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Anyakwe Nsirimoun HURIWA Reports

U.S. Grant said it all: When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression.”  How can this be done within the rules when one is not in control of any coercive instrument, when the electoral process is fraught with deadly violence,  it may be asked. Looking out for men and women of principle to work with, within the bad political framework is one way. Not perfect missionaries necessarily. With our garb, pen and our own mission and vision alone in civil society, it would seem an endless journey.  Time comes when reality must be faced, if impact must happen.

This is where strategic positioning, advocacy and coalition building  comes in, handy. Building capacity, empowering those one could, with right knowledge and looking out for principled resource endowed leader-partners,  is one critical choice that must be made for the desired  result. Implosion in the oppressors camp is a prayer any critical activist-change agent prays for constantly, inspite of the partisan labeling, blackmail, that may ensue from known and unknown quarters.  It makes life easier, when perhaps God listens and grants the request.

Lord Acton's famous axiom, “Power tend to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” is as true today with the kind of politicians we have in Nigeria. The  extreme struggle  between power and principle in the hearts of our power pursuers is and always will be, a central part of the story, about why our system is not working as it should. If power is the great motivating principle in our pursuers of power, in Abuja, or any state capital for that matter, greed is its great organizing principle.

The behavior of our politicians are not dissimilar to those of drug-addicted patients. Power has been likened to morphine. It dulls the senses, impairs judgment, and leads politicians to make choices that damage their own character and the machinery of our democracy. More power it seems is required at every point in time to satisfy their addiction. As drug addicts sometimes stop at nothing to obtain their drug, including killing human beings,  majority of our politician  stop at nothing to gain access to more power. Principles, commitments, and even family relationships can be casually discarded, if they stand in the way of the object of their addiction. Reason, logic, and morality all go out the window in all-consuming blind drive to get a power fix.

Our politicians have abandoned the rule that elective office should become a career itself, instead of public service as a temporary sacrifice. The career intent has made it possible for privileged political animals who do not care about us, share our values, who do not understand our problems, who do not respond to our needs and wishes, who do not want our votes, to be elected; lord it over us with impunity. They justify their existence by spending what is collectively owned and regulate our lives against our wishes. They bloat their pay, increase their allowances and spend more on unbelievable items, and engage in corrupt activities geared towards their reelection by hook and crook.

If anything could combat these forces and turn the tide, it is principled leadership. Fighting the status quo requires not only guts but also hard work and determination; qualities that rapidly dissipate even in some civil society quarters, after a couple of years of struggle, without anticipated meaningful results. Rather than remain determined to change the status quo,  some who cave in, are forced to work for the bad guys for rewards of appointments or immediate cash.

We must get to the point where we begin to get politicians who are committed to principles to work with us. The principled politician would be one working for the next generation, not one working just for the next election. Being principled in this sense, does not mean politicians should rush into every crusade without analyzing the political environment any more than a general should send his troops into battle before studying the battlefield.  As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.”. Unfortunately most of our politicians jettison principle and govern according to what they believe will position them for the next stolen cash for sharing. They believe that being principled is fine, as long as you don't take any principled stands that could endanger your political survival.

We need politicians who will be willing to do what is in the best interest of the country while, at the same time, making wise political calculations about how to proceed, just as a general conducts reconnaissance before committing troops to battle. The challenge will remain not to allow political calculations, which always reveal risk, to cause you to abandon your principles and the will to fight for the right stuff.

Standing on principle while enduring a short-term loss can enhance your credibility and demonstrate your integrity, which are vital  during future actions. When people know you believe what you say and will act on those beliefs, they will eventually begin to trust you and develop confidence there from.

Winning by sacrificing principles, on the other hand, shows the public that one cannot be trusted. The ultimate rationalization is that to do good tomorrow we first have to maintain control today. Yet this tomorrow never arrives. As a direct result hope disappears. It is my firm believe that unless we recognize and embrace the challenge of principled leadership, moving forward may remain extremely difficult. The kind of leadership we have had over time, failed to give our people reason to hope.

Principled leadership is not simply about stealing elections and filling top positions in a government and institutions. It is not a quality restricted to the ambitious, social media blind-followers, the elite, the politically gifted or the highly educated. This type of leadership can be demonstrated by those who are marginalized, and poor – women and men, as much as those who have had all the privileges that society has been able to bestow on them. Obviously, not everybody in a leadership position is a leader. The absence of principled leadership has held our development in check, inspite of our enormous wealth. Our human and material resources have not been handled responsibly by reason of this critical absence.

We require leaders whose lives become their message and who humble themselves and sacrifice for the common good.  Those who  inspite of their past dispositions, are willing to change things for the better. Such leaders would help in ending government violations of human rights and restrictions on freedoms, such as freedom of  movement, assembly, expression,  access to  information and  to organize. Principled leadership could curtail corruption with impunity, which is the most corrosive aspects of deficit leadership that has become a way of life. It would provide the melieu in which citizens can be creative, productive and build wealth and opportunity.

