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Government Of National Unity: The Diaspora View By Attorney Aloy Ejimakor Washington, DC
Looking in with keen interest from the United States, those of us living in the Diaspora (especially in North America), but very conversant with events back home, have began to express a somewhat nuanced view on the debate ignited by President Yar’Adua’s proposal to form a government of national unity . This came to the fore recently during Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu’s recent tour of the United States. For me, and just like many other Nigerians here in America, meeting Dr. Kalu for the second time in as many months was a delight in itself. The man is sheer force of nature and he always lives up to his bill. But this time around, I had several opportunities to be up close and personal with him by happening to be also present at the many receptions given in his honor by different Nigerian associations, civic leaders and individuals in the Washington, DC area. At all the fora where Dr. Kalu was invited to speak to Nigerians, his star quality was immediately evident, and many eminent Nigerians who met him for the first time were quickly struck by his raw intelligence and the Clintonesque mien with which he dealt with complex public policy questions of our time. Suffice it to say that what many had hoped was to be banal social gatherings of sorts or a simple getting-to-know-OUK quickly metamorphosed to a town hall-style intellectual interchange that hugely enthralled and enriched the audience. Dr. Kalu waxed very presidential on many issues, and as many agreed, he came across as just not the undisputed neo-Igbo leader but also a man who seems propelled by a messianic appeal to one day rise to become the president of Nigeria. He indeed proved that he knew his onions pretty well. And one unique feature of the many receptions organized in OUK’s honor was that they all attracted Nigerians of differing party and regional affiliations. There were PDP stalwarts in North America, ANPP sympathizers, those of the AC ilk, and of course, his own PPA apparatchiks, who always showed up in great numbers led by Zoobee Chukwurah, PPA’s chieftain in North America. Those who are apolitical dignified the audience with their moderating and commonsensical world view of contemporary Nigeria. Everyone was in his best elements.
To many Nigerians living in the United States, the idea or doctrine of the so-called government of national unity - GNU is not new because they have seen many manifestations of it in the US, where it is often called ‘bipartisanship’ in American political lexicon. It is usually deployed much more quietly here in America- often as a matter of time-honored political culture during periods of national healing and partisan rapprochement, and never as a stratagem for sowing discord amongst opposition ranks. It is therefore, at once both a no-brainer as well as a serious national business, generally considered healthy for the growth of democracy and reduction of gridlock in public governance. First, in the days of the yore when America was also an emerging democracy, reaching across the partisan divide to embrace opposition elements was more norm than exception both during the era of moderate partisan types like George Washington and Lincoln to fiery partisans like Van Buren and Coolidge, but it was never as a consequence of a guilt trip on some flawed election. In modern times, even Bill Clinton, a well-known liberal did not surprise many when he appointed a conservative Republican to head the very strategic Department of Defense, and there were many other similar appointments running the gamut of tiers of government from the state to the county levels and representing all partisan spectrums from the ultra-left cutting through the ubiquitous middle of the road to the ultra-right. In post-Depression America, this bipartisanship was never meant to balm frayed nerves and bruised egos coming from flawed elections, except for the Bush genre. Instead, it was largely motivated by other factors such as tested competence, political philosophy, national healing for other reasons, and like apolitical considerations. For instance, in weighing nominations to head the Federal Reserve Board, or even the Treasury Department, overriding emphasis may be paid to nominee’s intellectual comportment with fiscal policy of the interim rather than considerations of partisan loyalty – in the sense that a liberal Clinton will appoint a conservative Alan Greenspan because he wishes to see US pursue a conservative monetary policy, and who to trust more to get that done than a principled conservative. President George W. Bush did as much or even more, much like President Yar’Adua is trying to do now, to heal a fractured America in the wake of the spectacle of hanging chards and the other inanities of the Gore/Bush presidential elections results coming out of Florida. Waxing presidential and with an eye on combative Democrats, Bush solemnly invited all his compatriots to join him in a ‘bipartisan’ effort to get beyond Florida so America can heal. And join, they did, but not Gore per se – the ‘shadow president’. The lesson therefore is that much as bipartisanship is commendable, it will be expecting too much for any president-the alpha male to believe that the presidential candidate of an opposition political party-another alpha male will go willy-nilly to personally accept a ministerial or like appointment that will subjugate him to the president of the day. In modern political thought, a non-prevailing presidential candidate is considered a political equal to the winner, and thus it defies neo-political logic for such a fellow to have a sudden baptism of playing second fiddle by accepting a ministerial appointment for himself, but not for those he nominates he nominates from his ranks. Such will be considered by many pundits as betrayal of principled ideals and political turncoat of sorts, if not a grand wastage of political capital in one fell swoop. Go to Britain and see. There, the head of the non-prevailing party immediately ‘forms’ a shadow government to keep the ruling party on its tows (which nurtures democracy), and is allotted almost equal time in the Commons to postulate his opposite view on government policies. The idea really is not just to oppose for the heck of it, but to assure that there remains in the polity an alternative view expressed from the unique position occupied by a non-prevailing presidential candidate of a major party.
