Its primary, in a sense, its only purpose is survival —Daniel Boorstin, American Historian, 1973, Vanguard Book of Quotations, P 141

A political party deserves the approbation of America (or Nigeria) only as it represents the ideals, the aspirations and the hopes of Americans (or Nigerians). If it is anything less, it is merely a conspiracy to seize power —President Dwight Eisenhower, November 7, 1956.

MOST people often get it wrong. It was  not Charles Darwin, 1809- 1882, author of The Descent of Man and The Origin of Species who first used the term “survival of the species”.

That credit belongs to a less celebrated individual, Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903, author of Definitions: Education, Principles of Biology and Social Statistics. In fact, it was in the Principles of Biology that he used the term “survival of the fittest” which Darwin later acknowledged and adopted.

But, in Social Statistics, Spencer had a warning for individuals and nations which eventually seek not only to survive as a unit for long but to be great as well. According to Spencer, “Progress is not an accident, but a necessity (emphasis mine)….It is a part of nature”.

Against all the evidence of history, including from 1960, when we received our independence from Britain, till today, Nigerian political leaders, more or less a continuum of the same set of characters, irrespective of political party, have, with little exception, made the progress of Nigeria, which should not be an accident but a necessity, secondary to their staying in power at all costs. And, they have even done something else.

They have made party leadership almost totally hereditary - even if the inheritance has to be procured by force or fraud - usually both. That explains why we keep losing ground to other nations - even those with which we started in the 1960s.

Let me briefly, even at the risk of boring you, remind all of us that at independence, the following nations, now ranked by GDP, South Korea (13), Indonesia (21), Thailand (33), Malaysia (38), Columbia (40), and Singapore (45) were light years, or so we thought, behind us in terms of GDP. Singapore did not even exist. Now its GDP for 2009 is set to be equal to ours despite having a population less than that of Ogun State and a land mass less than that of Bauchi State. Nigeria now ranks 41.

That should tell you something about the lies that the proponents of Vision 2020 are peddling. To go from 41 to 20, you must first of all know who your competitors are and if they have established a record of failures such as yours.

Nothing that I have read from the promoters of 2020 have answered the question: how do you overtake a country that supplies half your cars in twenty years when you don’t even have a brand of your own for export or even for the domestic market? 

At sixty dollars per barrel, you need four hundred and twenty drums of crude just to pay for one Kia Optima and Malaysian brands are on the way. 

That Nigeria has been cursed with bad leadership, is not in doubt. That has been repeated many times - even by the leaders themselves when not in power. On November 4, 1998, when declaring for the presidency, Obasanjo had remarked that the legacies he left behind as military head of state “are no longer there; they have been lost in the fire of leadership insensibility, executive arrogance and institutional lawlessness.”

Today, one should ask Obasanjo what happened to some of the official buildings he inherited, the Games Village, Apo Quarters for legislators and the TBS among thousands of others sold at giveaway prices that would make the Prodigal son look like a miser.

And which elected Head of government has ever demonstrated more arrogance and institutional lawlessness than Baba Iyabo? Certainly, not Abubakar or Shehu Shagagri.

The emergence of Obasanjo as President of Nigeria in 1999 is perhaps the best example one can provide of how the Nigerian society, especially its political class, has always tolerated the survival of the unfittest - people least able, either because they lack the vision or the administrative capacity or the requisite  experience, or the integrity or all of those qualities, to provide the leadership to move us forward.

Obasanjo’s selection and imposition of Yar’Adua as his successor adds a second dimension to our national problem.

“Leadership, is always somewhat mysterious. Leadership can be summed up in two words: intelligence and integrity or to use the synonyms: competence and character”, wrote John Brademas, US Congressman in 1984. He had good reason.

Character without intelligence is useless at the top. The Oval Office, where Obama will work from January next year; Number 10, Downing Street, London, and Aso Rock are not offices for people waving prayer books of whichever religion.

That was why Catherine the Great, 1762-1796, Empress of Russia, when presented a proposal by one of her advisers, an old hand at the court, after reading it remarked, “What you have presented will make great religion but not good statecraft”.

She broke new ground and went on to become great. Most people reading Yew, the father of modern Singapore easily forget how many proposals based on conventional wisdom he rejected and instead opted for bold new initiatives.

