In On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, Thomas Carlyle demonstrated the concept of leadership as a position of authority. In praising Oliver Cromwell's use of power to bring King Charles I to trial and eventual beheading, he wrote the following: "Let us remark, meanwhile, how indispensable everywhere a King is, in all movements of men. It is strikingly shown, in this very War, what becomes of men when they cannot find a Chief Man, and their enemies can." [3] (http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext97/heros10.txt)

In the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the American Founders rejected the idea of a monarch. But they still proposed leadership as a position of authority, with the authority split into three powers, the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary. That is, under the American theory, the authority of leadership derived from the power of the voters conveyed through the electoral college. And many individuals shared in leadership as a position of authority, including the many legislators in the Senate and the House of Representatives. [4] (http://www.constitution.org/dfc/dfc_0917.htm)

- Culled from the internet

I N CONGRESS, J ULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

- ushistory.org

By researching the definition of leadership and the American declaration of independence and bringing it to the forefront of Nigerian political discourse, it is the intention of this writer to stimulate national debate on issues that have continued to plague our nation.

If leadership is the ability to guide and inspire, then in its truest form Nigeria has not had any form of leadership, the invasion of Odi, Zaki Biam and recently Yenogoa are clear cases of a lack of leadership and the tyrannical tendencies of foisted ruling individuals.

In some ways, one can argue that President Obasanjo has good intentions but good intentions are not enough when you pick and choose the laws of the land to obey, when you burn merchants’ goods in the name of artificial protection of local industries, a persistent reduction in petroleum subsidy with no real palliative measures to cushion its effect, disregard for constitutionalism on the premise of an assumed moral superiority, an incoherent national agenda anchored not on building institutions such as the judiciary, the legislature and national security but on individuals who have now turned themselves into mini gods.

We have been here before, remember the Abacha regime and the infamous General J.T. Useni and how the late dictator was deceptively held captive in Aso Villa to further their own personal interests to the detriment of the general good.

Let me at this juncture provide some clear and distinguishable point of view about how to provide leadership and run the Nigerian state.

The kind of leader that Nigeria needs is one that listens and derives his authority from the Nigerian people. He will not only ensure that all three tiers of government are independent of each other but that they are also functional. He will rule by the consent of the people and shun despotism of any kind. This leader will vigorously protect the rights of all Nigerian citizens at home or abroad. Above all else he will make the rule of law the cornerstone of his presidency. Now lets examine recent events in Nigeria.

The Nigerian National Identity card project: it’s been six years and some months into the life of this administration, yet something as simple as an identity card issuance is beyond the Nigerian government. It was centralized just like every other organ of the Nigerian government. The lesson here is that the Nigerian state needs to let other organs within this federation do their job. The issuance of identity cards should have been a state government’s responsibility and so also is the issuance of car license plates, both of which are provided by the federal government right now.

State government autonomy: who gave President Obasanjo the power to withheld Lagos state’s statutory allocation? Why has he continued to obstruct the legitimate aspiration of state governments that seek to establish and maintain separate security apparatus? After all, the constitution does not imply that the federal government should provide primary security within the states of the federation but rather the distinct role of the central government should be one of protecting the territorial integrity of the nation. Nigeria is one of the few dictatorial societies where an elected governor does not have the administrative control of police infrastructure within his own domain. So it has been suggested that since the federal government would not relinquish control of its federally funded police departments, then state governments should be allowed to establish their own outfit. There was also the case of the minister of works, senator Ogunleye, putting some men on Lagos highways to harass and intimidate motorists all in a bid to fight over tuff with the Lagos state governor. While the highways may have been constructed with federal government’s funds that is not to be interpreted to mean that the federal government have the right to put para military officials on the highway. It is not just done anywhere except perhaps in Nigeria.

Local government autonomy: most of the issues that plague the state governments also affect the local councils. State governors have not behaved differently from the President in disregarding the next tier of government. Some state governors were even bold enough to remove or suspend from office elected council chairmen. Things as trivial as the collection of trash have also been taken over by the state governments.

The Bayelsa crisis and the Alaimeyesegha factor: when former governor of Bayelsa state was arrested in London, Nigeria again showed to the rest of the world how immature it is. The Nigerian state did not only sent her errand boy attorney general to London, it instructed the consulate to deny one of its citizens any right of fair hearing. Apparently the former governor was a thief but that does not nullify his citizenship. We have indeed set a bad precedent in foreign diplomacy and in the future the rights of responsible Nigerians may be violated also. As if that was not enough, the governor jumped bail and resurfaced in Yenogoa, Obasanjo was thrown into a frenzy and he deplored troops to intimidate the governor, remember, it is the same Nigerian constitution that granted Alameyeseigha immunity from prosecution on Nigerian soil, the former governor did not ask for troop re enforcement, why did Obasanjo think it is his duty to provide one, besides the state was reportedly calm. The state house of assembly was also harangued into orchestrating his impeachment in a most bizarre manner with total disregard for constitutionalism.

