It is like an unwritten code for political leaders in most parts of the world to write books, mostly memoirs and autobiographies. These books either detail their early life and career or document their time and experiences in office. By so doing, they give account of their stewardship and provide some clarity on why they had to take certain critical decisions. Some write about other aspects of statecraft. Whether they sit down to write these accounts themselves or use ghostwriters is immaterial. What matters is the recognition that the people over whose affairs they have presided, and the world, deserve some deeper understanding of things.
The late former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was prolific, authoring many books including My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore’s Bilingual Journey; The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew; Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, but From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 is perhaps his most cited book.
In the United Kingdom, virtually every Prime Minister has written memoirs of their time in office. The Downing Street Years by Margaret Thatcher covers her premiership of 1979 to 1990. David Cameron’s For the Record gives an insight into his life at 10 Downing Street as well as inside explanations of the decisions taken by his government. Gordon Brown’s My Life, Our Times follows the stages in Brown’s personal and political life, from his upbringing in Scotland to his tenures as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister, with his own behind-the-scenes account of the global financial crisis.
Furthermore, Ten Years to Save the West, the memoir of the UK’s shortest-serving Prime Minister Liz Truss, who resigned after 49 days in office, gives account of her meetings with various heads of state and government, including her meeting with Elizabeth II two days before the monarch’s death.
Unleashed, Boris Johnson’s upcoming memoir set for release in October 2024, will feature Johnson’s account of his time in 10 Downing Street, discussing things such as Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Partygate.
In the United States of America, the political memoir is an essential part of any presidential campaign, Emily Burack writes in an August 2022 article in Town & Country, but presidential autobiographies only became common following the Civil War. It was the 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan’s memoir, in which he gave his own account of the civil war and its aftermath, that marked a turning point for presidential memoirs.
“Starting with the 33rd president, Harry S. Truman, nearly every president has written memoirs or an autobiography,” Burack writes. Burack quotes political scientist George C. Edwards III as saying that following World War II, presidents “started thinking about history in a more systemic way. I think there was a broader concern about history, and about the historical record, that developed about that same time.”
And so, the books have come in torrents, with many former political leaders churning out several. Theodore Roosevelt’s The Rough Riders, Harry S. Truman’s Memoirs By Harry S. Truman: 1945 Year of Decisions, Ronald Reagan’s An American Life: The Autobiography, Richard Nixon’s The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Mandate for Change, 1953-1956: The White House Years, Bill Clinton’s My Life, George H. W. Bush’s A World Transformed (co-authored with Brent Scowcroft, Bush’s national security advisor), Ulysses S. Grant’s Personal Memoirs, and Barack Obama’s A Promised Land are just a few examples.
Apart from presidents, other prominent public office holders have also documented their experiences. Prominently, Hillary Clinton gives her account of her tenure as US Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 in Hard Choices (2014), and in What Happened (2017), she writes about her experiences as the Democratic Party’s nominee and presidential candidate in the 2016 US general election. There is No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington by Condoleezza Rice, and there is Becoming by former First Lady Michelle Obama.
What purpose do these books serve?
In his introduction to Decision Points, which revolves around decisions he made during his tenure in the White House, George W. Bush writes, “I believe it will be impossible to reach definitive conclusions about my presidency—or any recent presidency, for that matter—for several decades. My hope is that this book will serve as a resource for anyone studying this period in American history.”
This is not so for Nigerian political leaders. The First Republic produced great intellectual leaders like Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe who wrote volumes. Azikiwe’s My Odyssey: An Autobiography (1970) and Awolowo’s Awo: The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo readily come to mind. In recent years, however, apart from former President Olusegun Obasanjo who appears to have been consistent in giving account of his involvement in major events in Nigerian history, producing books like My Command (1980), Nzeogwu (1987), Not My Will (1990), and the three-volume memoir, My Watch (2014), political leaders in this clime have failed in this regard. Goodluck Jonathan’s My Transition Hours is commendable, but it doesn’t even scratch the surface. So much happened in the last days of Yar’Adua that should give the world several volumes.
Journalists write history in a hurry, and they only tell the story as they know it, but when key actors in an event present their own side of the story, there is greater clarity. When historians then sit down to write history, they have ample resources to consult. But when key actors refuse to tell their side of the story – like Nigeria’s wartime military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, who has refused to write his memoir of the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War – they do a great disservice to scholarship, and to humanity.
