An Honest President Is Not Enough to Fix Nigeria

Why personal integrity alone cannot fix Nigeria. Don Kenobi examines corruption, Peter Obi, institutional reform and the need for development.

Dear Dr. John,

Your hypothesis that “if the leader doesn't steal, then the followers are less inclined to steal” seems logical at face value, but in a country like Nigeria, it is profoundly wrong.

Profoundly so.

A Conversation I Have Never Forgotten

Let me tell you a story.

Around 2006, before the presidential elections of 2007, I was on a bus from the main car park to the office. Beside me sat a friend from the North.

“I’m so glad Yar’Adua has emerged as the PDP’s presidential candidate,” I told him.

He laughed.

“I thought you’d be happy,” I said.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” he replied. “The man will not steal, but he will not achieve anything.”

He believed Yar’Adua’s record in Katsina already demonstrated that.

I have never forgotten that conversation. My friend may read this and remember it differently. I am recounting it as I remember it.

I am not minimising the importance of integrity. I am saying that developing Nigeria requires much more than an honest president.

Corruption Is Our National Dial Tone

Our problems are deeply embedded in our culture. That is the basis of my argument, my numerous hashtags and my book, Apprentice Nations: From Ruin to Renewal.

#CultureNotStructure

#ReCultureNotReStructure

Buy the book na!

Corruption is like the country’s dial tone. So much depends on it that, without it, things often refuse to move. To imagine that an honest president alone can fix Nigeria is to underestimate the problem.

Corruption is one thing. Development is another.

We must confront corruption while also making the country work.

Think of a bullet lodged near the heart. Sometimes, removing it immediately poses a greater danger than carefully managing the patient while deciding how to proceed.

I am not saying we should leave corruption alone. I am saying we must keep the country functioning while dealing with something deeply embedded in its institutions.

Peter Obi and the Problem of Ineptitude

And that is precisely why Peter Obi’s ineptitude bothers me so much.

Ineptitude generally bothers me, but it is particularly troubling in someone seeking to govern a country as complex as Nigeria.

Take away the bogeyman. Take away the scapegoats, the people to blame, the soundbites and the declarations of personal integrity.

What is left?

What exactly is he going to do?

He has not demonstrated the clear-headedness required to articulate whatever solutions he imagines he has.

And that is a serious problem.

Nigeria's problems will not disappear merely because the president sets a good example.

We Must Design Corruption Out of the System

We need systems that make corruption harder, expose it earlier and reduce opportunities for public officials to divert money.

We have to find ways to design those opportunities out of the system.

One proposal I have put forward is a network of regional central banks, one for each of the six geopolitical zones, with a seventh at the federal level. These institutions would finance development, with clear responsibilities and public oversight.

I am not pretending every detail is settled. These are ideas to be examined, challenged and improved.

That is what serious thinking about governance requires.

Boya-Jeka: Give Power Back to the People

That is also why I proposed, in Apprentice Nations, the Boya-Jeka ward assemblies, drawing inspiration from Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga.

People must be involved in decisions about their communities.

When government allocates money for a road, drainage or irrigation project, the people should know how much was allocated, what it will deliver and when it should be completed.

They should have the power to monitor the work and demand answers.

We must give power back to the people.

Citizens should not merely be spectators waiting for an honest president to rescue them. They must become participants in governance and auditors of the development taking place around them.

The Questions a Serious Presidential Candidate Must Answer

These are the questions a serious leader should be addressing.

“I am not corrupt” matters, but it does not answer them.

How will you change the incentives?

How will you make institutions work?

How will you empower citizens?

How will you deliver development while confronting corruption?

What will you do differently, and how will you make millions of public officials behave differently?

These questions require thought, strategy, institutional design and the capacity to execute.

Not soundbites.

Not slogans.

Not endless declarations of personal virtue.

Four Years? Who Asked You?

And Peter Obi says he will do all this in four years?

Who asked him?

If he is doing a good job, why only four years?

Why would someone seeking to undertake the enormous task of rebuilding Nigeria arbitrarily limit himself to a single term?

Is this a serious development strategy or simply another sales pitch?

My conclusion is simple.

He is just a salesman. He is not serious.

Nigeria needs more than a president who will not steal.

It needs a president who knows how to make the country work.

I hope this explains my position.

Don Kenobi
Writer | Author, Apprentice Nations: From Ruin to Renewal