The tragedy of misadventure in governance can be reversed if the electorate recognizes that there is a shared responsibility imposed upon them by the composite interplay of leadership and continued existence of the electorate in the society. The egg or the chicken. Which comes first? This is a debate that confounds both creationists and evolutionists. Unlike the analogy of the egg and chicken theory, we can map the responsibility blame for leadership failure between the electorate and political leaders. Who is responsible for the corrupt enrichment of irresponsible leaders in governance? Who is responsible for the impoverishment of the electorate? Who should be blamed for misadventure in governance? The political leaders or the electorate?

The margin of difference between the electorate and leadership is paper-thin. The political leaders are a mirror image of the electorate. A punctilious research into the Germany that produced Hitler and consequent Hitler’s Europe in the aftermath of the 2nd World War showed that a leader is the reflection of the collective aspiration of a people. Political leaders always play out the script that the electorate unwittingly writes for them as they grow up in life. They come out from among the electorate. I once rode the public transport from Ikorodu to Maryland with an ENT doctor one sunny afternoon. After the initial suspicions of getting along with stranger in public that is peculiar to Lagos, we got chatting about the snowballing problems of the Nigeria nation and causes of the failure of the Nigeria Project. The ENT doctor expressed his doubt about the ability of present leadership to reverse the situation and resigned to gloomy pessimism on the possibility of any leadership finding solutions to the plight of the common man in the electorate.

We deserve the leadership we get. Nigeria is a sick nation. It is a nation where corruption, crime and vices assume different toga of definition. Webster, Collins and Longman could confine their definitions within the context of their own English society. Our society is decadent. It protects corruption, crime and vices, and discourages ethics and morality. When a political leader steals from the treasury, which is kept in his custody as the chief security officer of his State, and he is being asked by a higher authority to give an account of his stewardship, his tribesmen will immediate rally around him to protect him. These uninformed tribesmen will even go as far as use the stolen money to wage media war in support of their corrupt son or daughter. This is not the forum to catalogue the corrupt practices of men and women in leadership in our land. Suffice it to say that these corrupt practices have gone unabated because the electorate has failed in their responsibility as guardians of the leadership. With unfolding events in our political landscape and national life, we can no longer hold leadership alone responsible for our corruption. We have left governance in the hands of rogues and illiterates and are now paying dearly for our error of commission.

We deserve the leadership we get. You cannot separate the political leaders from the electorate. The leaders are from among us. They are not celestial beings imposed upon us by divinity. They are mortals selected from among the people. They emerge from the rank and file of the people. Long before they become unreachable, inaccessible, untouchable and very powerful, they were once children of some mothers, teenagers in some playgrounds, youth under some teachers’ tutelage, some adults living out the script that the society inadvertently designs for them. Perhaps they were neglected as children. Perhaps they were unguided as teenagers. Perhaps they were disillusioned as youth. Perhaps they were hardened into adulthood by injustice, corruption, greed for ill-gotten wealth and insensitivity to others.

We deserve the leadership we get. Our political leaders have emerged from among the electorate as neglected children. Ours is a society that disdains care of children and hence cannot expect fairness and equity from these abandoned children when they grow up into leadership. We have lived and relayed the primordial philosophy that it takes just two to produce an offspring but the whole community to care for this offspring. We hinge this to the need to raise offspring in spite of our grinding poverty. Why should a couple raise children that they cannot cater for? Why should any man marry when he cannot even feed himself? We always get our priorities wrong in Nigeria. Even when it is obvious that we no longer pay attention to agriculture the justification given for raising a large family in those days, many couples still have and maintain large household today that could pass for a football team. And, these children are neglected. The basic amenities of life to make them grow up properly in a civil society are denied them. They are usually left to fend for themselves. These children who turn up in the future seeking elective posts in leadership end up in the belly of neglect, indecency, rape, abuse, predatory environment that conspiratorially harden them against their communities.

