By Ali Faagba
This article is about things you should know about AbdulRazaq of his 100 days in office. And when I say things you should know, I’m not talking about the now working but erstwhile dysfunctional waterworks, or the rehabilitated roads, or the newly constructed ones, or the development in our education system and so forth. Because you already know that, things you should know, therefore, must be about things you didn’t know.
Now before you read on for those things. Here is a simple analogy to make you understand the whole point of this article. This article is a work of art, I don’t know how many people will read it, or how many leads it will generate for me, but as an artist/writer, the joy of it is in doing the job, not in what comes after it. The moment I put my hands to keyboard to put these words down, the only satisfaction I will ever get in it is to know I’ve done the work of art I love, and I’m assigned to do.
It’s the same for rulers. Or more aptly, it should be the same for rulers. And in the case that you know, like I do, that it is not, you may agree with me that AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is a rare breed.
As many people are marshaling their strengths at the moment, working tirelessly to assault your sight and hearing with visuals and written contents about what our nascent Governor has achieved so far, maybe I’d do you a better service if I let you know who our governor is and why he does what he does.
It all started with a conversation with a friend on Facebook after a post I made. As we go forth and back sharing views, my friend advised, “AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq needs to build his political empire, because/or he needs those politicians to survive.” But here is why he won’t be building one.
AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq will not be building a political empire. If it’s not a zenith of political notoriety that a man came out of political oblivion in 2019, and took home with him all the victory there is to win, I don’t know what that is. Suffice it to say, AbdulRazaq displayed the politician’s art of arriving late but claiming all the credit.
Now before we miss the plot, why is AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq doing what he’s doing? Or more pertinently, why will he not be building political empire? The answer is in the analogy of a writer I have you above. AbdulRazaq has no interest in vain metrics: the number of fanatics he now has, how many times is he mentioned in the media, who is he smarter than, how many god sons has he produced, will he be able to field his own protege to continue where he stopped when he’s out of government etc.
From all indications, the only metric our governor has interest in is how much he’s been able to deliver. And to state this even more sincerely — or brutally — he’s hardly perturbed about whether the people he’s doing it for appreciate him. Like the work of art that I’m doing now, one which every successful artist does, the satisfaction of AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is in knowing he has done what he’s been assigned to do.
But I understand that the elite class are not happy, but it’s not like he doesn’t know. He does. Still, here is why continues to do what he does.
In The Prince, Nicholo Machiavelli remarks, “those emperors who did not have the natural authority to hold both the soldiers and the populace in check always came to grief.” He then proceeded and concluded “a prince who wants to maintain his rule is often forced not to be good, because whatever the class of men on which your continued rules depends is corrupt, whether it be the populace, or soldiers, and nobles, you have to satisfy it by adopting the same position; and then good deeds are your enemies.”
If anything is true Machiavelli’s word, it is simply the fact that all classes upon which a ruler depends to hold on his ruling are corrupt. And to satisfy any of them, one needs to be corrupt. You may now want to ask, since this is an indictment on all of us, how’s a good ruler suppose to sail through? The answer, again, lays in Machiavelli’s word:
One can be hated just as much for good deeds as for evil ones.
If this assertion is true, then all GOOD rulers must try to please only their conscience. Machiavelli cites the example of all past great rulers, the good and the bad and how they all, with the exception of Marcus Aurelius, came to a heartrending downfall. Commodus, Severus and Antinius were evil rulers, while Pertinax, Alexander and Marcus Aurelius were good men. Neither the evil men nor the good could prevent themselves from unhappy ending. Yet the history of either brutality or mercy continues to reverberate through the annals of history.
AbdulRazaq might just be one of those who Peter Thiel refers to in his “Zero to One” when he said, “Perhaps every modern king is just a scapegoat who has managed to delay his own execution.”
I conclude that, the business of fixing messes is one which requires every leader to sacrifice their heads in exchange. At the end of it, they will either be praised in history books or be honoured in their life time, but either way, they will be happy they had done what they had done.
The founding fathers of Singapore under the able leadership of Lee Kuan Yew in their early days only elicited infamy and harsh criticism for taking the unconventional ways of frugality, rigorous appointment processes and punitive stances in dealing with law breakers. They knew the magnitude of the tasks ahead, yet they were determined to see it through. Today, Singapore is a sight to behold, all thanks to their indefatigable determination.
And this satisfaction of having done what needs to be done is what fuels AbdulRazaq in doing what he currently does! In this phase of Kwara history, especially when we test it against our past, we know there is a difference between a man who is capable and a man who is able.
Ali Faagba