He writes;
Man has been described as a political animal. This description is apt when it is viewed from the perspective of man's inherent tendency to secure his interest in every affair that he is involved in.
At the heart of politics is the battle of interests. How this battle is fought is what distinguishes civility from barbarity, intellectual finesse from brutishness, and decorum from impropriety. The setting for this battle of interests is election - a democratic instrument used to select leaders of a group, an institution or a nation-state.
How elections are conducted and the quality of leadership the electoral process produces have become an acclaimed fair barometer for measuring the socio-political maturity of any community or society.
Consequently, the ethos of the electoral process must be deliberately ingrained in the foundation of our society, especially in our educational institutions. This is why the forthcoming Student Union Government(SUG) elections in Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo(AE-FUNAI) should not be seen as another event in the cycle of activities of our university. The upcoming SUG election is a seed that is about to be sown in the soil of Nigeria's political future. This seed will surely germinate and bear multiple fruits in the near future.
Elections in our country, Nigeria, have been so tainted by malpractices that a former president of Nigeria was once quoted to have said that "even if Jesus Christ conducts an election in Nigeria, it will not be free from malpractice." This statement borders blasphemy but it also captures the systemic rot in our politics. Religion and ethnicity play undeserved prominent roles in the leadership of our country, while competence, defined leadership philosophy and other necessary qualities a leader should possess are relegated. Nepotism, clannishness and godfatherism go for the jugular of our electoral process. But where was the foundation of these ugly influences laid? It was laid in the leadership selection processes of sub-national entities: schools, trade unions and professional associations.
As a medical student at a university in the southern part of our country some years ago, I witnessed the inglorious effects of clannishness, nepotism and godfatherism in the SUG elections of that university and the upshot that they later engendered. If you were not from the state in which the university is located, you were out of consideration for key positions in the SUG, especially the Presidency, and if you were not from a particular part of the state, you had slim chances of being selected to run for SUG Presidency. Those who succeeded in the selection process were more or less handpicked by influential persons in the University and they, therefore, had to dance to the tune of their benefactors' music.
The interests of students were sacrificed as the SUG leaders, especially the presidents, were weak, visionless, thoroughly corrupt and well-gagged. Why is this allusion necessary?
I observed keenly the processes leading up to the conduct of the last and maiden SUG election in AE-FUNAI last year, especially the campaigns. A common rankling denominator in the campaign strategy of several of the candidates was clannishness - ''vote for me because I am from Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Ikwo, Afikpo, Ohaozara, Ishielu, Izzi, Ezza, Ohaukwu - yes, vote for me because we are from the same place." A particular candidate who approached me for support because of the clout he knew I had in my class first asked me, "Where are you from?" My response stunned him when I replied straightaway that where I was from or where he was from or where any of the other candidates was from was inconsequential. "What is important is whether you are competent to lead and the fact that I am a bonafide student of AE-FUNAI who can choose to vote for you if you are truly qualified to lead," I maintained. He left speechless and never came back to me. His type will most likely play ethnic and religious politics at the national level tomorrow if he ever gets there. This sort of ugly foundation should be nipped in the bud in the forthcoming SUG election. But will it? I have my misgivings but I choose optimism.
Finally, I am a firm believer in oratory or at least effective communication as a prerequisite for leadership. Chinua Achebe once said: "I am convinced that a major flaw of our political culture is the inefficient and half-baked language in which we conduct our national affairs. The quality of the English language spoken and written in Nigeria has been falling and will fall more dramatically in the next few years." This was over twenty years ago, I believe. Imagine what Achebe would say today if he were alive to listen to the quality of English grammar written and spoken by our leaders and aspiring leaders, especially on our campuses. Do some people really believe that all it will take them to win in the coming SUG election is beautiful, heavily edited photographs of theirs emblazoned on posters polluted with terribly written English? This is the truth: those who cannot write or speak well are most certainly those who do not read as they should. And those who do not read should not lead.
Thank you for reading.
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