Being text of the welcome address delivered by Prof. Olatunde Makanju, NAS Capone, National Association of Seadogs, at the 3rd Ralph Opara Memorial Lecture on Friday, November 3, 2006.
The National Association of Seadogs NAS (aka PYRATES CONFRATERNITY) was formed in 1952 by a group of seven energetic, courageous and forward-looking young men who were then undergraduates at the University College Ibadan (now the University of Ibadan). The rest is now history. The tenets of NAS could be found in its ‘Four rudder blades’:
Against Moribund Convention
Against Ethnicity
For Humanistic Ideas
For Comradeship and Chivalry
Right from its inception NAS had always been in the forefront of the battle to establish a just and egalitarian society in Nigeria leading to a Nation that will be strong, prosperous, peaceful and, a true giant in the commity of Nations. The late Ralph Opara was one of those seven founders of NAS. He lived a truly professional and exemplary life which was untainted and became a shiny example to be emulated by the youths of today.
It is in the quest for that Nigeria of our dreams – a truly democratic nation marching in all its might to becoming a developed country that today’s lecture has been organized to honour that noble son of Nigeria- a broadcaster of no mean repute, compere and actor per excellence – Ralph Opara.
Whatever the limitations of democracy (and they may well be many), mankind is yet to device any other system with popular appeal and programmatic implications for inclusiveness, accountability, transparency, good governance and development. Experiences in many nations have shown that mankind is qualitatively better off under a democratic political order than any other political system.
The interface between democracy and good governance is underscored by the need for the promotion of the public good, and the greatest good of the greatest number. As the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, rightly argued, “Without good governance, without the rule of law, predictable administration, legitimate power, and responsive regulation, no amount of funding, no amount of charity will set us on the path of prosperity”. In our collective opinion, it is integrity that forms one of the underpinnings of democracy and good governance.
Democracy, good governance and free and fair elections are centered on the imperative of procedurally and institutionally established structures and of the commitments of the political stakeholders involved in the process. This becomes more so given the sad history of political somersaults, economic dislocation, social disequilibrium, segmented pluralism, generalized backwardness, and aggravated crisis of underdevelopment occasioned by visionless, corrupt, irresponsible, unaccountable and reckless leadership and uncritical followers.
One major problem of the Nigerian project is the attempt to separate private morality from public morality. In other words, public standard is far lower than those permissible in the private sphere of day-to-day engagement. Thus political engagements are seen as a zero-ethic province. This is informed by the wrong notion that the public sphere, in this case, the state and government is a no man’s business, an alien institution to be plundered and looted rapaciously and with impunity for personal and group benefits.
This wrong mind-set has been further compounded by the crisis of dependent capitalism and the non-hegemonic nature of the Nigerian ruling class for whom the state is a means
of production, an instrument for primitive capitalist accumulation, and more importantly, an apparatus of thieving the common patrimony of the Nigerian people.
Given such irrational accumulation, corruption, mismanagement, misappropriation, maladministration, looting, injustices, violation of rule of law and constitutionalism, executive lawlessness and legislative gangsterism, election rigging and manipulations, and other negative political tendencies, it is not surprising that elections in Nigeria have become the equivalent of low intensity warfare.
Beyond the negative implications it has for the crisis of underdevelopment, economic crisis, political instability, national discord, systemic breakdown, generalized lawlessness, deindustrialization, disinvestment, political violence, poverty, squalor, diseases, irresponsible leadership, and unemployment, the respect and dignity of the Nigerian people globally has been seriously eroded such that Nigeria and Nigerians attract the scorn of the international community.
It therefore stands to reason that the development, and progress of the Nigerian enterprise, as well as its respect amongst the comity of nations, is organically linked with a conscious and purposive reversal of the climate of moral depravity typified by the low integrity currency of political processes, institutions and actors, especially within the context of the 2007 general elections.
There is thus a programmatic need to relate actions to the principle of political integrity and other universally and traditionally acceptable coherent principles of credible leadership and democracy if the nation must move forward and assume its pride of place as the most populous black nation on earth with its high endowment in human and material resources. This calls for a frontal attack on institutional weaknesses and an increase in the moral tone of politics at all levels.
Nigerians therefore should start asking their leaders to be more accountable for their actions and inactions. There is also the urgent need to deconstruct the negative mind-set that the national cake is an orderless order, where people can unquestionably steal without consequences. One way of doing this is also to increase the template of public discourse and encourage institutions and individuals committed to this purpose in our body polity.
This cannot be achieved with a structural partitioning of the requirements of private morality and integrity from those in the public sphere. In fact, on the contrary, the requirement of public morality and integrity should be far higher than those of the private sphere of individualized existence. For if we fail to protect, defend and respect the sanctity of our collective good, we are all doomed.
The end of a state – protection, order, justice, and the welfare of the people- cannot in any meaningful sense be achieved without integrity of the political leadership, and the political process. A nation devoid of integrity is a little better than Hobbes’ state of nature, where life is solitary, brutish, nasty and short.
A nation whose politics and leadership lacks integrity, no matter its material and human resources, is an accident waiting to happen. Nigeria is such a nation. Not only does our politics lack integrity, most of our leaders both past and present, have no modicum of credibility and integrity. This is evident in the privatization of the state and its resources. It is in this latter connection that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was selected to deliver the 3rd Ralph Opara Memorial lecture, Towards Election 2007: Integrity and the Challenges of Political Engagement.
Since the establishment of the EFCC in 2004, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has made the agency a foremost institutional modality for the fight against official corruption. Many hitherto sacred cows have been exposed and prosecuted. The fear of Ribadu and the EFCC is today the beginning of wisdom. Our corrupt Excellencies now have their tails in-between their thighs on account of the effectiveness and efficiency of this no-nonsense agency under Mallam Ribadu.
The achievements and successes of the EFCC are so numerous that they need no cataloguing. As much as one may not totally agree with the modus operandi of the EFCC, the popular acclaim received globally by the agency and the high rating presently enjoyed by the nation in the international community cannot be dissociated from the monumental work of the EFCC under Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. It is for these reasons that this ebullient, courageous, fearless, patriotic, nationalistic, dedicated and anti-corruption fighter and crusader was unanimously selected to deliver this year’s lecture. If not for anything, it is to demonstrate our support and association with this all-important task of bringing integrity into governance and ridding Nigeria of political adventurers, economic predators, social misfits, irresponsible and visionless leadership.
On this note, let me welcome you all to what one expects to be a thrilling, entertaining, revealing and highly informative lecture from the ‘horse’s mouth’.
Thank you and, God bless.
Professor Olatunde Makanju
NAS Capoon
National Association of Seadogs
