The Tragedy Of Public Office In Nigeria

By Sam Amadi

The tragedy of holding  public offices in Nigeria is not only the prevalent bad governance we see everywhere. It includes the damage it does to those who hold such offices. 

*Amadi

Many of our political leaders are well trained professionals. Some of them have held top management positions before turning to political offices. But they never get back to doing any other meaningful work after holding high political office except continuing to politick. The reason for this captivity to politics is that Nigerian politics is corrosive. It destroys that quality of corporate usefulness such that once you have tasted it, you are never fit for anything else except Nigerian politics.

Now, contrast with other jurisdictions. You hear about Prime Minister of Britain going back to corporate work after being Prime Minister. You hear about state governors in the US going back to work with corporations. But you will not see even a legislator in Nigeria after two terms going back to corporate life or even the academy. Even some of them who were accomplished academics before becoming ordinary commissioners rarely go back to the academy. Imagine a Nigeria Rishi Sustain becoming senior advisor to Microsoft after being a Prime Minister. Not possible.

I have given some thought to why politics in Nigeria is a killer of talent and capability for meaningful work outside politics. And the answer stares me in the face. The structure and culture of public leadership is so disorienting that once you come out of it you are made so useless for normal human life. Imagine for 4 years, or 8 years if you are unlucky, being herded around by so-called security details. Imagine for 4 or 8 years living a life where everything around you suggests you are not an ordinary human being. Imagine for 4 or 8 years having the National Anthem sang for you every time you are in something that resembles a formal event, including the reception ceremony of your sister’s child naming ceremony. 

Those seemingly unimportant issues define the enormous distortion in the life of a top office holder in Nigeria. Your security aides make you look like inhuman, like a king. You even look more important than President Donal Trump, the man who holds the nuclear code, the man who can level a city or a state by sending just one bomber. You who cannot even clear a forest in four days. It is so bad that even in a room full of your aides, the security aides will still be pushing those aides. There is no security challenge, why act a scene? It is all performative. But the performance has a damaging effect on the principal who get socialized wrongly and isolated in a world where he is a king without a real kingdom. 

So after 4 or 8, you are trapped in a never-never land. You are not a king. But you have been treated as a king and have acquired the mentality and mannerism of a king. How do you go back to a structure where there are interdependent powers and duties, where you are first and foremost colleagues? How do you transition to sitting alone in the office and having no one bow down to greet you? How do mingle at the office happy hours with no security blocking other staff from coming close to you?

Many of our political leaders are good people damaged by political offices. They are now useful for nothing else but politics, Nigerian politics. Nigerian politics is a tragedy. The way we manage political leaders makes good governance difficult. It also makes humaneness in and out of office even more difficult. 

Dr. Amadi teaches Law at w Base University, Abuja.