Between Awolowo’s evergreen prescriptions and Jonathan’s moral bankruptcy, By Adeolu Ademoyo

President Jonathan closed his Nigerian argument last year with his claim that  “attitudinal issues” and not corruption were responsible for Nigeria’s problem. General Obasanjo on the other hand closed his in 2012 by claiming that Nigeria would be great when we have “good leaders”. Coming from two presidents –current and past present, these are sad autobiographical statements that raise serious ethical issues about our past and present leadership, members of the middle class and elites.

However, the positive insight is that given the meanings of “good” and “attitude” as ethical concepts, both President Jonathan and General Obasanjo have inadvertently moved -though tepidly- closer to the core of our primary problem. And that problem is the moral failure of political and social leadership in Nigeria.  In modern societies, the ethical is everything in governance.

A moral failure expresses itself in the failure of moral will of the leadership and the lack of the moral in the nation’s social policies for good governance. Thus, leadership-talk in governance or attitude-talk has to be understood within the context of ethics and moral will in the governance of a nation.

Therefore, for practical purposes, let us look at the moral thought of one of the founding fathers of our nation on the ethical nature of a constitution as a governing tool for a modern, civilized and democratic Nigeria.  This will help readers to appreciate the enormity of the ethical roots of the moral failures and moral deficit in governance, which President Jonathan and General Obasanjo 2012 closing arguments inadvertently helped to center.  It will also show the path which members of Nigerian political leadership-which include President Jonathan and General Obasanjo-know but which they refuse to tread.

Also, this reminder will make us less pessimistic and  energize us to help our country move on in 2013 and beyond. It will also show that Nigerians are not political orphans. In other words, we do not need to look outside Nigeria for solutions to our nation’s problems. We only need to re-read the founding thoughts of the founding fathers and mothers of our nation and use relevant parts of their thoughts for our contemporary needs.

I am talking presently about the moral and social thought of Mr. Obafemi Awolowo. He thought, reflected and wrote in 1966. Re-reading Mr. Obafemi Awolowo’s moral and social thought one would see how these prefigured and pre-dated the EFCC and ICPC (our more contemporary moral brigades) in details, clarity and relevance for a modern Nigerian democratic and civilized society.  Mr. Awolowo and all our founding fathers and mothers are relevant because they were no armchair critics. In engaging our problems, they dirtied their hands so to say.  Therefore, their failures and successes ought to be relevant for us in 2013 and beyond.

In articulating his moral vision, Mr. Awolowo called attention to what routinely and normatively happen in civilised democracies and argued thus: in civilized democracies “Ministers and other persons, holding positions of public trust, are left in their deliberate judgment to observe the rules of discipline laid down in the code. In other words, it is up to public men to determine when they believe they have offended against any rules, and to take swift steps to invoke appropriate conventional sanctions against themselves… but here in Nigeria, such sense of honor as is exhibited by public men in Britain and in most civilized countries is unknown. Public men will stick to office after they had committed the most heinous breach of public morality…”(Obafemi Awolowo, 1966, pp114-119).

Please note Mr. Awolowo’s reference in his moral vision for a civilized modern Nigeria. He implied an ethical categorical proposition for good governance that:  “X, a minister or President is left in his/her deliberate judgment (my emphasis) to observe the rules of discipline laid down in the code…it is up to public men to determine when they believe they have offended against any rules, and to take swift steps to invoke appropriate conventional sanctions against themselves…(my emphasis)”

Awolowo’s notion of  “deliberate judgment” has a history and antecedents in the study of ethics. It also has a simple name. It is called “moral agency” in a leader and in humans who are considered as persons and who consider themselves as persons. It is that “moral agency”, that deliberate judgment in persons that triggers a corrupt person to morally sanction himself or herself even before society’s sanctions. In other words, if Mr. Awolowo’s claims are correct, members of our ruling, social and economic elites which include President Jonathan and General Obasanjo have correctly shown in their assertions that Nigerian political “leaders” and elites lack the “moral agency” to do the morally correct thing in governance.  Thus we have something ethical and moral to learn from Mr. Awolowo’s vision and those of our other founding fathers and mothers in order to make Nigeria work.

Furthermore, in Awolowo’s public ethics about governance, to err is human and therefore normal. But in erring, it is only moral agents that err and are able to apply sanctions on themselves by resigning their position even before the law takes its course. Past and present leadership and governance in Nigeria do not show that we have those that can be properly called moral agents as our leaders. This is a tragic conclusion in governance for our country in the 21^st century.  To make Nigeria work in 2013 and beyond, we need to begin to re-learn this simple moral lesson in the intellectual and political labor of our past leaders.

