Lagos — Former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu and renowned public commentator and social critic, Rev. Father Mathew Hassan Kukah,  at a public lecture in Lagos last week engaged in robust intellectual discourse on the Nigerian project.

The duo blamed the nation's woes on the lack of a credible leadership. Charles Ajunwa who attended the lecture reports

The Problem of the nation's ineffective leadership resonated again in Lagos last Friday as former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu and renowned social critic, Rev. Father Mathew Kukah, engaged in an intellectual discourse on the Nigerian project attributing the country's social, economic and political problem to lack of committed leadership. The duo spoke at this year's second Nigerian Telecom Development Lecture (NITDEL) entitled "Nigeria: Search For Good Governance, Leadership". They declared that Nigerian leaders have failed the country for not addressing the nation's myriad of problems which has set the country's 's wheel of progress backward after over forty years of independence.

Tinubu, in his lecture titled " Developmental Democracy: A New Political Model Good For The Nigerian Nation" said the continuing dialogue and engagement on the critical and pressing issues of leadership and good governance in Nigeria are mainly tied to issues of poor decision making processes, endemic internal managerial and technical capacity deficits, depleted organizational skills and the educational system that is geared more towards teaching just enough to pass the exam rather than the teaching of critical skills.

Politically, Tinubu canvassed the view that Nigeria does not totally need new political and administrative structures now to tackle the political, leadership, social and economic ills in the country. He gave examples of United States of America and United Kingdom, which are older democracies, that are still retaining the same constitutions and political structures with just fewer amendments but essentially the same theme and spirit which has enabled them to successfully confront and overcome most social, political and economic challenges over the centuries.

According to him, "the key to survival and growth of the two constitutional democracies of America and United Kingdom, is that rather than respond to national challenges by junking the existing systems and replacing them with new systems and constitutions, they confronted the challenges head on and surmounted the problems by building enduring civil institutions that could absorb the shocks of confrontation and come on top"

He said "I have heard it argued that to compare our experiences with those of the United States and United Kingdom is not a valid comparison, that we are different in culture and history, that our future lies in a so-called 'home grown' model of governance. I say that this is disingenuous because all that this argument serves to do is to free us from the discipline of compliance with accepted and relatively successful political and governmental models, and allow us to excuse abhorrent behaviour on the grounds of 'peculiarity' of our circumstance; and it is also escapist because it continues to provide the excuse for political elite in not getting it substantially right so far, on the grounds that they are still searching for the perfect 'home grown' model," he said.

Tinubu, who governed Lagos between 1999 and 2007, cited the example of India, a developing country which in spite of being troubled and ravaged by political, sectarian and economic strife as Nigeria, has retained the same constitution since 1948 and has never adopted the "lazy short-cut of military rule and is gradually and steadily becoming the better for it."

The former governor who frowned at Nigerian's attitude of subscribing to the methodology of new political models, which he observed has been the case any time the country was faced with a problem, said it amounts to wasting massive amounts of time and resources trying to fashion out a new constitution and a new structure.

"We had a fairly balanced 1960 Constitution which recognised the autonomy of the regions and was fairer in its distribution of resources by derivation, but in trying dishonestly to address a purely political problem, we threw that away and replaced it with a so-called republican one in 1963; then we changed again in 1979 then in 1989, then 1995 and finally 1999. Indeed, the 1989 and 1995 constitutions never even took effect. And we all know what happened to the most recent and ill-fated attempt to amend the constitution.

"Where has all this to and fro got us? Nowhere really. None of these efforts at re-creating the country has been able to provide the tools by which we can frontally address our national problems. None of these cosmetic exercises has radically improved on the issues of nationhood, resource allocation, social development, the overall quality of life, the orderly transfer of political power and rational law and decision making in government to the betterment of the citizens. What we have spent most focus on is political power and term limits and such other issues rather than the real challenges of poverty and economy and equality and protection of rights," Tinubu noted.

Present development challenges, according to him, are monstrous and daunting requiring hard choices guided by a central and ethical national spirit. Nigeria, according to Tinubu, needs a 'new' political model that is one to the extent of its internal restructuring, new to the extent that is new more in spirit and application than the mere form, a new way of doing things rather than a new nomenclature.

Tinubu said Nigerians have the culture of 'premature triumphanilism', which is mere declaration of intent on the mistaken premise that merely by stating a thing would come to pass written by Fola Arthur-Worrey in his award winning book "The Daries of Mr. Michael." Nigerians should discard such mentality, according to him, if the country must attain its full potentials. He noted that Nigerian leaders forgot to work towards greatness.

"It was because of their failure to work at greatness, their failure to institutionalise a national spirit that within just six years of the birth of this 'great' nation, we were at each others throats. The mere fact that we so grandly declared the words "unity, faith, peace and progress" on our coat of arms did not mean that these things would come to us automatically. If we did not take time to build institutions that would assure the entrenchment of the ingredients of unity, faith etc., justice, fairness, tolerance and service then we are spouting empty rhetoric.

