Insincerity of our leaders

The greatest issue in our polity today is the insincerity of most of our leaders. Insincerity is synonymous with distortion, lies, deception, falsity, pretence, dishonesty, hypocrisy, ambidexterity, artificiality, phoniness, disingenuousness, and lots more.

It is unthinkable that some of our leaders are not losing any sleep over the country’s dire straits!

A very worrisome development was the comment credited to the Senate President, Senator Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan on the aftermath of the communique issued at the end of the meeting of the 17 Southern Governors at Asaba, Delta State Tuesday, May 11, 2021.

The meeting according to the communique ‘reviewed the situation in the nation generally, and focused on the current security situation, agitations/restructuring, prospect for inter-state collaboration and partnerships as well as on the incidence of COVID-19 pandemic’.

The little knowledge at my disposal about our country told me that nothing would come out of the meeting and its communique. So, I wrote last week. How providential was I?

Since January 1966, the country has been in a state of perpetual motion with no movement and the many national conferences, dialogues, commissions, etc. have not succeeded in guaranteeing justice, equity and fairness in the polity and the management of our resources.

The Number 3 citizen just proved me right with his response to the communique- he was dismissive and outlandish! He wanted the governors to start the restructuring from their states! Haba, Lawan?

As a young boy growing up, I was constantly told that ‘if the head is rotten, the entire body is dead.’ Equally, I was educated about the parable of the woman with a knocked-knee making her load to be skewed, yet people blaming her for not maintaining load equilibrium.

In essence, if the national body is distressed or in a dire strait, how would anybody expect the federating units to be at peace and in equanimity?

Fundamentally, the problems of this country start and end with the leadership. Nigeria, as presently constituted, is like a command structure.

If the commander is creative, strategic, and able to navigate positive change, that command would be heaven on earth. Conversely, if the commander is lackadaisical, apathetic, and visionless, we get the type of environment that has enveloped us.

I am nonplussed. The Senate President spoilt the little hope I had in this country. Was he playing to the gallery? Was he afraid of his political masters?

Has he forgotten his home state that has been ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency, and banditry? Is he free to go to his home state without heavy security presence?

Can he tell us the economic activities going on in his home state now? Does he know the plight of the average Nigerian?

To some extent, I have read the flawed 1999 Constitution inside out. I have also consulted Wikipedia about the office of the President of the Senate of our country.

The two sources tell me that ‘the President of the Nigerian Senate is the presiding officer of the National Assembly. He is second in line for succession to the Nigerian presidency, after the Vice President.’

Consequently, his actions and inactions are weighty and instructive or destructive. In other words, he should be circumspect and gauge the mood of the nation when he speaks. He cannot be seen to be promoting sectional agenda nor be his master’s voice. Some, if not many of his kinsmen are in support of restructuring.

Ahmed Ibrahim Lawn born January 12, 1959 has been a lucky Nigerian. The country has been exceptionally good to him.

He studied Geography at University of Maiduguri and secured a postgraduate diploma in Land Surveying and a master’s degree in Remote Sensing from Ahmadu Bello University.

He capped all these with a doctorate degree in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems in 1990 from Cranfield University, United Kingdom. He must have had scholarships to do all these!

His political career started in 1999 when he was elected a member of the House of Representatives representing Yobe State. After spending two terms in the house, he was elected to the Senate in 2007.

In 2011, 2015 and 2019, he had the singular honour of being re-elected a Senator. He is, indeed, the longest participant in the hallowed chambers, and should by implication be conversant with the issues affecting our polity.

He has chosen otherwise. It is thus manifestly clear to me that with Lawan as the Senate President, the prospects of restructuring the country and ensuring true federalism are doomed.

To pretend that all is well in or with this country is to live in a fool’s paradise. We may continue to postpone, at our own collective peril, the necessity to restructure this country or at least, go back to the pre-January 1966 federalism.

Albeit the short-lived military junta of Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi promulgated a number of controversial decrees between January and July 1966, none was more devastating for the nation than the Unification Decree (derisively called De-unification Decree). The decree started the balkanisation of federalism in Nigeria.

Aguiyi-Ironsi, it was who enthroned tribalism. His three-man advisory team was made up of Chief Francis Nwokedi, Dr. Pius Charles N. Okigbo, and Colonel Patrick Anwunah, all his kinsmen.

He replaced the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Taslim Olawale Elias with another kinsman, Chief Gabriel Chike Michael Onyiuke.

The then Military Governor of the defunct Mid-Western Region, Lt-Colonel David Ejoor and few others saw the actions of Aguiyi-Ironsi as ‘the prelude to the reintroduction of a unitary system of government’ and warned of the future disastrous consequences for the nation.

The situation in the country was so bad and confusing that the then Military Governor of the defunct Northern Region, Lt-Colonel Hassan Usman Katsina said ‘I am afraid, the egg is about to be broken.’

Successive administrations, starting from Gowon’s that took over from Aguiyi-Ironsi after he was assassinated in Ibadan with his host, Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, have been consolidating the unitary system! Democracy has not changed the mindset of most of our leaders.

What we have is antithetical to true federalism. It is at best, a pseudo-federalism that has stunted the growth of the country.

Under an acceptable federalism, the political system would be based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between the national government and other federating units.

The national government should not be seen as ‘alpha and omega’ with the federating units being subservient.

My friend and high schoolmate was candid enough to ask sarcastically, ‘Was Lawan being insincere?’ To him, ‘the Senate President was sincerely mirroring the unfeeling tunnel vision world view of the ruling elite.

All they can see, and feel is the power slipping out of their grip or grasp. They are 95% blind and deaf to the agony the rest of the country is undergoing.’ Is my friend right in his summation?

For the nation to follow the path of regeneration, rectitude, redemption, and rebirth, we should return to true federalism. It is not too late. The likes of the Senate President must make peaceful change possible.

By being belligerent or intransigent to calls for restructuring and national rebirth is to continue to postpone the evil day. The Senate President and other leaders should be upstanding and be counted on the positive side of history. History beckons on them.

With sincerity, our leaders can make this nation a pride to Africa, not only to ourselves.