Over the years, leadership has been the major problem of Nigeria. Successive administrations and governments have left the people disappointed as a result of mediocre leadership they showcased.
In his book, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’, the late Chinua Achebe said: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”
Many years ago, the late Obafemi Awolowo challenged his colleagues in the Nigerian corridors of power to show leadership skills by leading by example.
“Those of us placed in a position of leadership must be prepared to grasp the nettle if we unite in doing so, and if, in addition, we set a worthy example and a Marat on pace in probity, unselfishness, and self-sacrifice, the people will follow, all too readily, in our footsteps,” Awolowo said.
Today, many years after his demise, Awolowo’s charisma, exemplary leadership and selfless service to his people have continued to be a reference point.
Apart from Awolowo, a few other contemporaries of his, such as NnamdiAzikiwi, Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewahave been adjudged the nation’s finest politicians. Since the exit of these visionary leaders Nigeria has continued to engage in costly leadership experimentations that have largely accounted for her woes.
Many people converge on the perception that the myriad of problems, retarded growth and underdevelopment which Nigeria has faced in recent decades were because of the absence of visionary and purposeful leadership.
Despite uncountable number and frequency of summits and conferences to discuss leadership problem in Nigeria, the problem has persisted.
At a two-day conference held in Lagos recently, the organized aimed to bridge that gap and chart a new paradigm shift toward a new style of purposeful leadership and governance in Nigeria.
The conferencetitled: ‘#Fix Politics, Changing Politics Structurally for Africa’s Prosperity’, was an initiative of ObyEzekwesili, a former minister in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, and the Robert Bosch Academy.
The event seeks to propose innovative ways of empowering and centring the citizens in their country’s politics before, during and after the electoral cycle.
The event saw participants aligning on strategies for compelling political and electoral reforms and was attended by several political leaders, scholars and the civil society organisations within and outside the country.
Among the participants were Johann Lambsdorff, a professor of Economic Theory at the University of Passau, Germany; Peter Lewis Warren Weinstein, chair of African Studies, School of Advanced and International Studies, John Hopkins University Washington DC, USA;AloyChife, managing partner/CEO, Saana Capital,LLC.
Frank Nweke Jr., a former Nigerian minister and co-founder, NzukoLabs; Aisha Yesufu, founder, Citizens Hub, and Samson Itodo, executive director, YIAGA.
Others were Amina Salihu, a senior programmeofficer, MacArthur Foundation, Abuja;Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, executive director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC); Pat Utomi, founder of Centre for Value in Leadership (CVL) and Nya-Etok Ezekiel, a former presidential candidate, amongst others.
In a keynote address, Johann Lambsdorff said it was imperative that citizens take active roles and interest in the emergence of political leaders.
He said it was crucial that in tackling graft and sanitising the political system, citizens must put trust in their leaders rather than institutions which could be manipulated and compromised.
There was, however, a general agreement among the participants and leaders who spoke at the event that democracy had failed in Nigeria because of the dearth of purposeful, morally upright leaders.
They faulted the nation’s current political system which according to them confers powers on few individuals and groups who perpetually monopolise the nation’s political system to their advantage. Participants therefore called for a more citizens’ participation in the electoral process.
Though, others, however, agreed that apathy among the electorate would be difficult to address if issues such as ‘stomach infrastructure’, poverty, and unemployment among the electorate are not checked.
In her research presentation, Ezekwesili, who was a candidate in the 2019 presidential election, said that the 1914 amalgamation of the country was responsible for part of the nation’s woes, stressing that the amalgamation was purely for administrative convenience of the colonial leaders and not for the interest of the country or Nigerians.
Ezekwesili further said that the long years of military incursion in politics which truncated the democratic process in the country on several occasions stunted democratic practice, growth and culture from taking its root in Nigeria.
According to her, “The amalgamation of 2014 was for mere administrative convenience, colonial Britain merged the three distinct geographical areas into one country.
“There was no common identifying point of reference beyond the colonial power’s administrative convenience.
“As Europe got mired in its own internal rivalry and war among the key countries and began paying less attention to its colonies in Africa, the fervor of nationalistic self-determination grew on the continent”.
Speaking further, she identified the failure of the nation’s post-independence leaders for their inability to agree on a common template as part of the problem that has held the nation back.
“The failure of the independence nationalists to at the end of colonial governance, discuss and peacefully agree their self-negotiated terms for shared values and unified vision of Nationhood; the absence of prevented emergence of an agreed framework of a minimum Common Identity as a ‘New Nation’ of multi-ethnic, multi-religious multi-cultural and multi-lingual diversity of people who have negotiated the basis for Unity. These failures and gaps haunt the country and its people up until today,” she added.
The former minister stressed that part of the reasons for leadership failure and stagnation which the country had faced over the years was the inherent monopoly in the political system by few individuals and groups, while canvasing active participation of citizenry in the electoral process for a change.
“Nigeria’s monopoly democracy has no incentive to yield the distortionary damage it does to governance.
“In the absence of an effective regulatory system to reduce the powers of the monopoly, a few citizens can step up and take responsibility for correcting the distortion in the political system,” she said.
According to her, “Nigeria’s monopoly democracy has no incentive to yield the distortionary damage it does to governance. In the absence of an effective regulatory system to reduce the powers of the monopoly, a few citizens can step up and take responsibility for correcting the distortion in the political system.
“The Monopoly Democracy is a structural defect. Every problem that is structural demands structural solutions”.
Pat Utomi, a professor of political economy, who also spoke at the conference, advocated for paradigm shift in the manner politics was beingpractised in the country, lamenting that few minority was holding the nation captive.
Utomi, however, canvased for more citizen-participation in the political process, while stressing that public conversation was crucial for an improvement in the nation’s political process.
According to him, “Our democracy cannot get better without having public conversation and then we learn collectively and then the common good is advanced.
“The thesis that ObyEzekwesili has just advanced,‘monopoly democracy’ is exactly the point I was making; when you have that mind-set of only one perspective you cannot make progress.
“Monopoly capitalism has never resulted in innovation and growth and that is why countries like United States have antitrust laws to prevent monopoly.
“What happened is that we have multiplied monopoly in Nigeria. We have monopoly capitalism layered upon monopoly politics so the country is not making any progress. Because of the few people that have captured the Nigerian space as politicians, innovation does not take place.”
“You saw the innovation index that was shown, Nigeria is at the bottom even in the continent of Africa. Why are we that way? Because our politics is a monopoly politics, in our business all you have to do is align with whatever politician that dominates at this moment and of course, we know that we do not have a democracy; because I can argue and show evidences that there is no election that has been won in Nigeria since 1999 without fraud. So, we have a crisis as a country and we have to determine how to start.
“My biggest issues are that; we have a moral majority and which have just been keeping quiet and watching and allowing an immoral minority to govern this country holding us hostage and we see the outcome in violence everywhere,”Utomi lamented.
In his remarks, a former minister of Information and Culture, Frank Nweke, charged the Nigerian electorates to rise above primordial sentiment in choosing their leaders, stressing that the electorate must share part of the blame for failed leadership in the country in recent time.
INIOBONG IWOK
