Obi, Tinubu and Pele: A triology

In the course of the ongoing electioneering campaign as build-up to the forthcoming 2023 polls, the political conversation turns up on a daily basis, a stream of wisecracks and other figures of speech which are deployed as verbal darts, and which often define the contributions of political actors to the exercise.

The name of the game boils down to marketing oneself and de-marketing the opponent(s). Just as well, a recent addition to these freely deployed verbal darts is a triology of sorts, featuring comparison by Peter Obi the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), of Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), with the Brazilian soccer legend Pele, whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

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According to Obi, whereas Pele was not only a great footballer in his hey days, but was even officially ranked by world football governing body, FIFA, as the greatest footballer of all time, the Brazilian national team would not feature him to play for that country today.

As Obi pontificates further in the same vein, whereas the Tinubu political camp could claim that he performed wonders during his days as governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, the unrelenting march of time has changed everything in the country’s political terrain, and technically made him a stranger for the contemporary challenges associated with Nigeria’s Presidency in the now.  

 By this seemingly innocuous comparison of two personalities with remarkable antecedents, Obi may have simply adopted Tinubu as a metaphor for renewing attention to one of the maladies that have imposed themselves on the country’ political fortunes with telling effect, and which is the incubus of ossifying and inflexible gerontocracy.

Gerontocracy is ordinarily a system of government where the elderly are in control of matters of governance. Ordinarily such a system is expected to benefit from the experiences of the elderly, ostensibly garnered from active engagement with the various aspects of solving the problems of their society. It is hence based on the cliché that what the elderly see while sitting down, the younger ones may not, even by climbing a tall tree. 

Yet that was in the context of a traditional homogenous society which is populated by persons with common ancestry as well as values, and the designated elders are recognized to be endowed with the capacities and capabilities to provide good leadership.

The considered capabilities and capacities are the wherewithal for the leadership to appreciate the changing circumstances of their society with respect to demography, cultural reforms as well as attendant lifestyles changes, and adapt leadership styles that would address whatever contingencies that come up. 

The situation changes when the expedients of providing good leadership are beyond the reach of the gerontocrats for whatever reason, and stagnation as well as retardation become the order of the day in society. This is akin to when the great ‘Peles’ of yesterday can no more play the World Cup matches for Brazil in today’s setting.

In the same context looms the issue of whether the leadership community that will emerge for Nigeria through the 2023 polls will offer the country the best prospects of moving to the next level. Or will the country be hijacked by the former great ‘Peles’, who will return her to another season of indulgence in the wallow of stagnation, with the present state of affairs whereby life for the ordinary citizen has gone brutish and insecure?  

Yet, in the country’s public space today, it is the fear of change that dominates much of the contemplation of both leadership and followership. For instance in virtually every area of public life, there is a reluctance to allow for significant change to occur.

Across sections of the leadership community, the fear of change is driven by uncertainty over an unfamiliar, emergent future whereby they could lose the comfort zones which they had in many instances, criminally appropriated for themselves through exploiting their followers. For much of the followership too, any attempt at even contemplating change in the status quo and gaining some modicum of freedom, is considered as unjustified rebellion, which they would rather shun and keep their chains of servitude. 

As things stand, different faces and measures of the fear of change are legion. For instance as critical as the forthcoming 2023 electoral exercise is concerned the two leading political parties (APC and PDP), allowed gerontocracy (the great ‘Peles’) as the topical consideration in choosing their presidential flag-bearers. 

Just in case any of them wins the forthcoming presidential race, it is unavoidable that the style of administration cannot be far from the reign of ancestors, in a space-age global environment with all the trappings of mind blowing advances in technology and attendant lifestyle changes. 

Just as well, in the terrain of the country’s public service delivery regime, the fear of change pervades all considerations. Whereas it is a time-honoured fact that the public service which is the engine of governance and development had long proved inadequate to drive the country to higher levels, hardly has any reform exercise been implemented with significant success.

Even the latest reform initiative that was packaged in 2010 by the Steve Oransaye committee, has been on a rigmarole on the shelves of officialdom for the past decade. Recent efforts at making its recommendation see the light of day are also on a ding-dong swing. 

However needless to note that the aversion to change is having its toll on the society as the attendant pressures are manifesting without let or hindrance. Roth now the country is beset with sundry challenges which include the rise of insecurity, collapse of governance and even the unrest in the education.

Without allowing for change which is natural in every situation in the life of an individual or nation, things will only get worse by the day across the country. Just as the cliché goes that whoever resists peaceful change, should prepare for violent change.