Leaders and the Cost of Governance

The Party Manifesto and the Place of Reality:
You have probably noticed this too . Unlike most birth, eagles don’t fly in flocks. They don’t simply fit in. They don’t conform to the activities of their own kind. You cannot find them in huge clusters. They are flying alone, ahead of and higher than the other birds. Leaders are like eagles thinking ahead of the pack looking out for the big picture and the big wins for the good of the commonwealth. Outstanding leaders appeal to the hearts of their followers, not their minds says John Maxwell.

Great leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Chief Obafemi Awolowo , Sir Ahmadu Bello and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe were able to grip the heart of the people. It’s usually not about partisanship. Leadership is about the ability to cast a vision , to empathise , to spark hope , to speak to the hearts . It’s not that these leaders didn’t use logic , they just travelled beyond logic , to win the hearts of their audience.

President Bola Tinubu’s first 30 days in office felt like a military government with a strict timelines and desire to make an impact considering the limited tolerance for such government especially when the ousted government was a popular one. Critical sectors have felt the baton of reform and more of such reforms are in the pipeline. PBAT should see beyond party manifesto and think like a national leader in a rush to right the mistakes of the past eight years.

Read also: How Nigerian leaders failed to rein in governance costs

Citizens’ Pressure:

The major trust of this article is the need for followers and citizens as a whole to keep an eye on this government. The top echelon of this government are manned by former legislators . The President Bola Tinubu , Vice President Kassim Shettim , Secretary to the Federal Government George Akume , Chief of Staff to the President Femi Gbajabiamila and others

Legislators like big government with appointments going round and very little happening in terms of concrete benefits for the people. Recall former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Sanusi Lamido , a seasoned economist and financial analyst once accused the National Assembly as the source of the country’s financial challenge. He noted that with a bloated legislative branch spending twenty five percent of national revenues plus a regime of spurious subsidy and dubious forex policy the country would go no where in terms of development. He’s been proven right! .

The big elephant in the room :

Whilst the President should be commended for floating forex and removing subsidy challenge,t he cost of governance is still huge and we hope he would turn his attention to this important subject.

The past government of Mohammed Buhari borrowed billions of naira for infrastructural projects because these three monsters gulped everything in the purse of the government and we are no where after eight years . Citizens must rise and talk a development agenda to this government or the next eight would be like the past eight. The dance of shame around the neck of the bottle is taking us nowhere. This democracy is ours to defend and protect.

Michael Umogun is a Chartered Marketer with interest in public policy.