In 2002 when he first went public with his House of Nigeria F.R.E.S.H., which eventually metamorphosed into Fresh Democratic Party under whose auspices he contested the 2007 presidential election, Chris Okotie, pastor cum politician, released a tape in which he articulated his vision for the Nigerian enterprise. One story Okotie told in that tape that has remained etched on the walls of my memory was that of a certain man in an unnamed town who went to bed at night and while he slept, robbers broke into his home and carted away some of his belongings. When he woke up in the morning, the man went straight to the palace of the ruler of the town and asked to have back his stolen belongings. “When you came asking for my support to become the ruler of this town,” he told the ruler, “you promised that you would watch over me and guarantee the safety of my life and property. That was why I went to sleep thinking that you would be there watching over me.”
Related to the above is another story woven around the 9/11 attacks in the United States. It was said that after the first set of attacks, amidst widespread panic across the American federation, a government official who came to address a crowd gathered in front of the White House told them not to panic, that the president was safe. A man rose from the crowd and angrily shouted back at the official: “It should be the president standing here and telling me that I am safe!”
Read Also: Leaders, readers, writers
As the arguments go forth and back over the rescheduled 2015 elections, these stories come alive once again, especially as leaders – from the presidency to officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to security agencies – who ordinarily should accept responsibility for their acts of omission or commission, are perpetually allotting blames to everyone else but themselves and screaming, like Shaggy, the Jamaican-born American reggae fusion singer and deejay, “It wasn’t me”. But that shouldn’t be, really.
A leader must live up to responsibility, and when he fails, do the honourable thing, which is to accept blame and not pass the buck. Indeed, if Attahiru Jega, INEC chairman, took credit for the success of the 2011 general elections, in spite of the fact that it wasn’t solely his achievement since he couldn’t have been at every polling booth at the same time; and if President Goodluck Jonathan could include in his list of achievements the fact that he has ensured better elections in the country, hinging this claim on the 2011 general elections and a number of subsequent staggered elections across some states of the federation, then they must be ready to take the bashing that has trailed the sudden decision to postpone already scheduled elections barely one week to the D-Day, at very huge costs to businesses and individuals, local and international. No arguments about that.
And then to the fears being expressed by Nigerians over whether Jega will be allowed to conduct the elections as rescheduled or whether he would be forced to proceed on three months’ terminal leave prior to the expiration of his tenure in June. Not being a constitutional lawyer, I am not qualified to make an expert comment on the matter. However, my concern is that these fears, real or imagined, amount to an admittance that INEC is not yet a viable institution, and no institution-building has happened at the electoral body in the past five years in spite of Jega. This is why Nigerians fear that if Jega, who has been described as “uncooperative” in some quarters, is removed and replaced with a more malleable character who can be arm-twisted to skew the tide in favour of the ruling party, then the 2015 elections are as good as bungled.
The truth is that the INEC of today is still the same old INEC. Nothing has changed fundamentally in that commission. My belief is that the magic we saw in 2011 either happened because of Jega – that is, assuming Jega is spotless and without guile – or it was merely circumstantial. The Anambra and Ekiti governorship elections of 2014 tell a different story from 2011. While Anambra was nearly marred by widespread irregularities, Ekiti has recently come under serious scrutiny following the leak of an audio tape purportedly alleging massive rigging involving stalwarts of the ruling PDP. In any case, it no longer appears that even the celebrated 2011 elections were foolproof. Shortly after the elections, Okey Ndibe, a renowned Nigerian columnist based in the US, made a Facebook post alleging widespread rigging in favour of the incumbent, especially in the south-east and south-south of the country, but many of us did not believe him.
My point is this: Had INEC been transformed into a strong institution, all these fears being raised wouldn’t be necessary. That is because whether they are conducted by Attahiru Jega or Maurice Iwu or Humphrey Nwosu or Eme Awa or Abel Guobadia or anyone else, the elections would still be as valid – free, fair, and credible – because then, the man or woman at the helm of affairs wouldn’t matter much.
Which takes us back to US President Barack Obama’s 2009 admonition in Ghana during his first official visit to Africa: “Africa needs strong institutions, not strongmen.”
In a recent article “Between action governor and action government”, Tayo Ogunbiyi of the Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy submitted thus: “In the ‘Action Governor’ tradition, governance tends to become over-personalised. Everything has a tendency to revolve around the personality of the governor who cuts the figure of a cult hero. Many see him as the proverbial cat with nine lives, or the household foreman who does the jobs of everyone else on a construction site. In as much as it is good to be an ‘Action Governor’, it becomes somehow ridiculous and self-seeking when governance revolves around an individual. Governance achieves better and faster results when it is anchored on viable and enduring institutions. It is only then that it would be able to function as a system in which all the component parts depend on each other for effectiveness.
“Building institutions is, thus, better than building individuals. The value of the earlier endures for long while same cannot be said of the latter. If we are to achieve the Nigeria of our collective dream, we need to lay greater emphasis on institution-building. It is the institutions that we build that actually make governance a continuous venture.”
I agree.
