Opinion: Nigeria at 60: Leadership, the culprit

By Ray Ekpu

It was Augustus Caesar, one of the greatest rulers of the Roman Empire who said, “I met Rome a mud but I left it a city of marble.”

It is doubtful if any Nigerian leader, military or civilian, from 1960 till date can truthfully make such a claim about his leadership of Nigeria.

Doubtful, very doubtful. By general consent of most fair-minded Nigerians the country looks as ugly as it does because of the failure of leadership.

Chinua Achebe, the celebrated novelist wrote a leadership classic many years ago titled “The trouble with Nigeria.”

In that famous little book he put Nigeria’s problems squarely at the door of leadership failure.

It is leadership that makes the difference to any country. Leadership is all the rage. Leadership is it.

Charles de Gaulle, France’s imperial President was quoted in the New York Times magazine of May 12, 1968 as saying: “Men are of no importance.

What counts is he who commands.” That may sound a little like an exaggeration especially in a democratic setting but there is a large dose of truth in it.

A country’s greatness more often than not depends on the quality of its leadership. A wise, visionary and transformational leader can make a great difference to the destiny of his country.

The IT development in India was given a shot in the arm by Prime Minister Atai Bihari Vaipayee who ruled India from March 19, 1998 to May 22, 2004.

He placed the development of Information Technology as one of his top five priorities, formed a task force on IT and software development.

Within 90 days the task force produced an extensive report and an action plan with 108 recommendations which he implemented without hesitation.

Today, India is a leading force in IT development. Its engineers are all over the world manning strategic IT facilities.

They are the major technocrats in our telecommunications sector in Nigeria. One man made that difference.

Educated Nigerians make Singapore a reference country for success yet we started the march to the future at the same time. Singapore, actually got its independence on August 9, 1965, five years after we got ours.

But today, Singapore is many kilometres ahead of us. It has the world’s best airline, the world’s best airport and the second busiest port after Rotterdam.

One man, a 35- year-old man called Lee Kuan Yew made the difference. He is the one who transformed this former swampy Third World country into a glittering first world country.

His development odyssey is documented in a book titled, “From third world to First World.”

That book written by this Cambridge University-trained lawyer is a global development classic that is devoured by development enthusiasts around the world.

Nigeria’s outstanding failure in leadership arises from two main factors (a) Lack of preparation and (b) Leadership selections.

Here are the qualifications listed in section 131 of the 1999 Constitution for presidential aspirants (1) He must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth (2) He must attain the age of 40 years.

This age limit has been reduced by legislation to 35 but not amended in the Constitution (3) He must be a member of a political party (4) he must be educated up to at least the school certificate level or its equivalent.

The last qualification demonstrates the sheer unseriousness of those who put that clause in the Nigerian Constitution in the 21st Century.

In Nigeria today, even small or medium sized companies make school certificate holders floor sweepers, cleaners and messengers in their offices.

Many holders of masters degrees in Nigeria today drive taxis and buses just the way you would find such educated people doing in New York or London.

A serious country whose educational standard has dipped due to a number of factors would not list such a qualification for those who aspire to lead the most populous country occupied by black people on earth in the 21st century.

That happens because we give scant attention to what can take the country to the top. Elsewhere people spend a lot of time preparing for leadership.

One of America’s most admired Presidents John F. Kennedy reputedly spent a lot of time schooling himself in the art of oratory and speed reading.

He was reputed to be able to read 500 words per minute. Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States (1977-81) spent a considerable part of his life preparing for the exalted office.

He was a farmer, naval officer, an engineer, a businessman, a planner, a nuclear physicist and a politician. He had been a Governor of Georgia State before he stepped out to vie for America’s ultimate political trophy.

He even wrote a book before the contest titled: “Why not the Best?”

Bill Clinton had nursed presidential ambition from age 16 when he had the good fortune of shaking hands with President John F. Kennedy.

