Yar'Adua And His Speech Writers
By Reuben Abati
Obviously, nobody teaches how to be a President in any school, certainly not in Africa. Having been the Governor of a state also does not quite prepare anyone for the functions and responsibilities of the office of President. Our former President Olusegun Obasanjo managed to get into that office and start functioning, by way of motions, in retrospect because he had been there before and he was in familiar territory. Former military Heads of State hid their lack of knowledge, under the fierce orders that they issued and their familiar swagger. First-timers like Tafawa Balewa in the First Republic, Shehu Shagari in the Second Republic and Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in the Fourth Republic have shown that the number one position in the country requires far more than being favoured by geography and circumstances.
In President Yar'Adua's case, we have a learner in the saddle. And it is perhaps why many of his shortcomings may be forgiven. The President's innocence was again demonstrated last week, when he found himself in the uncomfortable situation of having to disown a speech that had been read on his behalf at the last Convocation Ceremony of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. In the speech, a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Goke Adegoroye, took time out to accuse university lecturers generally of corruption and sexual indiscipline. The teachers were told to their faces that they are in the habit of collecting bribe from their students, that grades are awarded on a cash and carry basis , and that a research project could be arranged with sums between N250, 000 and N500, 000, or with sex where female students are involved.
The President purportedly said: "When at convocations some of this group of lecturers end up at the podium in their capacity as deans to present their students and make the usual introductory statement of presenting students who have been found worthy in learning and character, are we being honest to ourselves and to our nation? What character could such group of lecturers impart to our students when some, lecturers engage in sexual harassment, immorality and corruption...Lecturers supervising students' projects demand between N250, 000 and over N500, 000 from their students before their final year projects and theses. There are reports of swapping of grades, and of awarding of grades and even whole degrees to students that do not appear in examination halls."
The primary problem with the speech is not whether it is true or not, but the fact that it is unpresidential. The tone is too journalistic, too confrontational and smacks of generalisation. Speech writing and speech making are important functions in the Presidential office. A Presidential word is so weighty it can give or take life, it can offer hope or throw an entire nation into despair. Every speech from the president's office therefore must be carefully considered. Words are potent. They are like stones hauled into the market place of thought and ideas. They can be plain or embodied, iconic or semiotic in terms of their signification.
Careless use of words helped to prolong World War II. Winston Churchill, British war-time Prime Minister kept the nation alive with his speeches that inspired confidence and a sense of national pride. US President J. F. Kennedy was loved in part because of the power of his speeches. Ronald Reagan had a gift of the gab. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Margaret Thatcher, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton made important speeches. Barrack Obama is on his way to the White House in part because of his ability to suit the word to the occasion as the poet advised. Mahatma Ghandi changed the course of history with the power of his words and ideas. Martin Luther King is remembered today for one speech that captured a people's historical destiny and expectations. Here in Nigeria, we remember historical speeches made by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Colonel Odimegwu Ojukwu, Yakubu Gowon, Isaac Adaka Boro, Ken Saro-Wiwa, MKO Abiola etc. Careful use of words is unbecoming of high office. President Yar'Adua must have realised the capacity of that OAU speech to do much damage to him, so he disowned it.
If he had not done so very promptly, it would have been assumed that his representative spoke his mind. After all, barely a month ago, the same President through another representative told members of the University of Ibadan community on the occasion of the university's 50th anniversary that the great UI is more or less a glorified secondary school. The President didn't disown that particular speech, and he received a lot of flaks for it. It is within the president's prerogative to delegate responsibilities, but the convocation ceremony of the universities is so important, so strategic, and the stakeholders are so well-placed that the President ought to start making an effort to interact with this special constituency in person. He ignored the UI 50th anniversary, now he has also treated the Obafemi Awolowo University community shabbily.
But he blames others for what is in part a poor reflection of his own attitude. The President alleges that his office did not receive the invitation to the OAU convocation ceremony. Are we to believe that the invitation was received by the Ministry of Education, then someone cobbled a speech together in the President's name, and then went on to Ife to attack the academia? An angry President Yar'Adua says he could not have approved such a speech. He wants Adegoroye queried by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. If what is being suggested is that anybody in the corridors of power can just construct a statement and speak on behalf of government, then we are in serious trouble. It simply means that the Presidency is not in control or it is so laissez-faire or so constructively absent, it encourages civil servants to take the initiative.
