The Leadership Qualities Nigerians Deserve.

 

Does Nigeria Deserve Good Leadership?

The weight of adulthood is in the responsibilities taken up. A child differs from an adult because a child cannot take up responsibilities; cannot make choices. From the clothes to put on to the foods to eat and even when to sleep, children are basically helpless. 

A progressive nation has adults who look out for the best of her interests as they would a child. It is accepting the responsibility for the state of their country. A particular verse of the bible reads – an heir as long as he is still a child is not different from a slave.

Without doubts, democracy has served nations like the United States. One would think that since Nigeria is patterned towards democracy, it would serve us too. Has it? Would it?

Checks and balances, Federalism, Individual rights, Limited government, Popular sovereignty, Republicanism, and Separation of powers are the bedrock of the United States democracy. Each of these principles puts the destiny of their nation in the hands of their citizens.

Time after time, they have proven that power resides in the 'adults' of the nation. Could we say the same about Nigeria? Does power reside in the people? Do the people know they have such powers? And if they do, what for?

In as much as the saying goes "God gives a nation the leader it deserves". We've gone beyond deserving, the nation needs God's help, and God will help us all, if we work together in helping ourselves.

Responsibilities comes alongside power in democracy and such responsibilities brings clarity in the choice of leaders.

Clarity of mind and reason is essential in the identification of leaders we need void of ethnic, religious and geographic sentiments.

The first step is to look at where we are as a nation. Then, articulate on where we are headed to and what kind of nation we want to become. This isn't rocket science . This has proven to work for some nations and it can work for us too. We cannot keep pouring old wine into new skin and vice versa because that's what causes misrepresentation in government. We must not allow time wasters and power hungry leaders to sit over our affairs if we are ready to embrace true democracy.

Not a few of our predatory political actors are greed-driven, deceitful, ethnocentric and overtly corrupt. The alarming rate of shameless corruption in high places that current President Muhammadu Buhari openly lamented is quite at variance with the change mantra the APC-led government promised Nigerians back in 2015. Good enough, ‘change’ can be for the worse, as we have witnessed over the past six years. Or, how else do we explain the fact that based on the leadership indices of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Human Development Index (HDI), unemployment rate and the Gini-Coefficient (GC)- as a measure of the gap between the rotten rich and the abysmally poor, Nigerians are far worse off now than they were since 2014. The exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar in 2014 was N157 but has since escalated to N481 or as high as over N600 as it presently is in the black market! With regards to the ever-increasing debt burden, as of July 2015 the Federal Government domestic debt, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO) stood at $43.185 billion as of March 2015. But as of September 2021, it has risen to a total of $92. 626bn. Though the World Bank has predicted that Nigeria’s economy is expected to grow by 2.5percent in 2022, Nigerians are not smiling. Looking around today, the youths are rising to these realities.

We for a fact are convinced that our nation, Nigeria needs good leadership. A clear picture of where we are and desire to be should stir another question -who can take us to the promised land? The answer to this question is what will break our nation free from moving round in circles. We must answer this question at all levels of leadership, not just the presidency but even to the grassroot government. Our eyes must remain fixed on the ideal change and country that we desire to answer this question. Our nation is currently bedevilled with many problems, as we all know. They are symptoms of deep-seated infections. Realistic and visionary leaders fix root problems.

This character blend is a major prerequisite for leading us to the promised land. There will always be problems to solve in a nation. Electing leaders on the promise of fixing a problem is not enough. We need leaders who can diagnose the nation’s state, identify the root problems, and place structures and systems to correct the problem. These kinds of leaders can turn problems into opportunities for growth and development. Identifying realistic and visionary leaders is not "rocket science". It requires the ability to observe, listen, and question the works and ideas of the supposed leaders. By their fruits, we will know them. Serious democracies do election debates for a reason. We don't just need a name in government, we need character, we need innovators, we need implementation.

Whatever the definitions of leadership we choose, one word that keeps recurring is ‘influence’. The common facilitating factors that bind and indeed, define successful leadership in estimation include vision, the 5-C principles of Character, Commitment to a worthy cause, the Courage to do the right thing when needed most, Candour and Compassion. In addition, three-H principles include Honesty of purpose, Hard work and Humility. The word accountability counts a lot as the leader must give an account of how he has carried out his responsibilities to the people.

"A leader is like a beacon-bearer that shows the way forward to those he/she leads out of the dark tunnels of ignorance, poverty and diseases”. A successful leader must be a good manager of men and material resources because as Sam Walton rightly stated: “Individuals don’t win, teams do.”

Late former president Umar Yar’Ardua did not mince words to say that we need Leadership in the form of service, looking at the rueful state of our political environment. Our next set of political riders must have a firm grasp of the economic dire traits we have found ourselves in and should be able to navigate expertly out of the deep and messy well. They must eschew propaganda over what really matters.

Let us discard the old and bring in the future. We cannot keep focusing on leaders that gave us a terrible past and expect to get a beautiful future in our nation, NIGERIA.