Consequently, based on his preceding moral frame, Mr. Obafemi Awolowo made the following recommendations: ”that no minister, parliamentary secretary, legislator, member of commission, board of corporation, or person holding any public office whether of profit or not shall:

1. borrow money from the Government.
2. Obtain advance for any purpose whatsoever from the government.
3. Owe any money (whether in respect of loan, advance, or any transaction whatsoever) to the Government.
4. Have business transaction  of any kind whatsoever with the Government.
5. Receive or enjoy, at the expense of the Government, any of the following perquisites or privileges, that is to say: car basic allowance, driver’s allowance, transport allowance, traveling allowance, entertainment allowance, gardener’s allowance, free housing or accommodation, free telephone, free supply of electricity, free furniture, free medical treatment, expenses for holidays in or outside Nigeria, anything in cash or kind, by whatever name called , other than his salary or emoluments as approved by the legislature. (Obafemi Awolowo, Thoughts On Nigerian Constitution, Ibadan, Oxford University Press, 1966 pp106-122 as embedded in this essay).

Download excerpts of Mr. Awolowo’s ever-relevant book here.

In looking for solutions to our problems, I ask President Jonathan, General Obasanjo and members of Nigerian ruling and political class to kindly and please re-read this book if they have time and if they had previously read it.  And if they have not, they should please read it (or at least aspects that concern the ethical foundation for a modern, honourable and civilized Nigeria) as we start 2013. I have embedded some relevant parts into this essay.  Again, other previous Nigerian leaders are as relevant as Mr. Awolowo in helping us to navigate out of our present moral abyss without looking without and outside Nigeria. It is also relevant at this historical juncture when we are reviewing our constitution.

In other words, if we demand concrete solutions to our problems, aspects of this book and excerpts as I have presented in this short essay offer some moral solutions that we can disagree with, reject, agree with based on rational arguments and the laying out of rival social and moral visions for our dear country, its leadership and followership.

So in view of the relevance of Mr. Obafemi Awolowo’s preceding moral thought for a modern Nigeria, but which we have failed to apprehend and modify for contemporary use President Jonathan (with due genuine respect to the office of the presidency) needs to do more work on his 2012 closing argument about “attitudinal problem”. This is because “attitudinal problem” cannot stand-alone as he proposed for “attitudinal problem” is    a consequence of a moral failure, and the lack of the moral in governance and policies. It is the moral failure of members of the political class presently led by President Jonathan himself and the moral failure of the citizenry as infected, spread and fed into the citizenry by the political class and elites. It is such moral failure that has blinded us into pre-Stone Age tribal consciousness in some of our responses to genuine problems.

Also, contrary to General Obasanjo’s closing argument for 2012, our problem is not the absence of good leaders. Our problem is a moral failure, which always lead us to consciously “elect” and rig bad and unprepared “leaders” into office. General Obasanjo himself is historically culpable of this as already documented.

These issues are crucial for us in 2013 and beyond in order for us to avoid moral failures that produce bad moral judgments. In this regard, I encourage Nigerians to rationally engage the founding moral thoughts of our founding mothers and fathers for some of them foresaw our contemporary moral, economic and social problems. This will engender a more literate citizenry and rational debate.

In doing this, the task is not to lament or bemoan as President Jonathan and General Obasanjo have wrongly done. Rather the task is to articulate rival social and moral visions for our country. And if they cannot articulate rival moral and social visions, then let President Jonathan, the Nigerian political class and ruling elites practicalise this Awolowo moral vision for good governance and leadership.

In other words, the first challenge before us as citizens in 2013 and beyond is for us to use the moral resources in our history to vet any public office holder or anyone seeking election. Second, those who are elected to office should practicalise what we have (for there is one as openly argued for and as embedded here) and see its moral effect on governance in a modern and civilized Nigeria.

I maintain this position because leadership is first and last a moral act. It is inconceivable to see leadership in a modern civilized and democratic state outside the notion of the ethical, the moral, the just, and the equitable, none of which Nigeria’s past and present leadership had espoused.

Finally, objections and challenge to these propositions are legitimate. But in advancing our objections, they should be based on rational and reasoned arguments as we start the 2013 journey and beyond to cleanse and help our dear country-Nigeria.

Download excerpts of Mr. Awolowo’s book: “Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution”, here.

Adeolu Ademoyo, (aaa54@cornell.edu) is of Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.