"Discipline and Accountability under Democratic Leadership" - By: General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR - Manchester, September 2013 This is the full text of an Address by General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, at the Public Lecture Series of the Democratic Progressive Movement at the Methodist Central Building, Manchester, UK, September 21, 2013 Introduction 1. I would like to thank the Democratic Progressive Movement of the Nigerian Diaspora in the UK for this invitation to speak to you this afternoon on discipline and accountability and the Nigerian condition. 2. The exact topic of my address is: Discipline and Accountability under Democratic Leadership; and it really sums up what politics and public service are all about; and, for us, the effort to entrench these three is at the heart of our entire struggle back at home. It is my pleasure to have this opportunity of sharing my thoughts on this with you today. 3. It is clear that today we are living in a new world with new values. The new wave of democratization, the rise of civil society institutions, the unprecedented explosion in new information and communication technologies and the other after-effects of globalisation have altered the national and international environments in which governance takes place. This has led to the rapid exchange of ideas and practices across borders and the tightening of oversight functions and greater attention on what the various arms of governance are doing, enabling the public to demand—and receive—higher standards of transparency and accountability at least in the older democracies. 4. This is how it should be: public office under democratic leadership is a trust and those holding it must be held accountable, and questioned whether they serve people with a sense of responsibility, with integrity and in the most effective manner possible. 5. The key to this effectiveness of democratic leadership as it strives to achieve good governance, lies in its responsiveness to the views and needs of people; its ability to ensure inclusiveness, fairness and balance between competing interests; and the efficiency and representativeness of its institutions. 6. If governance can be defined as the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority and power in the management of a nation’s economic, social and cultural resources for its peaceful development; what is good governance? 7. It is generally accepted that governance is good when it is characterised by the presence of at least eight elements— a. Ensuring people’s participation in the processes of governance; b. Entrenching rule of law before which all people are equal and in which they have equal access; c. Ensuring transparency in the conduct of government business; d. Promptness in its responsiveness to people’s demands; e. Achieving consensus in decision making; f. Ensuring equity and fairness in meeting people’s needs; g. Achieving efficiency and effectiveness of its institutions; h. Displaying accountability in the management of public affairs. 8. There are at least five other symptoms of good governance: economic governance which manages the interface between the state and the market, political governance which aggregates societal interests and seeks to realise the expectations of the people—the electorate; there is the arena of civil society in which nongovernmental organisations raise the right political issues and hold politicians to account; there is the arena of bureaucratic governance that seeks to actualise the vision of political leaders through policy implementation; and there is the arena of judicial governance where disputes are settled and harmony restored, and the nation’s laws are interpreted. 9. But as I said elsewhere, and as it has been said again and again, our main problem as a country is the failure of leadership. In the end, it is the resulting bad governance that excludes people and alienates them from their leadership; and this effectively militates against the development of any kind of national consensus, and, in addition, it even impedes the emergence and development of a clear national identity. Rule has been arbitrary and unaccountable; decisions have not been by consensus and government is not responsive, and nor has the conduct of its business been transparent. The resulting alienation and exclusion lead to apathy and creates fertile ground for even more bad governance. 10. So, whatever else we do as a people, we must do our best to break out of this vicious circle by openly discussing the issue of good governance, and demanding it from our leaders; and by discussing the issue of nation building and asking ourselves what it demands of us. Facing Three Challenges 11. Our challenge today is whether as a nation we can rise up to the occasion demanded by our peculiar circumstance, which in turn poses three extremely important and unavoidable challenges to us. These challenges, captured so aptly by the topic you gave me are—the challenge of national discipline, the challenge of accountability and the challenge of leadership. Can we inculcate discipline in this unruly nation? Can we run an accountable administration in a land that has become so used to arbitrariness and impunity? And can we identify, elect and allow the type of leadership we direly need to come to power? 12. I. Challenge of Discipline—The first question that we should ask ourselves is why there is so much indiscipline in Nigeria today. Is it because Nigerians are by nature undisciplined? Or is it something that has been created in them, and can therefore be cured? 13. Perhaps, our real problem is that we are called upon to practise good governance while still in the process of nation-building and state-building. Nation building is the process for the construction of a national identity for a people living a particular territory using history, geography, tradition propaganda and even coercion as we saw during colonialism. It seeks to unify and give meaning to the history and culture of the people, symbolise and concretise their present, guarantee their future, independence and wellbeing. 14. Thus, nation building actually entails three different but closely interrelated enterprises: one, the founding of a political entity on a given territory; two, the development of a national identity; and three, the creation of national institutions and such national paraphernalia as the anthem, a flag, a lingua franca, a set of holidays a national airline and a set of national heroes. It refers to the development of a sense of belonging in a people using the power and endowments of the state in the design and building of institutions and practices that enable a people to govern themselves in peace and security as they march towards prosperity. 