…also
published in Daily Trust
As the political atmosphere in
Nigeria gets increasingly charged with politicians already slugging it out for nomination
by their respective parties to run for various elective offices in the
forthcoming elections, the question whether or not the calibre of politicians
jostling for these offices is the best the country can boast of remains relevant
as ever.
Like any typical developing democracy
where a tiny elite minority prospers at the expense of the overwhelming
majority, almost all Nigerian politicians are actually self-acclaimed populists
whose largely empty political rhetoric appeals to the electorate in their
respective constituencies. However, their individual abilities to feign
populism differ according to their respective cunning capabilities and the
amounts of their lust for power. While some of them feign it quite perfectly,
some others hardly disguise their elitist tendency.
Incidentally, though elitism as a
theory that favours members of the elite in power struggle in a society due to
their ancestral lineage, familial political background or reputation, social
status or economic class, is indeed discriminatory, I for one believe it isn’t
necessarily so when an individual’s proven superior intellectual and
professional capabilities as well as his moral quality are the criteria for
favouring him in power tussle. In other words, I see nothing wrong in favouring
exceptionally intelligent, highly competent and indisputably trustworthy individuals
to attain leadership positions.
This kind of elitism is particularly
imperative in a country like Nigeria
where, due to its inherent culture of corruption and ineptitude and the
pervasive influence of this culture on public mindset, it obviously needs leaders
with extraordinarily imaginative minds dynamic enough to think outside the box
and come up with appropriate ideas and application mechanism to turn the leadership
system in the country too transparent for systematic corrupt practices to
persist, and equally too efficient for ineptitude and mediocrity to characterize
its systemic function.
In northern Nigerian states in
particular, and in addition to these qualities, the high-calibre leaders
necessarily needed should equally be thoroughly conversant with the states’
peculiar underlying socio-cultural and attitudinal challenges, which obviously
must be addressed before expecting any comprehensive socio-economic development
strategy to work out in the region. They should, in light of this, be intellectually
able to conceptualize customized and viable comprehensive development strategies
and tailored implementation mechanism dynamic and resilient enough to withstand
any underlying socio-cultural constraint.
This is the calibre of leaders
northern Nigerian states in particular need, not mere English-speaking elite
whose intellectual horizon and professional competence revolve within the
confines of the foreign-dictated socio-economic development policies they have
imbibed over the years of their academic pursuits, which they often recite in a
parrot-like manner and, at best, seek to apply in robot-like manner repeating the
same thing over and over again in futility.
Worse still, even this low-calibre
elite is yet persistently diminishing as most its members passing away or
retiring from partisan politics or active public service are succeeded by even
lower-calibre generation of elite. Today, a typical northern Nigerian
politician, for instance, betrays particularly blatant cluelessness and
inability to think critically, let alone conceptualize alternative development
strategies that suit the needs of his particular constituency. His perception
of the concept of development is too simplistic, and when he somehow makes it
to a position of authority, he never contemplates coming up with an alternative
mechanism for pursuit of development. His sheer disregard for the basic order
of priority in the process of conceiving and executing infrastructure projects
and public service delivery is too obvious to elude even the mai-shayi
joint public affairs analysts. Besides, the projects are largely massively inflated,
cost-wise, and they in many cases end up as white elephant projects that never
provide value proportionate to the amount of public resources spent.
Unsurprisingly and indeed sadly, public
mindset with regards to governance and politics is largely conditioned to not
only accept this culture of ineptitude but actually glorify it for that matter.
This is manifested in the quality of political discourse in the region. One
only needs to listen to any of the popular political shows on the radio in,
say, Kano or any other state in the region, to understand the extent to which
public perception about politics and leadership has been reduced. Every Tom, Dick,
and Harry and even marijuana-addicted thug can be hosted in a supposedly
political show, hence all one hears on the shows are largely sheer stupidity and
abusive innuendoes given as political analyses, and are accepted as such by the
general public.
By the way, contrary to what could be
assumed, there are indeed many individuals in the society with the qualities of
high-calibre elite as described herein, however, they are deliberately, and
quite understandably as well, laying low knowing that the society is simply too
unfriendly to the views and principles of people like them. They are also
particularly committed to preserving their dignity, which they wouldn’t want
anybody to infringe on the pretext of politicking, as it’s currently the
case.
Now, though some may find my
arguments too idealistic and perhaps quite elitist as well, yet given the sheer
complexity of the overwhelming challenges bedevilling northern Nigeria and the
country at large, I wonder if any critical and pragmatic assessment of the gravity
of the situation would dispute the fact that, in order to profoundly turn
things around and achieve appropriate and sustainable level of human
development in the region, the situation
necessarily requires more than the intellectual
capacity, professional competence and commitment of the current calibre
of the mainstream elite in the society.
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