At the Retreat for Senators

Port Harcourt, Rivers State, February 23, 2004

PROTOCOL

It gives me great pleasure to address you, once again, at the second of your special retreats. The memories of the first retreat in Calabar, Cross River State, on February 10, 2001, still linger on. Your choice of the garden City of Port Harcourt for this retreat is not at all surprising considering the welcoming nature of its people and the leadership qualities of the Governor, His Excellency Peter Odili.

While retreats are often meant to take people away from the routine of work and daily living to a serene but sometimes challenging environment that is conducive for deep reflections, it is also often an opportunity to look back on achievements, challenges, opportunities, mistakes, and the overall impact of one's life and work on the family, community, and nation. Retreats are also opportunities to plan for the future. I am sure that you will all make very positive and productive use of this retreat to better yourselves, rededicate yourselves to the work of the Senate, and reposition yourselves to better serve our dear country.

Distinguished Senators, it will not be out of place for me to congratulate you again for your election. However, let me quickly add that the election imposes several responsibilities on you. I do not need to remind you, that our people and communities look up to us to make a difference.

They expect that you will take actions and decisions that will stabilize the polity, widen opportunities for cooperation and progress, lay foundations for a solid democratic future, and. be part of the larger national drive to improve their lives. These are no easy expectations and make no mistake about it; they are watching you and your actions very closely.

Nigeria, as you all know, is a rapidly changing society. Our people have become very sophisticated in their politics. They understand the politics of mobilization, political action, lobbying, and networking to achieve declared democratic goals. This is why the expectations of performance and leadership from you are critical. After all, what is politics? It is not just about party formation and winning elections. Politics is essentially about people, identifying and training new leaders, articulating the specific and broad interests of the people, working hard to improve and empower communities, ensuring stability, and overall peace and progress for all.

In all our actions, especially as political leaders, we must never forget that politics is much more than winning elections. We shall all be judged by our performances and by the difference we make in our communities, nation and in the lives of ordinary people.

Distinguished Senators, we call ourselves political leaders. By virtue of the positions we occupy in the nation's political balance, we are indeed leaders. But do we act and speak as leaders? Do we possess and exhibit those qualities of vision, commitment, perseverance, accommodation, tolerance, creativity, reflection, thoughtfulness, sympathy and empathy that make for purposeful leadership? What about honesty, Godliness, truthfulness, ability to accommodate failure and defeat, sensitivity to the needs of the disadvantaged, unmediated patriotism, and hope for the future? Leadership is also about character, commitment, competence, courage, focus, passion, responsibility, self-discipline and relationships. Napoleon Bonaparte once declared (and I quote) "You can only lead people by showing them the future. A leader is a merchant of Hope." (unquote). Hope gives energy, zeal, and the will to move on. Do we individually and collectively give hope to the people?

Government has become part of modern society. The regular definition of government is that it is made up of three arms or wings: the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. The three arms constitute one whole that is responsible for not just ensuring peace, stability, and security but specifically ensuring that growth, development and democracy become the cornerstones of socio-economic and political engagements within and between constituencies and communities. The Legislature must, therefore, be, and should see itself as, an arm of government. On the part of the Executive, as I have often demonstrated through briefings, consultations, informal and formal contacts, we are ever ready to work with you.

Government, anywhere in the modern world, is just the Executive. You, Senators, are an integral part of government. We have a collective responsibility to protect our people, give them hope, meet their basic needs, and mobilize them for growth, development and democratic practice.

Once we move away from this reality, we become part of the problems of government and governance. Accordingly, I urge you to move away very rapidly from seeing yourselves as different from government. Such positions hardly help Government or the nation.

We are branches of the same tree or parts of the same body and must learn to tolerate, understand, accommodate, encourage, and empower each other for the good of Nigeria. How healthy will a body be if one part of that body is in opposition to another part of it?

Distinguished Senators, you all know that the presidential system of Government is markedly different from its parliamentary variant. As politicians, you should have your own views on different issues of national importance. In fact, you are expected to articulate, refine and deploy your views in the defence of issues that you raise in the Senate. However, you should not view yourself as an opposition per se. In a presidential system, you can talk of the party that is in or out of government but not an opposition as in the parliamentary system. This is why the presidential system tends to provide more robust opportunities for dialogue, cooperation, networking, and purposeful engagement of pressing national matters.

We must discard opposition mentality. It is even worse when comes from members of the same political party.

Let me now turn to the on-going reform agenda. Our commitment to reform is absolute. We must reverse the trend that was taking us towards disaster.

The reforms in the public service; our positions on anti-corruption, transparency and accountability; the accelerated privatization agenda; and reforms in the areas of governance and institution building are designed to reposition Nigeria for greatness. They are meant to create the necessary enabling environment for peace, stability, growth and development. If the reforms succeed, as they are doing, we shall all benefit and our nation will be the better for it.

I note, however, with a lot of pain, that some of our people still treat the reform as a joke. They take pleasure in deriding and denigrating the reforms.

They prefer to highlight why they will fail or to hammer on the problems we are facing without proffering suggestions. It is as if there is something to be derived in showing that it is not working. This is rather unfortunate. We cannot easily make progress in this way. We must develop positive and constructive attitude and orientation to assist our progress and growth.

Distinguished Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for reforms to work, all hands must be on deck, all leaders must take responsibility for success, we must all make sacrifices, and we must embrace change and do everything possible to sell the agenda to our constituents.

We must rise above narrow-thinking and use the wisdom, energy, good health and power that God has given to us to work for the betterment of our people. You must pause occasionally to think and reflect on your work, actions, statements, alliances and seek ways to continue to do what you feel is right and terminate what you feel is wrong. Our country is blessed with bright, energetic, creative, and courageous-men and women: we must not fail them. We must not leave legacies of disunity, poverty, insecurity, weak institutions, and underdevelopment behind.

We must work hard, rededicate ourselves, forge bonds of unity and tolerance to collectively ensure a brighter, more peaceful, productive, and stable polity where we stand in brotherhood to enjoy the fruits of our labour. With hard work, God on our side, we shall not fail. I wish you a most memorable retreat.

Thank you.