OBIcracy vs gerontocracy, plutocracy & kakistocracy, By Ik Muo, PhD.

CenturyPost August 17, 2022

0 296 9 minutes read

In my last intervention, I defined the concept of inflexion and explained why and how Nigeria found itself at that critical juncture. Indeed, as Asa sang during the NNPC repainting ceremony, there is fire on the mountain! Deji Ige (in Let there be light) who asked which way Nigeria (Sunny Okossuns,1983 and that was when there was still a way) bemoaned the Nigerian situation in which poverty is a stakeholder, hunger is the breadwinner, fuel scarcity is a citizen, the reward of teachers is still in heaven, salary remains a punishment for hard-work and a cow is equal to (indeed more valued than) humans due to a rickety, myopic leadership’ driving us recklessly into the obviously shark-infested deep blue sea! Reverend Fr Sly Ameh had compared Nigeria to the traveller on the road to Jericho who was beaten, battered, robbed and left for dead (Luke 10:25-37) and argues that what we need now is not another brigand or steel-hearted, Machiavellian fellow but a GOOD Samaritan; to rescue and restore. Nigeria is sick unto death; it is like a car with a knocked engine that requires not just an ordinary driver but a dexterous mechanic. 2023 is an opportunity to start afresh and any mistake then will be FATAL. Lasisi Olagunju has reminded us that modern medicine ordinarily prescribes surgery or at least a compulsory long term support as a remedy for birth defects. I believe that it is time to perform that painful surgery in/on Nigeria or at least, install a sustainable long-term support. And the person who intentionally shot-to-kill somebody cannot be the person to the bullet from his victim!

During the PDP National convention as a prelude to the 2015 elections, Lucky Goodluck, the man who moved from grass to Grace and from Grace to greater Grace made this prophetic statement: The choice before Nigerians in the coming election is quite simple: a choice between going forward or going backward; between the new ways and the old ways; between freedom and repression; between a record of visible achievements/beneficial reforms and desperate power-seekers with empty promises. Unfortunately, like entranced folks, we gleefully chose going backwards, the old ways, repression, and desperate power-seekers with their empty promises. And unfortunately, we are now in a more precarious position than we ever imagined that we could be. Today, the choice between us is like that between day and night. We have two broad options; to choose OBIcracy, which goes beyond PO or the insufferable troika of plutocracy, gerontocracy & Kakistocracy

OBIcracy, is the theory, practice and philosophy of OBIism or politics as practiced and espoused by Peter Obi. It is a system in which ‘people who are disenchanted with structured political leadership choose a structureless but competent leader of character, voluntarily deploying their 3Ts to mobilise and campaign for him against FULLY structured incompetent leaders with missing and/or doubtful certificates, age, integrity, origin and even parentage’. It is also seen as a system of government where savings is the goal, producing is the strategy and funding the SMEs is the philosophy. OBIcracy espouses inclusiveness, shared prosperity, ‘youthocracy’, social cohesion, compassion and preferential interest in the poor, underprivileged and marginalised. It prioritises character, competence, openness, pro-people policies, respect for the rule of law, civility and moderation in speech and action whether in public or public life; clean, simple and credible lifestyle and all round education and exposure sufficient to lead Nigeria from the ‘nth’ world( we had long gone far below the third world) to the current world and to the future. Under OBIcracy, everything is OBIvous, OBImatic and OBIfied all built on a foundation of OBIology. Of course, one can confidently go and verify! It is built around a holistic concept of integrity, which always seeks the good of others; it believes that if something is not good FOR BOTH SIDES, then, it is not good for either side. You may succeed momentarily for what do or know, but you can only succeed permanently because of what you are (The Word for Today 1/3/19; Before I Die, 30/4/21). It also SOLEY thinks and works around whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, whatever is excellent and praiseworthy (Phil,4:8). It abhors desperation and ambuscade, and believes strongly in equity, while adopting the golden rule!

