In the fight against corruption where he could have made a good impression, the President’s achievement is far below average.
As I argued sometime ago, the presidential pardon granted Diepriye Alamieyeseigha, former Bayelsa State governor, who was impeached for embezzlement of public funds and under whom he served as deputy governor is a ringing testimony that Jonathan lacks the will to checkmate corruption where it matters most – at the highest echelons of governance.
Again, the slow response of our security forces to the Nyanya carnage and abduction of hundreds of secondary school girls in Chibok by evil-minded misanthropes under the aegis of Boko Haram underscores the growing inability of government to provide security for ordinary Nigerians.
Now, with regard to the latter, why did the federal government waste time unnecessarily before seeking the assistance of countries that have extensive experience in combating terrorism, such as the United States and Israel, immediately after the Nyanya bombing and kidnap of the girls? Why did President Jonathan engage in what Prof. Wole Soyinka calls “chieftaincy jollifications” and owambe political rally soon after these heinous events?
Supposing one of Mr. President’s children was a victim of the bomb blast or abduction by terrorists, would he have hesitated to mobilise the entire resources of the federal government to fish out perpetrators of the evil acts?
Compare the response of South Korean leaders to the tragic ferry disaster in which scores of school children died, to the immediate reaction of President Jonathan and his security team to the tragic events noted above. In South Korea, the Prime Minister resigned as a mark of leadership-with-responsibility.
In our own case, ministers and other top government officials can never resign from their posts no matter the situation, because they lack the sense of shame and moral responsibility. Put differently, our political leaders appear incapable of critical self-examination, self-indictment and remorse, which are essential preliminaries for restitution, self-correction and genuine social transformation, despite the impression of being devout Christians or Muslims, as the case may be.
But then, can we really put all the blame on the leadership, when the average Nigerian also manifests the negative traits in members of the ruling elite? Would our leaders act with impunity if Nigerians have insisted on transparent and accountable leadership all these years? A little reflection on the failure of leadership in Nigeria, and in Africa generally, reveals that the problem is partly due to citizenry that is both unwilling and unable to demand from public officials, through creative activism, the highest levels of accountability in the discharge of their duties.
The case of Nigeria is compounded by ethnic cleavages and divisive religious affiliations, which are exploited by politicians for their own selfish interests.
There is no doubt that decline in adherence to appropriate values by our people is the fundamental provenance of the maladies afflicting our country. Through acts of omission and commission, the leaders have virtually decimated institutions and traditions created for the smooth functioning of society.
Again, it is impossible for any country to progress in the right direction when a critical mass of the population fails to act in accordance with the dictates of honesty, integrity, diligence, selflessness, compassion, and patriotism. This implies that the prevailing social character in any society determines its developmental trajectory.
However, social character is the concatenation of complex dialectical relationships between the dominant character traits of individuals in a community, which are usually embodied in social institutions. Therefore, for genuine social transformation to occur the intellectual, psychological and spiritual aspects of people’s lives must be transformed first – in other words, social transformation must be preceded by change in the mentality of individuals.
President Jonathan and his lieutenants seem not to understand that social transformation is a very demanding undertaking, which requires painstaking self-critical reflection backed by iron will to do whatever it takes to change old negative habits and replace them with new and better ones. It is not about pious speeches promising this and that, or explaining government’s “good intentions” for the people.
Concerning the barbaric activities of Boko Haram, Nigerians are still hiding their heads in the sand like the ostrich afraid to confront the truth squarely. What I have in mind here is ascertainable from answers to these questions, what kind of education are the average Muslim children receiving from their parents and teachers? From where do members of fundamentalist groups derive inspiration for their violent ideologies?
The answer is, ideas embedded in Islamic religious education. Children exposed to Koranic education in madrasas for many years without appropriate guidance tend to interpret the Holy Koran literally and fanatically, even in cases where a symbolic interpretation is most appropriate. Thus, in trying to tackle the problems posed by extremist sects like Boko Haram, it is essential to understand the ideology that motivates such groups and how it is inculcated into their members.
Of course, unemployment, poverty, and anger directed against an uncaring society in which safety nets for the underprivileged are disappearing are part of the aetiology of extremism and organised violence in Nigeria. Yet I believe that the fundamental cause all this is the kind of ideas, especially religious ideas, which parents, teachers and adults generally put into the minds of children, who then grow into adults thinking that what they had learned is absolutely true and cannot be questioned.
In other words, government officials and other people who ignore the centrality of religion in the activities of Boko Haram are just deceiving themselves. Some Muslims insist that terrorists who use Allah or relevant texts of the Holy Koran to justify evil are not true Muslims or that they are misinterpreting the scripture.
To repeat: Nigeria is in crisis, and there are ominous signs that if appropriate actions are not taken by government, things might fall apart irretrievably. It would be wrong to put all the blame on the leadership, particularly on President Jonathan, although as commander-in-chief his share of it is the biggest.
Nevertheless, as citizens of this country, we must begin to ask ourselves fundamental questions about the role responsible citizenship can play in building a strong, united, egalitarian and prosperous society, and what we can do to actualise it.
Douglas Anele
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