A Speech at
GLEEHD Foundation’s Election ThinkTank Series
Lagos, Nigeria, Tuesday, November 12, 2014
Protocols
“It is easy to blame religion-or more fairly, what some people do in the
name of religion-for all our troubles, but that is too simple. Religion
is a powerful force, but its impact depends entirely on what it
inspires people to do. The challenge for policy-makers is to harness the
unifying potential of faith, while containing its capacity to divide”
~Madeleine Albright
I am delighted to share my thoughts with this distinguished audience on a
subject that has gained primacy in public discourse in recent times and
which by all means deserves sober interrogation by leaders of thought
in our country as the 2015 General Elections approaches.
Before I go ahead, I must commend the organizers of this series for the
patriotic instincts that has birthed this splendid idea of facilitating
discussions on some of the most crucial issues pertaining to the 2015
elections. I salute your courage and pray that the Almighty God blesses
your noble exertions which are in line with the role of Civil Society to
continually advance the cause of equity, justice and progress in any
society.
As a product of Civil Society myself, I share your burden and ever
abiding restlessness to birth a new Nigeria. As actors in this space,
our methodologies may vary over time and space – in my own case as like
many others, I have in recent years extended my activism to the realms
of politics and public governance and have only recently transitioned
out – we are however bound by an endless struggle and must never make
the mistake at any point in time to assume that our work is done.
Sociological change in any society is slow and painful, and often
features false starts that can mislead us into resting on our oars. Just
like we collectively realized after much damage had been done, that the
return of Civilian Rule in Nigeria in 1999 did not inevitably mean the
inculcation of democratic ethos by our politicians, we are today
reminded by very desperate elements in our democratizing country that
the fact that we are holding our fifth cycle of elections in the fourth
republic does not necessarily mean we have fully emplaced a culture of
free, fair and peaceful elections.
We are today on one hand faced with an insurgency that has claimed the
lives of over 13,000 Nigerians with close to a million others internally
displaced. Only yesterday, it was reported that at least 32 people who
were internally displaced due to ethno-religious violence in Nassarawa
state were killed while returning home on the assurances of the
authorities that their homeland was safe. Similarly, it was also
reported yesterday that a government secondary school in Yobe state was
attacked by a suicide-bomber killing about 47 people and injuring about
80.
A young Nigerian helplessly reacted to the sad news, lamenting on
social media and I quote:
“My heart is breaking at the thought of a mum saying “bye Son, have a
good day at school, make sure you pay attention… and no fighting” and
with a smile sends her little boy off to school only to hear he was torn
apart in a most violent death a few hours later.”
While some have sadly become inured to these recurring sad news with
ready templates of ‘expressions of shock’ and endless promises to ‘bring
the perpetrators to book’, the truth is that 79 souls who shared this
world with us as fellow human beings and this country with us as fellow
citizens up till a few days ago, are no more, due to ethno-religious
violence.
The feeble response of the government of the day to the escalation of
the insurgency in terms of sophistication of operations, causalities
count and geographical spread is a cause for concern for discerning
Nigerians, more so since the Federal Government seems to achieve more
success in the deployment of our troops to militarise the polity and
gain partisan advantage during elections and also in selectively
deploying our security agencies to intimidate perceived enemies.
On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly clear that one of the
do-or-die strategies of the ruling party to retain power in 2015 is to
compensate for poor performance in office by stoking ethno-religious
sentiments and pushing the country to the brink of crisis.
There is no gainsaying that we are going into the 2015 elections a
deeply divided people, with the elections itself being a potential
source of further polarization. It is for this reason, there has been
increased advocacy particularly by renowned civil society actors to
force ‘Peace and National Cohesion’ to the top of the agenda as the
single most important factor in determining who the next President of
Nigeria should be. That is to say, the candidate and by extension the
political party with the most convincing manifesto for achieving
sustainable peace and national cohesion should be elected President.
The argument has its merit when you consider the fact that though there
are several priority areas needing urgent intervention in the country,
the issue of ‘Peace and National Cohesion’ is the greatest threat to our
country and at the same time also offers the greatest opportunity for
us to achieve accelerated development and take our rightful place in the
comity of nations.
