Opinion: Our low threshold for standards

Our sense of judgement

Some events of the last few days have now opened my eyes to why Nigeria would languish at the bottom of corruption rating indices.

The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Ranking places Nigeria at 144 out of 177 countries with a score of 25 out of a hundred countries.

I observed in a number of tweets that the corruption measurement parameters are skewed to a Western perception of transparency to which we have very little sensitivity.

The poisoning of openness

For instance, there are too many areas where "conflicts of interest" have no particular meaning as pertains to public office.

People or organisations might have multiple interests which could affect their motives or cloud their judgements on issues where independence are critical for a transaction to be above board.

Neopatrimonalism is the order of the day where officials dole out without accounting or accountability to obtain favours and allegiance.

Here, especially people in power buy access, influence, allegiance, obeisance or votes by using the commonwealth of public funds.

Transparency is more a dictionary word rather than one of civil engagement required in all transactions.

Few talent pools

Whilst we are aware of nepotism, influence peddling and malfeasance, they all seem to be instruments of acquiescent brokerage.

We acquiesce to the abuse of power, privilege and office; as much as we can rail against this when it is not in our favour, we are accepting of the gains that this brings us without quibble, concern or even conscience.

The extension of this is the tribal and clannish tendency to want people like us in power rather than the best people we could find do things for the good of all.

The number of states in Nigeria is evidence of the many pools we have to fulfil positions to represent federal character but these many pools do not constitute adequate talent pools to tackle the challenges that face Nigeria.

Low thresholds for standards

For instance, we have a Freedom of Information Act that appears to be a tool of courageous engagement than an everyday call to accountability.

In the almost 30 months of the signing of the Freedom of Information Act, we have not seen its common usage in unravelling the obscurantist tendencies of the government, this especially in determining the cost of our democracy, how much oil we produce, how it gets spent and the real cost of the fuel subsidy.

The fundamental ethical demands of honesty, openness, integrity and so on, have a much lower threshold of fulfilment.

Normalised abuse

We have low expectations of ethical conduct, this accompanied with a very low emotional intelligence of the leadership that they are not discerning of issues enough to adapt or adjust until shamed, blamed, defamed embarrassed into taking appropriate action.

Rather than address the issue upfront, we seek moral equivalences and comparative scenarios to excuse reprehensible conduct or justify positions we have taken.

Consequently we are almost inured to the abuse of power and office, whilst those in power cannot be made fully accountable because the pursuit of truth, fairness and justice is neither with determination nor resolute.

Objectivity and honesty

I reflected on this as I read comments on certain blogs that partly inspired the blog I wrote yesterday - Opinion: The Salvation of Full Disclosure from Hypocrisy

The bigger lesson I want us to take away from that blog remains – With Full Disclosure, whilst people might question your objectivity, they cannot question your honesty, when you juxtapose that statement with another - Without Full Disclosure, whilst people might not question your objectivity, they will question your honesty.

You have a trade-off between objectivity and honesty predicated on full disclosure, that subtle distinction is what had me in the middle of the absurdity of apologising for manifest hypocrisy.

I have to admit and accept that my cultural influences are probably too diametrically opposed to my greater engagement that we all probably have a long and hard job of re-education and reorientation to appreciate that we need to raise the bar for ethical conduct.

Nigeria: Prince Ade Adesanya is expecting your call

Courtesy of @seunfakze & @olaoluwakite

Just what Twitter ordered

The picture above came up on my Twitter timeline; a Tweet by @seunfakze one of the highly commended minds on Nigerian socio-political commentary spearheading a number of future-looking initiatives for good governance in Nigeria.

It looks like it was originally posted by @olaoluwakite and shared at http://yfrog.com/ki3cfdzj

When I reTweeted it, I added the postscript, “Almajiri of the South”

RT @seunfakze: FRIEND OF THE GOVERNOR indeed. http://yfrog.com/ki3cfdzj *sad times* "Almajiri of the South".

Mustering disgust

Now, Almajiri means emigrant in Hausa, mostly spoken in the North of Nigeria and in the belt towards the West all the way to Ghana and possibly beyond.

