If you don’t raise your eyes, you’ll think
you’re at the highest point.
Antonio Porchia
The last time I wrote on this page was in
February of 2017, a little over three years ago. My place was taken by
excellent and capable hands, I almost feel I have to start from the scratch. To
be honest, I gave a lot of thought to resuming writing a column in a paper like
Daily Trust, a medium with access to the best, and an enviable standing carved
out of very high standards of professionalism and courage. I have also worried
over whether one has much to contribute in a situation that requires fresh
insights into old and new issues in our country. I am grateful to Daily Trust
for settling my doubts with the opportunity to test whether fading voices can
still be heard in the din over where the country is, or should be heading.
Please allow me a minute to speak about myself.
I
have been quite busy acquiring new experiences and finding out how wrong I have
been regarding many things. I spent a little over two years in the National
Assembly working as Chief of Staff to President of the Senate and leader of the
federal legislature, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, CON. This was a moment of
great learning and rewarding service. After 23 years at senior levels of state
and federal of public service, ten of which I served as federal permanent
secretary, I thought I was done with public service. Actually I thought I
had become a politician. I was, but I stretched the label beyond my comfort
zone.
I thought there was little to contribute to
the legislature and its bureaucracy, particularly one that we from the
executive side, in my days at least, had learned to hesitate before answering
its greeting of “good morning”. I was part of an excellent team of
legislative aides of the Senate President who worked with a few of the
finest Nigerian politicians, and many that really had no business being
near public trust. I discovered a core of highly competent bureaucrats of
the legislature with visible scars from managing a vital institution run by
politicians torn between instant gratification and the faithful exercise of
mandates.
It was a tremendous opportunity to see up
close, the federal legislature in all its splendour and odium. Senator Saraki
is quite possibly the most intelligent principal I had to work with, with an
amazing instinct for opportunities and the energy to chase them. On a number of
occasions, as few people who have had these qualities have realized, he came
unstuck. His leadership of the 8th Senate with his colleague, Rt. Hon Yakubu
Dogara, produced the most productive federal legislature, against incredible
odds. Their leadership did not change the basic perception of the legislature
as the nation’s pampered sponge, but it showed the promise of a fledgling
arm of government living up to the task of legislating and making the
difference between democracy and dictatorship.
The most profound insight for me was the
damaging perversion of a political system which places huge powers in hands of
powerful people with which they pursued personal goals. If Saraki and
Dogara and President Buhari had worked well as a team from the same party
committed to raising the bar on good governance, a lot more could have been
achieved between 2015 and 2019.For someone who grew up thinking there is always
only one goal in politics, which is to improve the lot of the citizen, I am
still asking who won the battles that wasted a huge potential to do
better by an APC administration between 2015 and 2018.
I must have tasked my boss’s patience to no
end, because I was also deeply involved in another strand of politics, one that
gave me a little more room for self-expression. I renounced my membership of
the APC long before the exodus that preceded the 2019 elections, a difficult
decision (in retrospect, fueled by some pronounced naivety) in the hope that it
will serve to slow down the administration’s tendency to be comfortable
with poor results. I was part of the Northern Elders Forum, a group that threw
everything into the ring to help give Buhari victory in 2015, and ended his
first term with a noisy denunciation of his management of the economy and
national security, particularly as they affected the North. I had a less
visible role than I had in 2015 in the build-up to 2019, but I was active in a
group that thought it could work to affect an orderly and thorough
leadership change. The results said we failed. My boss lost his re-election
contest and a major chunk of a formidable legacy. I lost a job and moved on a
lot wiser.
I refreshed some knowledge and resumed
teaching, a vocation always had a passion for. I am now actively teaching
in a number of universities, and I am active in a number of humanitarian
concerns and advising on conflict resolution. It is very difficult to be a
silent observer in Nigeria today. I have been fortunate to be part of groups
that insist on raising voices when damning evidence of failures in leadership
and governance numb the citizenry.
Now I resume writing a column in the face of
the most serious combination of circumstances that make even the clearest of
minds difficult to express or comprehend. What can one say about COVID-19 that
has not been said? I am afraid there is a lot to be said, principally
that this is not the time to make excuses for weaknesses in our responses. The
death of Malam Abba Kyari, (may Allah accept his Shahada) is a
major setback for President Buhari’s administration, which would not have won
prizes for thinking on its feet in the first place. A major pillar, indeed the
backbone of the administration, has left at precisely the moment a calm,
focussed anchor with huge responsibilities and influence around the President
is needed. Friends of this administration and lovers of Nigeria will hope that
President Buhari will be motivated to turn Malam Abba’s death as a trigger to
revamp his administration, take firmer control and lead with greater resolve. At
all cost, the nation must not operate at lower than current levels of
efficiency and competence. Lockdowns of populations and places are important in
limiting spread of this pandemic. A governance lockdown at the Presidency will
be disastrous, the very thing this pandemic needs to destroy a country that is
its ideal setting for maximum damage.
Navigating around this pandemic with
dwindling resources and rising demands for fresh funding from all corners will
challenge the Buhari administration. It will be tragic not to assume that the
country will see a lot more damage from this pandemic. It is vital that
leadership is kept on its toes and supported as we all deal with a disaster
that cannot be defeated unless everyone is involved. It could very well be the
case that the country is scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of its
savings and incomes, but we can still deploy our best assets in good and honest
management of resources to design response strategies that will limit the
damage. We need imaginative and bold policies for producing or procuring
equipment that will protect medical personnel, increase isolation and treatment
facilities, strengthen coordination and collaboration with state governments
and encouraging transparent and massive mobilization of essentials that will
keep the citizenry at home.
These are the moment leaders step up
or step out, when opportunities beckon to rise and meet challenges, of sink
deeper into abdication and ignominy. President Buhari said the fight against
COVID-19 is a war we must win. He is right. The alternative is too frightening
to contemplate. But he must personally lead, and rally other leaders and
everyone else who has responsibility to fight and win. He must provide the
leadership and the inspiration to governors and the legislature to adopt the
best policies and strategies; to mobilize resources and place them promptly at
the service of the people; to stay personally abreast of developments in
this fight and address worrisome sections of the battlefront like Kano and
Lagos States, and citizens who want to see a combination of compassion and
muscle in getting them to comply with rules, or they will revolt against the
state and, ultimately, the well-off.
Thank you for the understanding I asked
for when I went on break. May God see us through these frightening days.
