Speaking Truth to Power: ‘A Letter to Mr President.’  – Olu Ojedokun- Ph.D. -

Mr President, permit me to begin this letter with a series of confessions.  I belong to a generation of Nigerians fed on hope and promise, but now fed up.  I belong to those who benefited from an exclusive government sponsored education but now left bereft.   I hail from an era of wealth and abundance when Nigeria had an ‘excess’ of petrodollars but have seen no impact.  I was conceived by parents who were a select and advantaged group in Britain in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece but remained ensconced abroad.  I am part of a group of Nigerian students, who at the Universities were steeped in the struggle for a better life against successive military regimes but failed to see any dividends. 

The confessional journey has driven many others including myself into an urge, a desire to be part of those who speak truth to power.  Speaking, because in speaking brings the possibility and hope that our words will transform our own dear motherland.  I also speak because I believe that the real court of power resides not just in our libraries and in our classrooms and in our laboratories but ultimately, in the minds of those whom we might enlighten.[1]  In speaking I realise that a single, seemingly powerless voice, that dares to cry out the word of truth and to stand behind it with all of his/her person and all his/her life, ready to pay a high price, has, surprisingly, greater power, though formally disfranchised than do thousands of anonymous voters in Nigeria.

Mr President, these urgings are so powerfully situated within me causing irritations enough to bring constance to my speaking to your government.  I crave some indulgence as I seek to address this in further detail in the next few paragraphs.

Please forgive me for I had to borrow extensively from other speakers of truth because of the potency their speaking brings to a situation such as ours which seems barren, devoid of hope and littered with corruption of the grand scale.

Today, I will draw from some of Jesse Jackson’s words.  It is quite evident from my narrative above that Nigeria like many other nations is very far from perfection.  Mr President, It is obvious that you have an imperfect mandate and you run and imperfect government.  I accept that like many of our people I am imperfect, yet, I believe that in Nigeria today, you, the ‘servant leader’ and by adorning this ‘title’ have called yourself to a ‘perfect’ mission.  The mission of feeding the hungry; to clothing the naked; to housing the homeless; to teaching the illiterate; to providing jobs for the jobless; and to choosing the human race over the corruption race.

My generation, the independence generation of the 60s did not choose the age or circumstance in which we were born, but we believe that through the right leadership we can transform the age in which we were born into an age of enlightenment, an age of jobs, and peace, and justice.  

So where do you come in Mr President?  You enter the frame precisely because it is only a genuine leadership at the heart of your government, that intangible combination of gifts, the discipline, information, circumstance, courage, timing, will and divine inspiration that can lead us out of the cul de sac of crisis in which we constantly find ourselves.

Your leadership still has the opportunity to begin the mitigation of the misery of our nation, compounded in the last eight years by the Generalissimo and fellow ‘comrades in arms’.  I do believe that leadership in Nigeria can still part the waters and lead our nation in the direction of the Promised Land, that leadership can lift the boats stuck at the bottom. 

But, Mr President, you must realise that history teaches us that leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.

Yes in Nigeria we have had democracy of some sorts with our own unique narrative, but General Obasanjo more than anyone has taught us that democracy only guarantees opportunity, not success.  Democracy guarantees the right to participate, not a license for either a majority or a minority to dominate.

Mr President, it so tempting to see your own brand of ‘servant leadership’ as parading scapegoats or to seek refuge in reaction rather than to see it as one with the power of possibilities, possibilities to make progress and transforming the lives of millions of dispossessed Nigerians.   

Mr President, I have heard that "real leadership" is defined as "the willingness to talk truth to power." and I suspect that is the crux of what am trying to articulate.

The first year of tenure is fast approaching, not much progress yet but it is not fool hardy to hope you can help us change the narrative, that you can change our direction and make us the masters of our own destiny, restoring the unfulfilled promise of a generation.

The writer is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and previously affiliated to the Law Society of England and Wales .

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 06.04.2008 20:17