The Log in Our Eyes, By Hassan Gimba

The trade of governing has always been monopolised by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.

— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Last week, we examined how certain leaders tend to overlook their inadequacies while scrutinising the failings of others. We likened them to individuals whose cerebral configurations had been exchanged with those of donkeys upon their ascension to leadership. Consequently, one may never succeed in restoring their cognitive faculties, no matter how fervently one endeavours to reboot their senses.

One such leader endeavoured to persuade his audience that Nyesom Wike’s appointment as a minister in an opposition party government was not an aberration, citing the precedent of 1999 when President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed several All Peoples Party (APP) chieftains to his cabinet.

In 1999, Obasanjo’s actions were predicated on the belief that politics should not manifest as a winner-takes-all scenario. Such a political ethos, whereby the defeated are entirely excluded while the victors reap all benefits, is a principal catalyst for political upheavals, particularly as no single party holds a monopoly on the most capable or patriotic intellects.

Thus, he formally invited the APP to nominate representatives for his cabinet, a hardly novel gesture. Two decades prior, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, as President of Nigeria under the National Party of Nigeria, extended a similar invitation to the other four political parties. At that time, the political landscape was composed of five parties: the NPN (which triumphed at the federal level), Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri’s Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP), and Alhaji Aminu Kano’s Peoples Redemption Party (PRP).

The pertinent question is, was the PDP officially asked to nominate any members into the current federal government, or did the President pick those who worked to help him snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in their states? This is why Wike is the only publicly known PDP member in the government.

It is either ignorance or sheer malice for an individual, particularly a governor, to excuse such an anomaly on the grounds that “Obasanjo” acted similarly without acknowledging the differing contexts surrounding each occurrence. Indeed, one can hardly wonder why Nigeria finds itself in its current predicament, with individuals at the helm who exhibit a disconcerting lack of political history or awareness of contemporary affairs.

This type of leadership, characterised by scatterbrained figures devoid of comprehension regarding Nigeria’s historical trajectory and indifferent to its future direction, has severely undermined the integrity of our nation through the degradation of its institutions.

Consequently, these leaders routinely subvert the Constitution and enlist like-minded, morally bankrupt lawyers and judges in their endeavours to obliterate the nation’s moral compass. The Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies, too, become complicit instruments in their hands.

I propose that our foremost course of action should be to uphold the Constitution as long as it remains in force, for it ought to serve as our grundnorm as a nation. To realise this aim, it may be prudent to incorporate a special module on morality and patriotism into our law school curriculum.

There exist instances where the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” should not apply, and lawyers would do well to disavow such notions, irrespective of the financial allure of a brief.

A struggling, average citizen who transforms into a multi-billionaire and establishes vast businesses after a few years as a minister, ought not to be permitted to deceive the nation with claims of that “innocence,” as we have frequently witnessed.

The framers of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria dreamed of a morally upright nation with leaders guided by the fear of God and their consciences. This is why they always ended with “So help me, God.”

When they said that a legislator who defects, for example, loses his seat, the issue of court pronouncements over such was not even envisioned because the framers thought they were addressing people who would come to office with integrity, conscience and the fear of God.

However, it is so sad to see party men who owe their ascendancy in politics to their party turn round and stab the party, not in the back as people of old with shame used to do, but in the chest looking eyeball to eyeball with the victim (in this case party). These days, we see people who have placed their inordinate ambitions and interests above those of the nation and its people. These people turn a blind eye to truth and decorum, glamorising undemocratic and progressive acts detrimental to democracy.

But the way we are behaving in this country, one day, a person will just be sleeping at home without participating in any electoral process but will go to the court and be declared the winner. And INEC will produce the result to back that up and the courts will affirm it with some clever verdict.

Yes. Not long ago, Tony Okocha, a former chief of staff to Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State, confessed in an interview with Channels Television that he, on several occasions, wrote election results in his office, handed it over to INEC and that result was announced as valid. And the security agencies have not grabbed him for confessing to a crime!

To get it right, we, especially those in authority, must remove the log from our eyes and strive to make the Constitution our guiding principle.