In the instant case concerning my country, Nigeria, my humble self and majority of Nigerians who were invited to speak on this seemed to have expressed a variance of the foregoing scenarios. What I identified as PPA elements within our midst were admiringly patriotic by urging Dr. Kalu to put the flawed elections behind him and buy into President Yar’Adua’s government of national unity. Ditto for the PDP folks amongst us, and not surprisingly though. However, very strong opinions were expressed in favor of Dr. Kalu not joining to personally accepting ministerial appointment but to nominate others from the ranks of PPA. Reasons adduced for this view were not far from what was already said in the preceding paragraphs. That Dr. Kalu will make a fine federal minister is not in doubt, but many Nigerians present felt that constructive criticism of government policies is necessary for the growth of our democracy, and I am sure President Yar’Adua will agree. The feeling is really that Dr. Kalu is a rising star and a strong voice on social and economic issues of the day, and that his voice will be lost in the natural quest to be seen as a loyal minister of the FRN. Such is his lot - that in as much as Dr. Kalu may wish to participate directly and personally, he must now realize that he must thread cautiously for the sake of the burden of leadership which he now carries as a consequence of his party’s meteoric performance in the last elections. There was this palpable feeling that OUK will better serve the interests of our emerging democracy by remaining outside and standing ever ready to be the rallying point for channeling progressive views to the government by employing either the engine of quiet diplomacy to the Villa or rising to the public pulpit to do it. It is not as if Dr. Kalu is being encouraged to be a rabid and crass opposition that will make a new business out of haranguing and filibustering President Yar’Adua to no end. Dr. Kalu is too sophisticated for that. Therefore, what remains to be done is for Dr. Kalu to beam the searchlight on the pragmatic wing of his party or even outside of core PPA to scout talents he will forward to President Yar’Adua for consideration for national offices. Ordinary etiquettes and protocols governing parameters on the formation of unity governments mandate that Dr. Kalu be given the right of first refusal in presenting nominees from his own native state of Abia, and reasonable limits of veto on all nominations purported to have been made from the PPA, especially from the other two states where PPA is known to have done well electorally, such as Imo and Taraba states.
As a robust participant in the different settings where this matter constituted the main issue of discourse, it seems to me that it is the general sense of Nigerians in Diaspora (or at least those living in the United States) that the invitation to join a multipartisan government should not be a ruse for enticing stalwarts of other parties to turncoat and undermine their party leaders. I concur. Even those with very evident PDP sympathies, and much love and admiration for President Yar’Adua like my humble self will also agree that there are other less noble but fair ways of causing disaffection in opposition ranks other than resorting to exploiting the sincerity of those who answered the call to participate in healing a bruised nation. President Yar’Adua, who effortlessly epitomizes uncommon honor and neo-federalist credentials, is expected to respect this implicit compact and resist the temptation to become conniving and duplicitous in the very enterprise he designed. That I can fairly guarantee. Yet where the President stands cannot totally guarantee or compel an equal amount of fair dealing on the part of scattered army of staunch party loyalists hungering to resort to this as a quick fix for causing disruptions within the opposition ranks. To be sure, wishing that those in the opposition parties will cross over to yours is arguably a legitimate pastime in partisan brinkmanship but that too supposes that such enterprise, holy or unholy, should be quarantined away from a program well-meant by a President on the throes of a search for legitimacy and national reconciliation. Therefore, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu should be encouraged to accept the olive branch, but like a ‘sentinel on the qui vive’, he should remain eternally alert to his new responsibilities as a leader of a major political party as well as a fast emerging national leader with a lot of potentials in modern Nigeria.
Attorney Aloy Ejimakor sits on the Board of Habitat & Health International Fund and serves as its Executive Director. alloylaw@yahoo.com
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