Leaders, readers, writers

CHUKS OLUIGBO

Robert Skidelsky, professor emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University, member of the British House of Lords and author of a three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes, in a recent article ‘Philosopher kings versus philosopher presidents’, shares how, during his recent meeting with Irish President Michael Higgins, he was struck by Higgins’ devotion to thought. Higgins had connected his newly launched “ethics initiative” to a book Skidelsky co-authored with his son, How Much is Enough? Money and the Good Life.

“Indeed, engaging with ideas is a passion for Ireland’s poet-president – one that more heads of states should take up,” writes Skidelsky.

He goes on to narrate how, in May, Higgins had told economics students at the University of Chicago that they were studying a deformed discipline, torn from its ethical and philosophical roots. Higgins, as quoted by Skidelsky, had said that “the recent economic and financial upheavals have thrown a glaring light on the shortcomings of the intellectual tools provided by mainstream economics and its key assumptions regarding the sustainability of self-regulating markets”, especially “largely unregulated global financial markets”, and had proposed a “critical examination of some of the core assumptions that underpin economics as it is currently taught in university departments across the world”.

“What other head of state,” asks Skidelsky, “would be able to pinpoint the deficiencies of economics so accurately, buttressing his arguments with quotations not just from Adam Smith, but also from Max Weber, Thorstein Veblen, and Jürgen Habermas?”

We can easily domesticate Skidelsky’s observation – and we can extrapolate it beyond just the head of state to include also state governors and all who present themselves as leaders of the people in today’s Nigeria. If we critically and sincerely answer the questions that arise, it will be clear why Nigerian is down on all fours and why it might continue to crawl on its underbelly for a long time to come – except a fundamental change occurs at the level of leadership. Leadership in Nigeria is mostly bereft of ideas, largely because our leaders don’t read. In the present dispensation, for instance, not a few Nigerians have had cause to ask the economic model the country has. On one occasion, someone answered, “Go ask your president.” To which some mischievous fellow retorted, “Does he know?”

In terms of ideas-driven leadership, Nigeria has never had it this bad. This country once produced, at various levels of leadership, globally acclaimed and respected thinkers and men of ideas of the stature of Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo. All you needed to do was pick any of the various papers or books written by them or listen to them speak and you would get a clear picture of their thought pattern, ideology, and leadership direction.

Here’s what we mean. “As I watched Obama form his economic team, I drew some inference about his ideology. Obama is an all-American, non-doctrinaire, pragmatist,” writes Chidi G. Osuagwu in a recent article ‘Obamanomics and economics beyond Cambridge’. How many Nigerian political leaders of today can we say the same about? I can count on my fingers.

Nigeria’s politics today is virtually all raw power and no brain. Today’s politician has bartered his thinking cap and, rather than rely on sound strategy and ideas to win him followership, he thinks of how to buy votes and pay thugs to steal ballot boxes. There are hardly any words on marble, even if they are not well-intentioned. Political parties have no clearly-defined ideologies; manifestoes are for the most part totally absent, and where they exist, they are sketchy, lack depth and rigour and are often adaptations of the immediate post-independence party manifestoes; instead of issue-based debates among aspirants to political offices, all we have are mudslinging, name-calling, thuggery, etc – in short, everything is tending towards blind men leading fellow blind men, and the country totters on the edge of a huge chasm.

“Higgins’ experience as an academic and his status as an acclaimed poet,” Skidelsky further writes, “undoubtedly give him an advantage over other heads of state, enabling him to hold his own with top thinkers in a way that few others can. More important, however, is his recognition that a political leader should also be a leader of thought and culture for his or her country – and the world.”

He refers to Ecclesiasticus 44:4, which says: “Leaders of the people by their counsels, and by their knowledge of learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent are their instructions.” “This is particularly important today, when public discourse in democracies is relentlessly demotic and academic work is increasingly specialized,” he adds.

In order to ascend to the plane of “philosopher leader”, therefore, in order to become, in the words of Skidelsky, “open-minded, culturally literate, and ideas-oriented”, a political leader must necessarily be an avid reader, for unquantifiable is the knowledge that is buried deep in books. And some go ahead to become writers – in order, as is desirable, to translate their ideas in black and white and leave a legacy for oncoming generations.

A handful of political leaders in the country have shown how ahead of peers an ideas-oriented leader can be. In the past seven-and-a-half years of his stewardship in Lagos, for instance, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola’s high intellectual acumen has reflected in the kind of leadership that he has provided in managing a complex socio-economic environment like Lagos. His broad exposure to issues beyond the narrow prism of his legal profession is evident everywhere in his clear understanding of leadership issues and his pattern of administration – and in his numerous paper presentations, especially his budget speeches since 2007. But it has not been all words and no do – pious pronouncements have often been backed by positive actions.

Similarly, as governor of Imo State from 2007-2011, Ikedi Godson Ohakim’s public speeches, whether they were written or ex tempore, showed a man who has been exposed to the world of thought and ideas through wide reading. He would eventually, in 2009, publish three books – Pushing the Limits, which describes his personal career and political philosophy; and The Courage to Challenge and Challenging New Frontiers, which are collections of speeches. He had earlier in 1994, a year after he served as commissioner for commerce, industry and tourism in Imo State under Governor Evan Enwerem (1992-1993), published The Marketing Imperative for Rural Industrialization. Why this broad exposure did not translate into better leadership for Imo State is a topic for another day.

In the meantime, as the 2015 general elections draw closer, and as Nigerians elect their leaders at the various levels of government, the concluding words of Skidelsky must provide a guide: “Democratic countries need symbols of the extraordinary if they are not to sink into permanent mediocrity.”