"'Can our national troubles be cured by the mere reconstruction and renaming of a faulty building? Can we really build an enduring nation on the back of a document whose provisions are observed more in their breach? What is responsible for our continuous disregard for and distrust in election and census result? Surely, if a country cannot agree within itself what its census figures are then surely that country falls short of even the loosest definition of the word /nation', he further explained.

Continuing the former governor explained that the greatest challenge to a modern state such as Nigeria, originally formed not by a mutual consensus of differing tribes and ethnic groups, or an accepted resolution of competitive interests but rather by British expediency driven by economic compulsion and imperial fiat, according to Tinubu, "is to find common meeting point between diverse interests that would be a binding force or spirit that would reflect the words of the first, preferred National Anthem: "Though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand."

According to him, the country threw away the old model and called itself "compatriots" even though the people still had not decided on the way forward or what route to take, noting that nation building is not a rushed process but that which requires a decision making process which is right from the beginning.

For Nigeria to make progress, he said that the decision making process has to be right, noting that nation building is not a rushed process '"it is not by coups and counter coups, by annulling elections, by ad-hoc solutions or short cuts or the blind acceptance of foreign prescriptions such as the 'structural adjustment' or the 'Washington Consensus' or debt relief or reduction in pubic spending. The process of decision making on national problems must be a rational one, one that reflects a representative consensus, one that is based on deep analysis and study of the issues and made in the best interests of the nation and its people. It is a failure of decision making process that has led us into a chronic, severe, even endemic power crisis in spite of all the resources quite literally thrown at the sector," he noted.

To squarely address the problems in Nigeria's political system, Tinubu recommended constitutional democracy, where powers are separated and popular will determines who exercises executive and legislative power. In a democracy, he said there are internal controls and self-correcting mechanisms

According to him, " the most important construct of any democratic system is the integrity and strength of its institutions that regulate the interactions between and amongst the diverse interest groups, determine and protect social, economic and property rights, ensure security of lives and property, resolve disputes with predictability and finality, compel accountability from leadership and, most importantly, determine how leadership is chosen at both national and local levels and how power is transferred at the end of each cycle"

Speaking on the electoral process, the former governor noted that the present federal executive and political culture encourage institutionalisation of a partisan umpire whose every statement expresses contempt for the electorate and whose very body language reflects a slavish defence of entrenched interests.

A two-party system, according to him, is the best prescription for a more accountable, rational, people-focused and enduring political model for now and the future.

He said that a two party-system is an advantage because it breaks ethnic and religious cleavages and ensures that whichever side wins, the other side constitutes a powerful countervailing force against the real possibility of a one-party state.

Tinubu, claimed that two party-system brought rationality to the system and gives the electorate a clear choice noting that it was the clarity of choice between the progressive Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the conservative National Republican Congress (NRC) that contributed to the smoothness of the 1993 elections.

"Political parties, I believe, judging from our experience between 1991 that in spite of the failure of character shown by the then military leaders in aborting the natural progression of probably the most progressive political period in Nigeria's history, a two party system is the best political model on which to hinge the electoral future. This is not a new model but a choice from tested models that have worked but which in our usual impatient and non-confrontational style we junked for the present model," he said.

To avoid the present ambiguity, Tinubu advocated a process of appointment of the electoral umpire that avoids the input of partisan persons or bodies.

According to him, whoever is given the duty of umpiring the electoral process must constantly remind himself and be constantly reminded that he is a mere servant, a steward of the process answerable to the constitution which says that elections are to be conducted in a free and fair manner.

To tackle problems of rigging and violence during elections, Tinubu advocated a Special

Election Security Force, only answerable to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, comprising men of the police, army and other agencies gathered together for a fixed purpose and swearing an oath before the Chief Justice and therefore accountable to him to uphold the tenets of their office and uphold the sanctity of the electoral process. He said they are to be disbanded and return to their usual duties at the expiration of the elections.

He held the Supreme Court responsible for the country's electoral problems by its share endorsement in the 1979 case of Awolowo V Shagari of the test of "substantial compliance" in determining whether an election was carried in accordance with the electoral law or not.

Tinubu said the Supreme Court set a dangerous precedent by allowing too much flexibility and manoeuvring room for wily umpires. Noting that another fundamental error by Supreme Court is the requirement for proof beyond reasonable doubt in establishing forgery or other criminal act alleged in an election petition.

He warned that the country run the risk of dragging the judiciary into partisan politics "where it will be exposed to accusations of bias, fraud, corruption and the like and slowly its toga of fairness, blindness and impartiality will be stripped from it", he added "we must strive for an electoral system that can stand on its own, not an emergency surgery system, a mop-up system that we now run to. The courts are a last resort, not a stand by generator."

