30 June 2007
column
Lagos — Will Yar'Adua be the forerunner to a new Nigeria? Is it possible that we may be witnessing the making of a Fifth Republic - one this time, built on firmer, more moral and truly constitution-anchored grounds
Consider the series of events in the week since the end of the nationwide strike just five days ago, starting with how it was concluded, without the usual arrests, arm-twisting, broken heads and 'go-to-hell' blustering. Yar'Adua, instead, commiserated with his fellow citizens over the hardships imposed by the strike. The settlement gave labor much of what it wanted, including the salary increase and the first steps in reviewing the controversial sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries, The new president has continued his quest for GNU - government of national unity, even though many of us harbor misgiving over the proverbial inability to make things work long enough before the bickering.
Then came the first, true personal act of courage, setting a precedent that could alter the nature of the presidency and by extension, the lives of the power elite, one and all. President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, with little fanfare did what no Nigerian leader has ever done before - he declared his assets, in kind and cash - land, homes, cars. It came to over $6million or close to N850 million including campaign gifts under his control. Apart from land and shares, actual cash available, according to the form is in the million dollar mark, substantial but peanuts compared to what, say, senate president or any of the other ex-military presidents, commands. He had insisted on this step, despite the reminder by the Code of Conduct Bureau, that nothing in the constitution mandates such a public declaration. To him, there was an important principle at stake.
Just what is this principle? Something rather basic, but which in the Nigeria context, may one day come to be known by historians as 'Yar'Adua's Leadership Rule No. 1": Aside from keeping a solemn campaign pledge and setting a tone for others to follow - UMYA was clear that "The war against corruption cannot have meaning, until those at the helm begin to live by example." (I am adding the capitalization.) You can hear the pin drop all over the gilded floors of the top one per cent across Nigeria. Just a simple, honest-to-God, even commonsensical, declaration - but how many do you suppose will be cheering a good gesture?
Though it's indeed early to judge how seriously these initiatives will be pursued and for how long, it will not hurt to take passing note of them. Like the various other symbolic steps, as mentioned earlier - especially his marching orders to Makoju on energy and Okiro on his police, as well as the new urban slum clearance directives, and the vow to end poverty as we know it. In the one area he has been faulted, the slow emergence of the list of ministers and hence a working federal cabinet (before the Permanent Secretaries get confused again about their place in the scheme of things), one understands to a degree, the effort at being as inclusive as possible, as the various wrangling interest groups in the ruling party along, could place booby-traps for this classic outsider now center stage.
On an even far more serious note, it is this commitment to personal transparency and an era of 'Clean Government', that the world has been waiting for, to start taking Africa seriously. Nigeria and by extension, the rest of the emerging economies of Africa, are, if taken together, in both the best and the worst of times. Best, because for the first time in decades, a smart set of well-educated, economically savvy leaders with an eye on the realities of globalization, are firmly in the saddle in many places. You could discuss with them the imperatives of an industrial revolution and actually get a conversation going. They might even understand, as some tone-deaf types hardly manage to, that development is not just about technological plants, engineering works and shining macadam with late model cars wheezing by. It might even really be of this order - 30% technology, 30 per cent culture and 30 per cent 'instrumental', leadership vision. (The other 10 per cent we leave to anything else anyone wishes to add - fate, the devil, fate, good luck or bad, even the 'Nigerian factor' in our case!)
This is by way of saying that leadership style matters. Of all those variables, it's the credibility and sheer visionary and managerial competence of the leader that counts for far more. Power, as we have seen, always reminds of Max Weber's classic definition - it's the ability to compel obedience regardless of position. But power in practice is also best masked as 'authority' - exercising power as a delegated mandate of the people, one reason why democracies rely on clear-written constitution. No need taking the chances the British, with 900 years head start, could effort to take when they boast of an "unwritten constitution." Things work best when a leader could be trusted not to turn out a thief. Leadership by example - has a nice ring to it.
Nothing happens without a visionary leadership commitment. Not too long ago I argued that Nigerian leaders should always bear in mind that at base, democracy can only be practiced two ways - either along constitutionalist patterns, or adversarial partisanship. Given that Nigeria has generally followed the latter path, let her leaders paraphrase the great Ozymandias in Byron Shelly Percy's allegorical poem, and see if they could go along with his invitational boast to other leaders, that if they want to know who he really was, they should look around and weep. Today, anyone looking around might indeed seek to weep, but for a totally different reason. Indeed, Ghana's ex-ruler Jerry Rawlings, in Lagos this past week, came close to weeping when he spoke of Nigeria's squandered opportunities.
