Buhari’s Example At Downing Street: Returning Humility To Governance -By Jiti Ogunye

The negative reactions of some Nigerians, especially certain bellyaching partisans, to the solitary and austere appearance of President Elect, Muhammadu Buhari at No 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister, has, again, brought into bold relief the depravity in public commentary in Nigeria. Depravity in the sense that too often, the good and exemplary is recklessly condemned while the bad and despicable is celebrated and adulated.

Sometimes, the exercise of the right to freedom of speech is so terrible that it becomes an enabler and encourager of public immorality. Speech could be free, but it is best if it is reasonable, more so when made in the public domain and on a matter of public interest.

The photographs of the President Elect, on a private visit to David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, being seen off at the doorsteps of No 10 Downing Street and being left to find his way, posted by some online media and in the print media are generating annoying condemnations. Muhammadu Buhari

is being castigated for disgracing Nigeria. We are being told that that he was not accorded the departure courtesies that are usually extended to heads of states or presidents in waiting on a visit to No. 10 Downing Street.

His accusers allege that upon being bided farewell by the British Prime Minister, after the traditional goodbye handshake, he was “abandoned” by the Prime Minister, who went back into his official residence, leaving him to ” find his way”. In other words, Muhammadu Buhari, in the myopic or deliberately mischievous opinion of his accusers, disgraced Nigeria because he was not accorded the due respect and honour that he and Nigeria deserved on that occasion.

Interestingly, those who have taken it upon themselves to defend the President Elect have done so only pictorially, without underscoring the significance and symbolism of Buhari’s “lonely” appearance for our collective search for a new moral and ethical direction in the business of political governance in our raped country. They have published and posted the entire snapshots of the President Elect’s departure from No. 10 Downing Street, up to his boarding a car, clearly to demonstrate the contemporaneousness of the snapshots, thereby persuading observers to accept that the President Elect was not idling or loitering around the official residence of the Prime Minister before being “evacuated” from the frontage.

They have also produced photographic evidence of precedents, pictures of the Queen of England, and those of visiting foreign heads of states and heads of governments, similarly departing, in a solitary manner, from No. 10 Downing Street. These defenders and interveners seek to paint the true picture. Buhari or Nigeria was not humiliated, disgraced or treated shabbily during that departure ceremony. The departure ” ceremony”, smart, small, simple as it was, was standard practice.

We are exploring Buhari’s solitary departure from No 10 Downing Street because we see in that departure a metaphor for the modesty, moderation and prudence Nigerians should insist on seeing on all levels of government in our country, especially at the highest levels, from May 29^th, 2015. Up to now, anytime any government high ranking political office holder ( the President, any of the State Governors, any of the Ministers of the Federal Government or even Commissioners of States ) is visiting a foreign country, he does so with pomp and pageantry, taking along with him an inordinately large retinue of official idlers and carpetbaggers. Sometimes, in the pretence that Nigeria is hunting for foreign investments and economic partnerships, private citizens, who, matter of fact, are overrated petty traders and dubious rent seekers masquerading as Nigeria’s captains of industries ( in our de-industrializing country) are taken along to meet with imaginary prospective foreign investors and collaborators. In reality, these are nothing but callous money-wasting jamborees.

And when foreign guests or dignitaries, on visits, are being received or being seen off, we are treated to an awful spectacle of official loafing and redundancy. Buffoons in Suits or court jesters adorned in native regalia, are seen milling around the man or woman of power, doing nothing. Protocol officials; personal aides; personal assistants; and security details. The designations are infinite.

What of the road shows of our men and women of political power. Horrible. They orchestrate pandemonium anytime they move about in our cities and interstates. Their assemblage of fleet of hefty, glittering and costly automobiles, with which they terrorize other hapless road using Nigerians, while on their immodest and careless car-racing show offs, have resulted, on many occasions, in causalities and fatalities. For example, Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State in the first two years of his tenure was involved in two road accidents.

In the first, he suffered personal injuries, for which he was admitted to the National Hospital in Abuja, where he was confined for days before he became well; and in the second, his convoy killed our own Professor Festus Iyayi, scholar activist, literary icon and former President of Academic Staff Union of Universities. Not too long ago, a soldier, one of the motorcycle outriders of President Goodluck Jonathan, who was entertaining him on Abuja Airport Road, while the President was returning to Aso Rock Villa from the Airport, crashed onto a concrete divider, and died. Very unfortunately.