Pacesetting leadership style

OBIcracy adopts a Pacesetting Leadership Style as propounded by Daniel Goleman in which the leader leads from the front, constantly sets high standards for the team and expects them to exceed it with minimal supervision; when the leader sets the cadence for the team and demands high intensity in their performance. This is because, ’the perfect way to lead is by taking the lead. Taking the lead stiffens the backbone of the followers and enhances their confidence. Taking the lead demonstrates your faith and commitment to what you are directing them to do. Taking a lead shows them how to do it and at the same time inspires them to do what they see you do

OBIcracy as a construct goes beyond Peter Obi and that was why he was able to identify another OBImatic Nigeria, a YUSUful one for that matter in the person of Dati Baba-Ahmed, out of the numerous other OBIfied people across all the regions , religions and tribes of Nigeria. Thus, there are many OBIcratic individuals beyond Peter Obi. The mission statement of OBIcracy is ‘to take back Nigeria, for the purpose of rescuing it from continued decline, shift the National psyche from consumption to production and from sharing dwindling resources to creating wealth and frontally combating poverty, all with the overarching aim of creating a Nigeria that Nigerians will be proud of’. OBIcracy also espouses PWB (Politics Without Bitterness) as preached and practiced by late Waziri Ibrahim of Great Nigerian Peoples Party.

In contrast to OBIcracy (underpinned by OBInomics), there are three detestable philosophies of Plutocracy, Gerontocracy and Kakistocracy. Plutocracy is a political philosophy in which a state is governed or ruled by the wealthy; in which the power of the ruling class derives from their wealth. Usually, there is a transition from democracy to plutocracy. The state starts from a democracy, a quasi-democracy or a pretend-democracy in which the state pretends to be democratic, but its principles and practices are anything but democratic. Then the ruling or ruining elites gradually introduce and institutionalise plutocratic policies. Such plutocratic policies in Nigeria include indirect primaries, which makes it easy for the rich to buy the delegates and even purchase other candidates as it happened in the recent APDP primaries (APC+PDP=APDP) and ultimately, the electoral operatives; the insistence on physical voting which makes it difficult for the poor candidates and parties to have ‘structures’ (offices, officers, agents, riggers and rigging consultants, across the country). In the last APDP mega-primaries, delegates were bought for as much $25000 apiece and much more was paid to coordinators and delegate-wholesalers (Bulk dealers in the delegates market).

In the Ekiti elections, votes were sold and bought for between N3000 and N10,000 apiece while in Osun, it was alleged to be more than that on the average. No poor party or person can afford that, even for a Local Government election. Poverty has been weaponised as the poor who are desperate to put food on their tables choose to monetise their votes. In the forthcoming presidential elections, some of the candidates want our votes and they do not give a damn about buying the votes and have the capacity to buy the votes. The emphasis is not on what they will and can do for us; it is about their ability to overwhelm their opponents and the voters with raw CASH! Unfortunately, these monies were and are siphoned from the public purse; from our commonwealth. Under plutocracy, we go for cash and discountenance verifiable records of achievement, competence, commitment and character. Plutocracy is underpinned by bullion-van economics and what my people call aku na-esi obi ike (wealth emboldens the wealthy; makes them believe they can do and be everything) Surprisingly, plutocrats are deeply religious as their philosophical foundation is Eccl 10:19-money answereth all things, including the quest for political power! Thus, plutocrats strongly believe that with money, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!

We also have the political philosophy, principle and practice of gerontocracy; a form of ‘oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population. In many political structures, power within the ruling class accumulates with age, making the oldest the holders of the most power’. It is the opposite of youthocracy, government of the youths (or youth at heart) by the youths and for the youths. In Nigeria where the youths consist of 70%+ of the population, people who are 80+ are leading and people of like-ages are striving to succeed them! How can they linkup with the online generation? How can they communicate with the millennials? What kind of vision can those on their injury time on earth visualise? How can ‘A-grade’ elders visualise a society which by the normal course of nature, they will not be a part of??? How can they create a society for others?

And then, we have the worst of all, kakistocracy; ‘a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. Kakistocracy is at the nadir of all political philosophies! This is the worst-case scenario in which Nigerians, with their eyes wide open, go for the worst, least qualified, most incompetent, the most Machiavellian or the most unscrupulous. How can Nigerians who are creating and breaking records in all fields of human endeavour all over the world, and who need an conducive environment to replicate their global records at home, go to bed with kakistocracy?