The international community was well-represented at the OAU event, to hear the President of a country putting down his own country's education system must have sounded strange to outsiders, more so as the speech offered no concrete policy suggestions to address the identified rot. Even when a President is new to the job, his limitations are covered up by experienced hands in existing institutions who are no less committed to the state. Nigerian institutions are weak, civil servants cannot always be relied upon to understand the political side of things. It was bad politics to put in the mouth of the President, such words that consign the country's entire tertiary system to the dustbin. The UI and OAU speeches would be quoted later by the international community, whereas what we are dealing with is a fallacy of over-generalisation.
Dr Adegoroye who delivered the speech is a well-educated man, who like the President used to be a university teacher. He left the services of the Obafemi Awolowo University as Senior Lecturer before opting for a career in the corridors of power. If he had been the one making the speech in his personal capacity, there would have no problem at all. If another Mr X had written so dismissively of the Nigerian university system, that would have been fine. A President is elected to provide leadership, to solve problems and not to complain helplessly about everything. Beyond the problem of tone and propriety and choosing the wrong occasion to say certain things, and may be the element of over-generalisation, the hurtful truth, to be fair, is that there is a lot that is wrong with Nigeria's education system. Adegoroye, speaking for the President wasn't telling us anything that we didn't know.
There is an integrity crisis in the Nigerian university system just as there is in the country generally, but it is not every lecturer that is corrupt and it is not every student who pays to get a thesis assessed, and certainly not every female student who trades sex for grades. And surely, there are many conscientious and proud lecturers in our universities who will not compromise standards for quick gains. In principle however, the gown has since moved to the town; the ethereal boundary that once separated both worlds has been destroyed. The idea of the university has been reduced through its invasion by habits and mores borrowed from the town. The responsibility of government is never to moan, or seek scapegoats, but to investigate the root-causes and to offer policy interventions that can help raise standards. If there is corruption in Nigeria's university system, what structures are in place to check this? How strong are those structures? And what has the Yar'Adua government done in close to two years to address the challenge that it rhapsodizes about? For more than ten years, Nigerian university lecturers have been pleading with Nigerian governments to pay closer attention to the education system and arrest a creeping decline. The decline is now so widespread, it affects the social, ethical and professional dimensions of the country's education system.
It is not enough for President Yar'Adua to disown the OAU speech. It is very easy for the Presidency to claim that it did not receive the invitation card from Ife and that nobody cleared the speech with the Presidency. Even if this is not true, no civil servant would be bold enough to challenge the President and provide evidence to the contrary. To vary the question, would any civil servant be bold enough to write and deliver a speech on the President's behalf without due authorisation? It will be recalled that this was how the Presidency claimed ignorance of the Naira redenomination policy announced in 2007 by the Central Bank, which was eventually cancelled.
Definitely, there are liars in the Yar'Adua government, but they should stop embarrassing us, with their constant reversals. When they are not changing their minds on policies, they are changing their speeches. I hope all the same, that President Yar'Adua has taken the formal step of writing the Obafemi Awolowo authorities to withdraw the speech that Dr Adegoroye delivered. But to further problematise this issue, is it not curious that a President who says he is committed to the anti-corruption campaign would be so suddenly squeamish about a speech that deals with corruption in the university system? Where exactly does President Yar'Adua stand? His letter to the OAU authorities should indicate this. Unfortunately, this same President has so far refused to constitute new Governing Councils for the country's Federal Universities.
But to prevent the scandal of the right speeches being given at wrong occasions, President Yar'Adua must constitute a speech writing team in the Presidency. There must be a group of intelligent men and women who can write for the President and think for him. He blames the officials of the Federal Ministry of Education for misrepresenting him. It must be noted that this is the same Ministry that is responsible for making policies in relation to the education sector. If a speech from that same Ministry is filled with so much contempt for university teachers, then we may have an idea of why government-ASUU relations have been so difficult.
If Education Ministry officials consider university teachers, rapists and bribe-takers, then it follows that they would find it difficult to protect their interests or even listen to them. There are fears that Adegoroye may be whipped and sacrificed. He has been accused in an official statement of "taking matters into his own hands". But this is not about him really, it is about the President himself and how he organises his affairs. In his speech on Christmas day to the nation, President Yar'Adua promised that there would be a change of pace in 2009. Nigerians await that change with great expectations. The year 2009 would either make the Yar'Adua Presidency or confirm its shortcomings beyond all reasonable doubt. After two years in the learners' seat, Mr Yar'Adua should begin to move the Nigerian vehicle forward.
