Nigeria’s Leadership Question

Indibutably, Nigerians are happy that God gave them such a country as Nigeria. Richly endowed with both human and natural resources, Nigeria has the most envious economic profile on the African continent. It has an area of over 923,773 square kilometers, the largest single geographical unit along the west coast of Africa and a population of 140,000,00 at the 2006 census, the largest in Africa.

It has a series of rivers, calm lagoons, and a network of creeks and waterways that provide valuable means of communication across its length and breadth. It has a wide range of economic trees including swamp forest trees, evergreen forest trees, semi-deciduous forest trees and savannah trees which serve as sources of food, drink, oil, building materials, fibres, and medicine for the people. It has friendly climate and fertile land, the sine qua non for agricultural production.

Nigeria is the leading producer of crude oil and gas in Africa and the 6th in the world. It is also a leading world producer of coal, tin, and columbite.

But it goes without saying that Nigerians are not happy with the leadership of this great nation now described as a failed state.

Despite its abundant gifts from God, Nigeria has remained a land of poverty, famine, chaos, violence, instability, failed projects, and endless strike.

What is the trouble with Nigeria? To many, Nigeria’s crisis is blamable on poor leadership. In the language of the internationally acclaimed author, Chinua Achebe: “… Nigeria has been less than fortunate in its leadership.”

Nigeria’s leadership question has several dimensions. According to Chinua Achebe: “A basic element of this misfortune is the seminal absence of intellectual rigour in the political thought of our founding fathers – a tendency to pious materialistic wooliness and self-centred pedestrianism”. Since its inception, Nigeria has not been fortunate to have such leaders as Mr Shastri, the Indian Prime Minister whose total possessions were the few rupees that were found in his pocket as at the time he died and Mr Manley, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, who went into politics as a rich lawyer, but 25 years later when he left office, he had to sell the old family home in order to provide food for himself and his wife.

Other dimensions of Nigeria’s leadership question include authoritarianism, lack of vision, patriotism, accountability, ethnocentricity, social injustice, and corruption.

In recognition of this perverse leadership question, President Umaru Musa Yar-Adua has, on several occasions, promised to change the face of leadership in Nigeria. He agrees that the concept of leadership has been bastardised in the country resulting in people using leadership position to show arrogance, oppress others, and misappropriate resources meant for the generality of Nigerians, instead of serving them as directed by God.

How can members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Radio, Television and Theatre Workers Union (RATTAWU), Nurses and Midwives Association of Nigeria (NMAN), Medical and Health Workers Union, staff of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and other workers who are demanding better rewards for their sweat be persuaded to accept government offers when members of the governing elite are living in palatial homes, receiving fat salaries and allowances, and driving the most prestigious cars in the land.

Therefore, to resolve the disputes between government and the labour unions, the elite group should, first of all, live austere life, take low salaries and allowances, live in small houses, drive small cars and be humble in their thoughts, words and actions. As an American politician, John Caldwell, once said: “The essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country and not for the benefit of an individual or party”.

A deep reflection on the country’s tortuous journey to its present status of economic quagmire, and an objective assessment of the socio-political future of the nation and our prospect of catching up with the developed nations, or at least, the previously colonised countries such as the Asian Tigers (Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea etc) provoke an urgent need for a decisive attack on these various dimensions of the Nigeria’s leadership question which have brought the country to a state of immobilism.

It has become apparent that neither an abundance of human and natural resources nor the best economic policies in the world will solve the country’s developmental problems if its leadership question is not addressed.

Changing the face of leadership in Nigeria will therefore involve a thorough search for a genuine leadership selection process. Not only for elections of political leaders, but also for the selection of others entrusted with positions of responsibility.

The basic questions to ask in such a selection process include: Does the candidate for selection have the right judgment of both people and situations? Is he an embodiment of the people’s aspirations or is he receptive to their sufferings? Does he have the virtues of chastity, contentment, forgiveness, detachment, and humility? Does he also have such other leadership qualities as commitment, competence, courage, focus, and self-discipline? And does he have listening ears?

Only leaders with virtuous disposition can have respect for others, empower them, create vision of where the people are going, and set the ship of state to flow.