POLITICKING IN NIGERIA: OLD DILEMMA, IN NEED OF CURE: ‘The Accidental Public Servant’ by Nasir El-Rufai

To most people, the masses resort to violence much too quick because of many reasons. Some of the explanations often put forward as causes fall under one general umbrella - lacks; lack of jobs, lack of education, lack of basic social amenities, lack of good moral, etc. It has become expected that at the simplest provocations, misunderstanding or communication break-down, there would be violence. The scene of such violence are brought to our homes on daily basis; we saw them in the many past violent riots and killings, the on-going Boko Haram insurgence, the fracas in Ekiti and River States, etc. All these are well documented by the newspapers, magazines, social media, radio and television.

However, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai author of the book ‘The Accidental Public Servant,’ added a most insightful insider expose to why and how the state of affairs has been politically hijacked and perpetuated. He writes; ‘…Obasanjo encouraged a variety of gambits toward his aim; put one ethnic group against another, one religion against another, one gender against another, northern group against one southern group, one northern group of one religion against another northern group of another faith, get the Niger Delta representatives to say they wanted 50% of oil revenues…’ Although, he says these were conjectures; ‘allegations,’ and ‘rumoured shenanigans,’ truth is, it was a side we all have long suspected. The political cult kept the political manipulative genie cocked, sealed and tucked away and had everyone member’s lip sealed but the author, not only broke the code, but name, name.

So now we know, and can safely conclude, in hindsight, that the political class have used divisive method to maintain political power and kept the masses, their puns, locked in the killing field, in perpetual brutal fights while they dine and wine on their graves. Violence, politically has been a sanctioned mechanism for resolving disagreements which over time, now has infiltrated every aspect of the society, including, the family. And, now the secret is out, if we still don’t do anything to wrestle back, political order, the escalating violence may one day consume us all.

I think Nigeria has the author to thank. Why? Because revelatory books like ‘the Accidental Public Servant,’ are what Nigeria needs as good exploratory tool for public reorientation, wake-up call and alarm clock to the possibilities of evils locking at every of our dark allies. El-Rufai, is a rare Nigerian politician in a different way; only a handful of them can shows themselves as fallible and human. A good example of this is when he writes; ‘…or we could take a third option “sidon look.” Remain in government, keep out of the radar, pretend neutrality towards the third term project, or even perhaps indicate benign support privately to Obasanjo, though must not be actively engaged in anything to do with it. This option enables us to keep our jobs…’ when I read this, I thought, God! This is one self-seeking, selfish, untrustworthy, back-stabbing, lily-livered guy. I felt so wound-up I even posted this on my Facebook page. But this did not put me off reading and then I came on where he writes; ‘…they all did a great job, were courageous and took great risks to openly oppose the third term project…’ and here I thought, wow, this guy is effectively saying, it takes courage to do what these other guys did, which by my interpretation meant, he and his group as oppose to that others, lacked courage. I think that was where he really got my attention, I mean, how many politicians would openly admit or adduce to such fallibility?

From then on, I felt, maybe I was too quick to be judgmental, though, I should not have bothered because, towards the end of the book, he reaffirmed what he had alluded to earlier, that he is ‘not sensitive to people not liking …’ him. What else? Yeah, what again endeared him to me was, when on p442, he heard that Nuhu Ribadu, whom he says is his brother and bossom friend did exactly what he, the author did to Obasanjo by going behind his back to come into some arrangement with the Action Congress to be their flag bearer, he took it calmly, never got angry or blame Nuhu, instead he carried on as nothing was amiss ‘…and awaited Nuhu’s briefing as I was certain there was some explanation for it, if at all true.’ As far as I was concern, this shows the man as not only being understanding to the tenet of “sleeping with strange fellowship” of politics, but he is truly not a man of double standard. So, his decision to take side against his boss can then be seen within the context of the logic that he chose to pitch his tent with the bigger interest of the nation, against the narrow, self-seeking and selfish importunacy of his boss. This he made clear when he writes, ‘…the opposition to Obasanjo’s tenure extension plans was vehement, even violent. Nigerians of every political, religious and ethnic persuasion were dead set against it and very angry at even the thought of it….I have confidence in, the wisdom of crowds. If there were ten of us in the room and nine of us agreed on a point of view, I got on with implementing the majority decision and did so with a very clear conscience.’

‘The Accidental Public Servant,’ showcases Nigeria politics to be a game, a sport of compromise. All comers are accepted into the club only if they fall in-line; prepared to trade off; which meant to bribe and be bribed, to dance to whatever musical tune the godfathers’ play, to have all political post filled by cronies, award contracts based on connections, etc. And in such close-knit patriarchal steered set up, new comers cannot succeed except they fall inline. But few like El-Rufai, according to the book, who refuse to to-the-line were quickly cast aside or tolerated, but marked as pariah and targeted for retaliations at opportune times.

El-Rufai describes the Nigerian system from a personal point of view, ‘…I really do not believe there is such a thing as a corrupt country; it simply is a matter of incentives and absence of sanctions. I have seen many British, Italian and American citizens who have come to Nigeria and were they to be judged strictly on their corrupt tendencies and actions, one might easily then think they were born in Nigeria, which proves that environment trumps race or ethnicity anytime. They conduct themselves simply in response to the incentives they find, a person looking around the system and consciously asking, “what can I get away with?” The reason people are more honest in one society than another is because there is a very high chance of being caught and sanctioned somehow, for dishonesty. In Nigeria, the unfortunate verdict seem to be that if you are dishonest, not only is there very little chance of getting caught, there is a very high chance of being rewarded with senior appointive or elective positions in politics or public service, honoured with chieftaincy titles, and with the praise and respect of one’s community.’ This, the preceding quoted passages and many more other shenanigans in the book, is the political tradition played out in today’s Nigeria polity and major problems dogging Nigeria development and growth. The book shows El-Rufai to be an optimist, though. It portrays him very confident that Nigeria can be salvaged by the combined effort and increased number of good resource outsiders, whether politicians, technocrats or others, within and outside Nigeria, who have been locked out of the present political arena because they do not have the requisite inclusive attitude to belong and fall in-line  

It is clear, in summation, that ‘The Accidental Public Servant’ arrows the absence of moral, lack of leadership, bad decision-making and cultural indiscipline, among others as the features that has marred, distorted and remains the canker worm decimating the foundation of the Nigerian social structure. And, inferring from the painstaking documentation and presentation of his stewardship, first as head of Bureau of Public Enterprises and later, as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (BPE), the panacea to resolving the Nigerian national imbroglio will be reversing all that had gone wrong; good leadership and leading by example, being principled, obedience to all rules and laws; following laid-down procedures, self-discipline, hard work, and having the fear of God.