Nasiru Nash Haruna Esq.
 Published
October 15th, 2008
When in the Punch publication of June 3, 2006, in the wake
of General Obasanjo’s presidential third team bid,
Major-General David Mark remarked that “Only a military man
should be president” little credence was given to it and yet
he emerged as the senate president a year later. Even
though, it merely depicts Mark’s ignorance of the concept of
leadership and the American grooming of leaders, he is no
doubt positioning himself as the next president of Nigeria.
Mark’s reasoning, however, stemmed from his lack of critical
thinking, which he exhibited as minister for communication
under the inglorious dictatorship of General Babangida, when
he stated that telephone was not for the poor.
Nevertheless, none of his reasoning justifies military
presidency any where in the world. According to Mark: the
United States of America “ had been ruled by president who
served in the military”. In the United States, military
background is not a prerequisite for or a direct ticket to
the presidency. In all fairness, Mark at least acknowledged
this fact with respect to the election of president Bill
Clinton. Most US presidents are military not by occupation,
but by design. The US military is a volunteer force.
Membership is not based on whom you know-like being Generals
Babangida or Abacha or David Mark’s brother or sister as the
case may be in Nigeria. It is opened to all US citizens and
permanent residents who are 18 to 35 years of age. There is
even a consideration that the age limit be raised to 40 or
43. In any case, any US male citizen who fails to seek
recruitment into the military automatically denies himself
federal government grants for university education. So,
there is string attached. And recruitment can rarely be
denied except on medical grounds or wrongdoing.
Military training or any professional background for that
matter has never been the yardstick for leadership position
nor automatic springboard for the presidency. In mark’s
words: “civilians don’t have the requisite training”. It is
obvious that Mark lacks understanding of leadership concept.
There are combinations of factors for leadership training.
The most significant is the educational system and
opportunities offered by the society. In the US, which Mark
used as his example for the quality of a president, every
citizen right from inception of kindergarten is prepared for
leadership with instructions on the roles and
responsibilities of various occupations with emphasis on
ways and means of helping the community, especially the
poor. Therefore, no US government official would ever close
a school for one second, unless the environment or school is
in imminent danger. In 1989, General Babangida shut several
of the best and brightest universities for one year for
protesting Babangida’s corrupt and inept leadership, and
harsh economic policies of the structural adjustment program
(SAP). This is opposite to US slogan: “ Today’s students,
tomorrow’s leaders”. It is not today’s military, tomorrow’s
leaders. Education is not about the egg and chicken, which
comes first? It is the basic foundation of a child
development. Our children definitely need the best education
to be all they can be.
That-not-withstanding, Mark exposed his delusion of various
professional training when he said that civilians have no
requisite leadership training and that journalists need
military training “that would imbue them with confidence in
every area”. Mark seems to lack knowledge of history. The
architects of Nigerian independence, the Azikiwes, Ehahoros,
Awolowos, Sardauna’s never went to military school. Neither
did Martin Luther King who fought effortlessly for minority
rights in US nor Nelson Mandela of South Africa had any
military training to lead their citizens against the forces
of evil. So even military training is not necessary to lead
and be led. The enormous training by journalists prepares
them for all aspects of human endeavor. It is no wonder that
they are often referred to as the fourth realm or fourth
estate of government. In any case, the average US
commissioned officer has a master’s degree. And the average
US sergeant has an associate degree, which may be equivalent
to OND that is higher than A/Levels, which is the academic
certificate of the Nigerian Defense Academic prior to its
upgrade as a degree awarding institution. Therefore, it is
no surprise that even General Yakubu Gowon after his tenure
as Nigeria military head of state for 9 years went to the
university for a degree in political science to boost his
confidence in political administration. Confidence is given
to individuals by the quality of education offered to them
by their leaders. Gowon had the opportunity to make Nigeria
a super power, but he did not know what to do with money,
because he lacked the broad educational training and
exposure to coordinate people of divergent background and
visualize the social, political and economic growth of a
budding nation. When schools are shut every now and then by
leadership that lacks the knowledge and vision of social,
technological and economics relevance of education, the end
result is vicious violent gangs, armed robbers, secret cults
and increased moral deprivation as it is today in our
country.
