Lawrence Wong: Leadership lesson from Singapore. Those adept at rationalising our inexplicable leadership recruitment folly argue that sainthood is not a prerequisite for good governance. Maybe! But we don’t need criminals at the helm of affairs, either. It will be a miracle for Nigeria to make any appreciable progress under the watch of certificate forgers, treasury looters, hedonistic leaders who have no iota of respect for the electoral will of the people and who know that there are no consequences for their vile conducts in public office.
Lawrence Wong, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and PM designate
Last Saturday, an elder statesman and nonagenarian, who I am privileged to call a friend, forwarded to me a message that has already gone viral on the choice of Mr. Lawrence Wong as the Prime Minister designate of the island country of Singapore. He will succeed the incumbent, Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, who has been Prime Minister in the last 20 years, in November.
A country of 734.3 km², with a population of 5.454 million – foreign guest workers account for one-quarter of the total – and Gross Domestic Product of $397 billion USD as at 2021, Singapore, a highly developed country, not only has one of the highest GDP per capita (PPP) in the world but is also the only country in Asia with an AAA sovereign credit rating from all major rating agencies. This country in maritime Southeast Asia, which is a city, a capital and a state all at once, making it one of only three City States in the world, has the world’s busiest port.
The WhatSapp message reads: “Singapore has chosen its PM. After four years of strict, tedious filtering and performance index review applied on four outstanding candidates, finally Mr. Lawrence Wong was chosen to take the responsibility as the 4th PM of Singapore.
“Mr. Wong, a double degree and PhD. holder from Harvard University in Economics, was selected after he received the highest score in Character, Performance, Integrity, Quality and job KPI.
“Mr. Lawrence Wong scored ZERO in the following; 1. Public Complaints 2. Police Traffic Summons 3. Public Summon 4. Racial hatred statements 5. Corruption and Bribery 6. Legal Court cases 7. Tax fraud 8. Abuse of Power 9. FBI, CIA, Interpol checks.”
The message ended with a paragraph which read: “This is the way forward to solving Nigeria’s political leadership problem. It is not about North vs South, Muslim vs Christian, Hausa, Ibo, or Yoruba, APC, PDP, or it’s my turn. It is all about the above recruitment matrix, which we stupidly ignore at our own peril.”
I don’t know whether the elder statesman, a man of impeccable character and astounding credibility, added the last paragraph or it was part of the original message. Whichever, it resonated well. This is the first time he was forwarding a message to me. We disagree on the idea of “hope.” He is an incurably optimistic person, ever hopeful. And his optimism is anchored on his very strong religious beliefs. He tells me that nothing happens outside God’s design which is beyond human comprehension. Therefore, inasmuch as he agrees that the quality of the country’s leadership is execrable, he contends that God allowed it for a purpose. And when that purpose is served, He will intervene. So, his eternal prayer point is for God’s will to be done.
I disagree. As I stated here recently, Nigerians didn’t offend God. So, the idea that He is punishing us with bad leadership is hare-brained. Instead, leadership has failed the people and unless a country gets its leadership recruitment process right, nothing else works.
Every country that has succeeded in repositioning itself on the growth and development trajectory enthrones legitimate, visionary, selfless, public-spirited, people-oriented and sacrificial leadership willing to abandon personal interests in order to achieve common goal. Enthroning swashbuckling buccaneers and power scavengers and hoping for the best is illusionary.
READ ALSO: Nigerians didn’t offend God, leadership failed the people
Singapore runs a parliamentary system. Prime Minister Loong took office on August 12, 2004. The position which was created since June 3, 1959 with Lee Kuan Yew as the inaugural holder is tenured for five years and renewable. The President appoints the PM, a Member of Parliament (MP) who is most likely to command the confidence of the majority of MPs as stipulated in Article 25 of the Constitution.
So, Loong will hand over the leadership reins to Wong on the birthday of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) on November 21, 2024, the party having been established on November 21, 1954.
