On Toyin Falola Interview Series, Jega flays APC, PDP for Nigeria’s deepening leadership crisis

Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega has flayed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and its major opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the lingering leadership crisis in Nigeria, arguing that such deficit in competent leadership has been responsible for the lack of development across the various segments and regions of the nation.

According to Jega, “I think PDP and APC are almost irredeemable. They are marriages of convenience by the politically active elite, majority of whom focus on the actualization of self-serving objectives in elective positions. Many of them see participation in elections as investment; some of them sold houses, took bank loans to get elected into office. They engage in elections by hook or crook. Once they get into the governance process, obviously they do their best to recoup their investments. How was the APC formed? Many of those who drove the process of the merger were also from the PDP. The clear political framework upon which both the PDP and the APC operate is such that they can be said to be responsible in the last twenty years of the deepening crisis of governance and leadership in our country. I am not saying that everybody in APC and PDP is bad but it is a bad tendency because political recruitment processes in these parties are controlled by godfathers and moneybags and would only bring in people that they know would do as directed.”

The activist and former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) stated this during the Toyin Falola Interview Series. The interview, which was viewed across 49 countries by 31 million viewers on 13 platforms, had Professor Toyin Falola, alongside a panel of scholars and opinion moulders, raise both local and foreign issues which affect Nigeria and the larger African continent. The Toyin Falola interview series has featured prominent African politicians, policymakers, and scholars whose endeavours are particularly connected to the African continent and its peoples including the Diaspora. Issues surrounding religion, culture, politics, women’s rights, history, and development take centre stage during the interviews.  In this edition, the panel included Professor Omotoye Olorode, Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, Bishop Hassan Kukah, Kadaria Ahmed, among others.

Speaking on the role of Nigeria’s ruling elite in the present socio-economic realities of the nation, the foremost professor of political science and former vice chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, added that “There is absolutely no doubt that the bourgeoisie in Nigeria are rabid in the ways in which they pursue the accumulation of wealth. They do so with greed, clear irresponsibility and impunity with regards to the rule of law. I also believe that fighting corruption is not an illusion because you can bring sanity to the process. No country in the world is free of corruption but if you put the rule of law as supreme, a lot of sanity can be brought into the governance system. In our context, that is the difference between the character and nature of our bourgeoisie and the ones in other countries that we are trying to emulate. This is a major challenge and obstacle to the development of our country.

“If you are pursuing a liberal democratic development trajectory, then obviously there won’t be any substitute to giving primacy to the rule of law and ensuring that institutions are strong, ensuring that there is good governance, and transparency in the ways and manner by which people hold public positions. You will not eliminate corruption entirely but you can bring sanity into the governance process and ensure that people when they steal public resources are caught and penalized. But in our own context, the hegemonic control of the governance process is that the impunity is incredible. The only way to address that is to get people to recognise the need to improve the governance process even under the kind of context that we operate. We must strengthen the integrity of the electoral process. We must improve the legal framework of elections. We must mobilize people to know the value of elections and participate. Improve the recruitment process by political parties. Ensure that when people participate, the outcome of the elections may bring better people in the governance process that may be able to address some of these very negative tendencies that we see in the governance process.”

While canvassing for people-oriented reforms that would transform the sociopolitical landscape of the country, he argued that “Even if we can appropriately define reforms that Nigeria needs, the ruling elite have no commitment to driving and bringing those reforms about. If you put greed and selfishness and you pursue self-serving objectives, and you are unable to develop an elite consensus in terms of a development trajectory for the country, then you only succeed in breaking the country rather than reforming it. At the PRP, there is a commitment to the transformation of both of our politics and economy. This is a transformation based on principles of governance that is people-oriented, participatory and that uses governmental institutions, resources and processes in order to satisfy the fundamental needs and aspirations the people. These are related to human dignity and security in all its components. This is impossible because there is hegemonic control by the bad tendencies in governance. The dominant parties have closed the recruitment process in such a manner that only people in their own model can go through the electoral process and get into the governance arena whether legislative or executive. No doubt, to bring about this type of transformation, there is need for a broad alliance of people who recognize the need to change the developmental trajectory of our country.

“Among the progressive forces, we need to change our strategies; we need to be broadly participatory and broadly inclusive. Many of our young men and women nowadays are switching off from the political and governance processes. We need broad alliances. As progressives, we need to interrogate our methods and strategies and make them broadly inclusive in order to address those challenges that can bring success and development to our country. You can transform a country through revolution.”

Despite the gloom, he advised that it may be difficult but not impossible to reposition Nigeria in a very positive direction.

“The way and manner in which countries like Malaysia and Singapore have led themselves to prosperity are in stark contrast to what we have been doing here in Nigeria. There is no need to be agonizing over these issues. The key challenge is how to begin to change this negative trajectory of development and reposition Nigeria in a very positive direction. It may be difficult but it is not impossible if we apply our minds to it and develop the necessary consensus to be able to do that. In all of those countries is that key to their developments is the capacity to develop elite consensus; to be able to develop national priorities and pursue them, whether it is in managing diversity or in socioeconomic development,” he said.

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