15. And so long as man lives in society, the question of discipline remains central to his organized social living; and there is order in life, only because people are willing to obey rules and regulations, and are ready to conduct their lives according to accepted codes of social behavior. Without discipline and such a code of conduct, there wouldn’t have been any culture or civilization as we know it today; and the issue of discipline becomes even more important in a democracy. 16. The actual practice of democracy is rooted in the disciplinary behavior of tolerance, of accommodation and the doctrine of live and let live—decisions are arrived at by consensus, by cooperation and by compromise. So long as there are rules and regulations to follow, laws to obey, rights to give and claim under democracy, so long will the issue of discipline remain paramount. And just as there are rights and freedoms to enjoy, there are duties and obligations to perform; and it is obvious that without discipline, it is impossible for the doctrines of freedom and equality to exist in the same society. Without it, the freedom, law and order and equality that make democracy unique will disappear: in place of our law and order, there would have been chaos and violence, and in place of our security would have been construct fear and uncertainty. 17. And it goes without saying that discipline is required at every stage of the processes and procedures of democracy that are based on cooperation, consensus and compromise. It is discipline that allows and enables every process to take place in proper fashion; and it is at the heart of progress made by all nations. Perhaps the best examples for us are what enforced discipline was able to achieve in the Malaysian and Singaporean experience. Through hard work, planning and discipline, Mahathir Mohammed and Lee Kuan Yew were able to transform their nations from the backwaters of the Third World to the club of the newly-emerging First World. 18. When its nationhood no longer provides a stable enough foundation for the exercise and acceptance of this public power, a state is said to begin to fail. It is then that we all see the familiar spectacles of evidence of a breakdown in the law and order situation as the government fails in its primary responsibility for providing security to all within its borders, public goods to all its citizens, and an independent legal framework to adjudicate disputes. As it fails in these responsibilities, we witness the re-emergence of suppressed primordial tensions and rising incidence in disharmony between communities, the inability of the government to control its borders, preserve and protect its territorial integrity, a rise in criminal violence throughout the land, an increase in corruption, decay in the nation’s socio-economic infrastructure, and a general rise in the level of indiscipline. 19. It goes without saying, therefore, that a clear understanding of what good governance is—and what we must do to enthrone it in Nigeria—is now a national imperative. Our past has suffered from the absence of good governance, and our future has now come to very much depend on it. The fight for good governance is our collective struggle, and we must each contribute our quota in seeing it to its logical conclusion, which is the emergence of a democratic republic founded on the rule of law in which all our people can place their hopes and faith. Ensuring all these needs a fully accountable leadership that is itself disciplined, and is able to move and take the country along the path of national discipline, the rule of law and individual respect for law and order. 20. III. Challenge of Accountability—Accountability is actually another name for the discipline required in the processes of governance; it is a check on the way the public power is exercised in order to minimize its abuse. Accountability is the mechanism to make public officials answerable for their conduct and responsive to the body from which they derive their ultimate authority. As a concept, good governance is applicable to all sections of society such as the executive arm, the legislature, the judiciary, the media, the private sector, trade unions and non-governmental organizations, NGOs; and public accountability and transparency apply to, and are as relevant for, the one as for the other. 21. For an entity to be accountable, and for governance based upon it to be good, it needs to have the following four basic elements— a. Transparency, that is, it can—and does—provide accessible and timely information to stakeholders in a way that opens up its processes and procedures to scrutiny; b. Participation, that is, ensure active engagement of stakeholders in reaching decisions that affect them; c. Have a method for evaluation, that is, monitoring and reviewing progress against objectives; and, d. A mechanism for complaint and response. 22. Accountability ensures that the public gets value for money from the processes and procedures of governance. And in the end, government’s effectiveness is determined by its responsiveness to the needs of its people, the competence with which its policies are formulated and implemented, the efficiency of its economic management and the fairness with which it accepts, treats and balances the competing demands of interest groups. Good economic governance must always aim to create a stable macroeconomic environment, formulate policies that will attract investment into the economy, and extend support to enterprises that will generate employment, and, more importantly, ensure that the poor have access to credit. In assessing the degree of good governance, it is to these indices that we look to determine the degree of its representativeness and legitimacy in fact and in the eyes of the people; the degree of its accountability and efficiency in the management of public resources. 23. In the end, it is accountability that helps create and sustain people’s faith in the integrity and dependability of the nation’s political and bureaucratic institutions; and there are many aspects to it: there is political accountability, there is judicial accountability and there is accountability even in the world of private sector. Political accountability refers to the accountability of the government, the civil service and politicians to the public and to the law, to legislative bodies such as the National Assembly and ultimately to the constitution. Among other things, it promotes discipline in public financial and fiscal management; it ensures that implementation of public policy is done in the public interest; and it ensures that resources are fairly allocated and public goods and services are delivered with efficiency. Accountability is perhaps the most important of the four basic elements of good governance. 