THE fact that a Dutch journalist and writer, Femke Van Zeijl, has had to write so authoritatively about the way we are and indeed the new trouble with Nigeria confirms Shakespearean quote that, “the eye sees not itself, but by reflection, by some other things.”
Certainly, Femke’s thesis that “widespread celebration of mediocrity” is the new trouble with Nigeria at all levels of the society is worth discussing as we are still celebrating the life and times of one of Nigeria’s few icons, Prof. Chinua Achebe who in 1983 noted that “the trouble with Nigeria” is leadership, that was beginning to breed corruption then. For quite some time now, most citizens have been concerned about how corruption has suddenly become a bad ulcer that thrives on the medications applied to it. Interestingly, this Dutch journalist has added a new dimension to our unending conversation on corruption as she notes that the new common enemy that “we the people” have to contend with is “widespread celebration of mediocrity”. But what our new researcher on Nigeria did not know is that this is not new at all. Femke did not know that the military government that midwifed the Second Republic transferred a culture of mediocrity to the new ‘democrats’ through the then ruling party, National Party of Nigeria (NPN 1979-1983). According to the records of primaries in 1978, there were six strong presidential candidates in the ‘truly national’ party then, including Joseph Tarka, Prof. Iya Abubakar, Dr. Olusola Saraki, Alhaji Maitama Sule, Alhaji Shehu Shagari and one other candidate. But at the Casino Cinema, Yaba, Lagos, convention venue of the party then, there was a tie between Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Alhaji Maitama Sule. It was said then that the ‘progressives’ in the party preferred Maitama because of his sophistication, experience and erudition but the ‘moderates’ that did not mind Shagari’s limitations then preferred him (Shagari) and that was how they mounted pressure on Maitama to concede to Shagari. Those who knew what happened then recalled that the then powerful Sokoto and other principalities were behind the pressure. And as we often say here, whatever happened to the Second Republic under the then President Shehu Shagari is history but well known.
On April 26, 2012, a famous scholar and cleric, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah who spoke at the second NLI Guest Speaker Forum in Abuja reflected on the political way we have been. Specifically, in the lecture entitled “Power without authority: Leadership crisis in Nigeria”, Bishop Kukah spoke extensively on a history of how widespread mediocrity has become “a fundamental objective and directive principle of state policy” of some sort in Nigeria. His words on a thread in the conversation:
“… I have spoken severally of the fact that Nigeria has consistently produced office holders but not leaders. The climate has not been favourable for the erection of a structure/platform (political parties) and the development of a process and culture for leadership recruitment and discipleship. There has been no continuity in party formation or membership.
“There have been no ideologies to draw from and so the political space has been thrown open to all kinds of species of humanity. We have watched spineless politicians migrate from one party to the other in search of bread and butter even while the game is on. We have watched new parties formed each time the whistle was blown at the end of the military era
“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may pride itself as being the largest political party in Africa. However, that is not to say it can pride itself as being the most disciplined or cultured party within West Africa. The PDP is not the ANC with over one hundred years of history, tradition and discipline. This is why we find Nigerian political parties often breaking the plates, glasses and tables after their political orgies.
“This is why party chairmen often have a very short lifespan. Indeed, if you calculate the number of chairmen of the party, including those in acting capacity, the lifespan of a party chairman in the PDP since we returned to democracy in 1999 will be less than two years! This is why the party lacked the moral authority to resolve its zoning arrangement and foisted an albatross around the neck of our nation.
“Coups and counter-coups, propelled by greed threw up different characters with very little preparation and questionable competence for managing a country of such complexity as Nigeria. We have had some really fine gentlemen and professionals but they were men who were trained for other things and not for political leadership.
“Thus, we have produced through different processes, men and women who have come to power and office largely unprepared. Most were clearly caught unawares by the offer to lead Nigeria and others were often shanghaied to power. Let me give a light- hearted, one liner popular narrative of our former office holders.
“The Sardauna who should have become the Prime Minister did not want to go all the way to Lagos as he was more interested in being the Sultan of Sokoto. He decided to send Tafawa to Lagos to be the Prime Minister. Neither Generals Gowon, Ironsi, Murtala nor Obasanjo had ambitions of taking up power in Nigeria as none of them was directly involved in the coups that brought them to power.
“They were what we might call circumstantial beneficiaries of power. Alhaji Shagari’s preference had been for the Senate. Both Buhari and Babangida, who directly plotted their ascent, were more engaged in settling personal scores and other forms of scheming than running Nigeria. Chief Ernest Shonekan, a very decent gentleman, was conscripted by Gen. Babangida to do Maigadi as a Head of Interim Government (HIG) while he, Gen. Babangida stepped aside hoping to come back to take his thing back. Abacha anchored his coming to power by the belief that it was his turn having saved Babangida’s skin in the Orkar coup and the belief that it was his turn to eat.
“Gen. Abdulsalam had been pencilled for retirement before Abacha’s death as we heard and Obasanjo’s jail term had not run its course before Abacha died and his prison trap was sprung. Babangida and his people were not ready and so they wanted Obasanjo to serve as a stop-gap, but they did not know that ‘Uncle Sege’ had branched to Damascus in the course of his trip from Jos to Yola Prison. He returned from prison, fully baptised and confirmed as Matthew. Yar’Adua, a decent man, had submitted his papers to teach Chemistry in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, at the end of his two terms as Governor.
“Goodluck was a beneficiary of the face-off between such powerful interests like Dangote, Otedola, El-Rufai who used Ribadu’s EFCC to blackmail Odili out of the race for the Vice Presidency (ask Segun Adeniyi for details). So, we have been a nation of leaders with good luck as individuals, but not much to be said for the leadership of the country.
“I have gone to all this length because we owe ourselves an explanation, we owe ourselves a proper reading of our history, we owe ourselves a narrative that can help the young men and women who, through the Nigerian Leadership Initiative (NLI) of which I am a proud founding-father, could and should aspire to lead Nigeria to begin to check out the facts about our country. In that way, we can avoid the mistakes of the past. Perhaps, it is due to the fly-by-night, conspiratorial scheming that have brought many people to power that has made it impossible for our former leaders to give us a narrative of their involvement in the affairs of our country.
“None of these great men came to office with any degree of mental preparation or experience in governance. The soldiers might have employed subterfuge and treachery to ascend to power, but as we now know, many of them came to power first to settle personal, ethnic or regional scores than to rebuild our nation. They had the best of intentions for the country but a nation as complex as ours, with huge resources but severely undeveloped, required more than just good men and good intentions. This is why the sight of oil and free money threw the military into wild ecstasy and the riches of the nation became a distraction rather than an opportunity for our office holders to deliver on the basics of good governance….”
Between “Mediocre” & “Mediocrity” in Nigerian English
Curiously, the word “mediocrity” appears to be one of the most abused, or wrongly used words by even scholars in Nigeria. All English dictionaries list the word as an “adjective”, a qualifier. But in Nigeria, most users have turned it to a “Proper Noun” and so whoever puts up a mediocre performance as a “mediocre”. There is no such word in any English dictionary. The correct word is “mediocrity”. Anybody that showcases a mediocre performance is called a “mediocrity”. Please check this up in your dictionary. That is the beginning of the war against mediocrity in Nigeria. Note Please: It is not correct to call anyone a “mediocre”. The correct word is “mediocrity”. The word mediocrity is used both as a “Common and Proper Noun”.
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