03 Jan 2006 |
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The sacred duty of the electorates is to go to the polls and vote for the most qualified candidates for political positions of leadership. Our recent democratic experience has shown that we need to do more than exercise this civic right of voting. There is a higher calling for the electorates. Now, we have a responsibility to define and determine whom we will elect as the next President of Nigeria in 2007. The Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the apex position of political leadership in the country and carries with it an aura of solemnity, awe, discipline, responsibility and accountability than we ascribe it or than the occupants have realized over the years. The task of managing the office is onerous but not menacingly impossible. We have heard in recent times that it is only one man that is qualified for this apex position. Is this proposition logical? Is it scientific? Is it benevolent? The ‘only one man’ proposition now manifests in the similitude of third term bid. Some believe that this is the direction of the present administration. Most of us believe that it is a diabolic speculation to divert the electorates from vigorously pursuing an effective transition in 2007. The Nigerian media has demonized the populace with its obsessive coverage of the third term speculation and given it a larger than life image. This speculation is toxic. The electorates are busy reacting. We should be proactive. We can get the government apologists and propagandists out of business if we pay less attention to them and get on with the task of preparing for the oncoming transition. The campaign for third term bid will wane with its brainwashing effect watered down if the media cease to pay attention to it. The electorates should be preoccupied with defining standards and determining expectations for the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and inviting competent Nigerians to vie for the office instead of the obsessive press coverage of the third term bid/debate/controversy/conspiracy. Our electorates must evolve a principle to confound this proposition. We must overwhelm the minority vultures that plunder our wealth pretending to be political leaders and drive them out of governance. Can you present logic to a madman? Can you argue with a man with a gun? Certainly you can achieve both with your majority and rationality. The electorates constitute the majority and if they unite behind a sound logic of governance, the minority political leadership will fall in line for good. We should create the presidency we want, a president who will be responsible and accountable to the electorates that elect him to serve the nation. We can do this through a comprehensive well-written job description/person specification of the occupant of the apex political leadership in the soon-to-be-vacant position of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The electorates can accomplish this process of selecting the best-qualified and most competent aspirant for the apex office through a systematic definition of the requirements for the office, including the skills, knowledge and other qualifications that aspirants must possess to perform at this level of governance. We need a job analysis, which would assist us to develop the written job description and prepare a person specification. This job analysis is a systematic investigation model for collating all information about the office of the President. The skills, knowledge and abilities required, duties and responsibilities would be determined through this analysis. A standard template for job analysis should provide information of job title, office/department, supervision/support required, job description highlighting major and implied duties and responsibilities, unique peculiarities and characteristics of the job, qualifications, experience and education requirements as well as mental and physical requirements. We will generate a job description from this analysis to define the duties and responsibilities pertinent to the apex office. Job descriptions usually will focus on what, why, where and how of the job. It describes the person expected to fill the job. It details the knowledge (both educational and experiential), qualities, skills and abilities needed to perform the job satisfactorily. The job specification provides a standard against which to measure how well an aspirant matches the office and will be used as the basis for voting for the President during the oncoming election. It is pertinent to state that job description is an advance overview of expectations serving as a guidebook for the occupant as well as basis for appraisal and assessment by the electorates. The more accurate and realistic the specifications of and skill requirements for the job, the more likely it is that the aspirant will be fit for the apex office and, therefore, be more competent on the job. Presidential candidacy chosen on the basis of the best person available is certainly going to be more effective than those chosen on the basis of political/sectional/religious interests, friendship or expediency. If specific job expectations are clearly spelled out, and performance appraisals are based on these expectations, the performance of the President of Nigeria will be higher and impact the lives of the electorates. Nigeria in the 21st century must have an existential objective as a nation. We must find this objective. Presidents will come with their various goals and objectives but these goals must align with the job description of the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The job description will provide a blueprint of the duties and responsibilities, a guide to getting the job done. It will be dispassionate, candid and explicit. It will describe what is actually needed to get the job done. It will set an unchangeable standard for generations of Presidents to come. This is only way that the occupant of the office can be efficient, confidentially discharge his/her duties and be accountable to the electorates. The job description of the apex office will be closely tied to the existential objective of the nation and it shall be the duties and responsibilities of the occupant of the apex office to execute this objective irrespective of his own campaign goals. With an effective job description, the occupant does not define the apex office as we have it today. The office defines the occupants. The job description sets the parameters of the office. Without a written job description, there are no boundaries, and the apex office will remain a set-up for failure. Most political leaders have failed in Nigeria because there is no effective job description. There is no effective appropriate feedback mechanism. Abuse is commonplace in governance and political leaders act above the law disregarding the judiciary because there are no boundaries to prompt