By Jide Ajani
In a June 16, 1902, letter written by then American President Theodore Roosevelt, to Senator George F. Hoar, discussing the possibility of supporting the Filipinos should they decide on self-government, this view was expressed:
“Now I do not want to make a promise which may not be kept. Above all things, I want for myself and for the nation that there shall be good faith…. I ask you to believe that after much painful thought, and much groping and some uncertainty as to where my duty lay, I am now doing it as light has been given me to see”.
“Now I do not want to make a promise which may not be kept. Above all things, I want for myself and for the nation that there shall be good faith…. I ask you to believe that after much painful thought, and much groping and some uncertainty as to where my duty lay, I am now doing it as light has been given me to see”.
Here was a man, a powerful man, expressing utmost desire for “good faith” and discharging his responsibilities as “light has been given me to see”.
In Nigeria since independence, virtually every Nigerian leader had distanced himself from good faith. At every turn of the road, Nigerian leaders had professed very lofty, seemingly over-bloated and some times confusing clichés that creates great expectations but delivered on nothing. Yet, in times of great depression, a people needs a leader to push them and grab them by the scruff of the neck to get going, persevere more and remain focused on the goal of development.
With a promise to deliver, President Goodluck Jonathan may have hoisted the flag of expectations of Nigerians on the paradigm of change with his TRANSFORMATION AGENDA. This is the latest chorus by appointed public office holders in Nigeria.
In times past, the long suffering people of this country have been inundated with confetti of clichés – some even better sounding – there was Low Profile, Operation Feed the Nation, OFN; Austerity Measure, Green Revolution, Counter Trade, Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP; Seven Point Agenda, the list is endless. You are then left to wonder why, with all these agendas, Nigeria is still backward.
Lack of good faith!
Narrowing it down to this Fourth Republic, good faith has been in short supply. And it did not start with President Jonathan.
Narrowing it down to this Fourth Republic, good faith has been in short supply. And it did not start with President Jonathan.
In his maiden address, President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Wednesday, May 29, 1999, saw “the values of justice, equity, fairness, accountability and transparency as fundamental tenets of our creed, because I believe it is the surest way we can build the country and the community of our dreams.” However, rather than take steps towards building that country of “our dreams” Obasanjo allowed quasi-pettiness and a self-conceited approach to governance shape his utterances and actions.
This, in spite of the massive energy he deployed to serving Nigeria. Lack of good faith!
There was the need for an Electoral Act in 2002. Between Obasanjo and the Senate leadership, clauses were smuggled into the yet-to-be signed bill, leading to an uproar in the land before the clauses were eventually discarded. Lack of good faith!
There was the need for an Electoral Act in 2002. Between Obasanjo and the Senate leadership, clauses were smuggled into the yet-to-be signed bill, leading to an uproar in the land before the clauses were eventually discarded. Lack of good faith!
Between mid-2002 and January 4, 2003, Obasanjo and his deputy, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, plunged the polity into chaos because of personal ambition. Lack of good faith!
Obasanjo convened a national conference in 2005 but it turned out that he had an agenda embedded. Lack of good faith! An attempt to amend the 1999 constitution suffered a set-back on account of tenure elongation and Obasanjo’s Third Term agenda. Lack of good faith!
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential primary threw up Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a man drafted into the race by Obasanjo, junking the likes of Peter Odili, and other contenders including Atiku. Lack of good faith! Obasanjo again imposed Jonathan as Yar’Adua’s running mate, not for any known populist considerations but just so a ‘Yes Man’ from the South would tag along with another ‘Yes Man’ from the North, in the forlorn belief of Obasanjo that he could continue to rule by proxy. Lack of good faith!
Yar’Adua took ill, was flown abroad, yet, no administrative transmission of power was engaged; instead, all known earlier attempts to get his deputy to take charge were blocked by Yar’Adua’s wife and ‘boys’. Lack of good faith!
Jonathan eventually became President but he repudiated, within four months of Yar’Adua’s death, an earlier ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with some leaders of the North that he would not seek the presidency in 2011. Lack of good faith – in fact, the arguments on both sides of the zoning divide demonstrated the height to which bad faith could rise.
It is 17 months since Jonathan was elected on his own steam as President, but he publicly lamented recently that insecurity has changed his focus of governance urging Nigerians to overlook his shoddiness as a leader, adding that, he needed more time. Lack of good faith!
The removal of the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, would lead to greater things, so said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy; but she did not inform Nigerians that there was massive fraud going on in the subsidy management regime. Lack of good faith! The House of Representatives set up a committee to probe subsidy funds but a member of President Jonathan’s Economic Management Team, Femi Otedola, and the Chairman, House Committee on Subsidy Funds Management, Lawan Farouk, got enmeshed in a bribe-for-extrication scandal. Lack of good faith!
The removal of the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, would lead to greater things, so said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy; but she did not inform Nigerians that there was massive fraud going on in the subsidy management regime. Lack of good faith! The House of Representatives set up a committee to probe subsidy funds but a member of President Jonathan’s Economic Management Team, Femi Otedola, and the Chairman, House Committee on Subsidy Funds Management, Lawan Farouk, got enmeshed in a bribe-for-extrication scandal. Lack of good faith!
Worse, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Managing Director and CEO, Access Bank, whose bank is known to have links with petrol importation business, was appointed by President Jonathan to head two verification committees on the self same subsidy funds management and determine who stole what amount of money (Read conflict of interest). Lack of good faith!
A crude explanation of what passes off as leadership in Nigeria would be jamba ra fun jamba ta, (which translates into fraud has procured something at the behest of fraud for fraud to re-sell fraudulently) – it is all about fraud because of the absence of good faith.
