OUR LIFESTYLE IN OFFICE

 The memories of the literary piece by Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, always wet my appetite whenever I ponder on the tragedy of the sudden eclipse of the political brides of Nigeria at the advent of democracy into the country by the malfeasant of the subsequent national political actors in the subsequent republics.
It was this memory that spurred my thirst for this homily when I stumble on an article by Dapo Fafowora in The Nation of Thursday, July 30, 2009 titled: Adekunle Ajasin: “our lifestyle in Office”. The harder I resisted the temptation of revisiting this article, the more I got the urge to exhume it for moral rejuvenation for our new regime and a mental re-armament for the new occupant of our political space who may have lost their sense of history, mostly at this period of great expectation from government. In the said article, Fafowora extracted some portions of Papa Ajasin’s own words from a memoir published posthumously in 2003, where he treated many issues on Nigeria politics. The first extract reads: “I came into office (as Governor) in October, 1979 with a set of my own native dresses and left in December 1983 with same set of dresses; no addition and no subtraction. I had two personal cars at the time I assumed office but left without any: one had ended its serviceable lifespan with its use for the shadow elections of 1982, while the other was borrowed by a political associate with whom it ended up its lifespan. Until April 1982 when President Shehu Shagari was to pay me a visit in my personal house at Owo during his official visit to the state, the house (a modest story building) had remained in the same condition as it was when I assume office in Akure. I was compelled to give it a face lift for the reception of our president. Even then, I insisted on carrying out the renovation work at my own expense…example they say, is better than precepts. As the first elected Executive Governor of Ondo State, I believed that it was my responsibility to set a standard and establish a culture worthy of emulation by my successors in the management of public affairs”. This was the legacy bequeathed to us by the fathers of democracy in Nigeria but as it grows (democracy) numerically, so does the weakening of its working principles. So, as it is averagely true that there was no past government in Nigeria not rated higher than its successor, so truism also it is that the leaders of our early democracy are jewels of inestimable value. They were pathfinders, pacesetters and forerunners who never defecate on the chair of leadership. They were political vanguard whose virtue I could not stop ululating whenever I stumble on their power legacy. As a representative and participatory system of government, democracy has its own guiding principles and modules operandi that must come to play for it to produce desire result. They were the instruments used by our forbears to actualise their democratic dream. These principles such as probity, accountability and check and balances must always be patriotically applied so as to achieve democratic success. Interestingly, the ethics of upholding these values at this point in history was not limited to a race or a nation. It cuts across Nigeria as there abound testimonies of their noble exploit in each region. Worthy of mentioning among these myriad of legacies was their mode of living and attitude towards the acquisition of material wealth. They lived a spartan and urbane life as they held public property in trust for public use. History engraved it that Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa did not own a private car or private property in Lagos when he was killed in 1966. The Sardauna, Premier of Northern Region lived in an official residence with one official car. He did not have a single property in Kaduna save a middling bungalow in Sokoto, his home town. In the South, apart from the Ajasin’s example above, Obafemi Awolowo as the Premier of Western Region lived in his midsized bungalow at Oke-Ado Ibadan without even an official car, ditto to Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe who lived in either of his two modest houses at Yaba and Ikeja respectively. These leaders of repute lived majorly on the income from their private practices. Little wonder everything was easy for government to achieve: enough job for graduate, reduced crime rate and corruption because everybody had a good share of life’s basic necessities. If the biblical injunction that “a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit” is not to be faulted vis-a-vis our current leadership, will it be suffice to say that the leadership of old failed to replicate themselves? Or, where did we get it wrong, I mean how did we find ourselves here? This is because the leadership that took over from them is a replica of what Ayi Kwei Armah refers to in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born as “The black leaders with white soul” who according to him use their position for personal gain. Koomson and Estela like these leaders and their wives have grown so accustomed to luxury that they have become disensitised to human suffering. Their estates (which some of them even called ‘tomb’ if by mistake not big enough) and breakneck of cars represent their achievements and comfort. It is a sharp contrast from the old system where the number of public projects dictated the quality of achievement. This luxurious lifestyle in office has cause a corresponding exponential public misery such as unemployment, corruption and general public misfortune that must not be left untamed. On accountability and corruption check, Chief Ajasin as quoted by Fafowora in the article identifies kick-backs on contracts as one of the main sources of public corruption in Nigeria. According to him, “the commonest ways of acquiring illegal income by public office holders at that time were through bribes and contracts kick-backs. In the first republic, the common practice was the taking of 10 per cent of the contract sum as kick-backs, usually after the contract has been paid for, upon its completion”. To combat this fraud, Fafowora enumerated some procedures which Chief Ajasin inaugurated as a way of awarding government contract. They include: The abolition of any standing tender board but only to be set up when the need arose Contracts were evaluated by the government before invitation to tender was issue. No commissioner or official of the government was allowed to tender directly or indirectly for contracts award in the state and To ensure transparency, those submitting tender for contracts were invited to meetings when the tenders were opened. These were some of the measures taken by our early politicians to uphold the principle of accountability, control corruption, inflation of contract and kick-back syndrome which today has spread its tentacle of dominance to our polity, thereby legalising illegality! At this juncture of great expectation therefore, it is of quantum essence that our political space and the whole process of governance be completely overhauled, perchance some modicum of our founding father’s democratic dream can be realized. It is of extreme necessity that frivolous and careless spending at the corridor of power be jettison. The numerous ‘votes’ and ’allowances’ of public office holders should be reviewed and reduced as appropriate in addition with their retinue of office. The above models of probity, accountability and modest form of living by our democratic forbears are further recommended for the current government of Mohamadu Buhari. He and his ministers should show this example in their daily operations, compel the governors at the state levels to follow suit till it gets to local government chairmen and every government agency. Less value should be placed on foreign goods at the detriment of our own. Much priority should be placed on locally produced goods with favourable policies that will make them competitive even at international level. If by a way of making these to work, we can go the way of China by closing our borders to prevent the importation of goods. This is because uneasy lies the head that wears crown.   With the above reduction in our public spending, there will be money to revamp our ailing industries like Ajaokuta Steel Industry, Textile, Oluwa Glass and others which will provide employment. It will also check corruption and make democracy work again. We should learn that beauty cannot be found in sacrificing one’s principle in order to satisfy others against national interest as seen in The Man in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, who abandoned his principle to make his wife and children comfortable, and from Teacher that beauty cannot be found in isolation but a collective effort, hence a collective participation so as to get it right again. Also, as Obafemi Awolowo posits: “those of us placed in a position of leadership must be prepared to grasp the nettle if we unite in doing so, and if in addition, we set a worthy example and a moral on pace in probity, unselfishness and self-sacrifice, the people will follow, all too readily, in our footsteps”. Let this begin with you.

 Olushola O. Omogbehin writes from Abuja.