By Ayuba Yilgak'ha,
A Leadership recruitment process in Nigeria is a scam. It is so fraudulent, chaotic and full of uncertainties. In other words, established on the tripod of deception, hooliganism and impunity, the leadership selection process in Nigeria has set the tone for the emergence of misguided rogues in position of authority where critical decisions which significantly implications for the nature of existence in an ecosystem, the polity will be taken.
There is power in process(es). Process and processes are like double edged sword with make potentials or mar tendencies. Marshall McLuhan's philosophy of "The "Medium is the Message"(Marshall, 1964) duly captured the significance of processes, channels in a most classic manner. You cannot cultivate, build and operate contradictory systems and then turn round to expect a better or decent outcomes from them. A chaotic electoral process or processes will invariably give birth to chaotic regime or government except in rare and isolated cases. This explained why Nigeria is glaringly backward in all ramifications.
It is absolute self-delusion, a legacy in madness for any man to have a rotten head and then expect to have a sound body. This is because the Central Nervous System (CNS) which is expected to coordinate the reflects actions of the man's body cannot function anymore. Hence, the collapse of the CNS is the collapse of the entire body system or systems.
Democracy which is celebrated as the most civil process of leadership recruitment and governance has been desecrated. The practice of this objective phenomenon has been complicated in most countries in manner the suits Confucius hypothesis that, "Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated". In my view contradictions arising from practical operationalisation of nicely designed democratic postulations are deliberate strategies by opportunistic rogues and witches who have benefitted from the disorder and therefore bend at sustaining same.
I have always maintained that democracy is never an end it self but a means to an end. The phenomenon is what you made of it. Democracy is a value creation or addition system which can only strive on the goodwill of objective ambition. It is not a system for lazy mediocres but ambitious patriots whose greatest joy derive from recreative progression and development of an enduring value system that is based on equity, justice and welfare for all citizens including legally documented foreigners. You cannot practice democracy like the proverbial fisherman who laid beside his boat smoking a pipe thinking it was the best thing to do.
For better appreciation of the implications of the fisherman's mentality on democratic practice, effort is made here to share the full story as told by Anonymous. It was an interesting conversation between a lackadaisical fisherman and a productive industrialists.
'The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman' who went to fish (emphasis mine) 'lying beside his boat, smoking a pipe.' 'Why aren't you out fishing?' Asked the industrialist. 'Because I have caught fish for the day', replied the fisherman. 'Why can't you catch some more?', Asked the industrialist. What will I do with them? Answered the fisherman. 'You could earn more money. Then you could have a motor fitted to your boat to go into deeper waters and catch more fish. Then you would have enough money to buy nylon nets. These would bring you more fish and more money. Soon you would have enough money to own two boats...maybe even a fleet of boats. Then you would be a rich man like me.' The industrialist sermonised. What would I do then?, Asked the fisherman. 'Then you could sit back and enjoy life', responded the industrialist. What do you think I'm doing right now? The fisherman asked rhetorically.
Even though this conversation was developed around economic motivations, some modest political commentaries and lessons could drawn from it. For a political mediocre, finding his way to the corridors of power is enough achievement to relax and smoke away life. The need to improve the political system within which he will be operating including the electoral process that brought him on-board is a waste of time. All that matters to him is to smoke and pollute the entire system with his shallow value system of laziness, stagnation, selfishness and greed, lack of vision and creativity amongst others.
Having leading politician (s) with counter productive character quotient in the position of authority is like having a car driver who only knows how to drive on a reverse gear. Such opportunistic leader (s) could only usher his countrymen, subjects into periods of posponed development. No tangible development could occur under the watch of a glorified imposter!
Sustainable development which is centred on meeting today's needs without joeopardising future opportunities generally is leadership sensitive. Leadership is critical because there shall be uncompromising need to draw inspiration and motivation from the practical vision, innovation, strategies, pragmatic capabilities and charismatic power of the leader so that the entire system could be stimulated into wholesome action.
Uninspiring leadership has a dampening effect on the productive capacity of the followership especially in climes where individuals are stronger institutions they superintend over. A leader is surposed to be an active trigger for innovation and productivity in a state or country. It's in this light that this piece subscribes to Chinua Achebe's hypothesis that the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely failure of leadership (Chinua,1998).
Nigeria, in the course of time has become a nation-state agoged with puzzling ironies. Though rich in both human and material resources; most of the country's socio-economic and political development indicators are sending negative signals. For instance, Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world in 2019 after overtaking India (World Poverty Clock, 2019).
Once, reputed 'the Giant of Africa'; the country has turned out to be one of the most discredited in term of institutional corruption and insecurity in the world. If Nigeria is actually the Giant of Africa, then it must be a slumbing or sleeping one and it is high time it wakes up. It must wake up and reinvent itself politically, economically and even culturally. The country must be deliberate in radically changing it socio-economic and political approaches in line with the principle of objectivity and not subjectivity. No mantra represents the principle of objectivity than Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy which reads something like: Strategise and get it right at first attempt!
From creation of electoral constituencies (polling units, wards, local governments, state assembly constituencies; Federal House of Representative constituencies, senatorial districts and states) registration of voters; registration of political parties, their membership and election of their leadership; conduct party primaries; secondary elections, declaration of winners and losers; tribunal trials, appeals and supreme court verdict for governors and president, all processes of election, there is always cause for alarm. It is either judgements are alleged to have been brought or election processes rigged or scuttled by violent means both at primaries and secondary poll levels or electoral constituencies allocated to highest bidders. Nobody seems to trust or have confidence in the system except those with Machievialian prowess to bulldoze their way through the process. There is largely no trace of integrity in the system because the key players lack objectivity in their dictionaries!
In order to inspire hope in the system, the key players must learnt to show statesmanship and sustained political will to fix the system even at the expense of losing out. Taking such sacrificial risk is the easiest surest way to write one's name in the Guiness book of Records, Hall of Fame and the sands of time.
A good name is better than riches (Ecclesiastes 7:1; Proverb 22:1) and power. Integrity builds and sustains but fraudulent power erodes. There is no authority in illegitimacy, and illegitimacy has no survival strategy outside impunity. Worst still, impunity is a prelude to anarchy and utter collapse of states. There is no shorter route to collective National decay than to have sit-tight rogues take over seat of authority via dubious means!
In today's Nigeria, nothing worries me like the unrepentant tendency of most political actors to circumvent any electoral process (es), whether or not result are transmitted electronically. This is because the survival and development of democracy and good governance, in any country or society, is dependent on the quality of the leadership recruitment process. Nigeria and its components parts should forget about sustainable development if it failed to get it right at that level because that is the starting point for the emergence of credible leadership!
*(Modest Thoughts with Ayuba Yilgak'ha, August 14, 2021; SMS: 08118161263; Email: loisayuba420@gmail.com)*
*References*
1. Chinua, A. (1998). The trouble with Nigeria. London: The Fourth Dimension Publishers.
2. Marshall, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man. Canada: McGraw Hill.
3. World Poverty Clock (2019). Explore poverty data by age, gender, and region for every country. https://www.worldpoverty.io/headline.
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