In some quarters, the issue of faith as it concerns the 2015 elections
is being reduced to discussions about the viability of a ticket that
features the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates belonging to
the same faith, or how it is an absolute necessity for all parties in
serious contention to ensure both the Muslim and Christian faiths are
represented as either Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidates. This
in my view unfortunately skirts around the main issue and does not
address the substance of how we want to get out of the mess we currently
find ourselves in.
Indeed, the fact that we can be having such conversations 21 years after
June 12, 1993, calls to question how much progress has been made in
unifying the country after 15 years of Civilian rule under the PDP. We
must remember not to forget that in 1993, the presidential election was
contested by Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention and
Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party.
Tofa picked as a running
mate from the south east, an Igbo Christian in compliance with the
unspoken rules of religious and ethno-regional balancing that formed the
conventional wisdom of Nigerian politics. This wisdom held that for a
party’s ticket to be electable it must offer an equilibrium of ethnic,
regional and confessional identities that bridges our historic fault
lines and offers an all-inclusive sense of belonging to all.
Hence, in the most simplistic rendering of this ethno-religious
equation, Tofa as a Northern Muslim had expectedly picked a southern
Christian. Abiola as a southern Muslim was largely expected to pick a
northern Christian. Indeed there was no shortage of groups offering
counsel on who Abiola should pick as a running mate. In the end, he
boldly violated this supposedly sacred rule of Nigerian politics and
chose the running mate that he felt would bring the most to his
political campaign. He picked Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, a Northern
Muslim.
Pundits weighed the chances of an all-Muslim ticket in a climate
of politicized sectarianism and concluded that Abiola had erred. But he
gamely argued that his choice represented the most logical and rational
option. Refusing to be swayed by sectarian and provincial sentiments,
it was a statement of intent and a demonstration of faith in the sort of
Nigeria he believed was possible – a country where the best could lead
regardless of their creed or ethnicity. It was a statement of faith in
the Nigerian voter that with all of the facts before him, he would be
able to scrutinize both tickets and make an intelligent choice. It was a
daring, even radical gambit but it paid off.
On June 12, 1993, Nigerians voted in defiance of ethnic and religious
dog-whistling and elected the two men they believed the most capable,
disregarding the coincidence of their religious beliefs and other
sectarian notions of equilibrium. They made a choice that was informed,
intelligent and supremely rational.
This is a point worth stressing
because it is generally believed that electoral choices in 2015 would be
so distorted by the politics of identity as to be exercises in tribal
selection or in-group solidarity affirmation. It is believed that ethnic
and religious sentiments would overwhelm all other instincts and
calculations leading up to the polls and render political contest and
discourse a bitter competition for primacy along lines of primordial
identity rather than ideology.
For the avoidance of doubt, no ethnically and religiously diverse nation
can escape the dynamics of identity and provincial sympathies at the
polls. Heterogeneous countries far older than our republic and far ahead
of us in their practice of democracy continue to grapple with themes of
diversity, tolerance and pluralism. It is fair to say that Nigeria’s
challenges in the political management of diversity and plurality are
not uniquely Nigerian.
Our history affirms that ethnicity and religion
are political and electoral factors, and while I am not saying political
parties should not pursue inclusion in ensuring a national spread of
their key political operatives that takes into account our
ethno-religious heterogeneity, it is far from accurate to depict
Nigerians as being so bound by provincialism that they cannot but vote
along ethnic and confessional lines. This is simply false.
Our challenge as Civil Society and active followers as we approach the
2015 elections is to shape political discourse around ideology rather
than identity, so that candidates will be judged much more by how they
intend to address our challenges not by where they hail from.
Politicians will have to run on the platform of practicalities not the
theatrics or sentiments of feigning identification with the electorate
at a primordial level. At that point, one’s tribal marks or facility in a
local language will prove less important than a proven track record of
performance and integrity.
In the words of my brother and friend Dr. Chidi Odinkalu in his recent op-ed:
“Ahead of the 2015 elections, therefore, we have to find a way to return
safety and security to the top of the political agenda: to politicize
it while taking partisanship out of it. We need a non-partisan manifesto
on public safety and security that can be taken to the country.
“All elective offices in our system are time-bound to tenure of not more
than four years. The plans we need must, therefore, be credible with
specific and measurable outcomes that can be attained within this
period. We are part of the problem as long as we tolerate politicians
who want us to believe that we’re in a clash of identities or between
hemispheres, north and south. 2015 is about whether or not there will
indeed be a Nigeria for anyone to rule.