We deserve the leadership we get. Nigeria is a paradox of complexity. We are a poor country but stunningly rich in natural resources. We are a poor country but rich in violence, intolerance and religious crises. Most parents in Nigeria are poor and do not know how to create value in order to create wealth. We shall be discussing how the electorate can generate value to create wealth in future dialogue. Most poor parents cannot provide their children with the requisite care and attention for healthy development. These children grow up as dysfunctional and cannot relate well with themselves, their peers and their communities. They grow up to learn abuses, terrorism in the name of child discipline, corporal punishment that yields no positive results, inattention because both parents are away from home leaving the kids under the guidance of illiterate househelps, and sit glued to television sets that transmit violence, ritual killings and unproductive ‘home videos’ and foreign violent-ridden movies non-stop. They also learn the hard realities of instability, flight of peace and underdevelopment in political, social and economic life that has produced ethnic militias like OPC, Egbesu, Bakassi Boys, APC and the unrest in the Niger Delta.

We deserve the leadership we get. If only our fathers and mothers can sincerely enter into wedlock with the primary objective of producing offspring that will be trained and brought up properly to contribute meaningfully to the development of his nation. Parents should sacrifice to give their children home education. Given that the standard of education is fallen and the socio-cultural structure that hold institutions like the family is threatened. Parents have responsibility to give their children a solid foundation for future usefulness to themselves and their communities. Anything short of this is to invite disaster in leadership in the future when these untrained youth grow up to seek elective positions of responsibility in government.

We deserve the leadership we get. Political leaders who fail in governance have once been disillusioned youth who grew up with the vague concept of what life is all about, and the purpose of leadership. They never knew that leadership means service. They assumed that since there was not much in life for them, all they could do in the face of serious strain, stresses and pressure as a result of the low value of Naira, inflation, high interest rates, low capacity utilization, high cost of production, frequent closure of institutions of higher learning, unemployment, low per capital income and low purchasing power of the average workers is to wrestle power from the supposedly incompetent incumbent only to realize that they too did not have what it takes to reverse the inefficiency of their predecessors. The circle continues, even to date.

We deserve the leadership we get. Unless the electorate starts from the home and schools to begin to prepare the future leaders for service of their fatherland, politics will continue to be played by incompetent leaders using bitterness, selfish purpose, moneybags, religion, ethnicity and political assassinations to perpetuate themselves in power. Ideology and democracy will continue to elude us. The electorate must wake up to its responsibilities as parents, teachers, and mentors if we want to see change in leadership. The electorate must stop being used by political leadership to settle scores by resorting to arsons, public fight and destruction of lives and properties in order to call political leadership to order.

We deserve the leadership we get. The electorate must as parents, teachers, and mentors live by examples for the children who will grow into positions of leadership in the future to see how to live acceptable life in the society. This is how we can move the nation forward economically, socially, politically and technologically. A passive electorate will produce a tyrant leader. A compromised electorate who sell its dignity for money will produce a corrupt leader who will channel public funds into its personal accounts in a foreign land. An energetic electorate that values the society above individual interest will produce a responsible leader. An electorate that values democracy, freedom of speech, dignity of labour, respect for human life, passion for advancement in commerce, free enterprise, science and technology will produce a dynamic leader to take the society to destination of its aspiration. An electorate is that diligent, honest, hardworking and rid of corruption will produce a transparent leader that will activate institutions imbued with integrity and accountability.

We can reverse the downward journey to self-destruction that we have found ourselves as a nation. We can start to lay a solid foundation of a new Nigeria, a land of liberated people, land of free enterprise, home of equal opportunity and a haven of enabling and supportive environment. Individual members of the electorate should begin to be honest, hardworking, persevering. Personal integrity, self-reliance and energy for success will pave way for our collective dreams of a new Nigeria. We can start a new Nigeria. We should see ourselves as pioneers and champions of change. This collective determinism carries in extraordinary degree the seeds of a future greatness for Nigeria. The choice is ours. We can begin today.

Babatunde Ayoola Fajimi, Accra Ghana

Robot  # 1 | 03.12.2005 10:47

The tragedy of misadventure in governance can be reversed if the electorate recognizes that there is a shared responsibility imposed upon them by the composite interplay of leadership and continued existence of the electorate in the society. The egg or the chicken. Which comes first? This is a de...Read the full article.

