BY VANDIE S. NABIE ESQ
I present to you this humble piece not in the hope of obtaining a reward nor of incurring your wrath. It is plain, un-vanished and un-perfumed truth as originally observed and recorded by Niccolo Machiavelli in his Seminal Essay, The Prince, a study in part patterned on Xenophon’s, Cyropaedia-“how a Ruler ought to govern”.
I am offering this short note to your Excellency in the hope that the gravity of its contents will move you to accept it for there could not be a greater gift to you at this crucial moment than a work devoted to the art of statecraft. If I am in error, I am in mercy and for the pains to go through, I am deeply beholden.
Firstly, let me state some words about Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli appeared on the scene of Florentine Politics in 1497. He served as Principal Adviser to the King and was venerated a diplomat par excellence.
In spite of his skills and diligence, the Republic of Florence succumbed to decay and riot and Machiavelli was relieved of all his positions on the 7th November 1513, imprisoned and threatened with death. Fortunately, he was later pardoned by the new regime on the proclamation of Cardinal Giovanni de Medici to the seat of St. Peter, under the name of Pope Leo X.
The Prince (Of Principality) is a recital of the nature of statecraft and how to acquire, maintain or lose a state. His comments though about renaissance Italy shine perennially.
Your Excellency, as this nation marches on to a crucial 2028, it is my patriotic duty to adapt The Prince to contemporary politics. For a quicker and easier consumption, I have segmented the work as follows:
- OF THE PRESIDENCY
**** The Politics of building a nation is to know what to forget.
A wise ruler must have a selective memory. It is like marriage. If the two partners keep on remembering every unkind deed to each other, the marriage may be doomed.*****
Rulers always stand on a pedestal to launch lofty ideals:
Alexander the X1 referred to the Holy Roman Empire in the C15th. It was neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. Former President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari proclaimed the Nigerian Republic to be in a “State of Petrostatis”, the moral disease of sudden oil wealth in a weak capitalist economy. President Momoh declared the “Green Revolution” on assuming power. It was neither green nor a revolution.
Your Excellency, you built your own flagship on a NEW DIRECTION and seduced many converts. Critics however bemoan that the new direction is old bottles in new wine.
One of the main, if not the cardinal objectives in responding to past abuses, is to establish the truth, repair damages or prevent further abuses. This has been comprehensively addressed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It would be impolitic to reopen old wound for fear that it may fester noxiously. This was the Supreme moment after Biafia war as General Yakubu Gowon united all Nigerians.
Your Excellency, the ordinary commonsense approach to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Events are bound to recur.
The Inquires of Albert Margai prompted the Commissions of Siaka Stevens. Watch your rear to secure a brighter future.
The Anglo-Irish Philosopher Edmond Burke cautioned that political prudence requires political sensitivity to history.
A ruler will not look forward to posterity who never looked backwards on his ancestors.
OF ASSOCIATES
You must be careful and guard against close associates than perceived enemies. This is because it is only your closer associates who have the means and the audacity to undo you if they are dissatisfied. Enemies can become friends, but true friendship once injured cannot be nursed. A wise ruler should always detect fair-weather from genuine friends. To achieve this, a ruler must be both a human and a beast i.e. half-human, half-beast. This was how Chiron the Centaur was able to be the advisor and teacher of Achilles.
Of the half-human side of political life, you must not be evil but you should not profess goodness at all times. If a ruler professes to be considered good by all his subjects, he would surely lose the State. This was the supreme moment of Kailondo of Luawa.
At a conference in Gbondou in 1846, the elders swore allegiance to Kailondo. Manjakewa of Giema and Fagbandi of Sakabu invited Mbawuluomoh of Popalahun to invade Luawa, the Gbande War.
In spite of the profound generosity of Kai, he executed these traitors at a fall called Yigigi in the Moa River.
You may make promises but it is not always wise to keep faith to these promises when to do so would be to your disadvantage and the reasons that compelled you to make them removed.
Your Excellency, a friend in power is a friend lost.
Since man is deceitful a ruler who strives to be virtuous may eventually come to grief. This was the Achilles’ heel of former President Kabba. Avoid being considered to be always good. Play the Good Samaritan but do not avoid the evil Babylonian at the same time. You may excuse some policies with the lines of Virgil-“the harshness of things and the newness of my reign compel me to do such measures” Kai may have excused the above calamity with the lines of Virgil.
Of the half-beast – be a lion and a fox together: a lion to frighten the wolves around you; a fox to recognize the traps of your associates.
A ruler who exhibits one and not the other cannot maintain his state. Haile Selassie was more of a lion than a fox and was displaced from within.
Siaka Stevens was more of a fox than a lion and was able to out-smart the knowledge and education of Karefa-Smart and Salia Jusu Sheriff. Julius Nyerere was both a Lion and a fox and he reigned to ripe old age.
Your Excellency, like Theseus to the Athenians, you could not have demonstrated your ability to rule this country had you not found the then ruling party in collision with itself.
To be feared is to be in absolute control of oneself and the state and not from unsolicited advice. So many men today are villains in doublet and hose, akin to “Vicars of Bray”
OF THE CABINET
The Selection of Ministers or Secretaries should be of great importance to a wiser ruler.
The first thing one does to evaluate a ruler’s prudence, advised Machiavelli, is to look at his cabinet. When you see that your Minister thinks more of himself than you and that in all his actions he pursues his own self-interest, you will never be able to trust yourself to him. Machiavelli identified himself as a Secretary. He renders the prudential warning: “a noble statesman out of engagement is a threat or danger to the Republic”.
You must respect your Ministers but they should fear you. You must have an ambiguous character s as to prevent them from predicting you easily.
This was the signal success of Siaka Stevens. No Minister should think himself/herself so close to you as not to be relieved if you choose. The Cabinet should always be on needles and pins-like an elective dictatorship.
Above all, when you see that a Minister thinks more about himself than about you and see to his/her own interest you will not be able to trust him/her. For a man who holds the state of another in his hands must never think about himself but always about the ruler. Leadership is a compact not a competition. A wise Minister should always fling away from ambition especially on an issue where the ruler has focused his attention. Ambition! On that sin fell the angels.
To be able to handle your Ministers firmly avoid flattery. You should seek counsel only when you want to and not when others wish it. You should discourage anyone from giving you advice unless you ask for. This is because a ruler who is not wise on his own cannot be well-advised.
OF GENEROSITY
It is better for a ruler to be miserly than be generous. There is nothing that loses itself than generosity for as you use it you lose the means of employing it.
Private charity, like public philanthropy, is never enough.
Be kind but not generous. By generosity you may purchase more enemies cheaply. For a ruler’s generosity benefits the elites and hardly the masses who are the foundation of the States. Your Excellency, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
If followed directly, the advice proffered above makes your Excellency immediately more secure and more established in the State.
CONCLUSION
May your Excellency read this note with calm spirit in the hope that the words of a Patriarch may come true.
Virtue will seize arms against frenzy
And the battle would be brief
For ancient valor is not dead in Sierra Leonean hearts.