The contest will be defined by
safety and security of the country and all who live in it. As citizens,
we must find ways to ensure that politicians who don’t want to engage
with these issues find other vocations.”
As the frenzy of politicking gathers momentum with its attendant
razzmatazz, Civil Society and the Media have the crucial role of
ensuring ‘Peace and National Cohesion’ remains on the front burner – we
cannot afford to be bamboozled with empty promises again.
Another issue Civil Society and the Media have to take note of is the
need to moderate the rhetoric of our political operatives towards the
2015 elections. We have a duty to ensure the contents of the political
communications of the various candidates and their parties are within
the confines of civility.
We must call out politicians who would seek to
appeal to sectarian intolerance and tribal prejudice. Our political
debates must not be poisoned with incitement. Most conflicts begin from
the realm of political communication, from how political elites mobilize
their supporters and along what line they seek to obtain support. Once
we elevate political discourse leading up to the 2015 Elections to the
level of ideological contestations for hearts and minds, we stand a
better chance at achieving a peaceful electioneering/post-election
season ahead of us.
I believe very much in a New Nigeria, where our diversity is harnessed
into our strength and competitive advantage. I believe that the
challenge ahead of us in 2015 is to, just as Madeleine Albright
prescribed, elect leaders who have the capacity to utilise the unifying
potential of faith, while containing its capacity to divide. Both Islam
and Christianity are strong forces for good in our society.
It is significant that the Christian contribution to Nigeria was
acknowledged on the very first day of our journey as an independent
nation. In his Independence Day speech in 1960, Prime Minister Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa acknowledged that the history of Nigeria would be
incomplete without the endeavours of missionaries and affirmed them as
being among “those who made Nigeria.” This was by no means an
overstatement.
Many Nigerians even today are direct and indirect
beneficiaries of the missionaries’ legacy. Through their schools, the
first generation elites of this nation were raised. Through missionary
education, many of our parents acquired the tools with which they
embarked on their quest for upward mobility. As an alumnus of a mission
school myself, I can certainly testify to the quality of the training we
received that sharpened us both morally and intellectually. I suspect
that many of us here would say the same.
Even so, the Christian contribution to Nigeria went beyond mission
schools. The story of faith communities is entwined with the evolution
of the nationalist struggle. According to the historian Emmanuel
Ayandele, from the late 19th century onward, “the church became the
cradle of Nigerian nationalism, the only forum of nationalistic
expression until the beginnings of the indigenous press after 1879, and
the main focus of nationalist energies until after 1914.”
Influenced by the British Labour Party (which in turn bore the
intellectual stamp of the Christian socialists), Obafemi Awolowo
propounded a political ethic rooted in moral tradition, arguing that
religion and politics were complementary and that “the most beneficial
political system derives its strengths from the tenets and practices of
great religions.” He saw a natural congruence between Christianity and
socialism and appropriated the biblical phrase ‘Life More Abundant’ to
encapsulate the ideals of his political party, the Action Group, and
defined it as freedom from British rule, freedom from ignorance, freedom
from disease and freedom from want.
“In the process of bringing out the
best that is in man, and of enabling him to live a healthy and happy
life, the agencies of Politics and Religion must work in close and
harmonious co-operation. The eradication of ignorance, disease and want
is a matter of the utmost concern to Politics as well as to Religion.”
For Awolowo, the Golden Rule, empathy, loving our neighbour as
ourselves, which summarize the Law and the Prophets and indeed, the
great moral traditions, constitute the cornerstone of a sustainable
society.
Any system based on greed and naked self-interest is bound to
generate social disequilibrium, progressively degenerating until it
suffers extinction and yields place to a system which either approaches
or approximates the ideal of love.
In the public domain, this love takes
the form of social justice – fairness and a commitment to equity. From
the foregoing it is clear that the Christian faith had an investment in
the very foundations of our nation that was far more than tangential.
Similarly, the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria has historically been at the
forefront of national development. I am certain that some of the other
speakers would be able to shed more light on the significant role that
the Islamic faith has played in the development of our great country and
the great potential the religion and the true adherents have to
contribute to the birthing of a great Nigeria.
Accordingly, the 2015 elections is a great opportunity to redefine
Nigeria as a peaceful and prosperous secular state with functional
citizens of different tribes and tongues, working together to make
Nigeria the greatest country in the world.
Thank you for listening.
~ J. ’Kayode Fayemi, PhD.