DeepThought  # 2 | 04.12.2005 02:42

It is undoubtedly true that Nigerians have been cowed and are culpable in the demise of Nigeria. But we can't put too heavy a yoke on people for being afraid. And of course when one is faced with might, it is easier to "join them" than to "fight them". By joining them, I mean joining forces with the establishment and taking part in projecting the National character, which is the basterdization of the Nation for personal gain. Nigerians need to fight, but while we condemn the ease with which Nigerians are "joining them" we should be mindful of the fact that Nigerians (if I may call our forebearers such) were not like this at one time. We should understand the history of followership and leadership going back to that which we did not deserve or ask for. 1) "Lord" Lugard. I don't know whose lord this man was but did Nigerians deserve this monster? 2) Tafawa Balewa Not quite a monster but did Nigerians actually vote this man in? If so how? How representative is a government that is elected through a constitution which guaranteed 50% of the seats in a paliament for itself? 3) Agui Ironsi Was this man elected? Did Nigerians ask for him? 4) Gowon: Did you vote for Gowon? 5)Muritala Muhammed: Without a doubt in my mind, easily unrivaled as the best Nigeria ever had. Still from the much reviled North. In my opinion a former war criminal but still the best. Who voted for him? 6) OBJ: A former war criminal and a present war criminal. Did you vote for him? I could go on and on but you get the picture. I never cease to be amazed when we Nigerian talk about such things as elections, rule of law, e.t.c. Are we deluded? Are we mad? What elections? What rule of law? Now some people are even talking about "elections" in 2007 Exactly what they mean by elections I don't know. So when an OBJ/ IBB or some other OBJ/ IBB type is "elected" through the exercise of maximum violence through the help of minows such as Chris Uba, Lamidi Adedibu, e.t.c, we shall sleep happily, mouthing "Oh we have had elections, just like in the civilized countries" And when some call out that the solution to an imperfect democracy is more democracy I wonder if they also mean that the solution to drinking poison is more poison. Have we been so victimized that we are collectively suffering from truama inflicted upon us by the military that we actually see thuggishness and the exercise of maximum mayhem as "elections"? There is not a single elected representative in Nigeria and there will not be.

DeepThought  # 3 | 04.12.2005 02:43

It is undoubtedly true that Nigerians have been cowed and are culpable in the demise of Nigeria. But we can't put too heavy a yoke on people for being afraid. And of course when one is faced with might, it is easier to "join them" than to "fight them". By joining them, I mean joining forces with the establishment and taking part in projecting the National character, which is the basterdization of the Nation for personal gain. Nigerians need to fight, but while we condemn the ease with which Nigerians are "joining them" we should be mindful of the fact that Nigerians (if I may call our forebearers such) were not like this at one time. We should understand the history of followership and leadership going back to that which we did not deserve or ask for. 1) "Lord" Lugard. I don't know whose lord this man was but did Nigerians deserve this monster? 2) Tafawa Balewa Not quite a monster but did Nigerians actually vote this man in? If so how? How representative is a government that is elected through a constitution which guaranteed 50% of the seats in a paliament for itself? 3) Agui Ironsi Was this man elected? Did Nigerians ask for him? 4) Gowon: Did you vote for Gowon? 5)Muritala Muhammed: Without a doubt in my mind, easily unrivaled as the best Nigeria ever had. Still from the much reviled North. In my opinion a former war criminal but still the best. Who voted for him? 6) OBJ: A former war criminal and a present war criminal. Undoubtedly one of the worst unnatural disasters that could befall mankind. Did you vote for him? I could go on and on but you get the picture. I never cease to be amazed when we Nigerian talk about such things as elections, rule of law, e.t.c. Are we deluded? Are we mad? What elections? What rule of law? Now some people are even talking about "elections" in 2007 Exactly what they mean by elections I don't know. So when an OBJ/ IBB or some other OBJ/ IBB type is "elected" through the exercise of maximum violence through the help of minows such as Chris Uba, Lamidi Adedibu, e.t.c, we shall sleep happily, mouthing "Oh we have had elections, just like in the civilized countries" And when some call out that the solution to an imperfect democracy is more democracy I wonder if they also mean that the solution to drinking poison is more poison. Have we been so victimized that we are collectively suffering from truama inflicted upon us by the military that we actually see thuggishness and the exercise of maximum mayhem as "elections"? There is not a single elected representative in Nigeria and there will not be.