Agreed!
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-------- Original message --------
From: "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>
Date: 30/01/2018 19:48 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why Dangiwa Umar Should betheStandard-bearer of the Third Force
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (farooqkperogi@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info Functional systems that are enduring are always, always superior to a leader or leaders, but systems don't emerge magically out of thin air; they need far-sighted, transaction-oriented leaders who have the capacity to rise superior to the dysfunctions of the current system that produced them to bring them about. That is, of course, reformist thinking, which has its own limitations. But even in revolutionary thinking, which requires the extirpation of the old order for the inauguration of a new one, you need a vanguard, and all vanguards are led by someone. Either way, you can't avoid coming to terms with the instrumentality of leadership in bringing about systemic changes.
Farooq
Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Journalism & Emerging MediaSchool of Communication & Media
Social Science Building
Room 5092 MD 2207
402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com
Twitter: @farooqkperog
Author of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
On Tue, Jan 30, 2018 at 11:12 AM, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:
--Leadership is the product of the investment we make on process. It is not a form of ordination. The elected president of the Agbekoya farmers Union, or the school captain of the Government College Umuahia; or those appointed from kindergarten as class monitors, are selected, conditioned, trained, and positioned to carry out responsible duties. They are taught to be accountable. They are encouraged to be curious. They are put through all forms of disciplinary process from which they become attuned to their social roles. None of these would be possible if we do not (a) conceive and construct an institutional process, (b) if we do not have methods of transparent selection, (c) if there are no recognizable sanctions. A GOOD LEADER does not emerge from the clouds, or straight out of the wombs, or born to it. There will in fact be nothing to lead if there is no buy-in by the rest. In other words, the primary conditions of a society shapes the character of its highest servants. A good system of leadership is representative and diffuse; it does not concentrate power, agency, or energy in a single source. My argument therefore is quite plain: there is no such thing as "a good leader." Elect Yeshua the Christ president of Nigeria today, with the state of the public mind, and the state of our social institutions, he will fail. One of the reasons why he would fail is also because the structure of the system he would operate, which concentrates enormous powers on persons rather than the institution of public governance is designed from the get-go to corrupt him. There is where we have our greatest problems. Too much power; too little sanction. We have created the myth of the single leader from whom all sources of knowledge and authority; and all designs of our endeavors flow. This leader is expected to be omniscient and without blemish or complication. It is romantic, and really, more suitable to theatre than to reality.Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2018 11:20 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why Dangiwa Umar Should be theStandard-bearer of the Third ForceObi:Can you modify your proposal to merge both points? That is, merging good leadership with your notion of active citizenship, and the role of strong institutions.As you put the foolish Trump into the equation, there is still a space for leadership, a combination of structuralism with realism.T F--
Sent from my iPhoneThe real question, Dr. Afolayan is, why do you need A GOOD LEADER? This is the very problem. It is not A GOOD LEADER that is the problem. The problem is the mindset that you need this messianic superman who would like Moses, lead us through a wilderness. In the 21st century, you do not need A GOOD LEADER. You need a well established social system made up of conscious, active, and engaged citizens. You need a legislature of highly aware parliamentarians, who craft law for social good, and among whose assembly are the true representatives of the citizens, to whom they are made by law to account regularly. You need a court and judicial system indifferent to status, or the wiles of A GOOD LEADER. You need a well organized bureaucracy, a civil service selected by pure merit, and motivated to carry out the orders of a well-established government, and in which a duty officer could refuse to carry out illegal assignments, and defy anyone for as long as they are within their rights, and cannot be sanctioned by A LEADER except by the laws of the establishment. You need a society governed by the rule of law, rather than by A GOOD LEADER. A good leader should never have the kind of power that makes the fortunes of any society depend on their sole "goodness" or not. Such societies that depend on A GOOD LEADER belong more to the 18th century. We fought for democracy in order to make power diffuse, not to hand it o some "Kabiyesi." We created a republic in order to establish the EQUALITY OF ALL CITIZENS, each of whom should be A CONSCIENTIOUS CITIZEN wherever they stand. And that is what we need: CONSCIENTOUS CITIZENSHIP governed by law, not A GOOD LEADER who directs the law. I think the political miseducation of the Nigerian intellectual, among them philosophers of all the categories, is the real problem with our society. We need a concert of invested people to drive the dream of a nation. Not A GOOD LEADER. Stop looking for a messiah. Act from your own corner.Obi Nwakanma
NB: Happy 65th birthday to Toyin Falola. The eagle feather of the Ozo na Nze - that ancient cult of the one they call Hermes - already stands high on your cap. There's not much more you can do but to keep pouring libation to you CHI. I salute you, Professor.Obi Nwakanma
From: 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com >
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2018 9:27 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why Dangiwa Umar Should be theStandard-bearer of the Third Force----I think the responses to Kperogi's article have failed to properly understand where he is coming from with his recommendation. I am surprised that, again, we are reading ethnicity into the genuine search for a genuine leader with the capacity to lead Nigeria out of the wood. The real question is: where do we get a good leader? The real answer ought to be: Anywhere! It doesn't matter whether the one we are looking for is Hausa, Fulani, Igbo or Yoruba. We simply need a good leader who can transcend his or her ethnicity and attend to Nigeria. It actually also does not matter if the person is military or civilian. There is nothing in the democratic tenets that forbids anyone from putting him or herself up or from being put up for the office. Indeed, there is nothing in democratic practice that guarantee epistemic certainty about the choice of who we want in the office. Buhari represents a present example of the uncertainty embedded in democracy. But then, isn't that the wonderful thing about it all: Our capacity to deliberate critically on who want to elect, the person's capacity (and not ethnicity), the person's antecedents (and not profession), etc. If Col. Umar has what it takes, do please let's elect him into office. To hell with where he came from!Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429
On Monday, January 29, 2018 7:33 AM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks, Segun.
