After being appointed prime minister in 1940 by King George VI to lead Britain in war, Winston 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. Churchill switched parties and in 1951, he became the prime minister of Britain again through election. Recall that PMB 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. PMB seized power in 1983 and was toppled in 1985.
On his part, 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 Jonathan as s result of the decision by Nigerians for a change in how an equally debilitating economic recession is managed. Remarkably, it is Roosevelt’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 renowned economist, Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman.
It is noteworthy that PMB’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 PMB has many great leaders to emulate and benchmark.
For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not averse to positive and radical changes in Nigerian polity as enunciated by the APC and the postulations in my articles are not rendered as an adversary of PMB’s govt, 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 PMB releases his much-awaited list of cabinet members, he might 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 analysis being unleashed on a daily basis into the public arena by patriotic Nigerians like us who strive to air their views against all odds, viable solutions to Nigeria’s myriad challenges would be wrought and PMB’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 I remind politicians that every diplomatic office in Nigeria has a team collecting data and sending same back to their home countries which is analyzed 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 embezzlements that portray Nigeria and Nigerians 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 govt through the CBN bought advert spaces in 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. 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 academics imparting knowledge in renowned 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 organizations: 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; Arunma Oteh, vice president/treasurer, World Bank, and Bright Okogwu, executive director at AfDB. 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, Mass Mobilization for Social and Economic Orientation (MAMSER) promoted by former military head of state, 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 percent of the time and mind of our leaders in NASS and Aso Rock. Yes, Nigerians probably need to be ‘brainwashed’ – no pun intended – into positive thinking about our economic future as opposed to who becomes president in 2019 which the current power struggle in NASS and Aso Rock has turned out to be about. Perhaps, after the wash, instead of just PMB’s cabinet members, all Nigerians may become the cleanest dirty shirts out of the laundry so that the next generation of Nigerians will be more prosperous than the present, as we are presently witnessing in China.
Magnus Onyibe
