Former President Olusegun Obasanjo last week took a swipe at the decrepit and fast vanishing leadership ethos in Nigeria’s democracy, expressing worries that for as long as men of questionable integrity index keep occupying key positions of leadership across the country for so long will accountability and development remain a mirage. Obasanjo, a statesman of high reckoning has played critical leadership roles in Nigeria. A Continental opinion leader and Commonwealth personage, his views on public service, administrative culture and developmental trends should be duly well considered with utmost importance in our public discuss.
The elder statesman had in a public pronouncement re-echoed the position of Chinua Achebe as espoused in The Trouble With Nigeria , published 41 years ago to the effect that Nigeria’s developmental albatross is directly traceable to the near absence of transformational leadership .If that was a source of worry some four decades ago, it must indeed have become the more so now that 25 years of sustained democracy instead of resulting in responsible and accountable leadership is still leaving the citizens with lots of baggage of impunity and needless legacy of incongruity to grapple with. The difference between developed nations and those still in the dark woods of social, infrastructural and institutional backwardness is primarily a function of leadership deposit, dispositions and resource allocation.
While the later sees leadership as platform for societal transformation, the former sees it as opportunity for transactions, grandiose and primitive acquisition. Until leadership is propelled by vision of service above self and integrity beyond duplicity, leadership dysfunctionality will remain the bane of our emerging democracy. On leadership devoid of integrity and accountability, Obasanjo had posited that some of the people in government both at the executive and legislative levels, today, should have as a matter of expediency been permanently behind bars on account of their past, and in some cases ongoing, misdemeanor and criminal misconducts against the people they were elected to serve as deterrent to other aspiring or upcoming leaders. The former president had maintained, rather stoically that government officials with “questionable” integrity quotient cannot make fair decisions for the greater good.
And truth be said, Nigeria does not have people with this kind of dysfunctional leadership dispositions in short supply. Politics is placed above target driven administration and accountability is often sacrificed on the altar of partisanship and unhealthy compromises. We are, sadly, saddled with leadership structures that are democratic in nomenclature but remain basically feudal and plutocratic in operations. This is an anomalous paradox that cannot translate into the desired development of the system and structure of any given society.
Speaking at a Slattery memorial lecture organised by the Old Boys’ Association of St. Finbarr’s College, Lagos, the former President maintained that the most important demand of anybody involved in governance at any level is “accountability”.
Without accountability even democracy becomes a transgenerational burden. The principle of accountability within the ambiance of rule of law remains a core tenet of democratic leadership that makes it result in development. Incidentally, arising from our feudal and eventually military background many people who find themselves in leadership practically struggle with public accountability. Leadership that loses touch with accountability loses its very essence of service and goal of development.
Obasanjo recalled his shocking experience with corruption, citing how a government official normalised criminal behaviour when confronted.
“The first thing that shocked me when I went into politics was the level of corruption of election officials which was taken as normal,” he said.
He further regretted that politics as played in this clime has little or no room for positive attributes.
“Every bad thing they do is passed on as politics which means politics has no room for morality, principles, rectitude, ethics, good character and attributes.” For democracy as currently practiced in Nigeria to result in development, Obasanjo insists that“Nigeria needs transformational leaders rather than transactional hirelings and political merchants, truth instead of lies, honesty instead of dishonesty, integrity instead of dubiousness and disintegrity, hope instead of despair, production instead of deduction, inclusion instead of exclusion and marginalisation”
Leadership challenge across Africa is no longer a subject of theoretical dissertation and pontification but a practical plague that has engulfed every facet of existence. These leadership challenges constitute the major drawback to Nigeria’s development issues. Nigerians today are paying dearly for the grave errors of leadership of yesterday and unless urgent and critical steps are taken today, future generations may also have to pay even more dearly for the anomalous decisions of today.
The present and past leaders of Nigeria seem to have failed to provide quality leadership capable of addressing numerous challenges confronting the country. These leadership challenges are evidenced in political, social and economic instability and the prevalence of ethnic, communal and religious crises, which have bedeviled Nigeria’s socio economic development. From insecurity to growing unemployment, decayed infrastructure, weak national currency, the prevailing pains and reverberating effects of the failure of leadership, corruption and bad governance are visible and being felt across all sectors and segments of the Nigerian society.
While acknowledging the centrality of the onerous responsibility of leadership at the center we should not lose sight of the place of leadership in all spheres of our lives, including government, business, education, the church, and so on. The failures at these various spheres is what has now culminated into the root of Nigeria’s problems. Democracy can only yield its dividends only when the stakeholders are willing and ready to play according to the rules.
A Governor, for instance can award the contract for the construction of a road. It however requires a due diligence cooperation of the supervising ministry to ensure the road is built to specification for payment to be processed.
If this process is sabotaged or compromised at any stage, then the genuine goal of leadership is scuttled. What this means is that we all do have critical contributory roles to play in whether the leadership we have turns out to be impactful or dis functional.
Postscript
Dangote Refinery: Another Dream Deferred?
FOR a country plagued by non-functioning refineries and the naked exploitation of the powerful petroleum importation cabal, the news of the commencement of operation of Dangote Refinery was awaited with great expectation. It was projected to fix the supply hiccup, stabilize the forex disequilibrium, help to create jobs and restore confidence in Nigeria’s investment corridor. Just as was the case in Charles Dickens Great Expectation, the hype and excitement appear to domicile more in the expectation as the actual delivery marks yet another phase of anxiety and palpable frustration.
