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In the past few weeks, political activities in the country remained on the frenzy pace as newly elected state governors and the President made efforts to constitute their cabinets. Who and who would get the nod to be called to offer service was of great interest to various segments of the population for various reasons. Unfortunately, political appointment in our clime is yet to be seen for what it really should be, service and development. It is being viewed from the narrow perspective of compensation and patronage. Very terrible.
No surprise on that score, as we often like to observe and say ours is a “nascent democracy” even though our country has almost taken in 63 years of nationhood, enough time to have grown into maturity in critical aspects of our governance procedures and practices. We have failed to excel on such very simple tasks, and one of the consequences we see is the near ruination of an otherwise very gifted country. Before we move further, it is important to make a review of some cardinal matters still related to the matter at hand.
The first on score is the question that has been on the lips of the critical but minority segment of our population that has kept busy trying to ascertain which among the following, the head of the Executive team better known as Head of Government, policy and cabinet composition, which of them is more critical in the quest for transformation and development of a state or country. The inquiry has remained hanging while members of the political class continue with their game of low expectations and ineffective governance culture. Many would they are better off working together. Good answer, but which doesn’t say much about organogram and power and authority distribution.
The truth is this: in every leadership structure, the place of the visioner, in this instance the President of the nation, governor in case of the states and chairmen with respect to the local governments, as laid out in our constitution, is the most vital tool. This is the truth. The governments they lead are as effective and productive as the head. The farsightedness of any drives the course and provides impetus for the whole. When a leader lacks vision, a corresponding effect would reproduce itself along what should be the value chain. If he is visionary, dynamic, quick to understand and decipher, his influence will rub off on the team. Developed institutions throw in positive variables yet the effect of the personality make-up of the head is never downplayed.
This is why developed countries have managed to create a political culture that places so much emphasis on antecedents of everyone aspiring for public offices. You must have a record of very distinquished public service and personal achievements. It is the same reason many of these countries insist that politicians hold lesser offices before graduating to higher one’s. That way expectations can be hinged on verifiable experience. In our case it is not exactly the same. Anybody with sound tutorship, no antecedent but with enough cash can bamboozle his or her way through superficial safety nets available and get into public offices even at the very commanding heights. Recall one President wasn’t certain if he ever sat for the first school leaving certificate.
We hear people place so much premium on the ability of appointees to make the difference. It is a proper expectation. What is missing in all of it is the extent of the expectations. No man can give what he doesn’t have. The same applies to power management. Delegated authority is not power. It is as the name connotes “delegated authority”, nothing and nothing less. Appointees can only run as fast as Head of government wants you to run.
An appointee may be brilliant and brimming with very great ideas but the truth remains how effective in terms of implementation of those views is totally dependent on the disposition of the leader of the government. And then to lesser extent on the vision and policy bent of the nation. Supposing an appointee subscribes to free education when his country is sold out to affordable but quality education, anyone can fathom the dilemma. To further elucidate this point, General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd) our former president brought the issue in question home when he said, “advices and suggestions are good, appointees should never cease to bring them forward, but they must conceed to him the rare privilege of having the final say on which advice to take and which to reject.”
Countries who desire development circumvent Obasanjo’s disposition by having in place a “national vision”. This kind place some degree of limited on heads of government. It places responsibility on those running for offices to state their programmes ahead of declaration and to use various fora to give detailed explanations on each subject matter. That way everyone knows what to expect. Who knows what our national vision is? Not too many in the country know if there exists a such document. Yet, governance is running and complicating already existing problems and creating new challenges. What we are doing with petrol production and pricing is a typical example.
The leadership recruitment process is also taking a severe dent from our general attitude of tardiness. Nomination to various cabinets suffer from poor selection methods, terrible screening and confirmation procedures. Our governors and the president don’t feel compelled enough to see the need to attach portfolios against names and expertise of nominees for various cabinet appointments. It is an error that has been there all along, which we all agree has done us more harm than good. Yet there is no corresponding will to bring an end to the evil. Every officeholder that has something to do with constitution of a cabinet goes about it without giving the confirming powers and citizens the benefit of properly situating each nominee in place of assignment.
The usual excuse would be that it doesn’t so much matter and no law is broken by taking the path. Yet the truth remains that so much damage is done often on society by things we call “small foxes”. A red stain on a white shirt is a huge damage so it is to a society, when we leave tiny processes that we all know can oil the wheels of development. Attaching portfolios would aid choice of quality developers. It places emphasis where lights should be beamed.
The omissions represent a huge misnomer and a great subtraction from the noble assignment of our legislators to prevent ill-equipped persons from ascending into the commanding heights of power and authority management. It sends our legislators into what many have termed “blind chase”. Attaching portfolios would assist research on the ministry and department, gathering of facts and of course deeper inquest on the character of each nominee.
It was wrong for many of the chief executives to put forward persons of questionable characters and of high emotional instability. A Nazist symparthiser, for instance, would never be nominated for any high office in Israel, same within persons with cases touching on integrity would not dare put themselves up to contest or be nominated for public office in developed countries and this would be regardless of how brilliant and exceptional he or she made have been serving a in corner in the country. Everything about public office is not tied to knowledge and ability, philosophy and known activities matter a lot. Today, foreign embassies of developed countries request for social handles of prospective visa applicants. The intentment is simple: to get a glimpse of each individual’s character trait based on their past public utterances and positionings.
Every good thing must not originate from us. Positive imitation is a fact of great life and organization. If we took the above standards and applied them to our circumstance by which we mean the many screening exercises witnessed across the country in recent days, one can bet even on one’s life that many nominees who felt very courageous to present themselves for screening would have met their political Waterloo. It would have been an end to shameless chicanery that has matured to a culture in our country today.
It is a huge contradiction and national embarrassment to see politicians who have no regard for principles receive nominations and the screening body treating them as national heroes. Nothing could be more retrogressive as this. A society that jettisons’s principles in the running of her affairs would be cruising towards the rock, it will be a matter of time for a fatal crash to occur. All indices that we have sailed into very turbulent waters are here with us. Lack of principles scores highest as one of the factors that brought us to the precipice of near total collapse. If this is so, what a reasonable people should do is to walk in reverse order, but that is not what it seems we are doing. We rather choose to walk the walk of the foolish. It is good that the Senate gave former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, a shock treatment by delaying his appointment. Even if he regains balance a good message has been passed.
The “take a bow” is a well intentioned provision to encourage undiluted services to the nation. The truth is, the nation’s interest will be far better served to have a political culture that makes all available for questions. No two offices and political eras are exactly the same. There is always a difference and that is why appointees should be grilled. Our hired workers let us assess the depth of knowledge and experience.
It should worry any true democrat that the opposition parties appear to be melting. This should be a source of great worry. The objective behind multi-party system is the multiplicity of perspectives and options. When they begin the song in national interest, we ought to ask them if insisting on the right thing to be done amounts to thwarting this nebulous interest of the nation.
Truth is to turn a great nation, going above country to nation is hardwork, the kind of enterprise that is deliberately anchored on progressive vision. Waiting for time to create maturity doesn’t work. Great future is for those who prepare for it. When preparation meets opportunity the results are usually wonderful.
