Going Back to Basics: The Past as Prologue (iv)

A part member of the Broadcasting Company of Northern Nigeria (BCNN) applied for a car advance and requested for an increase of sitting allowance.  Since the requests were not covered by existing policy, the matter had to be referred to the Premier who decided to reply the member directly:   “I appoint you and other […]

A part member of the Broadcasting Company of Northern Nigeria (BCNN) applied for a car advance and requested for an increase of sitting allowance.  Since the requests were not covered by existing policy, the matter had to be referred to the Premier who decided to reply the member directly:

 

“I appoint you and other people to serve on various Regional Boards with the firm belief that you will render useful service to your Compatriots, in other words, it is a sort of National Service.  The idea is by all means not for you to regard the opportunity as a money making privilege!  In this connection, I would like to inform you that I was made to understand that in the last meeting you insisted, quite adamantly, on the question of elevating members’ allowances.  This attitude will certainly not be of any credit to you, or us, in the eyes of the general public…  If your intention is to make money rather than helping your fellow countrymen, then the best course for you to take is to resort to trading or some sort of business which can quench your inordinate monetary thirst.”

American Example—In an attempt to muzzle the public service it has often been argued here that because of the presidential system in operation in the country, the role and character of the service will have to change to conform. But nothing could be furtherer from the truth.

Both America and Britain practice the same system of merit based public service. It was only after trying the spoils system with tragic consequences that the United States of America from where our presidential system was borrowed, imported and implanted the principle of the merit system from the United Kingdom in 1884.

Irrespective of the system in operation, there is no difference in the core values of public service – integrity, impartiality, objectivity, merit, permanence, accountability and independence. As the machinery for the achievement of the political and economic development goals of the nation, the role of the public service is the same and its characteristics remain the same irrespective of the system of government in operation.

Indeed, it was to this independence and the service quality of permanence  that former US President Gerald Ford referred to as he assumed duty while lauding the role of the US Federal Public Service in the aftermath of the difficulties occasioned by the Watergate scandal.  Ford made this observation:

“Whatever else, recent experiences have proved one thing about the Federal Government, it can continue to function and move ahead even under the most difficult circumstances.  This is due chiefly to the more than two million career civil servants who, day in, day out, give of themselves in a thoroughly dedicated and efficient manner to assure this continuity”.

Conclusion

Obviously, there can be no replacement for the past; and Nigerians cannot hope to see a return to past glory for their nation until they honour the past. As we can all see, our contempt for the past and disrespect for our past leaders and their ways have landed us in a political and socio-economic quagmire from which there is no hope for escape unless we change our ways.

While our past leaders spent their lives establishing and laying down the foundation of merit in our public system; we are spending ours demolishing their legacy. No wonder everything is irretrievably breaking down; and, as a result of this breakdown in the Public Service and, with it, in all our national institutions, the nation itself is slowly grinding to a halt. And the reason for this is clear enough.

We have painfully found out that the absence of merit and independence in the public service is the most effective key to unlocking the floodgates of corruption and accelerating the rate of the breakdown of national institutions. And once the gates are open, there is no stopping the torrent: it will most assuredly sweep everything that gets in its way.

And while we  must respect the past, we must also respect ourselves and learn to respect the will of the people as drawn up in the constitution made in their name, and be guided by that will as expressed periodically in elections in which the people freely cast their votes. The way to respect the past is by taking the right lessons from it; and the way to respect ourselves is by showing respect to the system and electing as leaders people who will lead us by example.

It was a direct result of the absence of leadership by example and the abandoning of merit that the custodians of public wealth found it easy to appropriate all of it for themselves; and they are today living in a world away and different from our own.

Their headache is treated in European hospitals, their children educated in American schools; their drinking water is bottled, their power supply from generators provided, maintained and fueled at public expense; and their traffic jam is cleared for them by the blare of sirens. They are in every way and in every sense totally divorced from the harsh realities of life and the many excruciating problems in present-day Nigeria, problems which they have signally failed to solve.

As we can see, the Nigerian problem is not in the economy; it is not in the politics or in the society—it is in us. And it will not change until we ourselves change. In order for us to begin the process of change, the future of this nation must be entrusted, as it was in the past, into the hands of people—politicians and civil servants—who will, in word and deed, and through self-sacrifice, lead us by example; and who will always exercise the leadership function in the public interest and for the public good.

We must therefore first bring about a most fundamental change in the way we do everything; and the first step in this long journey is to look back into our past and take what we will need; for, we must begin in the past—and go on to the future.

I started this lecture with a quotation from Chief S.O. Adebo. I will end it with other quotation this time from the preface written by Professor Wole Soyinka in a biography on Mrs. Francesca Emanuel, where he said:

“Today Francesca silky soprano evokes nostalgia for those days when work and leisure fused into one seamless process of creativity that defines the collective existence of a community that came to define itself around the impulse to simply create to express oneself in explorative ways within the artistic template. Does this sound like the familiar lament of old fogies like us, a lament known and scoffed at as the language of ‘the good old days’? Of course.”  “But look around and tell me if the present comes remotely close as a befitting replacement.”

I thank you very much for your patience.

Concluded