Saturday, September 22, 2018

TEXT of PRESENTATION of DR HAKEEM BABA-AHMED, OON, at THE PUBLIC LECTURE ORGANIZED BY MORAL INITIATIVE OF NIGERIA (MIN) AT AREWA HOUSE, KADUNA ON SATURDAY, 22ND SEPTEMBER, 2018


I should start by commending Moral Initiative of Nigeria (MIN) for this thoughtful step towards reminding our nation of the imperatives of its moral foundation at a point when we are being prepared to exercise choices over leaders and parties, I am also grateful to Professor Ango Abdullahi, Magajin Rafin Zazzanu, who, in his characteristic fatherly manner, assigned us responsibilities for participation in this programme. May God bless your intentions and the outcome of this event.
        It may be a matter of deliberate choice that Moral Initiative of Nigeria left much of the choice on focus and substance in our contributions to us. I have noted that the Initiative identified the need to raise awareness around immorality and the promotion of peace and love among Nigerians as its main motives for organizing this event.
        I have chosen to address the place of leadership as the foundation of any people’s moral standards, and in this context, I will share with you my humble thoughts on issues that we need to pay close attention to as a nation if we will begin to turn the tide again moral decay, the drift towards anarchy and the descent into the nightmare of the rule of terror, evil and violence.
There is no value in discussing issues of morality, systems and processes, legal system, policies and programmes and development in a nation such as ours without acknowledging that we are fundamentally a people of faith. What this means is that all Nigerians believe that we are accountable to a power greater than us, Who has designed the basic elements of our social existence and to Whom we are accountable. Please note that my definition here is universally applicable to us all, irrespective of the nature of our faith or how you exercise it.
How then does a nation of people who accept the validity of a Being that delineates good from evil and right from wrong also seem to tolerate the ignominy of being one of the most corrupt nations on earth; a nation that consigns a huge percentage of its population to the rungs of the poorest in the world, and one where the value of human life is virtually non- existent?
A liberal democratic system cannot effectively function without some core values that must be protected at all cost by those who have the authority and responsibility to do so. These persons must also be accountable to, for their success or failure in this task. These core values are spelt out in our constitution, and our leaders are made to swear with divine words of God in the Quran or Bible that they will defend and protect them. Few people care to recognize the irony that we invoke God to protect and defend a secular constitution. Ordinarily, there will be little problem with this. If leaders break our oaths, and the secular system works, they will be held to account. In addition, the God in whose name we swear to defend the constitution will hold us to account, if not in this world, then in the next one.
The problem appears that our faith is weakest when applied to public matters, such that issues of personal integrity of leaders, doing justice, being accountable, compassionate and fair are rarely measured by leaders  within the rigorous and demanding contexts of God’s laws and injunctions. The system makes it so much easier to offend and violate the constitution, and leaders feel that in exercise of political mandates and/or official responsibilities, God’s wrath is easily assuaged with prayers for forgiveness. In the worst cases, leaders in secular constitutional systems behave as if nothing they do or refuse to do has anything to do with God. Responsibilities of leaders to, and for, followers is seldom treated in religious contests, and secular laws are abused with such impunity that they may well not exist. Democracy as a system rests on the assumption that citizens as voters will exercise powers to distinguish bad from good, leaders and despots from democrats, and  also exercise their power to vote them in or out of power. When, however, wealth and power become the main sources of wealth and power, the democratic system becomes a farce, a charade that merely re-cycles the wealthy and corrupt in leadership positions.
The greatest failing of our leaders who are entrusted with power through our votes is their inability to do justice. Shehu Usman Dan Fadio said, “A kingdom can endure with unbelief, but not with injustice”. (1) The injustice of the leader begins with injustice to himself: he fails to live by the demanding standards which leading people place on him. Leadership is a most onerous and frightening burden and those who lead without full congnisance of its implications do great dissersive to themselves. On the Day of Judgment leaders of men and women will be held to account for every action or inaction over which their positions of responsibility hold them accountable. Injustice breeds disrespect, contempt, insecurity, anarchy and corruption as followers lose faith in unjust leaders who corrupt the ethical and legal basis of their positions.
