George Ehusani
I congratulate the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought for hosting this policy dialogue on new governance structures for Nigeria, and I commend all Nigerian individuals and groups that over the years have demonstrated unalloyed commitment to the ongoing project of salvaging the Nigerian nation. As we engage in one more dialogue session today,” let me draw your attention to what I consider a very critical, but often missing or insufficiently highlighted element in our public debates on the revisioning and restructuring of Nigeria. It is the place of leadership integrity in nation building and national stability and prosperity. For, I have become more convinced today than ever before that leadership debauchery and elite idiocy will ruin any nation, no matter how perfect the political, structural and governance blueprint they adopt. And it has been well established by social historians that the collapse of powerful civilisations is hardly ever precipitated by external attack, but instead by internal decay, or what the ancient mystics call the want of order in the soul.
Let me use passages from the Judeo-Christian Scriptures to illustrate the point: We read in Proverbs 14:34 that righteousness exalts a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people. In Proverbs 29:2 we read that “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule the people groan.” In Proverbs 29:4 it says, “It is by justice that a king gives stability to the land.” And in Proverbs 29:18 it says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Some translations render this verse as, “Where there is no leadership integrity, the people do perish.” What this means is that leadership integrity is fundamental and critical to national development, national unity, and national peace and prosperity, or that the socio-economic and political fortunes of a people are tied up to the integrity or lack thereof of its leaders!
This idea is very well illustrated in the history of Israel. When they had good, god-fearing leaders like Joshua, David, Hezekiah, Josiah, Jehoshaphat, Nehemiah, and Ezra, they conquered their enemies, they experienced restoration, and they enjoyed peace and prosperity. But when they had leaders who lacked integrity and the fear of God, like Saul, Jeroboam, Ahab, and Nadab, they were easily defeated by enemy forces, who often went ahead to loot and pillage their resources. In one case Israel was not only conquered by their adversaries; they were expelled from their land and deported to Babylon for 70 years! To illustrate the point further, there is this report in the book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus 47:23-25 that,
Solomon rested with his ancestors, leaving one of his stock as his successor, the stupidest member of the nation, brainless Rehoboam, whose policy drove the nation, to rebel. Next, Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, and set Ephraim on the way of evil; from then on, their sins multiplied so excessively as to drive them out of their country; for they tried out every kind of wickedness, until vengeance overtook them.
Recall that (as is recorded in the 12th Chapter of the 1st Book of Kings), it was Rehoboam who succeeded his father Solomon as King of Israel and Judah. When he ascended the throne, the elders of Israel went to him and complained about how hard life had been for them under King Solomon, saying, “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore we beg you, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.” His counsellors advised him on how to respond to the elders with compassion, but he disregarded the advice of his counsellors, and instead told the elders that, “My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you bloody with chains.” When the elders heard the response of King Rehoboam, they resolved to separate themselves from the kingdom of David. So, they shouted: “To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David.” This was the beginning of the disintegration of the kingdom that was united under David and Solomon.
What the above Scriptures tell us, and what has been sufficiently demonstrated in human history and in our own recent national trajectory, is that the socio-economic and political fortunes of a people often hang peremptorily on the integrity or lack of integrity of its leaders. Where there is moral integrity among the ruling class, the people make economic progress and experience stability and peace. But where the leaders are illegitimate, corrupt, unjust, immoral and lacking in credibility, the people suffer economic stagnation, social discord and eventual collapse.
As we gather here today for one more brainstorming session on the imperative of evolving new governance structures for Nigeria, I wish to remind the respected patriots, elder statesmen and women, legislators, political scientists, governance experts, as well as civil society activists here present, that though we all seem to agree today that the prevailing political structures in our nation are not working for the people, and that there is an urgent need for re-visioning, re-configurating or restructuring the Nigerian nation, nations are however built primarily and fundamentally on values, and not on the quality of political or structural blueprints embraced, nor the abundance of material resources, as indeed the post-independence Nigerian experiment has demonstrated. Nation building refers to the internal, organic and dynamic process by which a society identifies, discusses, contests, and reaches consensus on shared values, principles and norms; the process by which a society galvanises a sense of national cohesion, consolidates a national identity, and forges a sense of common purpose or a set of common goals to which the society is oriented. In other words, nation building is the process of moulding diverse groups into a unified cohesive, harmonious, and stable national entity, with shared vision and collective mission.
