If Nigeria’s governance problem is simply that of leadership, it could have been fixed through our collectively efforts but Nigeria’s problem is partly of leadership but majorly of followership. Leaders are like parasites, they get their nutrients from the followers. It is what the followers tolerate that leaders will feed and magnify. The premise here is, a nation gets a leader it bargains for. So far, our leaders have been dishing out to the citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria what citizens bargained for. But how does followership drive the intent and content for effective leadership? A simple example can be found within the current US presidential contest.

A few days ago, Senator Obama backed what his grass root supporters considered a controversial bill. The bill granted the executive more spying powers and immunize telephone companies accused of illegal surveillance. This same group that placed Obama on radar screen of political relevance worked assiduously to organize, protest and pressure Obama to change his mind from a bill they considered to be against their interest. If Obama wishes to win the November election, he cannot but listen to these powerful grass roots, the $25.00 contributors of new but young American voters who will probably determine the outcome of the general November election. This is simply an example of how followership can drive the agenda of the leaders. Granted, there are several components to the followership (grass roots, religious, lobbyists, National Riffle Association, Oil companies, etc.) and, of course, some are more powerful than the other. But even the less powerful ones have latent power which is largely derived from the constitution – we the people and from the very definition of democracy, government of the people and by the people which we now pretend to be following, the derivative and participatory power which Nigerians are afraid to tap into because of selfish objectives.

No government and no democracy can thrive unless men and women of good spirit and patriotic zeal are able to take advantage of the sacrifices of those who stepped up, stood guard, and put their lives on the line to protect the nation called Nigeria from the ever-present threat of harm ready to be inflicted by few greedy, Ready, Able, Willing and unpatriotic leaders.

The followership issues we must consider as Nigerians are: 1) Why is it that when our state is gloomy and dark, the more money the nation makes from oil, the less development we observe?; 2) Why is it that the more civilized we think we are as a people, the more our morals become degraded and corruption in our land become rampant everywhere around us?; 3) Why is it that the more religious we are, the more we give the devil credence of being more power the God we serve while we become more inhumane?; and why is it that the more educated we are, the less tolerant of one another we become and the more illogical we sound?

Surely, we cannot blame all of the ills of our society on past and present leadership without followership taking the larger blame. If the followers are not ready to tolerate a corrupt leader, they have the power to get rid of the leaders. This power is power of cohesiveness towards a common purpose. This statement may sound Greek to many Nigerians but it is true.

The fact that our leaders function in a chaotic environment created by followers implies that followers also feed from the corrupt environment in a symbiotic but lucrative way. When Nigeria has a new leader, the first thing Nigerians do is to postulate, seek the path of least resistance and the weakness of the leader so that they can take advantage of the system the new leader is a custodian of. We often hear, “Mr. President asked me to come home to take up a position” even though we may have intrinsic values to add. Many Nigerians in Diaspora are happy to throw words like, “Mr. Governor is my uncle and I am going home, to o partake in the sharing of the loot. Is it possible to leave these leaders alone to do their job such that their efficacy in office can lead to democratic dividend for all citizens? Surely in any society, the nation should give 10% of success to “who you know.” In Nigeria, however, ability to succeed is 100% of “who you know” and these leaders take advantage of the carrots thrown to them by the followers. Not only that we create “gods” who can destroy businesses of any citizens they disagree with, but we also unfortunately worship these gods call leaders.

Religion has also become a weapon used to cover up any evil we perpetuate on citizens. Religion, instead of enhancing the quality of life of citizens, is making matters worse because true Christians and Moslems are few amongst us. We have many churches and mosques but we do not follow the moral precepts ordained by the bible and the Qur’an. These moral percepts are often ignored as well as defied by the privileged and powerful but followed by the less privileged amongst us. Politics and religion have a common purpose, that of being social advocates for the poor and the disenfranchised.  

While Aso Rock allocates close to a billion Naira to entertain ghost visitors, many citizens are wallowing in poverty and joblessness. While politicians are housed in splendor and the nation keep their generators going just to make sure they do not add value to our nation, citizens are in perpetual darkness and justifying why their leaders should continue to oppress them. These same citizens, when asked why they are in total darkness, they always have ready made answers for anyone that cares to listen, “God go answer our prayers one of these days.” God is who we are because he created us in His image. It is how we make our beds that we’ll sleep on it. In most cases, our church and mosque – attending has lead us to a pathetic dry husk of meaningless ritual and degrading superstition simply because doubts creep in as if god of money and power seems to be more powerful than God.

