The Yaradua government has been making the news round lately, all for the wrong reasons it seems, but from the applause except in the case of channels TV license revocation and military invasion one would believe that Yaradua is breaking new grounds in Nigerian leadership. The president continues to keep the real nature of his ailment from the public, continues to fall short of attending to public issues in a timely manner, fails to offer anything comprehensive on reforms as expected and keeps touting cabinet reshuffle as a mystic wand that would create a rebirth of his moribund leadership. If in the light of the bad leadership we have experienced since independence many believe YarAdua to represent a new breed, I beg to differ as the Yaradua leadership fails to show itself prepared to meet the restless aspirations of the Nigerian people, rather the president is causing a recession of confidence in democracy.

But the issue is not Yaradua, not by any means.  Nigerian followership has been complicit in the creation of these dysfunctional leaders since independence; we have created, fed and nurtured this succession of below par leaders all to our collective harm. The wider implication of this inbreeding is that we have lowered the expectation of leadership; we have come to expect nothing substantial of leadership and leadership in Nigeria has no incentive to excel as the bar on expectation is so low that the common ant scales it with unprecedented ease. This is becoming more acute today in a country that produces more graduates than most nations in the world and one that has seen its literacy level increase in the last thirty years significantly. The argument used to be made that the sub par leadership was a result of large illiteracy and low societal awareness in Nigeria, but in the light of increased education and literacy levels coupled with increased communication and the internet there seems to be no substantive correlation of this hypothesis.

Another insidious aspect of our low expectation of leadership is that we have come to expect little of leadership at all levels of society that one begins to wonder if this would not affect the expectation of leadership in the family nucleus. From the ward through the local governments to the state governments (except in few cases) there has been a genuine dearth of leadership. In the legislature and judiciary alike there has been a significant dearth of leadership, no one is recommending anything significant, no one is showing the aptitude and the diligence required of leadership, and all we have are men drunk on ambition deluding themselves that ambition equals service.  It is sad that leadership in Nigeria constitutes commentary on the sad state of affairs to the media and the commentator goes about his/her personal quest to satisfy ambition without thought at how to effect change; we are all guilty of this. We have become a nation of rudderless sheep, simultaneously trailing some weak sheep in different directions to nowhere; we are a river without a course.  

Though everyone is complicit in creating this culture of sub par leadership, the press and the Nigerian Youth deserve special mention in this complicity. The Nigerian press needs a re-education, a look into the role of the press before independence when there was a common enemy and common objective would provide sufficient insight to the pivotal role of the press. Also the press shortly after independence gives us insight into great journalism. In these era the press understood it roles not only as a reporter of news but as platter of ideas no matter how disparate, the press helped shaped not only public perception but became a field of ideas for readers to pluck the fruit they so desired. Journalists of that era were men of ideas, knowledgeable and discerning, convincing and forceful as they advanced ideas and causes once again no matter how disparate! Today the story is different we have “pedestrian journalism”, journalism open to anyone with a pen and paper, journalism of celebrity without ideas or of superficial commentators. Journalism of today eerily reflects the societal decay we experience today, people who see it as a job not a profession who do not understand the sacredness of their duty or their role in the temple of enlightenment.

The Nigerian Youth more victim than an accomplice but still yet complicit is standing aloof once again as his future is raped for a second time. The Nigerian Youth of today grew up hearing stories of the good old times, subjected to poor health care, poor education, poor facilities and amenities and held in bond by the inept system they were born into. Today, after being a victim of such ineptness, the Nigeria Youth engenders this ineptness by allowing the perpetuation of this system failure as it looks on silently watching the second rape occur as their children would be subject to conditions not better than theirs. More dangerous the Nigerian Youth has begun to embrace the attitudes of ethnicity, religious bigotry, “election aloofness” and mediocrity, all vehicles in their enslavement. Though a victim the Nigerian Youth dissipates their energies in the wrong struggle believing they should entrust all energies into hard work alone failing to understand that without a correction of the societal anomalies their hard work would become drudgery!

Why the press and the Youth? There shall be no accountability of leadership and change in society if the boundless energies of Youth and the insight and incorruptible voice of ideas is not given rein in society. No change worth its salt in defining the direction of a nation has ever succeeded without energy and ideas, they are Siamese twins sharing one heart; the vehicle to execute ideas is energy and energy without ideas results in violence. In the quest to demand leadership, energy and ideas must force out the present dead wood leadership in our midst by exposing the failures and consequences of failed or failing leadership, this synergy would force the species of poor leadership to extinction. This synergy would force out true leaders and great ideas and solutions compatible with the high aspirations of society and it shall hold accountable such leadership at all points, and then shall we see leadership trickle downstream or upstream and a clear direction forged.  More than ever our democracy (despite its contradictions) affords this synergy the most viable environment to succeed and we are also facing the same common enemy since independence –leadership failure.  The time is now.

Robot  # 1 | 26.09.2008 19:18

The Yaradua government has been making the news round lately, all for the wrong reasons it seems, but from the applause except in the case of channels TV license revocation and military invasion...Read the full article.