When we claim that integrity and character do not matter in leadership, we plumb the depths of stupidity. Any society where dishonesty is the key that unlocks great political attainments is doomed.
Nigerians are a special breed of homo-sapiens. We create gods out of mere mortals and even while they are still alive, we venerate them as deities of our harebrained pantheon.
They are worshipped, literally, and can do no wrong. The society creates a different set of moral code for them. They are not held accountable for their past misdeeds and many fibs. You interrogate their past at your own peril.
This is not how it is done in other climes where a lot of premium is placed on character in leadership recruitment. Fifty-two days from today, February 25, to be precise, Nigerians will go to the polls to elect leaders – a president and members of the National Assembly – and many of them are running for office in a haze of identity and reputational crisis.
I don’t know how many Nigerians are keeping a tab on the 118th U.S. Congress that convened on Tuesday. Besides the intrigues of who succeeds Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House of Representatives, the issue that is dominating national discourse right now is the waywardness of George Anthony Devolder Santos, the lawmaker representing New York’s 3rd congressional district.
When Santos was elected in the midterm elections on November 8, 2022, it was based on trust – the fidelity between candidates and the electorate. But it has been found out that he lied about his heritage, education and professional pedigree as he campaigned for office.
Santos’ professional biography was called into question last month after the New York Times reported that he misrepresented a number of claims, including where he attended college and his alleged employment history with high-profile Wall Street firms.
The embattled lawmaker invented his own life story, including claims that his grandparents “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.” On the hustings, he referred to himself as “a proud American Jew.”
Over and above the issue of lying about having Jewish ancestry, a Wall Street pedigree – working for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup – and a college degree, the matter of his sudden wealth despite recent financial problems, has also surfaced.
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The New York Times equally uncovered records in Brazil that show Santos was the subject of a criminal investigation there in 2008 over allegations that he used stolen cheques to buy items at a clothing shop in the city of Niteroi. The newspaper quoted local prosecutors as saying the case was dormant because Santos had never appeared in court.
Does Santos’ falsified life story ring a bell in Nigeria? Yes, it does. Very much. We have his Nigerian version in one of the presidential candidates with foggy ancestry, duplicitous educational claims, criminal forfeiture record in the U.S., a man whose source of fabulous wealth is hazy.
So, one can say that we have them – fib pushers and serial fabulists – in all climes. The difference is how these character flaws are handled in different countries particularly when such liars are seeking public office.
Since the New York Times busted of the 34-year-old Santos, he has owned up to his lies and under tremendous pressure to quit.
“My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” he said admitting to lying about working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, as well as having earned a degree in finance and economics from Baruch College in New York in 2010.
“I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” he said. “I own up to that … We do stupid things in life.”
But his constituents are not amused. Outraged Americans have called on him to resign.
So far, Santos has called their bluff and on Tuesday he was sworn in as a congressman. “I campaigned talking about the people’s concerns, not my resume,” he said defiantly.
It remains to be seen how far such braggadocio will take him. But one thing is clear: Americans – Republicans and Democrats – are unrelenting in their push for his ouster.
Over and above the mess the Speakership tussle has become – for the first time since 1923, the U.S. House of Representatives failed Tuesday to elect a new Speaker on the initial ballot – the question that has concentrated the minds of many is what can the Congress do about Santos who lied ahead of winning his election now that he has been sworn in?
The answer is: A lot because at the heart of U.S. democracy is the issue of character of leadership.
Risa Heller, a leading U.S. crisis communications expert, says it is unacceptable that the congressman’s “whole premise for getting elected is based on lies,”
Former Republican leader, Kevin Brady, agrees. On Sunday, he told Fox News that Santos “is certainly going to have to consider resigning.”
Brady, who was the top Republican on the Committee on Ways and Means, further said, “Right now, he would not be on the committee that I led,” when asked whether he would have been comfortable chairing a committee that included Santos.
On his first day in Congress, Santos was considered so toxic that his GOP colleagues shunned him, none wanted to sit next to him.
If these lies were public knowledge earlier, certainly he wouldn’t have picked the GOP ticket. If the revelations were made after the primaries, he would have lost the election woefully. And even if he succeeds in politically riding it out now that he has taken his oath of office, the chances of his re-election in 2024 will be zero.
The message Americans are pushing forth in the Santos saga is that character is fundamental to effective leadership because good character builds trust. Without trust, people will not follow and without followers, obviously, no one can lead.
That explains why support for him is eroding fast. Fellow Long Island Republican, Nick Lalota, has called for a full investigation. “I believe a full investigation by the House Ethics Committee and, if necessary, law enforcement, is required,” Lalota said Tuesday.
“It appears that everything he (Santos) said about himself is a lie and there’s just no way to clean that up,” Lis Smith, a veteran Democratic political operative, said.
But in Nigeria, we have a presidential candidate who almost everything he said about himself, including his very name, has been problematic, yet his political party and allies are not only trying to clean that up but actually riding roughshod over everyone else who dares to ask questions.
That is the tragedy of the Nigerian situation, which explains why we continue to plumb the depths. When we claim that integrity and character do not matter in leadership, we plumb the depths of stupidity. Any society where dishonesty is the key that unlocks great political attainments is doomed.
Elsewhere, people who lie about their origins, academics, work experience and source of wealth are sanctioned. In Nigeria, they are sanctified. Waywardness is celebrated as a mark of political sagacity and fib pushers are handsomely rewarded with public office.
While support for George Santos is eroding back home because of his egregious lies, in Nigeria, the same lies are earning his equivalents bragging rights.
Truth be told, taking away the issue of character from the leadership equation in the forthcoming elections is tantamount to sowing the wind. If that happens, a harvest of the whirlwind is inevitable.