I wonder why this fixation on a particular ethnicity, and people without any or little track record of technocratic leadership.
de tin tire me
toyin--
On 29 January 2018 at 03:11, segun ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:
This alternative choice you have proudly advertised is as deadly as Buhari in the circumstances in which Nigeria is under the yoke of the Fulani herdsmen.More importantly, his genealogical background makes him extremely dangerous considering the jihad of his great ancestor, Othman dan Fodio who attempted to Islamize the country that became Nigeria. His destruction of indigenous cultural values which his followers still teach in the country has caused the under development of Nigeria.Furthermore must we believe ex-sldiers are Nigerian political, economic and social Messiah? Don't we have millions of credible fellow Nigerians in and outside the country that can save the country from your perceived end of the time, if Buhari is reelected?Finally, let us stop recycling the same ethinic leaders and look for others with impressive track records. The electorate can be of help if we ask them to make the choice.Segun Ogungbemi--
On Jan 28, 2018 19:15, "Olayinka Agbetuyi" <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
Except that I want us to end a culture that sees military men as the best (over civilians) even in a civilian dispensation (I stood against the candidature of OBJ to succeed Abubakir for the same reason) Umars past recommends him as a potential successor to Buhari with the following caveat:
that he upholds the gentleman's agreement that like Mandela he will not rule for more than one term and that he finds a suitable civilian candidate from the next zone to rule be adopted as his running mate and groomed to ensure the continuity of the programmes that brought Buhari to power iin the first instance which going by Umars past credentials he (Umar) is expected to pursue with relentless vigour originally expected from PMB.
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-------- Original message --------From: "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>Date: 27/01/2018 07:30 (GMT+00:00)Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why Dangiwa Umar Should be theStandard-bearer of the Third Force
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--Twitter: @farooqkperogi
While there is a widening consensus that President Buhari, through his remarkable incompetence and bigotry, is inexorably leading Nigeria to infernal ruination, there isn't a sufficiently robust discussion on who should replace him. Most politically unaffiliated people who have accepted that the presidency is above Buhari's mental paygrade simply say the swashbucklers in PDP can't be his replacement.
It's time to move beyond that rhetoric. Who is a viable alternative to Buhari? Who has the capacity to steer us away from the path of perdition we're headed under Buhari? There is a curious reluctance to confront these questions forthrightly. This reluctance conduces to the flourishing of dishonest and exasperating bromides like "Well, we know Buhari is incompetent, but what is the alternative?" or "Although we agree that Buhari hasn't lived up to expectation, there is really no alternative to him at this time."
It's like being led to a pit of hell by a blind guide and saying, "Well, there is no alternative to this guide, so I have to come to terms with my earthly damnation." That's pointless, boneheaded self-immolation. Only people with a perverse taste for self-violence reason like that. There ARE several alternatives to Buhari.
In my December 16, 2017 column titled "There Must be an Alternative to Buhari and Atiku," from which former President Olusegun Obasanjo quoted in his recent press statement, I suggested that we give a thought to Retired Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar.