Clinton went to school in two continents, devoured every leadership literature in sight and honed his oratorical skills faithfully.

He was reported in Esquire magazine to be capable of doing six different things at once. He is a genius. With such meticulous preparation for leadership why would these American leaders not be successful?

But of course, Nigeria did have leaders who prepared assiduously, burnt the midnight oil, wrote books, held seminal sessions with experts but never got the top job. Two of those men are Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

They never got the top job because of the inane leadership selection process compounded by our ethnoreligious conundrum.

In 1983, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, a grade two teacher who had political experience at the grassroots but a limited breadth of vision, education and erudition had aspired to be a senator.

However, in the mysterious manner of leadership selection in Nigeria the selection machinery threw up Shagari instead of the better educated, more erudite and more perceptive Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, a man who had run the Central Bank of Nigeria as its Governor.

Of all those who have been President since 1999 I know of none who was ready for it. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was brought out of prison and crowned by the godfathers. He even asked “what did I forget in the State House?”

Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, the ailing Governor of Katsina State simply wanted to go back to teach at Ahmadu Bello University.

President Obasanjo simply pinned the job on him. Dr Goodluck Jonathan preferred his job as Governor of Bayelsa State but he was dragged willingly or unwillingly into the office of Vice President. Fate then made him President.

Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari had campaigned for the office three times and picked the trophy on the fourth attempt.

His handling of the job so far leaves many analysts with the impression that despite the display of campaign tenacity he was hardly ready for the job.

He took about six months to form a cabinet.

That was no evidence of readiness. His selection for the contest took the same pattern as the others before him: the godfatherism route.

No one had become Nigeria’s President since 1999 without a godfather(s). None. That is the bane of Nigerian politics today.

Secondly, no one without a heavy war chest or the means of accessing it can become President of Nigeria.

Forget about the prescribed campaign funding limits. No one talks about it at elections and no one monitors it before, during or after the elections.

That is why such brilliant and accomplished candidates as Professor Kingsley Moghalu never got elected during the last election.

Young people were excited when President Buhari signed a bill into law that reduced the age for presidential candidates from 40 to 35 years.

They broke into song and dance but it will not take them anywhere near Aso Rock. I said so at the time in an article.

It is not enough for them to point to countries such as France, Austria, New Zealand and Finland which have young persons as leaders.

Even Nigeria had young people leading it in the First Republic.

Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of Western Region was 37, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Premier of Northern Nigeria was 36, Tafawa Nigeria’s Prime Minister was 34.

Even Yakubu Gowon who prosecuted the civil war as Nigeria’s Head of State was a strappling 32 year old.

But Nigeria has changed considerably for the worse since then.

The competition for the top job is fierce, very fierce, because of the humongous powers piled by our unitary constitution on the plate of the President.

As Lord Acton said “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Except some of those powers are redistributed the race for Aso Villa will remain a cut-throat affair, a bullion van affair and an AK-47 affair. That is the way it is.

That cuts off young, brilliant competitors and leaves only the killer sharks in the pool. The voters play little or no role in the selection process.

They are happy to collect the dollars, wrappers, rice, naira in exchange for their permanent voters’ cards.

How can such a process produce transformational leaders? So Nigerians invariably get the leaders they deserve because the followers are compromised.

Poverty and greed are the culprits. Anyone who thinks that the situation will change in the near future is simply living in a fool’s paradise.

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We seem condemned to select leaders unwisely because in truth, we the followers are not really involved in the selection process.

We queued up in the rain and in the sun to vote but did we choose the people we are voting for? No. The godfather did.

We were merely corrupt accomplices ready to sell our conscience for a mess of pottage. That too, is the failure of followership.

So leadership failure plus followership failure equals retrogression. An anonymous commentator says: “There are two kinds of leaders.

Those who are interested in the flock and those who are interested in the fleece,” Nigeria has a surfeit of the latter. That is why we are where we are today.