Ordinary Nigerian's know it, just one reason they want the new man to forge ahead - fast. Columnist Debo Adesina best captured this mode when noted just why Nigerians are in haste: "One of the richest nations, in people, ideas and resources, on earth but with a staggering population of poor people. A long history of chances. A long history of missed opportunities. A land of so many heroes. But known worldwide, largely, for villainy. At this crossroads therefore, it is a nation very much in haste. The people are justifiably impatient."
Despite the call for haste, even more important is to know the man behind the mask, the mindset, the core values, of the new president, when not surrounded by party bigwigs, waiting foreign diplomats, or old business friends and similar supplicants.
We are getting closer to knowing this new leader who doesn't waste too many words. As with the open declaration, we see a new style on the horizon and are entitled to know if this is for real. Indeed I have already read a lot of the internet commentators, taken aback, bounce back with their suspicions, first trying to determine the dollar value of the size of the assets, but wondering on the maneuvering behind the release. Many, however, were positively stunned that any Nigerian leader will have this courage. Some rose in salute.
You can bet, though, that leaders don't just do things this visible and significant just for cheap popularity. Could this gesture stem from deeper impulses, perhaps? On that, the personal and its connection to the policy move, it may help to reread an account of a dream Yar'Adua had two years back that surprised him, which Olusegun Adinyi, relates in an interview he did with the then president-elect, "The Burden of Expectations," appeared same May 29 that he took the oath of office before Chief Justice Kutigi and the entire nation.
The introductory passage on the man and his mission deserves reproduction, because indeed the Marathon has begun, his appointment with destiny is here, and there is every chance he may be the unlikely hero people have been waiting for since 1959 - so long as he is able to outwit the political wolves glaring from the sidelines. We discover that there is a mystical side to him that seeks a different path laced with honesty and fidelity to the truth, comes clear enough. Adeniyi writes:
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was not a man given to dreams but this was one he would not forget in a hurry. As he dozed off sometime in August 1997, he found himself transported into a huge compound where he confronted an unusually huge man who beckoned on him to come inside the premises. With trepidation, he followed the man until he entered a house where everything was paved with gold. There, this mysterious man handed him a box and an Islamic prayer tesubaa (rosary), all gold and shinning. They were heavy.
"As Yar'Adua attempted to peep into the box, the man told him to calm down as he invited him into the inner sanctuary of the premises where a rather old man was waiting. "That is your box", said the old man about the box he was holding "and that is your chair", he added, pointing in the direction of a seat which looked like a throne. As Yar'Adua was taking his seat, he woke up.
"Three months down the line, specifically on December 9, 1997, he began to realize the full import when his elder brother, the former Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, Major General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, died in Abakaliki prison and it was his lot to collect the coffin containing the remains. At that point, Yar'Adua could not but situate the family tragedy in that box he had received in the subconscious. Unknown to him, however, that was only half of the story. Three years later, he became the Governor of his home State, Katsina, eight years after he had sought the same position and failed.
"At that point, he must also have reasoned that was the fulfillment of the dream: at last, the throne! How wrong he must have been. "
In wondering what all this might mean as the 56-year -old stepped from the penumbra of history right onto the world stage and to the eventual judgment of history, Adeniyi wrote: With his inauguration today as the President of Nigeria, a position sought by his late brother in vain, Yar'Adua could be described as a man of destiny. Dreams, it has been said, awaken in us the ability to find truth and wisdom while acting as a communication pathway between the real and imaginary worlds where we are given messages that can't be given in our conscious state."
Not done, Adeniyi, who later emerge as the Yar'Adua's media special assistant, asked a question that must by now be on every mind: "Are we to assume that with Yar'Adua as President, notwithstanding the acrimonious election bringing him to power, Nigeria will move from a nation of wasted potentials to a land of promise and opportunities? These are questions floating in the air."
It may be too early, but I believe he has a chance to unite a country desperate for a unifying leadership. Not easy but feasible. We can only pray hard he sustains this inspirational step and directs the hitherto somewhat somnolent CCB, to wake and smell the onset of a new constitutional order. Bravo, Umaru, bravo Mr. President. Many are watching leadership-by-example in action.
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