24. Only when good governance is attained, will there be political stability as rule becomes in accord with the consent of the governed. There will be in place a legal framework for the active protection of the rights—human, civil and economic rights—of the people, in a regime of the rule of law, with respect for, and equality before, the law. The resulting responsive government will invest heavily in the development of its human capital and in the development and maintenance of physical socioeconomic infrastructure; and, last but not least, there will be efficient and accountable and transparent public sector economic management, which is the ultimate goal of all democratic leadership. 25. II. Challenge of Leadership—The question of leadership is not the main thing: it is the only thing. While there are many leadership styles and individual differences, the best style for our circumstance is the democratic leader whose main function is to ensure people’s involvement in the way their affairs are run. He procures their maximum involvement and participation in the decision-making process; and leads them in an open, collegial and participative manner. In the end, he serves as their political mentor as they sharpen their leadership skills. 26. The main characteristics of a democratic leader are his being an inspiration, knowledgeable, and a good listener, ready to assign responsibility to his followers, empower them and aid their participation in the nation’s decision-making process. He should have the ability to create trust and loyalty in them, and inspire them to achieve set objectives, and somehow make them feel special. A true democratic leader will always work and plan to make himself replaceable by training the followers; but in order to balance the leadership equation, followers of the democratic leader must themselves display a willingness to take and shoulder responsibility and a readiness to follow. 27. With this in place, the journey towards good governance is ready to set out. Our effort to promote good governance must focus on at least six areas. a. In the political system, there is need to enforce the doctrines of the separation and division of powers among the three arms of government and the three tiers of governance. b. There must be more regime legitimacy through a drive for real electoral reform in which votes will count and will be counted so that a popular government is installed. c. In order to give practical effect to the doctrine of the rule of law, access to justice must be improved and made easy for all, including the poor. d. Likewise access to information must be improved, especially for the media, in order to ensure accountability and more openness in the conduct of government business. e. Governance itself must be decentralised; and f. The public service, the vehicle for the implementation of public policy must be reformed to serve the functions for which it was established. 27. But even with all the characteristics of good governance in place and the nation founded on nationalism and democracy, and built on supportive elite consensus with all the national symbols and institutions evoking that usable past on which the whole nation can fall back in times of crisis and distress, the question of leadership remains crucial. 28. What Nigeria needs today is someone with a vision supported by a dynamic team to lead it to a redefinition of its traditions, a recommitment to its values and customs in a way that supports the proper rebuilding of a national identity, and the development of a sense of belonging for its people, and support its claims to sovereignty, and provide it with a legitimising foundation for an enduring state structure that can command the loyalty of all our people and earn the respect of the international community. 29. Our country needs a statesman who will make our today worthwhile without dwelling and staying too much in it, and who always thinks about, plans for and keeps tomorrow in full view; and gives the nation a sense of purpose with all the sense of urgency that our desperate situation and circumstance require and call for. We certainly need someone who can take care of our today and has a very good idea of what our tomorrow ought to be; and he must be strong enough to withstand all pressures, and remain able to remove obstacles that will be put in his way. 30. But there may be a danger even in this. While we need a strong personality to give this type of leadership, he must be selfless and altruistic enough to begin his reform by limiting the power of his own office. 31. The first and most intractable issue is that of the centralisation of power in the presidency and in the office of a state governor. Today, Nigeria is in danger of being overwhelmed by this insane centralisation of authority, of power and of responsibility in the presidency; and if the system is to survive, it must learn to decentralise so that power is not concentrated in the hands of one person or in the hands of a few. It is this excessive concentration of power in the executive office at both the states and centre that is driving corruption to its extremities, the adoption of a do-or-die attitude in the attempt to capture and cling to the executive office and the rise of ethnic cleavages. 32. Effective decentralisation is, in the main, nothing but an extension of the practice of delegation of authority, which is the hallmark of good leadership. The leadership must learn to free itself from the details of the routine of ordinary issues not least handling the stolen cash till and concentrate on matters of greater importance like the development of vision, control and coordination of the national planning and policy functions. Properly carried out, decentralisation is also the best way to develop policy continuity and future leadership. 33. The next is the development of corruption and its widespread nature in the society and, especially, in government business. And unless this unhealthy trend is stopped and reversed there is the possibility that future governments, taking their cue from the current one, will try to serve only the section from which the president hails and seek to empower only persons from that area. In the long run, if left unchecked, this will prove very dangerous for the corporate existence of Nigeria. 