Historical moment for government of knowledge and big ideas

Alas Nigeria now has a president-elect. He is new, but not brand new. It is the combination of these new and not-so-newness that makes the ascendance to the Presidency by Muhammadu Buhari, such an interesting thing. He comes on board at a time when the whole world has moved on in terms of a single man’s ability to seek power so as to use it to be vengeful. I belong to the school of thought that every second chance a man or woman is given to mount political leadership represents an opportunity to right the errors of his first chance. It was one reason why, when it was once suggested that Nigeria’s own political Maradona, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, once planned to try to run for Presidency some years ago, I thought it was a good move, and that if he succeeded, given his capacity to gather brilliant men and women together in government, he would do right by them and not use them like he did as military leader.

Buhari is returning to the Presidency in a completely different environment. Democratic leadership is far different from military rule.

But many tend to forget that the man barely ruled for two years as a military head of state before his government was overthrown. He is also mounting the saddle after the turn of the century, a time when knowledge has been clearly established as the key for progress and mankind’s development.

It is clear, from the way that Buhari’s All Progressives Congress pursued the election that they know that knowledge is important and that real progress can only be made when knowledge is applied to the running of the affairs of state.

It will always be difficult to muscle the courage to make the suggestion that around the corridors of power in Nigeria, knowledgeable people are scarce. That would be a fallacy of the highest order in this day and age. This country has had knowledgeable men and women, who are sound, who know
what it takes to do government business, no matter the type of government that has been in place over the decades since independence – civilian or military. But you can be sure of one thing, the men and women with this knowledge have suffered from one or all of the following: greed (which has led to corruption and serious inability to do right by their positions), fear (which has led to self-induced or hierarchical intimidation such that all the knowledge that they have often come to naught in its deployment to the service of man and woman kind in Nigeria); wickedness (which is simply inherent, the type that makes them happy seeing the ‘other’ Nigerian suffer); selfishness (which is the outcome of a mental deficiency that has Me, Myself and I at the centre of the universe of activities, whatever office they occupy); limited vision (which is responsible for why instead of thinking of giving Nigerians high-speed rail, they think that rehabilitating an antiquated rail system is transformation); and then, perhaps, one can add, wrongheaded knowledge (which is knowledge that plainly and utterly not appropriate or useful for the task at hand).

Any or a combination or all of these can be fingered as being responsible for why Nigeria’s menand women of knowledge who flock the corridors of power fail to deliver.

But it is not trite argument to advance the position that men and women of knowledge have the capacity, the power and ability to largely use their knowledge for the good of mankind. Deep, intellectual knowledge of a subject or an area of policy enables a person in government to ask the right and necessary questions in order to deal with problems, for that’s what governments do – they solve problems. Nigeria appears to have suffered a great deal from a lack of genuine application of this by its knowledgeable officials. But I would also think that governments that have failed us continuously since independence have failed because of one other reason – the failure to allow or create space for the festering of knowledge and ideas to drive policy. Again, even when the space had been created, it seems to me that our country suffers from a social system that makes it all too easy for those who sit at the head of the table or who have more influence than others to stifle ideas that come from bottom. And this is one aspect of our life as a nation that needs to be changed, seriously.

I am hoping that with what I have seen in Lagos, with respect to the presidential and governorship campaigns, and the eventually emergence of Buhari, that things are about to change (no pun intended) for Nigeria. I say this because this would be the first time that a president has emerged who made substantially concrete and resonating campaign promises– corruption, security and economy. He did not go from one state to the other, look at what they are known for (like going to Enugu and telling them we’ll revive the coal industry and ending up doing none of that).

But my vision of what is to come is much more than that. Whoever followed the campaigns closely (and here I do not meant the campaign with regards to what was said on the hustle, but the message that was intelligently captured in billboards, in posters, on radio and television, where it was easier and better to express themselves) would have seen that we are in for a government where ideas will reign supreme.

What would cabinet meetings be like with vice president Osinbajo, Lagos Governor Fashola, Rivers Governor Amaechi, Pat Utomi, Barth Nnaji (both professors), Kwankwaso (the proponent of the kwankwasonia ideological movement), the ex-World Banker, Oby Ezekwesili, Wale Edu, Shehu Garba, Tanimu and many other such thinkers who have crafted the messages that have led to this victory?

We are likely in for an era where a majority of the people in cabinet won’t be “YES MEN” and “YES WOMEN”. This is good for our democracy and it is good for our country. Our country deserves quality leadership and this is provided by quality people!

Quality men and women produce ideas that lead to great things happening.

The knowledge and ideas that they are capable of generating often shape the course of history. While inferior men and women busy themselves with basic things, they think of making what seems like the impossible possible. This is one aspect that Nigeria has lacked for so long and it’s the reason why making power available for 24 hours of the day looks like an impossible task to accomplish. When big thinkers are talking about making poverty history, men and women with inferior capacity to think and imagine only see the huge amount that’s needed to do this and run away! We are in for a good time, I can assure you all! Welcome to a new Nigeria, beginning May 29, 2015!