And what of the men our men of political power move around with on the roads. Too many, and not needed. Just to feed and boost their power ego. Authority arrogance and profligacy in political power that always reminds us of Fela Anikulapo Kuti‘s immortal words in one of his imperishable songs, Movement of the People [ Political Statement #1] : Fela- That is why you go see-o. Judge dey go. Chorus-One Police go follow am. Fela-Assembly man dey go. Chorus-Two Police go follow am. Fela-Senator dey go. Chorus-Three Police go follow am. Fela-Speaker dey go. Chorus-Four Police go follow am. Fela-President dey go. Chorus-Hundred Police go follow am. Fela-Thousands Police go follow am oo. Chorus-Hundreds Police go follow am. .Fela-Riot soldiers go line up oo o. Chorus: Hundreds Police go follow am. Fela: Majamaja go dey follow am o. Chorus-Hundreds Police go follow am. Fela-NSO go dey hang around o. Chorus-Hundreds Police go follow am. Fela-CIA go dey hide somewhere. Chorus: Hundreds Police go follow am.

Buhari’s humble and solitary appearance at No 10 Downing Street is not the only subject worthy of note. The modesty, “ordinariness”, and accessibility of No 10 Downing Street, itself, ought to be in focus if we want to learn some lessons of humility in political power. In projecting humility and modesty in public service, the form or appearance of the seat of political power also matters. In changing Nigeria from a Country of corruption, profligacy and waste, our political leaders must behave differently, and we need to reason differently.

We suggest that there is a link between the size of the physical locus of political power and the detestable and unsustainable size of our bloated government and bureaucracy. It is our contention that the more spatially extravagant a government is, in terms of provision of government buildings and houses, the more the likelihood of filling those buildings and offices with people who do not have any good reason to be in government. Those who build, own and live in mansions know that the number of domestic staff that are needed to run the mansions and the cost of keeping the mansions are higher than the number of persons that are needed to run a modest home and the cost of running same.

Let us compare the iconic No. 10 Downing Street with our Aso Rock Villa in Abuja. One is a modest, accessible and visible dwelling of the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, stripped of all ostentatious and flamboyant spatial embroidery of a prodigal political elite. It is a leader’s house with a welcoming ambience. Aso Rock Villa, on the other hand, is a sprawling, opulent territory, situate on a large expanse of land, comprising a number of mansions, a villa which was conceived, constructed, and still is being operated as a remote and inaccessible fortress of a military presidency. It is a ruler’s den. How can a seat of political power in a republic and under a representative government be so settled in such alienating grandeur in a Country where millions have no decent homes to stay, a Country plagued with such an acute housing crisis?

We have not always been like this. In the First Republic, State House Marina, Lagos, the residence of the President, and the Prime Minister’s Residence were visible to the members of the Public, and still are when one is driving by. In the Second Republic, State House Marina and Ribadu Road ( Dodan Barracks) where President Shehu Shagari lived and worked, were visible to the members of the public, also. The White House in Washington is visible, and an American can easily point at the house to his or her child who may want to know where the President of the United States of America lives. No. 10 Downing Street is visible to any passersby. But our own Aso Rock is so hidden from ordinary Nigerians living in or visiting Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.

Modesty and moderation in government is the way forward, if our Country is to survive. If this is not lacking in our political climate, we will not be having the very acrimonious and desperate jostling that is going on now just to elect a Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President for the eight National Assembly. Positions, which, ordinarily, are firsts amongst equals ( primus inter paris ) , have now become so important that it is threatening to tear a political party apart, even before inauguration.

The offices are no longer mere legislative captaincies, but have now metamorphosed into platforms for accumulation of political power and benefits. Operating in a political environment that is notorious for its immodesty, immoderation, and immorality, these legislative offices are now suffused with unspeakable largesse: official residences of speaker and senate president that are perpetually renovated; staff of office of speaker and senate president; vote of huge monies to run the offices, travel expenses, media vote, entertainment vote, et cetera. Indeed, occupants of these two offices behave as if they are running executive councils in a supposed legislative branch of government. Why will occupying these legislative offices not be a do or die affair?

Opulent governance in the midst of social misery and economic squalor is an act of self mockery and debasement. An administrative centre built of gold in a city of filth is nothing but a golden filth. Or is it filthy gold?

Mr. Ogunye, lawyer, public interest attorney, legal commentator, author, and essayist, is the Legal adviser of Premium Times.