,” ethnic, tribal and blood ties, politically safe candidacy, sycophancy, etc. for determining those who we elevate to leadership positions and critical decision-making posts in our public sector. Accordingly, those recruits have gratefully paid back by bringing the country down to their level.

    A country can only be as good as the quality of its leadership. Hence, a transformational leader would select his team with the same high-mindedness that matches his big visions. He would shirk any narrow consideration that would diminish his achievement and defeat his objectives. Like Asiwaju Tinubu did with the team he picked in Lagos, a transformational leader would go for excellence and be cosmopolitan in his search for talents.

    A development-oriented leadership must rise above the petty concerns of parochial and provincial advantage at the expense of national development. Nowhere in the world has the subversion of excellence by mediocrity produced great results. Development-engendering leadership is far from being a fluke; it requires visionary discipline, programmatic diligence, unwavering political will and single-minded focus, and selfless dedication to the project of national rebirth and development. This is the sort of leadership that can break the country free from the quay of underdevelopment to which it appears to be permanently moored.

     

    • Jimoh and Adesola wrote in from Osogbo, Osun State

  • ECOWAS, Biden hail Jonathan for statesmanship

    The Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Ghanaian President, John Mahama, yesterday praised President Goodluck Jonathan for conceding defeat to the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

    He conveyed ECOWAS’s commendation while speaking with reporters after a  meeting with Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    According to him, his visit was to extend ECOWAS commendation and praise to Nigerians.

    He said: “If you recall before the elections, on behalf of ECOWAS, I gave a solidarity message to Nigerians to step up and consolidate your democracy by having peaceful, free and transparent elections.

    “And I believe that the world is congratulating you on the peace and stability that has continued to endure both before, during and after the elections.

    “I have been talking with President Jonathan on several issues in respect to ECOWAS.

    “We are due to have a summit and we discussed issues about the summit and a few outstanding issues relating to ECOWAS.

    “I also took the opportunity to praise him for the statesmanship that was displayed after the election.

    “I feel that was a very great sign of maturity and he has earned the respect of all Nigerians and the international community.

    “We expect a smooth transition and hail the role that Nigeria played in ECOWAS, being the biggest economy not only in our sub region but on the continent.”

    The Ghanaian President also praised the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega for successfully conducting free fair and credible elections.

    Mahama  hailed INEC’s role as an unbaised umpire.

    He  spoke during a visit to the INEC headquarters in Abuja

    United States Vice-President Joe Biden also praised Jonathan for his statesmanship.

    A statement by the U.S Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria said Biden spoke with Jonathan in a telephone conversation from Washington D.C.

    “Vice-President Joe Biden spoke today with President Goodluck Jonathan to commend him for his leadership in ensuring Nigeria’s recent elections were peaceful and orderly.

    “The vice president noted that President Jonathan’s actions to accept the results and congratulate President-elect Buhari has strengthened Nigeria’s democracy.’’

    The statement stated that Jonathan had, by his action, set a strong example for Africa and the world.

    “The vice president encouraged President Jonathan to remain engaged and play a leadership role in global issues after his presidency ends,’’ the statement added.

  • Politics or statesmanship?

    Politics or statesmanship?

    Politics can be noble; it can be morally uplifting. But the community must be ready to defend its nobility and demand that those who go into politics do so for the good of the community

    I is public knowledge that where two or three Nigerians gather especially outside of their native land, discussion quickly turns on the Nigerian condition: the terror of Boko Haram insurgency andthe cancer of corruption, the exploding international fame of Nollywood and the exploits of Super Eagles. Since 1999, however, politics has come alive and has been a dominant aspect of these spirited discussions.

    Two generalisations in particular dominate the discussion of politics in general and Nigerian politics in particular. Politics is rotten and debased. Politicians are unethical, unreliable and unpredictable. Both are summed up in the dismissive jab: it’s all politics. This raises two questions: If politics is so demonstrably debased, why is it at the centre of our lives? And if politicians are so incurably unreliable and unpredictable, why our societies so organised that politicians are in control?

    Add to the foregoing the peculiarity of the Nigerian condition where ethnicity and religion make demands on the political, complicating an already complex institution and you have a triple jeopardy. And a third question pops up for an answer: if politics and politicians must be in the driving seat of our national life, can we ever make them accountable to us?

