[dropcap]I[/dropcap] am not at all sure if a persistent subconscious inability to come to terms with the knowledge that I am over fifty years of age is peculiar to me. Why is it that the fact of this advancing years prey on my mind all the time? It is made all the more perplexing by the fact that the biological age progression; the life and death cycle; is the most basic natural occurrence-to which we should therefore be most readily adjusted. Does this disturbance fall under the rubric of the notorious imprecisely defined mid-life crisis or perhaps it is a remorseful nagging sense of underachievement, is it the fear of the inevitable end of all mortals?
This obsessive attachment to youthfulness was reignited at the 80th birthday celebrations of President Olusegun Obasanjo at Abeokuta a week ago. It was the reason I readily spotted that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was the youngest amidst the cast of luminaries at the high table. Come speech making time, it was his turn to bestow a eulogy on the celebrant. I had really not have the occasion to witness Osinbajo speak at a public function before or maybe I never bothered to pay heed. Maybe I now paid special attention on account of his new status as acting President who has attracted considerable curiosity on account of the unique circumstances that had thrust him into public glare.
The truth is that he gave a world class performance and commensurately roused a standing ovation especially from the below 60 years demographic segment of the audience. In addition to his quite impressive resume (he became a law professor at thirty two years) and on the job performance rating, you could not help but ponder that here is another indication of the possibility that this nation is capable of attaining-if only we would let it. Where I got it wrong was my projection of Osinbajo as somewhat belonging to the younger generation-by any standard, it is wrong headed to ever think of a 60 year old man as youth. And this misperception can only be down to my phobia of getting old.
Nonetheless, it is true that there is a distinct generational character and perspective to the problem of political leadership succession and recruitment in Nigeria-that has impacted negatively on governance. We have had a retarded and warped growth and development of political leadership succession; and it is the reason we will continue to experience the novelty of late political bloomers like Osinbajo-until the generational vacuum in political leadership is sufficiently bridged.
To put this warped generational character in context, all we need do is take a good look at the political career of the birthday celebrant. Forty one years ago in 1976, Obasanjo became the military President of Nigeria at the age of 39. He came back in 1999 as elected civilian President at the age of sixty two and served in that capacity for eight years. Similarly, incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari was appointed military President of Nigeria on December 31st 1983. He returned thirty two years later as elected President in May 2015 at the age of 72. Without any familiarity with Nigeria, any average political interpreter can immediately discern something peculiar about the political development of Nigeria in this information. And it was on account of my own familiarity with Nigerian politics that I once offered the following observation on the problem of political leadership succession in Nigeria:
‘A compelling character of President Ibrahim Babangida’s protracted transition to civil democratic rule programme from 1985 to 1990 was the recognition of the need to cultivate a civilian political leadership recruitment and reproduction-hence the official propagation and prioritisation of a ‘new breed’ inheritor class. The Babangida ‘new breed’ novelty anticipated the Progressive Action Movement, PAM, by several years. PAM was the brainchild of a few of us which subsequently blossomed to include Pastor Tunde Bakare, HRM Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Mohammed Adoke,, Dangiwa Umar, Olisa Agbakoba, Segun Awolowo, Toyin Fagbayi, Babafemi Ojudu, Femi Fanikayode, Opeyemi Agbaje, Makin Soyinka, Nike Ransome-Kuti and a number of other public notables. PAM was conceptualised as a response to the failure of the political system to fulfil the role of continuous and regular leadership recruitment into the civilian political class-to assume political succession from one generation to another’.
‘There was an emergent generational gap and vacuum-to whose remedy we addressed ourselves. We intended ourselves as a kind of political nursery for preparing and producing a successor class at the shortest possible time. As it were, the major indication of this systemic failure was the recycling of political leaders rather than a renewal with successor generations. Conventionally the role of leadership recruitment into the political system is that of the political parties. The poverty of the performance of this role is self-explanatory in the non-existence of political parties for the better part of the period spanning 1960 to 1999’.