In reality, the Almajiri today who are supposed to be young Islamic scholars are more or less hungry street urchins, beggars, easy prey for peddlers of influence in mobs or for abuse as depicted in this Times article [1] and a child rights emergency as I highlighted in this blog [2].

Nigeria is a country where titles matter, the moniker of Chief has become too commonplace, people now use the particular chieftaincy title they have received even if it is from a hamlet of 3 huts. Beyond that, religious titles abound from the Alhaji meaning someone who has in a majority of cases had a subsidised journey for pilgrimage to Mecca to Christian ones like Elder so-and-so who is a minister of the federal cabinet and not to forget the Dame, the wife of our President.

Heirs of royalty no matter how remote from the throne are styled Prince or Princess and this is where our Prince comes in, son of some royal father and no doubt an influence peddler who has printed a calling card that suggests he has the ear of the governor.

Pulling the governor’s ears

In our federation, states have a latitude of autonomy under the management of an Executive Governor [3] who is the patron-in-chief for a patronage system that supports an endemic corrupt enterprise much of which has been exposed in poor development and infrastructure for health [4, Graphic], education [5, Graphic] and economic growth [6, Graphic] despite the fact that the states share in the largesse of oil money that floods their coffers every month.

Prince Ade Adesanya exemplifies a societal malaise for sycophancy, nepotism, hedonism, prebendalism and neo-patrimoniallism all of which are tributaries for corruption in the most odious form.

It is interesting, that the Governor of Ogun State has not seen it fit to appoint his friend to some ministry, committee or advisory position, but the friend has probably in delusions of grandeur with the very possibility of being a confidence trickster printed a calling card with gilded edges, golden lettering and the coat of arms of the state – surely, there should be a few charges to decorate a rap sheet on sighting this card beyond censure.

Scam Alert!

Sadly, some gullible and naïve person will be presented with this card and assured of the ability to short-circuit due process for a fee just because Prince Ade Adesanya is a Friend of the Governor with the address of Government House – now, it is not clear if he is a friend of all governors, the past governor or the current governor  - the fact the card exists is enough cause for excoriation.

Anyone with two brain cells will know that a yahoo email address on such real estate of identity name-dropping is as good as standing under a peel of ringing church bells, be alarmed and touch him not with a 10-foot barge pole and that is longer than a spoon to dine with the devil.

It is just so rotten and disgusting; we need to put an end to this kind of atrocious influence peddling and patronage that relies on circumventing every transparent and meritorious act necessary to make our democracy work.

Call him

The task is simple, Prince Ade Adesanya needs to hear from us all; call him and email him; let him know that this is reprehensible at best and nothing will be too extreme in making a public show of this nonsense just in case some other idiot is planning to print a Friend of Dog card to have a gnaw at the bone.

Prince Ade Adesanya can be contacted on princeadeniyiadesanya@yahoo.com and if you need a deal to make your eyes water before you cuss down the phone, call +234(0)8086683619 or +234(0)8098312640

Call him now.


Addendum: A news story in October 2011 here appears to suggest that the prince is the Special Assistant on Political Matters and is indeed a friend of the governor but it does not take away from the odious peddling of influence that informed the printing of that calling card. Such acts should be held in utter contempt at this time and any other time.

Sources

[1] Nigeria's Abandoned Youth: Are They Potential Recruits for Militants?

[2] Nigeria: Letting Our Children Live Like Dogs

[3] Nigeria: The need to manage the Emperors of State

[4] Healthcare accessibility and distribution by State in Nigeria – Courtesy of BBC

[5] Female literacy by State in Nigeria – Courtesy of BBC

[6] Wealth distribution by State in Nigeria – Courtesy of BBC

Nigeria: Our way about things

Reviewing old events

I found myself in a phone call yesterday evening that developed into a post-mortem of an event I attended the weekend before.

One had castigated the arrangements and organisation of the event but this was now a time to offer excuses for failings in the hope that the focus would be taken off those that were clearly responsible for the atrocious circumstances we found ourselves in.

Time and again, we find ourselves short-changed by our leadership, the people selected to represent us and the others they choose to surround themselves with.

Business as usual

Patronage, nepotism and familiarity offers a sense of comfort in lieu of efficiency and competence, the result of which the parties end up in a situation where they cannot challenge each other to do better and achieve any level of excellence.