By contrast, the Nigerian landscape is always littered with recycling of the same set of people, the Jerry Ganas, the Dr Lukmans, Ojo Maduekwes etc, who led us into backwardness. Failing that, we reach for their kids or their wives, daughters or errand boys who are nominated to fill Ministerial or Special Advisers’ posts.

Thus we end up with a Fani Kayode, Azikiwe, Waziri, Saraki, Mbadiwe, Akinjide, Obasanjo, Madueke, Yar’Adua, Lar, etc., as if intelligence is totally hereditary or can be transferred from husband to wife. Even if aptitude is, can character also be guaranteed to be transferable intact?

The unique circumstance in which the nation finds itself at any point in time is never taken into account in these selections; it is simply a matter of “who is next to be served?” by the nation.

If not Ironsi, then it must be Akintola, or the late Sultan’s family or the Ijaw leader. In the west, they now alternate between Awolowo and Akintola.

On the other hand, intelligence without character is far worse. And that has been the major cause of our backwardness.

Of what use is it if a person is the youngest Queens Counsel, Q.C, ever, if his most memorable contribution to politics were the “wetie” wars, in the old Western Region, that led to the downfall of the First Republic and the beginning of military rule - the last of which we are not sure we have seen?

Yet, when someone, either with a leaky memory or imbued with the worst sort of cynicism, was looking for a minister, he went for a “chip of the old block.”

Similarly, a great deal of the corruption, which everyone agrees, have crippled our country, have not been the result of ignorance or even of poverty contrary to what we generally suppose.

By the time Tarfa Balogun, ex-IGP, was arrested and charged with embezzling billions, he was already a lawyer and a billionaire, (never mind for the moment how he came about his wealth) or close to it.

But, appetite grows with eating - for the insatiable glutton or avaricious. Yew did not retire to a palace in Singapore despite his enormous achievement. Ghana’s Jerry Rawlings retired almost as poor as he went in.

Nigeria’s Obasanjo retired to a palatial mansion at the top of Olumo Rock and people, instead of ostracizing him in that place, still visit him - many of them highly intelligent people whose tolerance for corruption must shame the devil himself.

Why then are we still asking why we are backward and will probably remain backward for hundreds of years to come?

As long as we have a society which tolerates the survival of the unfittest and continue to allow them to perpetuate themselves in office through one foul means or another, we will never develop. If we want to develop,the only option is to make sure that robbing public purse for the benefit of a few stops.

Vincent Ogbulafor, demonstrating the arrogance of misguided political leaders echoed what Ahmadu Ali said about the PDP ruling for sixty years. Only, in a banana republic, such as our own, can such an individual, who, though educated in the best schools, but who failed to allow education into his framework of thought be considered a leader.

He only thinks about the survival of the party. The country can go to blazes!!! Nothing demonstrates how for so long we have been ruled by the unfittest in our history.

Finally, and this brings us to the assessment of our President. In a previous article, titled “late bloomers or dullards” I had raised the question of the president’s basic aptitude for the task he has allowed himself to be saddled with. The jury is still out on that one.

To be quite candid, that someone received a Masters Degree in Chemistry from one of our universities is no demonstration of the possession of the level of intelligence required of a national leader.

More so, when we remember that for long there have been “quota professors and quota degree awards”. We need more evidence. But, even if he is as intelligent as Einstein, the issue of character is still not settled.

That he left some billions in the till at Katsina, a backward state by any measure, is not to me commendable. It merely indicated that he was bereft of ideas for the state’s progress. At any rate presidential character is not only a matter of honesty.

President Clinton was a womanizer, but his effectiveness on the job was not in doubt. The only beneficiary of Yar’Adua’s chastity is Mrs Turia Yar’Adua. What else does the man have for character that is of benefit to the rest of us?

Left to me, he could have all the women he wants if only he will wake up and lead purposefully. And that to me also means dispensing with the old tired bloods; those who got us into this mess in the first instance…...
NEXT WEEK: 1. SURVIVAL OF THE UNFITTEST—PDP AS A POLITICAL MACHINE. 2. NATIONAL AWARDS: TIME TO BEGIN AGAIN

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