A leader who fails the test to be just to himself and his responsibility is most unlikely to be just to the people he leads. The descent from the challenging heights of personal discipline and piety to the lowest levels of impunity and corruption is certain and limitless. Arbitrariness takes the place of due process and rule of law; arrogance and contempt for the poor, the powerless and the weak take the place of compassion and humility; corruption and abuse of office replace personal integrity and honesty while the interests of the leader become elevated above the interest of the people. Advisers become psychophants and courtiers; loyalty is demanded in place of respect and the leader is elevated to the position of one to be served, rather than the servant(2).
In the next few weeks, we will be called up to debate, argue and even fight over who will exercise responsibility over us in the 2019 elections. These elections represent an important turning point in terms of whether our lives as citizens, our communities, our values and our nation will continue to deteriorate, or improve. What will determine the direction we move is a template we should adopt in interrogating our choices as Muslims, Christians and Citizens, and the templates we will apply against those who ask us to trust them with responsibility for our security, economic welfare and the protection of our key values.
As citizens, we should apply against ourselves demanding responsibilities in judging politicians. We should ask, to the limits of our understanding and knowledge, these questions among others:
i)                           Am I convinced that the person who wants my vote fears God and will seek His favour in leading me?
ii)                         Am I convinced he wants to lead me as service to me, rather than a means to acquire power and wealth for himself?
iii)                        Am I convinced that he can lead with knowledge, experience, compassion and justice?
iv)                       Am I convinced that he is honest, and will not convert what is public to his private use?
v)                         Am I convinced that he is the best among those asking for my vote, and that I am not voting for him for purely ethno-religious, or regional sentiments?
vi)                       Can I trust him with my life, my assets, my welfare, my family and community and my future?
vii)                      Can I fight to defend his mandate because it is the expression of the will of the people and not a stolen mandate?
viii)                     Do I believe that I can respect him through his tenure because he has remained steadfast in the pursuit of honest service, humble and God-fearing?
ix)                        Am I convinced that he will make my children’s future brighter or worse?
We should also demand from all politicians who will ask for our trust and confidence in 2019 that they answer the following questions first before asking for our votes:
i)             Am I aware of the heavy burden that God will place upon my shoulders if I assume a leadership position?
ii)           Am I satisfied that I posses the required religious, moral, ethical and other personal qualities to lead as God wills and as demanded by the constitution?
iii)          Am I sure I want to serve, not to be served?
iv)         Am I honest enough to resist the temptation to be corrupt?
v)           m I the best in terms of education, experience and personal disposition among those competing with me?
vi)         Am I healthy enough to shoulder the burden of leadership?
vii)        Will my children be proud or ashamed of me at the end of my term?
viii)       Will God be pleased with me?
          As a people, we must use the next elections to create a real beginning for genuine change. Very few of the people asking for our votes today are ready to change the system in such a way that it will resist abuse, impunity and corruption. With our votes, we should say that we are tired of lip service to fighting corruption and insecurity. No one should be trusted with a mandate of any type unless he or she demonstrates a knowledge of our problems, a willingness to tackle them, and a commitment to account for failures. Those who want our votes must convince us that they know how to make our laws less vulnerable to subversion, including subversion by themselves. God will punish those who abuse our trust, but He can choose whether to punish them  here,  in the hereafter, or both. We have faith in Him, but we should make our system good enough to punish those who abuse our trust in this world, so that they serve as example to others that our rights to be led by honest, competent people should not be treated as luxury. If leaders will not improve our laws to eliminate or mitigate impunity and corruption, we should invoke the powers of the Almighty and pray that He keeps those who will abuse our trust or abandon us to fears and hopelessness away from power. The ideal thing of course is to both pray and insist on putting only the most God-fearing and the best people in positions of trust. 

I thank you once again for the opportunity to participate in this event.




REFERENCE
(i)                  Shehu Usman, Bayan Wujuls al-bijra ala al-ibad, 1221 – 1806, Quoted in Mahmud Tukur, Leadership and Governance in Nigeria: the Relevance of Values, Hudahuda/Hodder & Stonghton, 1999, p22
(ii)                 Dr Mahmud Tuhurs’ Leadership and Governace in Nigeria (Ibid)  is an excellent book on the central place of values in governance. Usman Bugaje (ed) Muslims and the Nigerian Political space Books and Libraries, Abuja, 2016 is also a useful book on contemporary situation of Muslims and the Nigerian state.

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