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Nigerian politics, leadership and nation-building (2)

By George Obiozor
07 October 2015   |   11:08 pm
ONE thing is clear and has always been clear; Nigeria needs credible and committed leadership for unity, nation-building and development to be achieved and sustained in the country.

Nigeria on the riseONE thing is clear and has always been clear; Nigeria needs credible and committed leadership for unity, nation-building and development to be achieved and sustained in the country. In fact, we need not just leadership in the ordinary sense of the word but heroic leadership because our national problems, now more than ever, require the talents and inspirational articulateness of an extraordinary person or persons for the design and execution of sustainable solutions.

Certainly, ordinary people or mortals have tried over the years and failed; so, perhaps, only heroes or heroic leaders can transcend the various cleavages and conflicts that continue to hang around the country’s neck like the proverbial albatross.

We need heroes, crisis managers and leadership capable of carrying people along. In the history, of nations at crossroads like ours, France had Charles De Gaulle, Indonesia had Surkano, Yugoslavia had Tito, Egypt had Nasser and Turkey had Kermal Mustafa Ataturk, to name just a few. These were all self-confident, visionary leaders and, without doubt, patriotic and genuine nationalists.

As Richard Nixon said, “a leader is one who has the emotional, mental and physical strength to withstand the pressure and tensions, and then, at the critical moment, to make a choice and to act decisively. The men who fail are those who are so overcome by doubts that either crack under the strain or flee”. In fact, the worst leaders in the world have been those who refused to make decisions on critical national issues

Nigeria as a country needs a leader who is a political man who can direct the attention and affection of the people towards himself and the collective aspirations of the entire nation. The irony is that in the past when our leaders vacillated and refused to make critical decision, they indirectly invited challenges to their own authority and legitimacy.

And our experience ought to point to the fact that in spite of our pretenses of unity, as the 2015 presidential election revealed, the Nigerian society actually remains sharply divided by mutually reinforcing cleavages with each segment of the population living in its own separate world. The consequences have been that all along the dangers of a breakdown of the system have been clear to any reasonably interested observer of Nigerian politics, locally as well as internationally.

We must therefore reform – if you like, transform – and restructure the political system in a way that compels the allegiance of the various peoples and that complies with their national or group aspirations. We need a system that can effectively contain or reduce the level of the disintegrative tendencies in Nigerian society. The leadership must also recognise that any new system for the country must take cognisance of the present national reality that today no single group or bloc, no matter their pretences to power, can again dominate the Nigerian political system. We need a system that commands the respect of our people and is seen as fair, just and equitable to all.
Restructuring the political system

Nigerian politics needs restructuring and institutionalisation as a way to contain its adverse effects on efforts towards nation-building, national integration and national development. It is possible that with appropriate political structures, the leadership and other national problems can be reasonably managed through the democratic process. In that regard, Nigeria needs a system of shared power, bearing in mind that political decency flourishes best in societies in which stable, peaceful and just political institutions make it difficult for reckless and lawless political adventurers to thrive.

Today we have two choices: first, to continue to follow our present political arrangements which favour over-centralisation of governance and resources. This road is where we are now and has in the past and present led us to all kinds of sorrow, including a civil war, the Niger Delta crises and Boko Haram, among others. It is a difficult, if not an impossible, road to follow for successful and sustainable nation-building, national unity and integration or progress.

The second choice is to recognise our irrepressible pluralism and the necessity for voluntary integration. Coercive integration – or integration by force or by intimidation – has failed all over the world, including Africa. Events in Sudan, for example, are indicative of the reality that no matter how long you hold people by force against their will; eventually the people’s yearning for freedom and voluntary association would triumph.

A political system that makes it difficult for leaders to lead effectively and for followers to follow voluntarily is a recipe for either progressive anarchy or national catastrophe. Our system of government must respect our respective cultural identities, interests and priorities.

We need a truly federal system as the United States, India, Canada, Switzerland or the present devolution process as in the United Kingdom. Federalism, in essence, is simply “a contractual non-centralisation” involving structural dispersion of power among many centres whose legitimate authority is constitutionally guaranteed. Hence, entrenched diffusion of power or division of power among levels of government remains the principal characteristic and argument for federal democracy.

Our present defective federal system needs to give way to true federalism, which will also enable leaders to deliver social justice and guarantee citizens’ rights, safety and security across the country. It has become clear worldwide that leaders who are unable to ensure justice at all times and to all citizens regardless of their ethnicity, region, creed or ‘state of origin’ have no right to demand peaceful behaviour amongst the citizenry.

Fiscal Federalism
It has been stated by many experts that “Nigeria cannot achieve its famed great potential by practising a corrupt system; a system that rewards the indolent, and punishes the industrious; a society that places premium on ethnicity rather than merit. No society progresses without justice and ours is an unjust set-up that supports and facilitates corruption.

Fiscal Federalism or Resource Control is a problem that must be resolved before Nigeria and Nigerians would think of a peaceful or harmonious co-existence as one nation, united and indivisible. The founding fathers of Nigeria had it effectively solved and settled. But the military coups, the civil war and military regimes abandoned this important legacy of Nigeria’s founding fathers.
• To be continued tomorrow
• Prof. Obiozor was Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Israel and Cyprus.

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