Fellow Nigerians, ‘Chineke nke igwe ndi agha (the Lord of hosts), who knows the end from the beginning, promises us that ‘never again will I expose you to the contempt of other countries… I will restore the years eaten by the locusts, the cankerworm the caterpillars and the palmerworm and … Nigeria will never be humiliated again (Joel,2: 19-27). But all the promises of God are conditional and these ones are no exceptions! We have to do the right things, seize the opportunities that He has created with both hands, and think of the future, not just about stomach infrastructure of here and now! It is our responsibility to SEIZE THIS OPPORTUNE moment! The writing-board is almost clean and it is up to us to write the right things on it! For us to optimise this scenario and come out of the inflexion point stronger, we MUST embrace a paradigm shift. The new paradigm requires us to put our best foot forward, to start with our first and best eleven rather than ‘managing’ whoever has structure and flashes some wads of cash at our faces. Thus, we should ask henceforth , always and with all seriousness, whenever anybody presents himself or herself to serve us, IS HE THE BEST? This is and should continue to be the refrain anywhere anybody is presented for service in any part of Nigeria, today and evermore.

Frantz Fanon (The Wretched of the Earth) tells us that Each generation must out of relative obscurity, discover its mission and fulfil it or betray it! The mission of this generation, which has become sharpened by the current unpalatable state of affairs, is to ensure that Nigeria is placed on a path that is right and sustainable; that we lay the foundation for the greatness that we have been yearning for; a yearning that has become more strident in the past 7+ years when we have been recklessly wrecked from top to bottom by people who promised us heaven on earth. At this inflexion point, we must choose between OBIcracy and the trio of plutocracy, gerontocracy and kakistocracy. And without mincing words, OBIcracy is it! It is not the time to vote for somebody because he is ‘eminently qualified’ as a former PG student of mine told me. When I asked him to market his preferred candidate on the bases of character, competence, physical and mental alertness and integrity, he went blank. It is not time to vote for those who will ruin the country EXACTLY as PMB is ruining it or who will continue from wherever he stops. It is not time to vote for a serial contestant, who does not find Nigeria good enough for habitation. We have seen where the last serial contestant landed us. It is not time to vote for somebody because of turnocracy; a philosophy that has just been badly bruised and battered in Kenya. It is also not time to vote for people who will either privatise our commonwealth or share it with their boys (some of the boys are 70+). We do not need to reward desperation and desperados. I agree with Agu Onwuzuruoha that the time is ripe for the Aristotelian dialectics of preferring a convincing impossibility to an unconvincing possibility.

The fruits of desperation

I agree with Taju Tijani that debates and conversations about presidential aspirations can no longer be socially neutral. We must fight for the soul of Nigeria. Tribal identifications have become malignant forces which harden peoples ambivalent feelings into voting certified rogues into power.,, We must give ourselves relief from the unending disasters of APDP and support a third force that has come away through a God-given chance. We must not blow this chance. An unknown internet warrior argues that as we march into 2023, we must do away with a Nigeria where a WASC holder cannot become a Director in the Civil Service while a fellow with unverifiable WASC can rule the country; where Nigerian elites go abroad to consult Nigerian medics whom they chased out of Nigeria through harsh policies, where poster-bearing protesters are murdered while we hold peace parleys with armed bandits; where terrorists are rehabilitated while their victims languish in dungeons called IDP camps, where one of the largest oil produces is also one of the highest importers of fuel and I add where some certified criminals are treated with deodorant, negotiated with, paid off, treated as government-pickins while others are shot at sight on the mere suspicion of intending to commit crimes!

2003 is an opportune moment and we MUST seize this lifetime opportunity within the lifetime of the opportunityand… with BOTH hands. The time to put out the fire in the mountain which Asa spoke of the other day is NOW and to do that, we need a new thinking and a new order. And so help us God!

I have spoken!

Meanwhile, an unknown Nigerian has designed this schematic model of a regionalised, restructured, Nigeria.