Now, who is this man that has been found worthy by his compatriots to be designated Prime Minister in-waiting nine months beforehand?
His short profile on Google says: “Mr. Lawrence Wong is the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance.
“He is also the Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Chairman of Singapore Economic Development Board’s International Advisory Council, Deputy Chairman of the GIC Board, Chairman of GIC’s Investment Strategies Committee and a member of the Future Economy Council, the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council and the National Research Foundation Board.
“In addition, he contributes to the labour movement as Advisor to the Union of Power and Gas Employees, and the Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees’ Union.
“Mr. Wong is a Member of Parliament for Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC. He was first elected as a Member of Parliament in May 2011. He has held positions in the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Communications and Information, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, the Ministry of National Development, and the Ministry of Education. He also co-chaired the Multi-Ministry Taskforce on COVID-19 from 2020 – 2023, which oversaw the Singapore Government’s response to the pandemic.
“Prior to entering politics, Mr. Wong was a civil servant. He was previously the Chief Executive of the Energy Market Authority and the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
“Mr. Wong was educated at Tanjong Katong Secondary School and Victoria Junior College. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He also holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.”
Why will Singapore not continue to make progress under Mr. Wong’s watch, a man investigated at home and abroad for four years and found to be, like Caesar’s wife, beyond reproach in learning, character and capacity?
Juxtapose Singapore with Nigeria where criminality is a badge of honour and a precondition for socio-economic and political ascendancy. It is instructive that a week after Singapore’s leadership recruitment panache went viral, a Federal High Court in Kano held that the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) lacks power to investigate the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, over the 2018 dollar bribery video.
Ganduje was caught on camera while he was Kano State governor receiving bundles of dollars from a contractor, which earned him the sobriquet Gandollar.
In July 2023, after he left office and lost immunity, he went to court seeking protection of his fundamental rights when the PCACC chairman, Muhyi Magaji Rimin Gado, invited him for questioning.
On Tuesday, February 5, Justice Abdullahi Liman ruled that the offence he allegedly committed was a federal offence which can only be investigated by federal agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Meanwhile, the EFCC has turned a blind eye to the matter and Ganduje’s supporters, without any sense of shame, are celebrating what amounts to Pyrrhic victory.
They are happy that their benefactor has succeeded, once again, in gaming the system. But Ganduje is not a lone wolf here. Unlike Singapore, there is hardly any Nigerian political leader who does not carry one scandalous baggage or the other. Many of them are certificate forgers, parading unearned degrees and diplomas. Some are career criminals – fraudsters, drug barons, sex offenders and treasury looters. Nigerian courts say such deleterious baggage do not matter.
So, those running away from the long arm of the law in foreign countries, people disbarred from practicing law in the U.S. because they defrauded their clients, a criminal offence, run back to Nigeria, a safe haven, and are today the Lords of the Manor. In Nigeria, the higher one climbs the rungs of the crime ladder, the brighter the chances of political ascendancy.
Those adept at rationalising our inexplicable leadership recruitment folly argue that sainthood is not a prerequisite for good governance. Maybe! But we don’t need criminals at the helm of affairs, either. It will be a miracle for Nigeria to make any appreciable progress under the watch of certificate forgers, treasury looters, hedonistic leaders who have no iota of respect for the electoral will of the people and who know that there are no consequences for their vile conducts in public office.
So, God has no hand in Nigeria’s woes. If at all He is angry with us, it is for the fact that Nigerians have allowed negative primordial instincts to becloud their good judgement in choosing their leaders. The very steep price we are paying today is the consequence of the choices we made at the ballot last year.
Granted, some will contend that the result Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced did not reflect the will of the people. That is true to his eternal shame. But we allowed the result to stand, nevertheless.
The malaise of bad governance is not a disease which fasting and prayers will cure and we cannot hope our way out of the country’s present predicament. Conscious efforts must be made at enthroning leaders whose pedigree will earn them the trust of fellow citizens at home and respect abroad. That is the leadership lesson from Singapore.