The military according to Mark “gives you the confidence
that you need and makes you to be everything”. His nebulous
supporting evidence is that he knows his car better than his
driver. Mark would even prefer a sergeant to a graduate for
training. Unfortunately we do not know the level of
education of his driver. Mark is ignorance of the fact that
every vehicle has owner’s manual in the glove compartment,
which shows how the vehicle should be operated and what to
do when there is a malfunction. Nobody needs military
training to know how a car works. It is just a matter of
interest. So all it takes is to read and understand the
manual. There is no formal mechanical training needed to do
that. If Mark’s driver does not know how to read, how would
he know how the vehicle works? Only through teaching by Mark
or his designate. That is what leadership is all about,
lifting up and empowering people above their social,
economic or educational status. It is not about bringing
them down below their status or being judgmental of their
inadequacies. Such acts of visionless attitude caused
Babangida within eight years to ignore the best and
brightest technocrats advice, but dragged Nigeria into
stupendous debt and woeful social-economics decadence that
would take several generations to fix. In today’s world, a
nation is judged by her technological, social and health
advancement. Hence some small countries like the Bahamas
thrive on tourism. A Nigeria with less crime can reap in
billons of dollars from tourism.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the military has failed
the nation. So, every Nigerian has a right to look onto new
leadership, new voices other than the military. The military
destroyed and are still destroying our democracy, economy
and social fabric. The military even killed some of our
founding fathers, caused the civil war, destroyed education
by having schools closed for months or even years, turned
our hospitals into mortuaries, impoverished our people,
eliminated middle class, underdeveloped Niger Delta and
above all looted our treasury and destroyed our currency to
afford them easy opportunity to seek and win elective
offices with stash loot in foreign or domiciary bank
accounts. Mark is a senator in name not in reality. A
senator that has not sponsored a single bill that would
impact lives of Nigerians. General Mark as the chairman of
police affairs of the senate did not even sponsored a bill
on the reorganization of the Nigerian police. Every day
there is story of how eastern region bound buses are robbed
and women raped in Benin City, Onitsha, Ijebu-ode, and
elsewhere by armed gangs. Nigeria is now the new Middle East
where violence is the order of the day and live is brutish
and short. General Mark has not deemed it fit to advocate
that the head of police in any state where there is
incessant insecurity or unimaginable crime of obvious
terrorism is fired for incompetence, or even sponsor tougher
legislations against crimes. No senator in the US, which
Nigerian politicians often use as a focal point for
political, social and economic reference, would rest when
hoodlums make life awful for their citizens as it is now in
Nigeria. They would all come together and find a common
ground to solving the problem in the senate regardless of
political affiliation. Mark as minister for communication
had nothing to offer. Nigerians had to bribe to get
telephone lines that were non-existence and where they were
available, they were epileptic or nonfunctional. As it is
today, it would not be a surprise if Mark declares that
police protection is not for the poor. This is because the
proportions of crime victims daily are traders, especially
hardworking market women, and individuals who can barely
make a living. Mobile police officers are customarily
assigned to the rich and powerful individuals as escorts.
Even so, they still get killed whenever it is politically
motivated or the hoodlums deem it necessary to do so. Crime
victims are often responsible for funding criminal
investigations including provisions of transportation and
stationary for the police, and payment of court officials
for the process and service of writ of summons. Sometimes
the court throws out such cases because the suspect has
bribed the police to distort investigated facts and/or
bribed the judge or magistrate to guarantee victory.
Nigerian development has been set back by 100 year of
military rule. Nigerians need to look beyond military
leadership in this difficult time of our history. If you
deserve liberty for yourself, give it to your neighbor. For
what goes around comes around. Nigerians must guard against
Mark’s inordinate ambition to become the next president of
the federation.
 Nasiru Nash Haruna Esq.
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