God has become our punch bag for all the failure we collective inflict on ourselves and our Nigeria. Nigerians seems to think devil is more powerful than God because instead of taking responsibility, we rather give glory to the devil for our failure. Devil must be a citizen of Nigeria by the number of times credit is given to him everyday. We encourage political aggrandizement and we turn around to blame these leaders for taking all our daughters as their girl friends and for carrying all monies meant for development overseas. For this, the followers are to be blames not the leader. We take bribe during election and turn around to blame politicians for not listening to us when they get into office. Don’t we realize that these politicians have fully paid us a four year salary with the =N=1000.00 they bribed us with.

Why do we have the temerity to abuse the leaders when we actively create a no good leader because of the followership collaboration. Followers become eventual leaders; therefore, if the leader is bad, it is as a result of bad followership. If the followers are good, there is no way the leaders can be bad without any repercussions. We now have every justification to unload venom with both barrels blasting for such nasty politicking we acquiesced to, and with as great an opportunity to set the record straight if followers claim mea culpa and have a change of mind to be good to each other and to our nation. Only few of us have ever questioned the choices the leaders made on our behalf, but why? It is because we are hoping that one day we too will get to a position of authority and oppress fellow citizens, and for this reason, we are not in a rush to stop the abuse of power.

We have also elevated political parties to a religious orthodoxy that citizens just go to polls, like robots vote for candidates they do not believe in and vote against their own interest. The morning of political reformation and citizens awareness is dawned but the great re-awakening of our political sanity must begin right away through dedicated followership. The almighty created thinking human beings and contrary to this, we have consciously performed contrary to the almighty’s design purpose for our lives.

One thing that is characteristic of the followership in Nigeria is the lackadaisical attitude towards industry. We refuse to work for what we want but pray for what we want God to do for the nation. One remembers that when J.F.K wanted America to go to the moon, he, as the leader did not tell Americans to carry their bibles and/or Qur’an and pray. He first challenged his nation as a leader and the followers responded in unison with dedication, industry and improved technology and then with prayers that the astronauts would go and return safely. America got to the moon. In Nigeria’s case, the first thing we do is run to church or mosque to pray for what we have not used our God given talent to walk through and at the end of it, we fail. Any pastor (the leader), no matter how close to God he may be cannot pray for mission expansion without having the disciples to help and willing congregation (followers) to willfully contribute funds and the efforts to record achievement in God’s vineyard (Nigeria).

Meaningless probes are very common in Nigeria by leaders that want take the nation off course. The results of our probes are very predictable as in: Probe is set up; money is distributed; the corruptly enriched politician is free to go and continue oppressing his people; and millions of Naira is again wasted on a mirage called probe. Watch this prediction against the result of the EFCC probe against Borishade and group. Nothing, practically nothing will come out of it, so what is new? Why is nothing coming out of the probes? Nothing is happening because the followers are requiring nothing to happen with their lackadaisical attitude toward leaders taking them to the cleaners and 419ing them. Until we have a change of attitude towards accepting corruption as a mantra in Nigeria, our resources will be transferred out by a few oppressors and we’ll remain a beggar nation in perpetual darkness.

Indeed, when we pray for mercy and we too must exhume merciful, so, we get mercy. How can Nigerians ask for mercy while her citizens believe in no mercy? Surely, we cannot be in this political wilderness for another 48 years. Where is our Moses? Who will safe Nigeria from the impending self inflicting political Tsunami?

In view of the ignoble and false propaganda mounted against the leaders, followership need to rethink its strategy by first accepting responsibilities for creating bad leadership and then and only then will Nigeria’s leadership problems be corrected. It is not Leadership, stupid but followership problem that we have in Nigeria, I stand corrected. And, ha, surely and goodness shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall duel in the house of the Lord for ever, if and only if we ooze out goodness and mercy. We can choose the smartest leaders in this world, a political Einstein, without participating followers, the ability of the leader to surround himself with needed technocrats, we are just waste our time. We cannot continue to plant okra and expect to harvest corn.

Robot  # 1 | 03.07.2008 00:24

If Nigeria’s governance problem is simply that of leadership, it could have been fixed thro...Read the full article.

only1integrity  # 2 | 03.07.2008 23:54

This is not fair to an average Nigerian. Articles like this insult Nigerians collectively.