34. I must warn that the level of corruption in Nigeria is more than any country in the world can tolerate. Today, corruption has attained near perfection in this country; and the entire patrimony of the nation is being divided and devoured, as the nation helplessly watches; and it is this corruption culture that has spawned the security challenge that is making the country feel like one of the most insecure places on earth. This is a challenge with which the government has failed to deal. 35. And closely allied to this are the twin issues of the prevalence of poverty and inequality in the midst of plenty, which is unlikely to lead to the development of patriotism and the feelings for and belief in a shared and common citizenship and destiny; because the desperately poor are unlikely to be committed to the idea of a nation that has, as it were, abandoned them. 36. The next leader should be someone who can lead the nation in the journey to recreate and re-edify the national idea, national identity and national ideals, and instil and inculcate them in all cadres and classes—from the level of popular imagination to the level of the crème de la crème, and make them think properly and take firm root in the national consciousness. And at the same time, we must rebuild all our state institutions—and not just in the physical sense—and imbue them with the efficiency with which they operated and with the original sacredness in which we held them. 37. And when these state institutions are rebuilt, we must ensure that they command the loyalty of the people, something they can only do when they have and hold meaning for the people, ensure that they inspire public confidence by being transparent, fair and consistent. You then set the rules governing their conduct; and ensure that only persons with the right and required skills, expertise and moral competence are appointed to run them. This is the only way out for this nation, especially at this time when those in charge of its affairs have no clue what is expected of them. Ladies and Gentlemen to achieve these goals our nation desperately needs your prayers. Conclusion 38. In Nigeria now it seems everyone is for himself. People have to provide social service on their own individual bases. For those in urban area, it is private clinic for town, private school for child, electricity-generating set for home, borehole for the house, and private security guard at the gate. For those in rural areas, the choice is stark—between life in darkness, ignorance and squalor, or a slow painful death. Here is a country on its knees: it has been wilfully held down with no relief in sight. 39. Our differences, and these are many—in tribe and tongue, in region and religion and, as someone delicately put it, in custom and costume—ought to have helped define and deepen the tenor of our cultural setting, and enriched our experience of true multicultural pluralism. But instead we have allowed these differences to be manipulated by opportunistic, uncreative and self-centred politicians who think nothing of setting us against each other; and by others within and outside Nigeria who don’t wish the country well. 40. This manipulation has succeeded so well in setting Nigerians against their own system and against each other that it can be seen in all aspects of national life—all too evident as indiscipline in our conduct of governance, in our politics commerce, banking and other aspects of life in our society. 41. The most important aspect of the disciplined life is that you live and let live; and for us Nigerians as religious people, the norms that enable us to do this are provided by our religious beliefs which we hold so dear and which, though they may differ in their details, teach belief in, and worship of, the same God, the inculcation of similar moral absolutes and the attainment of fellowship and peace in society for everyone. 42. Unfortunately, however, instead of fellowship and peace in our society, what we have today is increasing intolerance which has led to violent incidences in the past. Neither Islam nor Christianity supports what is going on in the name of religion in Nigeria today; but there is no one to speak with honesty or sense of purpose. The government lacks the political will; the traditional leadership is cowed and left with little power to act, while the religious leadership has to all intents and purposes failed. 43. But nothing underscores the magnitude of the ruling party’s failure more than the near total breakdown of the security and law and order situation in the country. For more than four years, parts of the country, especially the north-eastern parts, have become virtual war zones. And this really shouldn’t be surprising: it is the unavoidable result of power administration by a regime lacking accountability and steeped in indiscipline and corruption. 44. And after carefully considering the situation, we came to the conclusion that the only option to save the country was to pool all the resources at the disposal of all forward-looking forces to challenge the dominance of the ruling party, a dominance that was achieved only through a shameless rigging of the ballot. Right now, the reality on the ground and the political arithmetic are all in favour and support of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the new party we formed to challenge the PDP, take away power from it and set Nigeria on the proper path of real reform. 45. With our widespread poverty, rapidly rising unemployment, an intractable religious crisis and insurgency and a government that has proved unable to cope, we are firmly embarked on the path to future regret if nothing is done fast. Even if Nigeria is not yet irretrievably in the comity of failed states, it has, to all intents and purposes, failed as a state, as a nation, and as an economy, what with its famed bad governance, the collapse of its infrastructure and social service provision and the contraction of its economy; it is by every measure and index, a deeply troubled nation today. And only the best of statesmanship, not the current politics of chicanery and self service, can rescue it from this political, economic and social precipice. 46. It may seem to some in the audience that I am a pessimist. Far from it. I have only laid down the enormous challenges and tasks ahead of us. These problems have been created by Nigerians. I believe, we as Nigerians, can solve them when enough good and capable personalities come together and act. Which is what we are trying to do. Thank you very much for your patience and attention. General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 21:04:03 +0000
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