America’s election fallout: good is experience but best is good judgement.

By Ilobi Austin

Senator John McCain of the Republican Party has tried different campaign theme every other week: racism-“that one”, socialism-“tax cuts”, terrorist-“palling with Ayers” and inexperience-all but the last he has quickly dropped like the deadly green mamba when they yielded unwanted results in the various polls.

But rather than addressing the declining fortunes of ordinary Americans, he has cling to the last- regaling them with stories of how he has been in the service of the father’s land in and out of military uniforms since the age of seventeen unlike his opponent who has done his from the safe and sound confines of the congress building.

But instead this vast experience of his been an assets to his quest, it has turned out to be the greatest of his liabilities. It has severely narrowed his world view in relation to what he considers to be the needful in today’s one world. So he, rather than seek cooperation with Russia to confront terrorism, he somewhat prefer petty bickering with the possibility of a renewed deadlier “cold war” with it attendant human and material cost to not just America, but her cowed allies, to deal with.

In fact, while he has argues and rightly so, that his opponent would invest valuable time learning on the job, I see him spending his endangering lives while trying to unlearn almost all his philosophy. Remember, old habit they say, die hard. It is much easier to teach a grown man new things than getting him to discard old one.

It is not that it is or should be difficult to unlearn behaviours but the “experienced” especially where they have made some modest achievement in the past tend to be fixated with past solutions. And they therefore, attempts to recast present challenges to suit the solutions from the past even when the dynamics are totally different. They are so arrogantly enthral with the infallibility of their solutions that a third party view is scarcely considered. They always seem to believe that they have seen it all and therefore, know it all.

But the truth remains that good judgement, that is common sense like Senator Obama Barack has displayed thus far, will remain supremely superior to any form of experience that McCain’s long stay in the corridors of powers might have avail him. This has made presidential election Obama’s to lose.

And so as it is with America’s McCain, it is with governance in Nigeria where appointments to certain positions had tended to go the way of those with the “experience”. And any attempt to bring in fresh hand had been met with damaging criticism; it was the case in the government of President Obasanjo and it has not changed with that of Yaradua where the ministers has been accused of non-performance due to lack of “experience”. But history has recorded that it is the “inexperience” who has actually achieved more, because of a willingness to listen and learn from others.

Example abounds. General Obasanjo, inexperienced in the art of governance but with common sense in the 70s still holds the record of increasing the infrastructure base of the country far above any regime before and after his till date- Including his disastrous second coming. When Professor Soludo was elevated to his current position by the Obasanjo’s, administration, not a few in the finance sector riled against it for lack of experience, but today, some light years down the road, almost all our modest economic achievement are traceable to his policies and actions. Moribund community banks are today better packaged and doing better than some of the so-called commercial banks of the pre-Soludo era.

More inexperienced personality with remarkable achievement includes speaker Dimeji Bankole who has succeeded in turning a crowd into a team, with good judgement. No crime busting agency including the EFCC has been able to unearth the kind of sleaze so far exposed by the house. He has led a result oriented house than was thought possible for a young man of his age and experience. More of such achievers include Prof. Akunyili, Senators Ayim and Izunaso, who variously dealt with maverick Senator Nzeribe; Donald Duke gave practical expression to diversification of revenue base of a state. Ibori fought and defeated then Abuja, for the control of Delta state. In business, there is HITV Toyin Subair.

The truth is that while experience is bounded by time and environment, common sense or good judgement is situational. It lends itself to every time, environment and situation. Even the good book recognizes this when Apostle Paul admonished that we leave whatever is behind and look to the future. If the textbooks of the 60s-2005 are all considered too elementary for today’s undergraduates, why should the ideas and experience of those years be any different?

Any body who is not constantly improving himself is fossilized; it is immaterial if he has been on the scene since 1914 or even before.

Ilobi Austin. ilobidominic@gmail.com a social commentator writes from Warri.