My encounter with Chidi Odinkalu

It has been a long time since I ran with the idea to do an analysis on the group character of our political class and national elites. Not many in the country know that the philosophical underpinnings of the elites has something to do with the kind and pace of development a country experiences.

 If you don’t know it is important you understand that from today. Every country that was able to transform from ground zero to great development was able to do so because the national elites were well equipped in knowledge. They dwelt on ideas and had capacity to fashion out new solutions drawing from the existing objective conditions, including experiences of their land and people. These men knew the importance of sacrificial living, they worked very hard but lived thin.

 They held the banner of discipline and gave the concept its proper definition: “For our tomorrow we give up our today.” Crude oil was discovered in our country about the same as it was found in the Arab countries in Asia but the outcome is different in every particular material. In the case of the Arabian giants the physical transformation is dumbfounding. Shocking in the sense many of us in this part of the world would ever have thought these Arab Asians have the capacity to think in the manner they have done and to pull through such a level of national transformation in a desert setting. But they did! Saudi Arabia headquarters of the Islamic faith, Qatar, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates are all today technologically advanced entities, their citizens are happy and very proud to stay in their countries because the place has successfully been turned into a livable modern settlement. Opportunities abound and there’s law and order.

I mentioned those ones because we were at par in the sixties and we got into the crude oil business almost the same time. If we stretch a little we can bring in Israel that was founded in 1948. Few Jews brought back from different locations in the world in the midst of wars knew the importance of sitting down to design the kind of country they wanted from the very unfriendly terrain. Israel is a mountainous desert setting but it has been turned as a good example of what the mind of man can do when positively attuned by a running class who know what it means to run on sound principles of life.

  Where the elites are hedonistic and kleptomaniac, disorder, confusion and ruderlessness are inevitable. Base instinct rules. Rat race is the philosophy or is it ideology. Everyone wants to grab for current existence and for children yet unborn. People one would see and call great examples become kingpins in stealing and pillaging. In this atmosphere state capture by a few becomes inevitable. Progress is difficult, life and living as Thomas Hobbes has observed becomes “brutish, nasty and short”. This is the point we are in the country.

  Sixty years after independence we still hold very tight base elements and primordial factors. Our leaders rather than pursue merit would opt for the divisive variables of ethnicity and religion just because they desire power and authority for what it can bring into their pockets and for personal advantages power can confer on them as individuals.

This is where Prof. Chidi Odinkalu comes in. I have heard and read so much about him but never had the privilege of meeting him at close quarters till he came for the third anniversary lecture of Governor Alex Otti of Abia State in May. As he entered the international conference centre his address and gait spoke volumes. When you compare him with Minister Nyesom Wike, one can draw rich lessons on the leadership qualities holding sway in the country. Odinkalu was debonair and very urbane. He was a guest speaker and when he opened his mouth it didn’t take time to see the benefits of sound education. My friend told me a popular political player said a few days ago, “you don’t need a certificate to run a high quality administration.” I heard him but didn’t know what to make of such a statement in the 21st century. Where our country is today we need philosophical leaders.

Leaders who are not just intelligent but well schooled who also can pick up good advice when one is offered. Leaders that produce home grown solutions to our many challenges.

Odinkalu couldn’t understand why we don’t have unity. Is that about rocket science too? He didn’t comprehend why we can’t build up the industrial base and have self sufficiency. I too can’t understand. He told Ndigbo to do away with the cry of marginalization. How to do it? Simple, elect only leaders who within a short time can make SouthEast the hub of the rest of the country. Again quality leadership. I agree. He said Ndigbo should not run for the Presidency until they have fully built up their area. I didn’t quite agree.

Odinkalu showed us the difference between charity and working for humanity. Charity does not stop or solve a problem,it is a stop gap, a palliative. Unfortunately, Nigerians are using charity to substitute for real institutional development. This is the new danger.

As I looked at him I could see clearly the missing points in our development trajectory. The system encourages the emergence of the not so equipped, forcing the well trained to take a retreat. Former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe while taking a jab at our country once said he couldn’t understand how a country with millions of school certificate holders, over a million first degree holders, so many Masters and PhD holders, we would elect as President citizens who can’t find their first School Leaving certificates.

He wondered how some leaders can stand on the same platform as Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and others to discuss world development equations. How? When developed countries dictate the tune, herein is the reason. Democracy since 1999 has clocked 27 years yet we have not succeeded to build a country not to talk of commencing the walk towards nationhood.

Today, we still hear of Northern, South East, South West and South South Governors forums, Arewa Consultative forum, Ohaneze, Afenifere and Niger Delta organisations to cater for sectional promotion in a supposed federation. This is ironic. We are talking about cattle colonies, unrestricted cattle grazing in21st century Nigeria. Something as simple as having security in place has become like rocket science in an era other countries are sending people into space.

    Reuben Abati hit the mark when he said: “The paradox of age is that while humanity has made extraordinary advances in science and technology, we (in Nigeria) have continued to struggle with some of the oldest questions of civilization: how to govern ourselves, how to live together, how to resolve conflicts and how to create a society that is both prosperous and just. In all this, one thing is constant, the enduring importance of leadership.” The big question is: how can the well equipped emerge leaders in the land?