Good money can be paid to get professionals to do a job but the scent of money amongst a cabal of sycophants in the sight of power leaves charlatans pretending to ability and after the debacle they are never in fear of being made accountable having pocketed a tidy sum for doing the barest minimum.

When mothers speak

But like every educated middle-class Nigerian mother might have once said to their kids, their approval of other company usually ranges from – “Too good for my liking.” to “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.”

In both cases, those statements were never ones of approval but they rarely get to the point where they proscribe the relationships but the point is clearly made.

It is with regret also that our official representative having excelled academically still has the village and marketplace atmosphere re-enacted with stomach-churning nostalgia in the northern European climes of The Netherlands.

Maintaining the poor impressions

There is no clamber to improve rather the selfsame narrative is reaffirmed leaving many disappointed but then in the mood of a party the subjective jollity might just distract from objective scrutiny.

Culpability of the dastardly organisation lies with those at the top and to think a religious leader was involved in the arrangements but made a complete hash of the event – you can only begin to imagine the chaos that accompanies the matins and the congregants in fervent supplication.

We deserve better

Did the conversation end with the put-down that should not be repeated? Something along the lines of by translation – A village girl who just happens to have a PhD – good breeding and the penchant for understanding the consequence of wrong delegation and assignment of duties does not come with the accumulation of letters.

When it comes to these people, “of whom little is expected much less is desired.” Nigeria deserves a lot better than this, she surely does.

Nigeria: Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello makes list

Children of influence

In January 2008, I wrote about influence peddling by the brood of leaders of Africa who by reason of their parent’s office have amassed to themselves, wealth and the arrogance of power to topple any due process exacted against them. Brood of Vipers or Leaders? 18-Jan-2008 Nigeria: An Exposé on influence peddling 11-Jan-2008.

The Foreign Policy magazine ran two articles The World’s Worst Daughters and The World’s Worst Sons, I saw the former first and a sixth sense gave me the impression that I would find a familiar face amongst them.

I take this millstone round my neck

On the part of the daughters, their parents seemed to be tyrannical despots or populist leaders and the girls by congenital transference had taken on a ruthless, vindictive streak of impunity that extends well beyond the borders of their home countries but left them completely untouchable at home and abroad.

Anyone married to these ladies if that is the right word for them gets castrated, some have lost custody of their children through the ladies defying court orders and removing the kids from their lawful custodian and residence.

Men who built their businesses on the clout of daddy’s girl should expect an almighty fallout if the relationship goes sour, you can imagine one instance where the father forced a divorce on his son in-law and then had him executed, the lady involved opined that “all families have misunderstanding.”

That makes me think of a song by Prince had has the lines, Girl, I think you’re hot and sexy, sexy,sexy; Cold Blooded. These girls are cold blooded and they have balls only where men should have them.

The girls

The rogues gallery lists Gulnora Karimov [1] of Uzbekistan, Raghad Hussein [2], daughter of Saddam Hussein, now a guest of the Jordanian royal family, Sandar Win [3] of Burma, daughter of the late Prime Minister, Pinthongta Shinawatra [4] of Thailand, daughter of the deposed Prime Minister and Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello [5] of Nigeria, daughter of the erstwhile President.

Now, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but has a pending case of kidnapping her son from the United States and is on the Interpol watch list.

The article defines the family business as abuse of power and graft, which is quite apt, however, if there was a real investigation of her activities as to uncover the ones skirt the limits of legality, the charge sheet would paper over the Nigerian end of the River Niger.

This is however not the place to detail those issues, the most important part is she is in the top 5 of the world’s worst daughters as reviewed in the Foreign Policy magazine, that does take some doing. Congratulations!

As for The World’s Worst Sons, Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s son, Sir Mark Thatcher [6] has made a name for himself.

Sources

[1] The World’s Worst Daughters | Foreign Policy | Gulnora Karimov

[2] The World’s Worst Daughters | Foreign Policy | Raghad Hussein

[3] The World’s Worst Daughters | Foreign Policy | Sandar Win

[4] The World’s Worst Daughters | Foreign Policy | Pinthongta Shinawatra

[5] The World’s Worst Daughters | Foreign Policy | Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello

[6] The World’s Worst Sons | Foreign Policy | Mark Thatcher