"How about we try someone else? Off the top of my head, I can think of retired Colonel Dangiwa Umar widely acknowledged as just, fair, principled, hardworking, cosmopolitan, widely traveled, and well-educated," I Wrote. "I'm not suggesting that he is perfect. He is not. No one is. It is our imperfections that make us human, but we all know what sorts of imperfections ruin nations and its people. I don't think anyone can accuse him of those sorts of imperfections—sloth, lethargy, corruption, clannishness, incompetence, indecisiveness, etc. He may decline to throw his hat in the ring. But there are many like him."
I see that there is now a growing conversation around getting Col. Umar interested in a run for the office of president in 2019. But I am also aware that some people have raised concerns about the symbolic burden of his military background, particularly because of justified national anxieties about the domination of our politics by past military people. This is a legitimate concern.
Nevertheless, I believe Umar's military background is incidental to his qualification for this job. It is the strength of his character, his urbaneness, his record of inclusivity, his contagiously genuine passion for pan-Nigerianism, his stubborn commitment to higher principles, his vast knowledge of the ways of the world, his intellectual curiosity, his unflappability in the face of stress and strain, and his broadmindedness that stand him out and that would potentially make him such a comforting departure from the blight we're mired in now.
There are many others like him, but I am suggesting him for at least two reasons. One, the national mood appears to favor a northern presidential candidate, perhaps as a consequence of the internal power-sharing arrangements of most political parties. Second, the only northerner, in my estimation, who is "salable" outside his natal region based on his record is Umar.
His uncommonly principled stand against the cancellation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which caused him to voluntarily resign his commission from the Nigerian military, will resonate with many voters in the southwest. He fought General Sani Abacha with all his strength when it was extremely risky to do so—and at the cost of libelous smears and threats to his life.
His exemplary, even-handed management of the 1987 religious crisis in Kaduna is still a reference point. "If you win a religious war, you cannot win religious peace," he famously said. "Since the killing started how many Christians have been converted to Islam? How many Muslims have been converted to Christianity? It is an exercise in futility."
He is one of only a few northern Muslim leaders that northern Christians trust and have confidence in. Although he is a direct descendant of Usman Dan Fodio (his father was Wazirin Gwandu), he is on record as being severely critical of religious bigotry by Muslims, a reason he isn't popular in his immediate constituency.
He was also one of only a few northerners to recognize the legitimacy of IPOB's angst and to caution against government's strong-arm tactics against the group. "One of the swiftest ways of destroying a kingdom is to give preference to one particular tribe over another, or to show favour to one group of people rather than another, and to draw near those who should be kept away and keep away those that should be drawn near," he wrote in a press statement on August 30, 2017. "Like Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, many Igbos genuinely feel marginalized since they belong to the category of those who gave Mr President only 5% of their votes and appeared to have fallen out of his favour."
Whatever foibles Umar has, ethnic and religious bigotry aren't one of them. Given the unprecedented dissension and acrimony that Buhari's government has instigated in the nation, we need a clearheaded, mild-mannered, even-tempered nationalist to bring us together, to calm frayed nerves, and to inspire us to dream again. I see Umar fitting this role.
He will certainly lose in the northwest and in such northeastern states as Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, and Gombe. In these states, most—certainly not all—people would vote for Buhari even if he were to go on a murdering spree of people there. Those who survive the carnage would still vote for him. But remember that the votes of this bloc were never sufficient to make him president.
If he were to square off against Buhari in a free and fair election in 2019, Umar would handily win the deep south, the southeast, most of the southwest, and the northcentral, except, perhaps, Niger State. In essence, he would reduce Buhari to the ethno-regional champion he had always been, which was reversed because of the purchase his candidacy got in the southwest and the Christian north in 2015 as a consequence of Jonathan's intolerable misgovernance.
But if Jonathan was clueless, Buhari embodies cluelessness on steroids. Buhari's cliquishness, insouciance, and down-the-line incompetence are a clear and present danger to Nigeria's continued existence. Reelecting him in 2019 would be the kiss of death for the nation.
It's impossible for Nigeria to survive a 4-year extension of Buhari's misrule, which is characterized by rampant injustice, invidious selectivity, insecurity, unexampled nepotism, smartly dressed corruption, sloth, intellectual laziness, hardship, and directionlessness. You know a country is utterly leaderless when it has a president who proudly says "I am not in a hurry to do anything" while the country he supposedly governs burns.
Umar won't be perfect. He would falter. The intoxication of power may alter him. And maybe not. But the beauty of democracy is that it imbues us with the power to change ineffective leaders. It is the incremental rectification of past electoral mistakes that aggregates to qualitative change in democratic societies. No society makes progress by reelecting transparently incompetent leaders.
Related Article:
Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorJournalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & MediaSocial Science BuildingRoom 5092 MD 2207402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogAuthor of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
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