It may interest President Muhammadu
Buhari to note that in more ways than one, he is like Winston Churchill
of Britain as both were soldiers, and both also ruled their country
twice-first as soldier and later as politician. Buhari is also to some
extent, like Deng Xiaoping of China, who sought to foist radical changes
to leadership and fell from grace only to return to power later. The
Nigerian leader is also basically similar to Franklin Roosevelt of the
US, as both governed their countries in the period of economic
recession.
Let me to elucidate:
After being appointed prime minister in
1940 by King George Vl to lead Britain in war, Churchill reigned for
some time after he won the war but was thereafter defeated in a general
election due to his radical approach to leadership. He switched parties
and in 1951, he became the prime minister of Britain again through
election. Recall that Buhari ruled Nigeria 1983-85 before his
reincarnation in 2015.
Similarly,
it is on record that Deng Xiaoping was “purged” or expelled three times
by the Communist Party due to his independent mindedness before he was
pardoned and accepted back into the party after which he cleverly took
over the party and subsequently led the country into prosperity through
his policy of One country Two economic philosophies. Buhari seized power
in 1983 and was toppled in 1985.
On his part, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
defeated incumbent President Herbert Hoover in 1932 ostensibly due to
the economic depression in the US as is the case in Nigeria today with
Buhari who defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan as a result of
the decision by Nigerians for a change in how an equally debilitating
economic recession is managed.
Remarkably, it is FDR’s economic recovery
policy in the mid-1930s that has given rise to modern day Keynesian
economic policies of STIMULUS-injection of funds into ailing industries
which is still in practice till date – currently driven and given public
face by renown economist, Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate and New York
Times columnist.
It is worthy of note that Buhari’s policy
of releasing bailout funds to the 27 insolvent states in Nigeria and
financial stimulus packaged as intervention funds to other sectors of
the economy such as aviation and textile amongst others are derivatives
of the FDR economic recovery policies of the Great Depression era.
In a nutshell, Buhari has many great leaders to emulate and benchmark.
For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not
averse to positive and radical changes in the Nigerian polity as
enunciated by the APC and the postulations in my articles are not
rendered as an adversary of Buhari’s government, but rather as a
patriotic Nigerian stakeholder-leader who is independent-minded and
leading from the streets as a public intellectual, who does not play to
the gallery.
In the meantime, before Buhari releases
his much-awaited list of cabinet members, he may want to consider the
merits or demerits of VISA credit card co-founder and former CEO, Dee W
Hock’s admonition: “Never hire or promote in your own image. It is
foolish to replicate your strengths and idiotic to replicate your
weakness. It is essential to employ, trust and reward those whose
perspective, ability and judgment are radically different from yours. It
is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance and wisdom.”
Ultimately, it is hoped that from
positive contributions in the form of critical analyses being unleashed
on a daily basis into the public arena by patriotic Nigerians who strive
to air their views against all odds, that viable solutions to Nigeria’s
myriad of challenges would be wrought and Buhari’s name would be
written in gold at the end of his tenure in 2019.
This intervention would be incomplete
without pleading with the major players in the political arena to
exercise more caution in the way they assail the integrity of some of
our leaders and country in the media. Need l remind politicians that
every diplomatic office in Nigeria has a team collecting data and
sending the same back to their home countries which is analysed and used
to gauge Nigeria to make them simmer? Given the bile in the brush with
which some of us are tarring our countrymen and women black as we accuse
ourselves of mind-boggling financial embezzlement that portrays Nigeria
and Nigerians in the media as a country of artful thieves, we don’t
need a rocket scientist to remind us that, our rating by Transparency
International would drop further and to the extent that the
international community could demand that every Nigerian be literarily
put in the laundry for a clean wash to make Nigeria an attractive place
to live and do business by international investors again.
It is my hope that we don’t descend to
the ugly past when Nigerian government through the CBN, bought advert
spaces in the Financial Times and New York Times to warn foreigners of
Nigerian scanners. What a disservice because it’s tantamount to washing
Nigeria’s dirty linen in public. The aftermath of that negative
initiative was that Nigerian travellers were separated and subjected to
humiliating experiences at airports abroad and they were also targeted
by law enforcement agents in foreign countries for persecution because
the Nigerian government had alerted those countries that her citizens
are fraudsters and criminals. Vicariously, and as a result of the flawed
process, along with the few ‘bad eggs’ that the warning was meant for,
hardworking Nigerian aeronautic engineers in NASA and hordes of medical
doctors contributing positively to their host societies and academicians
imparting knowledge in renown institutions of higher learning in their
communities of abode, amongst other professionals resident abroad,
became victims.
Some may argue that despite all the
opprobrium being heaped on the economic team of the immediate past
administration, most of them are getting appointed into top positions in
global and African financial organisations: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
appointed chairman of the GAVI Foundation and Advisor to Lazard Bank,
one of the oldest investment (merchant) banks in the US; Akinwunmi
Adesina, CEO of Africa Development Bank; Arunmah Oteh, Vice-President
/Treasurer of the World Bank and Bright Okogwu, Executive Director at
the ADB, but it may be too early for the damage being done presently to
Nigeria’s image to take its toll.
Without further equivocation, let it be
known that my contention is not that financial misconduct should not be
punished, but let it not be said again, that in the bid to be holier
than the Pope or Imam, Nigeria practically threw away the baby and the
bath water.
After all said and done, there is a lot
of good in Nigerians but as in all things in life, there are bound to be
imperfections, so there is room for improvements.
That’s why we all probably need to
literally put in the laundry, our minds, from where all our actions are
initiated and of which change is needed, the most. Unfortunately, the
much-vaunted change is so far not focused in the direction of the
mindset of Nigerians and our value system. Nigerians who have been
around in the country in the past 30 years may recall the positive
effects that the War Against Indiscipline initiative, introduced by
Buhari as military head of state in the mid 1980s, had on the society.
We probably need to re-enact it with a human face and in consonance with
democratic tenets. Equally, the Mass Mobilisation for Social and
Economic Orientation, promoted by Ibrahim Babangida, aimed at
bequeathing on Nigerians national ethos and common sense of belonging,
may need to be re-introduced. These would realign our minds to progress
and development rather than concerning ourselves too much about who
holds political power which currently occupies 80 per cent of the time
and mind of our leaders in the National Assembly and Aso Rock.
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