Anambra: Mea Culpa and Pope’s Plea to Nigerians

While serving as director general of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Bolaji Akinyemi who was to become the foreign minister, argued that a major weakness of African politics is the stubborn refusal by African leaders to admit they had ever erred, let alone apologise for it. The only exception, noted Akinyemi, was Julius Nyerere of Tanzania who admitted that the nationalisation of farms as part of the socialist Ujamaa ideology was in error because it resulted in acute food shortages. Nelson Mandela was to become another exception when he apologised to victims of the anti-apartheid armed struggle in South Africa. Yakubu Gowon joined the list of African leaders who have pleaded mea culpa (“I am sorry”) when he apologised to victims of the Nigerian civil war of 1967-70. Upon all the profound social and political dislocations which accompanied his annulment of the June 12 1993 presidential vote which Moshood Abiola won fair and square, as former finance minister Adamu Ciroma put it, Nigeria’s erstwhile military ruler Ibrahim Babangida has refused to acknowledge it was an error.

African leaders want to be seen as superhuman, infallible. In contrast, leaders of developed nations frequently admit errors and apologise where and when necessary. Barrack Obama has stated that his policy on Libya was a faux pas because it created chaos in Libya; there was no concrete strategy for post-Muammar Gaddafi Libya. Contemporary leadership researchers who consider humility and frankness not just tremendous personal virtues but key leadership values must be embarrassed at the mindset of African rulers.

The recognition of the great impact of these leadership values on organisations and societies has led such scholars as Peter Guy Northouse to develop leadership approaches like servant leadership and authentic leadership which have in the last few years captured global imagination. The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua said his administration would be guided by the servant leadership philosophy. This leadership approach requires the leader to see himself or herself as a servant; in other words, the leader must epitomise humility.

Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State on Sunday, October 16, 2016, called his media team to a meeting and directed them to stop responding to unfavourable remarks from the camp of his predecessor, Peter Obi. The governor had on August 4, 2016, scored a bull’s eye when at a requiem mass for the legendary principal of Christ the King College, Onitsha, Nicholas Tagbo, a Catholic priest, he apologised to his predecessor, Obi, also a CKC old boy, for the frosty relationship between them. According to media reports, the huge audience was moved to tears and it interrupted the speech every few seconds with a loud applause.

Different meanings have since been read into Obiano’s olive branch. Obi’s partisans argue Obiano wants to use his predecessor to return to office in 2018. True, Obi was the person who convinced Obiano to join politics and campaigned vigorously for him to be Anambra governor. However, no sooner Obiano assumed office on March 17, 2013, than the godfather-godson syndrome reared its head. Still, it is doubtful that Obiano is so desperately in need of Obi’s support that he would apologise to him in public. Obiano has been in the political ascendancy in the last few months arising out of service delivery, or what ex World Bank vice-president Oby Ezekwesili has famously described as his evidence-based record.

The governor took even the closest of his advisers unawares over the apology. If he had confided in them, he would have been stopped for fear of being regarded as an ultra pacifist, if not a wimp or weakling. What most people do not know is that Obiano is deeply influenced by Pope John Paul II. When John Paul visited Nigeria in March 1998, for the beatification of Blessed Michael Cyprian Iwene Tansi, interestingly Obiano’s uncle, he came with a far-reaching political message to not just Nigerian rulers but also African leaders. It was a particularly difficult period in Nigeria’s history, with scores of prominent Nigerians, including Abiola who won the free and fair 1993 presidential election, in jail; human rights abuses were on an industrial scale. On arrival at State House on March 21, the pope handed a list of about 68 political detainees to Head of State Sani Abacha, requesting their immediate release in the interests of justice, peace and stability of the country.

While celebrating mass for Tansi’s beatification at the Oba airstrip in Anambra State with the whole world focusing on him, John Paul delivered what the BBC World Service called the most political of all his homilies in his pontificate since 1978. It was entitled “Nigeria: Be Reconciled”. The message was relevant to Nigeria and the rest of Africa then as it is today. Here are excerpts:

“All Nigerians must work to rid society of everything that offends the dignity of the human person or violates human rights. This means reconciling differences, overcoming ethnic rivalries, and injecting honesty, efficiency and competence into the art of governing…

“When we see others as brothers and sisters, it is then possible to begin the process of healing the divisions within society and between ethnic groups. This is the reconciliation which is the path to true peace and authentic progress for Nigeria and for Africa. This reconciliation is not weakness or cowardice. On the contrary, it demands courage and sometimes even heroism. It is victory over self rather than over others”. Abacha did not act on the pope’s request, perhaps for fear of being judged weak. Three months later he died.

John Paul provided leadership by personal example, practising what he preached. While addressing Camerounian intellectuals on August 14, 1985, in Yaoundé, he apologised to Black Africans for the participation of white Christians in centuries of slavery and slave trade. He on March 13, 2000, at St Peter’s Square in Rome apologised to Jews for the failure of the church to act more decisively to stop Nazi Germany in its anti-Semitism, and apologised to Muslims for the two centuries of the Crusade. He always apologised without someone demanding it and without expecting the other party to reciprocate. Scholars regard him as one of the greatest leaders in global history.

With his open apology, even though he says he does not know how he offended his predecessor, Governor Obiano has brought back memories of Pope John Paul’s noble admonition to the Nigerian, nay, African leadership. Venerable Michael Cyprian Tansi, Obiano’s uncle, must have watched his nephew from heaven. He must be feeling good. And Obiano may well be a leader to watch.

•Mr. Adinuba is head of Discovery International Communicators