‘The political party system and the legislative institution are the most conspicuous casualties of military intervention in the governance of Nigeria-as elsewhere. The more protracted the rule of military dictatorship, the more impoverished the political system and the attendant roles of the party system especially leadership recruitment. Unlike the political system, and to underscore the point, is the stark contrast to the Nigerian economic sector which has witnessed progressive and periodic renewal and turnover of the public and private economic sector leaders. Many major contemporary economic leaders were either not born or were toddlers when people like Adeyemi Lawson, Michael Omolayole, Grema Mohammed, Mai Deribe, Gamaliel Onosode and numerous others held sway’.
In a manner of speaking, the chicken seems to have, once again, come home to roost in the present political juncture of Nigeria. The circumstances of an adjudged below par performance and the unfortunate health crisis that has kept Buhari away from his duty post-as backdrop to the impressive holding forte of his deputy, Osinbajo), speaks directly to the crisis of political leadership succession in Nigeria. Before going any further, I hasten to empathise and sincerely wish President Buhari quick recovery. As well known, Buhari is not my cup of tea but once he was legitimately elected the President of Nigeria, it is in the enlightened interest of all of us to wish for his success in that office, inclusive of his good health. It is a platitude to say that his success as President is the success of Nigeria-‘since we have no other country to call our own’.
Nigeria is indeed in a sorry state and this reality daily dawn on us with the subtlety of a cascading ton of bricks-be it (for instance) in the form of desperate economic situation of sundry individuals who have fallen off the cliff of the economy or in the ever tendentiously volatile political degeneration. Yet things could have been worse, much worse and so we still have cause to thank God for little mercies.
There is nothing unusual in a 74 year old falling sick and indisposed, what is wrong is the wilful refusal to acknowledge this truth and utilise the logic to act in the best interest of Nigeria in the first place. There is no better illustration of the rigorous physical demands of office on any incumbent Nigerian President than the characterisation provided by Obasanjo the other day-to the effect that the Presidency of Nigeria is a 25 hours, seven days a week job.
Equally wrong is Nigeria being hidebound to the poverty of choice inherent in the recycling of political leaders who are congenitally wedded to the inglorious Nigerian past-of fragmentary and reactionary power politics; of the civil war division of Nigeria into the proprietorial conqueror class and the conquered rebellious tribe; the belief that the highest possible accomplishment of political leadership is the fanatical commitment to the preservation of Nigeria in the distorted form it was bequeathed by the outcome of the civil war; of criminalising any advocacy of a structural-functional review of a terminally ill political status-quo.
What can really prove exasperating about Nigeria is that a potentially successful governance of the country is no rocket science and this simplicity is what the regency of Osinbajo has brought to the fore. It is the elementary fact that the missing link and most crucial ingredient of society management is the goodwill of the citizens-more so in a cleavage and conflict ridden polity like Nigeria. It was Dangiwa Umar who recently proffered the insight that rather than plunging Nigeria back into debt peonage of the magnitude of a thirty billion dollars loan, a debt free alternative and ready reprieve of Nigeria’s economic crisis reside in winning the goodwill of the Niger Delta region; that fostering a goodwill induced atmosphere of peace in the Niger Delta portends the multiplier effect of securing the much desired boost in oil production, hence a substantial uptick in Nigeria’s revenue stream.
At any rate, with or without economic utility, all parts of Nigeria should be cuddled by anyone accorded the lofty privilege of presiding over our affairs-regardless of their partisanship. This prescribed charm offensive is even more compelling against the background of the propagation of the discriminatory doctrine of according preferential treatment to supporters. Not sparing a moment to pay solidarity visit to the alienated Niger Delta region and threatening to meet out the Boko-Haram treatment to the insurgents in the oil rich region is certainly not the way to go. Whether it is his own initiative or he is undertaking the public relations outreach at the behest of his principal, Osinbajo has done right by Nigeria. There is no better way to mark his 60th birthday than this recognition and it is meet and proper to wish him a happy one.
STOP PRESS: And then the duality principle struck again. As we celebrate one, it has equally become our lot to mourn another. The tragic news is that the most promising life of Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo came to an abrupt and cruel end days ago. There is no good way for a 57 year old to die but the manner of his death was particularly vile and irksome. The consolation is that he lives on in the legacy of his remarkable intellectual and professional attainment. What a waste! Fare thee well my good friend.
Akin Osuntokun is a veteran journalist and a columnist with Thisday, there this article was first published.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