Former governor of Rivers state, Chibuike Amaechi, fitted this quality somewhat,  in my view , following his recent sacrifices.  Given the ready disposition of the chaps who rule us, characters who deliberately subvert national progress with their calculating opportunism, this needed to be encouraged and nurtured. We need more of that standard of behavior which generates a consistency of disposition and stability of character, which will fast track a moral centre, consistent system of values. This will shift us from this life of opportunism, expediency and ad-hocism.  This will shift our system from the state of motion without movement, surge without dynamism.  It is noteworthy that in other climes, humans like us, live and die by their principles and convictions, instead of floundering along in expediency and shifty values. Martin Luther King, Jr; Ken Saro-Wiwa, of pleasant memory did.

The anger sometimes expressed against critical activists in our domain by politicians and others, stem from this disposition to engage in action, no matter whose ox is gored. Chibuike Amaechi may never be forgiven by diehards in Rivers and other parts of the delta region, for taking on his brother Goodluck Jonathan, for Muhammadu Buhari. That no doubt will remain his undoing in this part. The national climate of senseless compromise and corruption makes it impossible for such characters to be liked. Principled way of life is the direct opposite of primitive accumulation of wealth, ethnic jingoism, political violence and election rigging without limits. They are like human intrusion from hell, characters who do not take their religion,  brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, son-inlaws and ethnic kingdoms seriously. 

People who say “No” to unpatriotic compromise, engage in clash of wills, for a battle of visions are not celebrated. We saw that happen to Alhaji Balarabe Musa governor of old Kaduna state, and Iyorcha Ayu, as Senate president in this country. Impeachment was the reward for their stubbornness and refusal to bend their ideological convictions. What is celebrated  here, is if you accept the ultimate settlement, thereafter retire to a life of depraved opulence, because you behaved as expected. Principle is punished here, whereas deficit compromise is extolled. But for how long must we continue to hold down sustainable people centred development,   by preferring grandstanding in the quicksand?

We have an example of such terror-ridden compromise in the June 12 elections. Nigerians insisted and continue to insist that it is the  fairest, freest and most credible elections,  in whose annulment General Babangida, caused a major crisis for the entire country.  A powerful politician and former presidential aspirant decried the annulment at the time, declaring that it was fought and won “clean”. In about one week later, the same political heavy weight did not only change his mind, he joined the ranks of  those who battled against the sanctity of June 12. This kind of graceless compromise is the stuff  which most of us condone and clap for.

It happened in Rivers state during the recent  governorship elections. Sixteen or so governorship candidates had emerged under the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), for the primary elections.  They had insisted and quite rightly so,  that it was the turn of the riverine stock, to produce the next governor of the state. Thereafter, most of these jobbers engaged in interminable horse trading, fickle-minded deals, and senseless compromise. They shot the doors on the faces of their own peoples who looked up to them to stick in there, and assure their interests.  As it turned out, it was their selfish personal interests they were after, using the name of their unsuspecting poor brothers and sisters. Staple values like honour, truth, fairness, even self pride were precipitately dispensed with. The Judases of our time.

So when  Chibuike Amaechi,  stepped forward, and declared that we have a problem as a people: The system is not working, he realized and said so, inspite of the fact that the President was also a port Harcourt boy. We are cheating and undermining ourselves, and we need to turn things around.  For whether it is the NNPC not remitting what is expected to be deposited with the Central bank; or Mr. President rewriting democratic election formula, which says 16 is majority over 19; or bastardization of the national Constitution in saying that 5 persons, can truly impeach a Speaker in a legislative house  of 32 members; or sending a police commissioner to insult, intimidate and  attempt to sack an elected governor; and or creating a most tyrannical environment that made the closure of the  courts possible -  he needed to be encouraged,  not demonized.  

He could had avoided his rigid disposition,  begged for forgiveness and returned to the embrace of old friends.  He refused to bend from this surprisingly radical disposition. In so doing, I think, he did put the people first. The change we can see today,  which this strange disposition played a critical part attests to the fact. 

The participatory election that ensued. The change of baton at the centre happened as a direct reason of the fact that he stood and ready to fight with others from unfamiliar quarters. It also must be  added without equivocation, that as a governor for eight years, he evidently enhanced the welfare of fellow Rivers peoples, moved the state forward, not without some shortfall. The fact that at the tale end of their administration, the scattered Nigeria Governors Forum, following their disagreements on the deficit arithmetical formula,  gathered, reunited by way of setting the records straight,  is a vindication of a principled stand.  We will hold him to same principles, as we encourage and motivate him to insist on further radical dispositions that will contribute in healing  the political health of the land. After all, democracy without accountability, equals politics that lack principles, respect for the rule of law. Morning comes.

Concerned and active citizenry that practices the "civic virtues" is essential to a healthy democracy. "We the People" should be the most potent force in Nigerian politics, but are willing to act or just there? The only reason politicians at all levels represent themselves and special interests ahead of real long-term interests of the people is that we the people let this happen. The reality is that no improvements in our system will be made unless the public demands those changes and holds politicians accountable if they break the rules. Morning comes