Nasir El-Rufai and The People’s Verdict -By Timothy Dokpesi Adidi

It has not really been easy in the past months to constantly engage the Governor of Kaduna State; and to be honest the challeneges are not coming from the Governor of Kaduna State Mallam Nasir El-Rufai were I would have expected them to come since he is the man at the eye of the storm. Considering the fact that I have always put before him the issues rather than his person as long as I try to avoid ad hominiem. Nevertheless, the constant bombardment is coming from most people who live within or outside Kaduna State.

It takes experience to really grow in carrying out political engagements as it pertains analysing and critiquing a government in power. No doubt, every citizen or individual have their perceptions and these perceptions and attitude are influenced either positively or negatively and hence, the difficulties involved in leadership. In the past, it is thought that leadership is an easy task and I have thought so as well; but as seen in our little communities and even in religious organizations what religious leaders pass through then one will understand not just the dynamics of leadership but also the People’s Verdict on a leader.

When a Verdict is passed on someone, it blocks the possibility of knowing who the person is and this definitely creates biases, sentiments and prejudice. It will also make the mind become impervious and closed towards either seeing the good sides of the person or the bad sides of the person. This is why it is important we always give the benefit of doubt in a society were human beings are dynamic and constantly changing. Most philosophers have agreed that change is permanent and this change can take place either progressively or retrogressively. Nonetheless,  there is a need to look beyond the other side of life and see how best it can be possible to manage the present.

Unfortunately, in Nigeria this is one of the most difficult thing to do and as such one will not blame most Nigerians for such orientation; and this is because some of the past and present crop of leaders who have no remorse in squandering public funds persistently and consistently remain at the corridors of power without any decisive factor to restrict such public holders from power. Nigeria as a Country is yet to come to terms with liberating themselves from trust deficit. This is exactly why governance is suffering in Nigeria; and it is as a result of this trust deficit of citizens in the State that residence of a state don’t get politically engaged with incumbent government. Therefore, if we sit down and keep thinking any incumbent Governor will wait for you and keep presuming for you, then you will be whiling away your destiny in the hands of a selected few.

One of the most expensive form of government is democracy and it means as Democrats as long as we think of voting out bad government only when it is election, then this becomes an erroneous perception of what democracy is. When I read the book by Chinua Achebe “The Problem with Nigeria” and how he concluded that “the problem with Nigeria is squarely that of leadership” and this I agree. There is bad leadership because of bad followership who have become so deficient in political engagement as they understand that Democracy that is participatory comes with not just voting in elections but also personal resources. It is bad followership that produces bad leadership. Until people realize that political mediocrity does not translate into good governance and that strategically getting involved in the democratic process of consolidation is the hallmark of integral development.

In the past months as I constantly engage the government of Kaduna State through my open letters and via social media platforms one would have expected that I the writer dance to the tune of the perception people have about the Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. Most times I make an open letter for the public and considering that most Nigerians have a deficiency in the reading culture, they read only the first and second paragraph of my open letters and draw a presumed conclusions without even reading to the end. Some people just read without painstakingly carrying out a content analysis of the open letters and make hasty conclusions. Many will even refuse to ask questions and at the end of the day like I will always say, we are responsible for our interpretations and that is the very reason we need to be very critical as Nigerians not just critical about irrelevant issues but when it has to do with issues that affect us.

It is also unfortunate that some persons have never met the Governor of Kaduna State one on one but they hear from others who the Governor of Kaduna State is and pass their verdict. For some people they have met the Governor one on one and have their own perception of him and pass their verdict. The question now will be, how do I validate the opinion of others as to who Mallam Nasir El-Rufai is? Secondly, even if I have met the Governor of Kaduna State Mallam Nasir El-Rufai one on one what is informing my perception of the Governor of Kaduna State before I pass my verdict? Will my perception about him be as a result of my own interest or the interest of the common good? Is it is also possible to understand the personality of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai based on policies enforced? Of course if a certain policy is not enforced to my advantage it is expected that one will have a negative perception of such a leader. So, most times it is even very difficult to ascertain the personality of someone. It is also possible that commenting on National issues can cause a Governor to have a negative verdict from the people. It is also important to understand that sometimes when a Governor speaks, it is appropriate to analyse comments not necessarily seeing him as an authority but also trying to interrogate his intentions. It is good I say this here because sometimes these Governors are not prepared to speak when they make certain comments and most times they are caught up in difficult situations using the word  “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller (1961) in answering questions and before you know it they get in a quagmire and indict themselves.

Be that as it may, that does not mean a Governor cannot have bad intentions. They do have bad intentions and hence, the need for constant interrogation and political engagements to help them realize their bad intentions since this bad intentions can come through human selfish interest. This is because in actual fact and this a fact that is ontological, no leader in the world can be trusted, our trust for them comes base on the level of political engagement and it is these political engagements that make us trust them. This is why Mallam Nasir El-Rufai can never be perfect but at the same time does not mean he is completely a bad person. The only way we can checkmate his imperfection is through political engagement.

So there are a lot of dynamics to these issues which are not common only in political leadership but even in day to day organizations. For those who have been victims of leadership decisions when you ask them what they feel you don’t expect them to say something nice about the status quo. It takes extraordinary maturity for someone to take full responsibility of their actions; this is a human problem and we must understand with this fact. This is why it is important we are careful with the peoples verdict and rationalise and interrogate the verdicts by intense political engagement with our leaders. This is exactly why Plato was against democracy and simply because of the peoples verdict which might not necessarily be an informed verdict or even translate into the realities as presented; but since it is a human condition, Karl Popper understands with this human condition so well and thinks about more of an open society were all these verdicts can be accommodated, hence it is an ontological dimension to human existence which we should all be considerate with.

There are different leadership styles and it is the condition and circumstances leaders find themselves that determines the operational value of the functionality of the leadership style. This therefore means that every leader must be conscious of the leadership style in operation and avoid making the people’s verdict a ground to constantly reflect a particular style of leadership. People should not be able to detect that as a leader you are a dictator but there are times you need the dictator tendency to achieve a particular good but it should not be consistent to leadership and this will restrict a hasty conclusion in the midst of the People’s verdict.

The perception of the People’s verdict in Kaduna State can come from two dimensions; either negative or positive. One thing is certain, if it is negative there must be a prejudice and if it is positive there must be a prejudice. Prejudice, sentiments and biases can be extreme if not balanced and it is this balanced dimension of prejudice, sentiments and biases that should enable the people get engaged and not allow the Government of the day take advantage of their political mediocrity and apathy. At the end, the question that would be asked will be; what did you do when things went wrong? What approach did you use in approaching the situation? What documentation or gazetted evidence do you have to back your political engagement? Where did you report your case when you did not feel satisfied with the response gotten? Have you mobilised those concerned and this includes the media, organizations and even the public to enforce their moral obligation etc? Even if you have done all these and many more, it is only posterity that will be the judge.

We all understand the dynamics of our constitution in Nigeria and the level of party politics and the challeneges for our laws to be under review. Until then, we have to make do with what we have pending we can be good followers to the point that we address issues of Governance not because of what our stomach can get but because it is an obligation and a duty we owe the society even if it means using our personal resources to positively engage government for the common good of all. 

ADIDI, Dokpesi Timothy 08138605055timshow03@gmail.com