    We cannot make them accountable to us because there are multiples of “us”. While the pardon of a convicted corrupt politician elicited condemnation among one group, it was praised by another as the height of statesmanship. And while a religious organisation received the gift of a sanctuary without any compunction of conscience, secular organisations berated the gesture as a bribe.

    Is the accusation fair? Are politicians unethical, unreliable and unpredictable?Is politics rotten and debased?

    If politics is rotten and debased, the reason cannot be unconnected with the character and/or action of politicians. After all, politics differs significantly from an apple or tomato that can rot without human agency. We may conceive of politics as an institution, a formal system of rules and regulations that society designs to advance its interests, or as an art of governance, or as a device for sharing scarce resources in a population. From none of these conceptions can we necessarily deduce a cynical view of politics if no human agency is involved. But, of course, human hands are implicated, and those can be dreadful, wicked, and rather unclean.

    Society cannot do without politics as a system of rules and regulations; society must seeks ways of advancing its interests; where four or five are gathered, there must be a device for governance; and in the face of scarce resources, principles for sharing must be devised, accepted and implemented. We cannot avoid politics; but we can do without debased politics. We can have politics without bitterness, apology to one of the oldies of the game.

    I once argued that the debased notion of politics doesn’t do justice to what politics is all about, and that there is a much more noble character to politics. It is what we now identify as statesmanship. And this makes sense to the extent that we also mark a clear distinction between the politician and the statesman. As John Rawls once put it in his characteristic elegance, the politician looks to the next election, the statesman looks to the next generation. Of course, being a philosopher, he cannot help adding that the philosopher looks to the indefinite future, echoing Aristotle. Let us discountenance the self-serving posturing of Rawls and Aristotle with respect to the role of philosophy. But isn’t it true that the politician only looks to the next election?

    What is sad about this is that a political community such as ours needs direction that only statesmen can give but if all we have are politicians whose concern is election, their focus is always going to be taking undue advantage of the cyclical returns of elections. And they will approach these without regard for ethics or morals. Recall the infamous position attributed to a late political leader in the southwest. Approached by a young aspirant, the old man was quoted as asking the young aspirant: “so you want to be a politician? Have you ever lied? Can you kill?” Thinking that these were disqualifying attributes, the young man responded negatively. But to his surprise, he was discouraged from pursuing his ambition because he “was not ready for the world of politics.”

    I don’t believe that this was a true story. But it makes the point that nothing noble or communally rewarding can come out of a debased politics such as the one we have embraced since the inception of the republic. And we don’t appear to be eager for a change because even when the old soldiers of raw politics pass on, they pass on the tradition to their successors. And those individuals who genuinely feel the urge to serve and can do a great job at it are scared away.

    The First Republic witnessed the abuse of political power with the use of regional police to harass the opposition. Subsequent military administrations thought that the way to correct the odious practice was to abolish regional police. However, since the Second Republic, we have witnessed the increasing politicisation of the federal police that has always seen itself as the security wing of the ruling party. If we had true statesmen and not politicians in the saddle, we would have devised a means of assuring everyone, including members of the opposing political parties who have not thereby renounced their citizenship that they all count and would be protected by the police. Meanwhile, concern for the next elections has driven the approach of politicians to security matters, including sensitive appointments, even when lives are being mowed down indiscriminately by terror agents.

    Africa in general and Nigeria in particular, can still learn from the Mandela legacy of statesmanship. For a human being to make such an enormous sacrifice for his country and to walk away from the allure of power when the ovation was loudest is not what we have come to associate with our clime. But it is what made Madiba a hero of the human race. Politics can be noble; it can be morally uplifting. But the community must be ready to defend its nobility and demand that those who go into politics do so for the good of the community.

    Signing off……for now

    I was rounding off this piece for submission when Opalaba called. “You need a break”, my friend announced. “Excuse me?” I intoned. “You are not getting younger,” he continued, “and I am scared of losing you. Who is listening anyway?” I knew he was serious. So I tried to cheer him up with one of our common favorites from the King of Juju: “Emi o ba won wa, emi o ni ba won lo….”It worked! My friend joined me and I could hear his dancing steps. However, he refused to stop before he got to where his emphasis was: Ara ma n fe simi… I got the message.
    I answered the call right from the beginning of this paper. Even with increasing demands on my time as I took on additional responsibilities at my job, I did not waver. Now I must take Opalaba’s advice. But I’ll be back.