Tinubu and the seven principles of public life (1)

As I ruminate on Nigeria, as I always do, I see no man that should dangerously be more desperate for a legacy than the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Having predicted the possibility of his election and signposting his capacity to deliver in my articles since 2019, I do not doubt that Tinubu and his close associates are under immense pressure to leave a legacy of good governance for Nigerians.

Last night, I got a WhatsApp message from my sister, Ajibola Olugbemi, urging me to vote for Akeem Badiru for the overall prize of the 2023 Cambridge Dedicated Teachers Awards. Maybe the thought of Nigeria, a giant working and living like a dwarf that is always on my mind, led me to a trance.

I saw myself speaking with Akeem Badiru, an unknown teacher who is the regional winner of the Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Award. Akeem, a Nigerian, was among the six regional winners out of 11,000 nominees from 99 countries, and he was requesting votes to be the ultimate winner of the prestigious Cambridge Press Award. I quickly shared his message on all my social media platforms to add his intended achievement to the glamour generated by Hilda Bassey Effiong for her new Guinness World Record for cooking for 88 hours.

I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself speaking with Akeem Badiru in a dream-like or clairvoyance-mood episode. I saw Akeem thanking me for sharing his message wide and far. He told me he lost the award to a Pakistani teacher, and the votes given to him needed to be more for him to be declared the overall winner. He did acknowledge the support of Nigerians and all those who voted for him during the race.

A legacy is something a leader sets in motion and leaves in others and something that is left for others

To me, I could not believe him. I was ecstatic about celebrating another win for Nigeria, and I was waiting for his discussion with me to be over. But he wouldn’t be wishing himself lousy luck, I muted to myself. He must be aware of the outcome of the votes, and I must be the one behind the trend.

I was in an exciting conversation with Akeem, a brilliant teacher of excellence. Akeem went further in his discussion with me. He told me about his desire to keep making Nigeria and Africa proud as a teacher and how he will contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goals. I told him I am an SDGs Ambassador for Africa and that education interests me the most. I seized the moment to tell Akeem how I had spoken to over 100,000 teachers using the content of my book, the Teachers’ Fortress.

Our discussion in my trance diverted to the current affairs, the hope of an average Nigerian, the 2023 elections, the chances of Tinubu making an impact in the lives of Nigerians, the effects and the distraction of the election’s tribunals and the disappointment of the Obidients who won the election with a distant third position and first on the social media. I never knew our discussions would set me up. Akeem asked a question I had never envisaged.

Babs, he called my name. How would Tinubu create and leave a legacy behind?

I stuttered as I braced myself to answer his question. I said, Akeem, leadership is about leaving a legacy behind. A legacy is something a leader sets in motion and leaves in others and something that is left for others. I shared numerous experiences of the past wealthy Africans of those days, whose wealth is not maintained as examples of leaving something for people and not in people. I mentioned a few leaders who had left something in people rather than leaving something for people. I told Akeem about how Singapore has transformed and the effects of what was left in an average Singaporean by Lee Kuan Yew.

As I was speaking, Akeem was interjecting. It came to the fore that Mr Badiru is a well-rounded and informed teacher. We discussed Nigeria, the British’s marriage of convenience, and the impact of the Military in changing Nigeria’s unity from a negotiated and dialogue-oriented family discussion, which should have produced a symbiotic benefit to a coerces existing for the benefit of the ruling class.

When I noticed I had not answered his primary question, I changed the tone of the discussion to refocus our conversation. Akeem, I continued, if leadership is about the result and the result is the legacy a leader leaves behind, then all the past Nigerian leaders are a bunch of national disasters. Akeem was shocked as I continued. Fighting for independence without progress is not an achievement.

We should judge leaders by what they have left behind. Nigerians should erase the names of the past public office holders in our minds, records and on the streets of our country for being so incompetent and self-oriented to have bequeathed Nigeria of today to us. How many younger generations felt the impacts of Azikwe, Awolowo, Balewa and others? Could you mention their names? The youth will have no meaning attached to their names. That wasn’t the case in Singapore.

Awolowo’s policy of educating the residents of his region, irrespective of their tribes, was the only legacy that stood the test of time. Those leaders focused on ethnic or religious supremacy have created suffering, bandits, and kidnappers for Nigerians. Awolowo’s impacts are also fast eroding. But one of the beneficiaries is Bola Tinubu, and he should be hungry to recreate and surpass Awo’s legacy.

Read also: Buhari’s eleventh-hour economic decisions seen cornering Tinubu

Akeem, the foundation of Tinubu’s impacts is ensuring Nigeria is structured, not how the British and the Military made it. That’s not working. He should lay a sound foundation by restructuring the country to maximise the potential of the constituent nations and nationalities’ resources and peculiarities but on one bastion. The bastion is the culture of making public offices a platform for service and not for personal aggrandisements.

Thus, the 16th President of Nigeria should live, lead, and implement the Seven Principles of Public Life as the tenets of his administration, as the foundation for a new Nigeria and as the basis for an enduring change and legacy for him.

Whether you like it or not, Bola is a fortunate political leader who will lead Nigeria despite all the roadblocks along his way and his ambition to be the President. He should make meaning out of his rare privileges and implement standards of conduct in various public life, as Sir Nolan recommended in 1994. These principles are Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty, and Leadership.

As I started explaining the meaning of each of the principles to Akeem, a national broadcast was being televised live by the television stations. Behold, it is the 16th President’s first national address, and coincidentally, he was about to speak on how he will lead and return Nigeria to her glorious place.

To be continued…..