On the federal revenue sharing, Tinubu said that federal government should not get more than 30 per cent for its core representative needs especially at it has concession so many of the areas that used to justify its greedy stake. According to him, Real development is at the state level where education for instance, the most powerful tool in the fight against poverty is being constricted by intrusive and unworkable federal programmes such as the Universal Basic Education programme built on questionable, indeed dishonest enrolment figures, a system that serves only to enrich political cronies at the expense of our children's future,"

On his part, Kukah, known for his voluble interventions beyond the realms of the Catholic Church, his immediate precinct,, in his paper titled "Wrestling The Dragon: Ethics, Politics, Economics In An Age Of Globalisation" said without ethics, Nigeria cannot progress "but rather would regress into the jungle of life navigating without a rudder or compass facing and heading towards uncertainty and danger"

"This is what Thomas Hubbes referred to an unregulated life being akin to living under: a climate of war where everyman is enemy to everyman and men live in continual fear and danger of violent death, and life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Today, ethics is the necessary mechanism that gives equilibrium and anchor to life," he said.

Situating it to the Nigeria scenario, Kukah said that ethics is what is lacking the way businesses are conducted in the country. The greatest culprits, according to him, are businessmen who have the fake belief that their romance and contacts with political bureaucrats guarantees them everything rather than observe rules and regulations in doing business.

According to him, very little changed in terms of how the political elite sees politics and business. Many businessmen, according to him, have recycled themselves into politics, turning politics from service to a franchise with devastating implications for the country.

Ethics, according to Kukah, is what drives politics, economics and globalisation, which countries like United States of America, United Kingdom, India and many others applied into their systems, which made them great nations today.

Nigeria, according to him, possesses a capitalist head but has a socialist stomach in terms of meeting the most basic of social obligations noting that the questions that socialism posed are still unanswered.

Kukah said the evidence of unresolved social questions in Nigeria could be seen in the fact we are falling way behind in nearly all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He made reference to the level of poverty in the northern part of the country, which he observed would hamper every effort to create conducive environment for businesses to thrive in the country.

He said the poverty level in the north should concern the government of President Umaru Yar'Adua in particular and other Nigerians generally as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, had drawn attention to the implications of the deep poverty in the North vis-a-avis the nation's economic dreams.

The Vision 20-20 initiative by the federal government, according to Kukah, may be jeopardised by the glaring abject poverty in the North since it is part of a whole Nigeria.

"In an environment of massive poverty and severe economic gaps between the haves and have nots, a nation will always have disaster lurking in the wings. Growing inequalities, which are unresolved will turn the poor into willing armies or recruits for acts that are superficially seen as quest for vengeance and skewed justice.

"This is the story of September 11. Although the super powers see their response in terms of war against terror, it is unbridled sanctification of the market that has produced these corrosive effects on our humanity. Locally, this is also the story of the Niger Delta in Nigeria today. Yesterday's rashes, which were left untreated, have now turned into leprosy. Today, non state actors have taken their war to the representatives of big capital, namely the multinational corporations and they threaten to erode the basis of legitimacy of states such as Nigeria," he said.

Kukah, who was firing from the hips, noted that greed among the civilian political elites in the country is delaying the country from becoming a great nation adding that after over forty years of independence, the nation is falling behind in almost every index of survival both of its citizens and the nation.

"Indeed, in every area of human survival or the provision of social infrastructure, all we see are gaping holes left behind by the combined greed of the ruling elite. Corruption has eaten up all the basic seeds sown for the provision of urban and rural infrastructure"

"Against this backdrop, our nation can only be involved in a speedy race to the bottom, not to the top. Yet, today, the new mantra of our dreams is called 20-20, namely that we could become one of the twenty great economies by the year 2020. These aspirations are great on paper since every nation needs a set of dreams. However, will the system and structure survive for that period," he rhetorically asked.

Nigerians, according to Kukah ,should ask poignant questions as to why projects such as the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) of the19 80s purported to alleviate poverty failed so woefully.

"By now we need to ask whether the failure of the seeds of SAP to produce a rich harvest is due to bad weather, poor soil or indiscipline of the farmer who sowed the right seeds on the wrong grounds and at the wrong season. The apostles of SAP simply believed that by flooding Africa with World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists of African descent who had been baptized in Washington, we would all be converted to their gospel of the market by their evangelical zealotry. Sadly, the results of these policies on our politics, economic and social life have been disastrous as our endless religious and communal crises have demonstrated," he said.

Kukah, called for a political system that is built on equity, which would enable the country come out of its social, economic and political Siberia, noting that democracy is key to the country's development.

Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, Publisher of the Nigerian Telecom News Weekly,organisers of the lecture, said the disturbing political developments in the country informed the choice of this year's theme which was to enable Nigerians to make recommendations that help in building a system that would encourage investors to come and invest in the country.

Dignitaries that graced the occasion include Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan , who was represented by the Minister of State for Information and Communications, Alhaji Ibrahim Nakande, Ambassador Segun Olusola, National Publicity Secretary of Action Congress (AC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, among many others.