Essential and of critical importance in the process of nation building is a transparently honest, visionary, self-sacrificing, and therefore legitimate and credible leadership. Such leadership assumes the role of Architects, Engineers, and Project Managers of the emergent nation. Thus, strong, stable, unified, and prosperous nations are built fundamentally on values, and experience has shown that such values are anchored on and sustained by leaders of transparent integrity and credibility, whose very lives encapsulate and personify the values that they seek to propagate in the polity. Otherwise, such value will hardly take root in the society. When however, such critical values for nation building as leadership integrity, justice and fairness, as well as a high degree of patriotism and sacrifice for the common good, are missing, what we often have is a free-for-all: intractable conflicts, political tension and social discord, the preponderance of violent crimes, monumental corruption, and widespread impunity. Indeed, 4th Century Philosopher, St. Augustine of Hippo declared that kingdoms (or societies) devoid of justice, are “nothing but a bunch of bandits or a gang of robbers.”
What the foregoing implies is that as we engage in multiple dialogue events and public debates on the reconfiguration or restructuring of the Nigerian nation, and what governance structures best suit our context of ethno-religious and cultural diversity, we must pay close attention to the reality of widespread moral vacuity among the political, economic, religious and socio-cultural elite of our nation. As we engage in one more brainstorming session on the future of the Nigerian nation, I ask that we pay urgent attention to, and address very critically the embarrassment of the naked public square in Nigeria, whereby criminally minded characters, and alleged gangsters in our midst, are more easily finding their way to all levels of political office, than men and women of honour, integrity, discipline, modesty, patriotism and sacrifice. Yes, as we engage in one more political dialogue session, I ask that we seriously interrogate the situation whereby our nation more easily throws up for political office, crooked and devious characters, including ethnic bigots and religious extremists, those who regularly manipulate the religious sentiments of the people, those who recklessly exploit the age-old ethnic acrimonies and antipathies in the land for selfish political gain, and the thoughtless others who habitually loot the local government, state or national treasury for themselves and their families, and render the population destitute. Until we address this anomaly, this fundamental error in our concept of political leadership and the leadership recruitment process, I do not believe that any measure of tinkering with our political structures alone will transform our fortunes.
Nigerians have produced tons of documents from several dialogue sessions in the last 29 years – from Babangida’s 1986 Political Bureau to Jonathan’s 2014 National Dialogue. The recommendations for structural reforms from these dialogue events have been ignored by a succession of leaders. But these previous recommendations must now be considered among the low-hanging fruits from which to start the project of salvaging our failing nation state. If Nigeria is to be saved, the changes we require to bring about are not superficial, but massive, fundamental, and far-reaching. But in my view the required changes can be summarised under the three broad themes of RULE OF LAW, EQUAL CITIZENSHIP, and SELF DETERMINATION or what has often been described as DEVOLUTION OF POWERS, so as to reflect our true nature as a federal state and not a unitary system that is claiming to be a federation.
We must trace our steps back to the federalist route negotiated by the founding fathers and understand that the basis of the existence of Nigeria is mutual respect for the religious, ethnic and cultural diversities of all those in the union. The 1999 Constitution has vested too much power in the centre and emasculated the federating units. There is widespread call today that we dust up the 1963 Constitution and amend it for our present-day circumstances. Part of the implications of this may be that we go back to embrace the parliamentary system; that we adopt no more than six or seven viable regions or states, and grant a good measure of self-determination to those regions, thereby reducing to the barest minimum the items on the exclusive legislative list. We need to cut down massively on the cost of governance by merging ministries, departments and agencies, in a more radical manner than the Oronsaye report recommended twelve years ago.
We must now summon the courage to discuss openly and frankly the thorny issues of religion and state of origin, agree on what place if any religion should play in governance, and resolve on whether we want to live under a monarchical theocracy of some sort, or we want to live together as a modern federal democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious entity, founded on the principles of justice, equity, equality and mutual respect. If we are not able to resolve these thorny issues once and for all, I would humbly submit that we allow any geo-political entities desiring to secede, to do so peacefully, before it is too late; for quite frankly, as presently constituted Nigeria is not working for the majority of those who call this place home.
Let me conclude by saying once again that I honestly do not believe that any measure of political or structural reconfiguration can take Nigeria out of the present conundrum, as long as we as a people continue to bear such a heavy burden of ethical and moral degeneracy. To address this situation that has bedevilled our nation, what we require is nothing short of a wholesale ethical and moral revolution. But can the imperative of such an ethical and moral revolution be incorporated into the ongoing debate on the reconfiguration, recalibration or restructuring of the Nigerian state? I pray that many stakeholders at this and similar dialogue sessions will give the required attention to the much neglected but critical element of leadership integrity for wholesome national development, peace and prosperity.
* Rev. Fr. George Ehusani, Executive Director, Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, presented presented this address at the Policy Dialogue on New Governance Structure for Nigeria, organiseby the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought
Abuja, March 8, 2024