accountability. I propose as an active member of the electorate the following job description. All members of the electorate should contribute to the evolution of the type of President that should govern us in 2007 and beyond. Our contributions should be both quantitative and qualitative. There is no idea that is stupid. There is a ‘sense’ in nonsense. All suggestions are welcome. At the end when we go to the polls to vote for presidential aspirants in 2007, these ideas, suggestions and recommendations would have assisted us to develop a mind frame of comprehensive job description, which will form the basis of eligibility for the apex office. Given that the minimum indicators like the job title and locations are clearly understandable we shall enunciate the qualifications and qualities of the aspirants to the apex position of political leadership in Nigeria as we approach 2007. The eligible candidate for the apex political leadership in Nigeria must be mentally sound and academically fit. Educational qualification must be at tertiary level. There is no point deceiving ourselves. Nigeria exists in a very complex and digitally inter-connected world. Darwinian doctrine of survival of the fittest still operates very strongly. Cold War ended. Berlin War came down. USSR collapsed. Communism faltered. Africa impoverished. Europe uniting. United Nations is busier than ever. Terrorism threatens to doom humanity. The best way Nigeria can compete in the comity of nation is to put her best brain in the position of its apex leadership. A moron is a moron whether he comes from South West, South East, South South or the North. We do not want a moron in the apex political leadership of our country. We do not need money-miss-road pot bellied fellow or a rascally gun-throttling general. We need an individual who is intellectually capable to decisively tackle the myriad problems facing us. We need a mentally sound person who is able to lead and assemble leaders in government. His certificates may be obtained from any where under the sun, but must be verifiable. We need a humble man of integrity. He is a man who can feel. He can understand. He can stoop to communicate flawlessly with the most wretched of the electorates and also rise to high heaven to confidently negotiate the destiny of his country among the most powerful leaders of the world. He will not sell his people. He will not trade them off. He will not throw them into any kind of slavery. The President we need is a self-made man whom the benefits of the office cannot corrupt. He is a white and black kind of fellow who will give his life and service to empower the electorates and preserve Black Consciousness, civilization and posterity. We tell ourselves when it is convenient that Africans are polygamists by nature. But in our search for a President for Nigeria, we need a husband of one wife. Did I hear you say, parochial? You should note that being a monogamist has nothing to do with race but signifies discipline, contentment refinement and culture. He is married to one wife, and in spite of other beautiful girls around, he sticks and is devoted to his wife and family. We need a disciplined gentleman who can control his libido and treats women with respect and dignity. Moral stuff? Yes. A morally bankrupt cannot give a nation like Nigeria ethics and morality. He does not use women as object of sex for fun, relaxation and entertainment. We acknowledge that sex and power has a connecting force and women are usually attracted to power. But we need a man who can appreciate this reality without degrading his office by abusing his marital vows. The credibility of a political leader can be affected if he is engaged in private behaviour that is immoral or inappropriate. The business of building the nation is an all-consuming task so the President cannot afford to indulge in illicit affairs even at his own spare time. Military officers in Africa are not tutored in the art of governance. No military officers, in retirement or serving should attempt the apex office in 2007. These military officers were too young when they ventured into government to appreciate that governance is for the common good of the electorates. This is why they have continued to mess up. All they know are hierarchies, orders and commands that even in the evening of life they still do not understand that governance is about people. Civil society is sharply in contrast to what obtains in the barracks. We do not need an ex-military officer or adventure-seeking serving officers as the next president of Nigeria. The question of their inalienable right to contest for political positions will be laid to rest if we have a truly democratic constitution and are mindful of precedence, history and posterity. The legacies of military leaders who have ruled Nigeria include the destruction of our institutions, pauperization of the electorate, flight of the intellectual class, elimination of the middle class, devaluation of our currency, destruction of values, ethics and morality, enthronement of corruption, rape of our constitution, economic vandalism, ethnic and religious wars, inept civil service, and interminable and expensive transition programmes. The next president of Nigeria will not be chosen on the basis of tribe, ethnic or religious affiliation. Effective leadership is blind to this selection bias. The bias only throws up mediocrity. Of course he will come from a family, a village and a religious affiliation but these things are inconsequential in his leadership of the over 300 divergent ethnic groups in Nigeria. The present apex political leadership is battling conflicting loyalties, roles and deliverables. It is not focused on the art of good governance. Sounds like a harsh criticism? The scorecard for good governance is a progressive change in the fortune of the electorate through the provision of an enabling environment and empowerment. To the extent that the electorates have not benefited from the alleged successes of the present administration, it cannot be scored to have done well. The next president shall be a builder. He will be a Chief Builder with the primary roles and responsibilities of building the Nigeria nation in both quantitative and qualitative terms. This building business must be measurable; it will not be in abstract or vague terms. When asked his deliverable for Nigeria, he would say “to build, build and build He will build because there is no distraction of tribalism, nepotism, ethnicity, gender discrimination religion and post-‘militocracy’ disorder. He will rebuild our economy, infrastructure and empower the electorates. He will stay in Nigeria to build Nigeria though the electorates. Leaders around the world will turn Aso Villa to a political mecca of the 21st century and will come seeking the secrets of success of building a millennium democracy in the heart of Africa. Babatunde Fajimi
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