The politicians Nigeria needs

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s casual observation, the other day, that more than half of those in politics had no business being in it is a candid admission of the obvious degenerate quality and moral bankruptcy of political leadership in recent years. 

    Employing a trade analogy to drive home his point, the President had stated: “Politics is just like some kinds of trade. More than 50 per cent of us, who are into politics, are not supposed to be politicians. For example, in the professions of nursing and teaching, people with wicked hearts and unforgiving spirits are not the kind of people who should be nurses and teachers, but we find them there. So, most of us who are in politics are not supposed to be there, but because we have no other thing to do.”

   Though lacking in eloquence with its inappropriate analogy, this observation is largely correct.  Before now, an audacious proposal that public service aspirants should undergo psychiatric tests had been submitted by many Nigerians. “The extent of aggrandizement and gluttonous accumulation of wealth that I have observed suggests to me that some people are mentally and psychologically unsuitable for public office. We have observed people amassing public wealth to a point suggesting ‘madness’ or some form of obsessive-compulsive psychiatric disorder.” This was one of such submissions by Farida Waziri, then chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

   Devoid of any form of posturing, this in itself is an invitation to all Nigerians to reflect on the true purpose of political leadership. Like other forms of leadership positions,  political leadership is a noble call to commit oneself to the service of the common good. Being a commitment that is other-directed, it is laden with some moral demands, contrary to misconstrued views that politics is a game of numbers by means foul or fair. It demands the virtue of integrity, the freedom to exercise control over mental deception and appetitive craving, and the ability to conquer ego. Political leadership is a sacrificial service, whose reward lies in the wholesome development of the society in which the political leader or actor belongs.

   In times of crisis, such as Nigeria faces, true political leaders emerge to direct the affairs to the best possible attainment. However, given the facts of Nigeria’s contemporary history, characterised by the nation’s terrible state of decadence and of looming paralysis in the face of amazing potentialities, the political space has been populated by some of the basest characters. 

   How did Nigeria find itself in this leadership quagmire? Is it the decadent society that bred this unfortunate political leadership? Or is it the mediocre leadership at the political helm that is responsible for the pervasion of the polity? 

   If Nigerians would be circumspect enough to tickle their memories and not live in denial, they would see that the current integrity deficit has persisted since the beginning of this re-awakened democratic experience. Since 1999, the recruitment process for aspirants into political parties has been dogged by selfish mundane pursuits. The quest for quick wealth, driving everything into government being the sole repository of the nation’s wealth, the unwillingness to develop indigenous capital, inferiority complex, acute selfishness and the imperviousness to a conference of reason have conspired to throw up mediocre persons in the polity. In the continuing sequence of this entropic trend, political banditry, administrative insensitivity, moral ineptitude and graft have become the standard for collective existence, and the consequence has been a cesspool of mediocrity and ineptitude.

   Moreover, it may also be true that part of the Nigerian predicament is the unwillingness of good people to join the fray and take on the mantle of political leadership. The argument here is that good people are dissuaded from vying into political offices because, even if they win, the entrenched powers that be could upturn their victory as experience has shown. 

   If President Jonathan is to be taken seriously then, Nigeria should not  remain this way. Good people and genuinely potential Nigerian leaders must step forward and be counted. But the problem is: How can the good people get in?

  If the President is genuinely worried, as well-meaning Nigerians are, about the quality of political leadership, he must express it by ensuring the integrity of the oncoming elections in the first place. He must, with other political leaders and aspirants, demonstrate both in word and deed that election into political offices is not a do-or-die affair but a moral crusade in which the means must be noble for the end to be noble. He can also start by leading with example, by stripping elective political positions of their cultic appurtenances and useless mystification. Unfortunately, as Jonathan’s touted body language to recent happenings seems to suggest – the invidious bickering, the paralysis of governance, tackiness of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), and the cacophony of shifting political spaces, and rampant corruption on his watch – all  eyes are too fixated on 2015.

   And Nigerians have been sensitized to live their lives tailored along the dictates of this political body-clock. So, his words notwithstanding, little or nothing may change.

  If the saying, ‘a people gets the leaders it deserves’ is anything to go by, then there is need for cognitive restructuring of the masses through proper education to demand the kind of leaders they need. Even though Nigerians are all too aware of the generally woeful report of yesterday’s political leaders, as manifested by the low quality of life, they need to be adequately enlightened about the implications of their choices of political leaders. They need to keep themselves abreast of the dynamics of state affairs; that it is not enough to be imbibers or conveyors of political mantras of deceit; that they should endeavour to raise critical questions on their survival, and interrogate high-falutin and vacuous pronouncements from whatever quarters.

   To drive this home, Nigerians should draw insight from their own traditional communitarian practice of monitoring the pedigree and antecedents of public office aspirants. Taking a cue from this tradition, Nigerians should endeavour to speak out against, and denounce any aspirant from their neighbourhood or community with questionable character, or antecedents injurious to their collective well-being. The usual crowd support accorded aspirants on the basis of their affiliation to their community or neighbourhood should be critically examined this time around so that adequate judgment about the credibility and eligibility of a political aspirant could be made. In this way, the people would be participating more fruitfully in the recruitment process of their political leaders, and thereby owning the process. 

  Besides, there is need for a constitutional means to reduce and de-emphasise the monetary rewards and scandalous perquisites for public office holders which drive the current phenomenon of murderous desperation and greed. 

   This reduction of pecuniary rewards would attract people who genuinely are interested in public service, and dissuade political scavengers. Truly, the political space is not occupied only by redundant and money-hungry politicians. There are many well-meaning persons who are morally upright, politically sagacious, determined, courageous and self-sacrificing enough to transform Nigeria. These are the visionaries and change agents that Nigeria direly needs. Nigerians must seek  them out and encourage them.

   As it is in stable and progressive democracies, the power to determine quality of political leadership lies with the people. Nigerians must now choose to exercise that power for good.