The most embarrassing part in this charade was the letter written by President Obasanjo to British Prime Minister Tony Blair asking why the British allowed Alameyeseigha to escape justice in Britain. What a disgrace, he even asked that what happened to the famed British intelligence apparatus. My question for the President is; what’s wrong with your own security apparatus? What’s wrong with your criminal justice system or is it your constitution? And above all, what’s wrong with your country? In the first instance if you had a good criminal justice system and a constitution that wont provide cover for thieves and murderers you would have been able to prosecute the governor right on your own soil. The British like other advanced democracies played it smart, the next day the British high commissioner in Abuja issued a statement that headlined the fact that Africa’s destiny lies rightly in African hands. Kapitch. End of story. I am 95% sure that the British prime minister would not dignify Obasanjo with a response and that he would not even keep the letter for archives but rather toss it in a trash can. Simply put, the letter is in bad taste and it’s self-deprecating on the part of Nigeria.

The third term rumour: great men, the likes of President George Washington and L.B Johnson of the United States knew when to eschew personal ambition for the common good. After serving two consecutive terms as the first president of the United States George Washington issued a declaration stating emphatically that he would not seek another term in office and that he has absolute confidence in the American people to elect for themselves able leaders from amongst themselves.

If President Obasanjo does not abhor any third term ambition, he needs to go on national television to state this categorically. He also needs to stay off the constitutional amendment towards this regard. And before his sycophants cry President FDR Roosevelt, lets remember that he was a third term President only in a time of war and the American people in order to safe guard their union promptly amended their constitution to prevent any possible future despotism.

The NEEDS scheme: a supposed economic scheme put together by Nigerians and the IMF supposedly aimed at alleviating Nigerian suffering. The snag here is that there are inbuilt caveats that are not very people friendly among which is the gradual removal of fuel subsidy. I have observed elsewhere that if Nigerian fuel is cheap compared to other countries, Nigerian workers are poorly paid too. So it incumbent upon a responsible government to ameliorate the pains of its society, especially if such a nation is blessed with the same resource. We would not be an exception, Venezuela and Iran are trailblazers in this regard. For any economic theory to be seen to serve the interest of the people it must have an holistic approach to their suffering and caveats that will impose heavy restrictions on the people should not only be renounced, it should be rejected.

Conclusions and Recommendations: the ability to inspire and lead is one of the most important factor in nation building, when a leader inspires his people, he can rule with their consent, not only will he seek for their opinions on pressing issues of state, he will always strive to protect their interest. After all, it has been said over and over again that the primary reason for government is to provide the atmosphere for the self actualization of its citizens.

As a first step, the Nigerian constitution should be rewritten in its entirety and adequate measure should be taken to ensure that the majority of the citizens have a say as to under what kind of law they choose to live. Of course, under this new constitution one would expect that clauses such as the despicable immunity clause would be non existent.

Furthermore, the three tiers of government should assert their independence while working in harmony towards the upliftment of the Nigerian people. They should complement each other as necessary and criticize one another when appropriate.

The security system should be changed, the Nigerian police should give way to independent state police departments. The remnant of the Nigerian police system would be reorganized to serve like its counterparts around the world, with complementary roles to the state police, Nigeria will be better secured. And above all, all arms of government will be seen to be functioning properly within its own domain.

The activities of state should not be shrouded in secrecy but done in the public space. If the issue is not about national security all matters of state should be conducted under the watchful eyes of members of press and they should not be intimidated while doing their job.

In order for this nation to tap its full potential, the consent of the governed from whom an elected leader will derive his power should be sought in the best of ways (no Chris Uba rigging phenomena) and the welfare of the citizens should be paramount on his mind.

A.Y.Ajia smith30045@yahoo.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 In On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, Thomas Carlyle demonstrated the concept of leadership as a position of ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 13.12.2005 06:42

Unregistered

# 2 over to Obasanjo apologist! Posted by Unregistered| 13.12.2005 13:56

Odinaka  Villager

# 3 Thanks Ajia. Let's keep talking, perhaps we will see freedom one day The paratroopers of the presidency/structural anarchy called Nigeria would rather prefer to hear something else (I am referring to the first respondent) Posted by Odinaka| 13.12.2005 16:31