29 Apr 2009 |
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| "All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."— John Kenneth Galbraith When nations succeed, reference is most often made to the goodness of its leadership. An attribute of good leadership beyond possessing the capacity to lead, is measured on the strength of the vision and /or goals, whether these are potent and formidable enough to propel the people (the nation) to greatness or at best steer them away from impending calamity or doom. The same also applies when nations fail, pointed fingers always goes in the direction of the leadership. Such failures always leave the pundits with the job of explaining and analysing this failure of leadership. History is replete with many examples of such leaders or politicians (whether totalitarian or the more democratic) whose actions, and programs have helped to save their nations from doom and reposition them in the world. Such leaders include Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Although Adolf Hitler’s vision was instrumental to Germany’s greatness, his expansionist goal also led to its fall at the end of Second World War. On the positive side, Churchill and Roosevelt, these two great political leaders were able to save their countries in their moment of need. On the African and Nigerian front, we have been blessed by both types of leaders. Leaders such as Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkurumah of Ghana, to name a few across the African continent. In Nigeria as well, we had leaders such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Anthony Enahoro, Festus Okotie Eboh, Aminu Kano, and Samuel Ladoke Akintola, to name a few of them in the first republic. All these leaders had some things in common; it was a genuine love for service to their motherland, commitment to Nigeria’s development and the provision goal–focused leadership. What we saw in these leaders and the characteristics of their times was that they were in the forefront of the movement for the independence of the country. These generations of past Nigerian leaders had clear vision as well as understandings of what they wanted and how to go about it - governance-wise, and they were not pretentious about it. They did not have as much oil or money as we have or have had since the first and second oil boom of the 70s and 2000s. Yet, their era brought many first to Nigeria, such as the first television station in Africa, ultra modern sports stadium (Liberty Stadium), the tallest building in Africa “Cocoa House”, and scores of world class universities and sometimes scoring first ahead in some cases above some European nations. Their era also set the tone for the greatness we attained later as well as the respect and recognition accorded to us as the ‘Giant of Africa’. Theirs was the age of leadership vibrancy, with deep-seated commitment to upliftment of the country and her citizens. The advent of second republic in 1979 also witnessed the rise of a new generation of quality leaders among them are ‘old’ Jim Nwobodo, Samuel Mbakwe, Bola Ige, Bisi Onabanjo, Ambrose Alli, Balarabe Musa, ‘old’ Abubakar Rimi, Mohammadu Goni, Lawal Kaita, Cornelius Adebayo, Michael Ajasin, and Solomon Lar who are equally as committed as the earlier ones. The above listed second republic politicians looked to both contemporary and historical visionaries for inspiration, wisdom and courage to continue on the visionary path put in place by their first republic progenitors, thus were able to excel during their time as governors’ in their respective states. Despite the 30-month civil war, Nigeria was not this bad. At the same time, we have had our share of megalomaniacs whose main ambition is to loot our national inheritance and skinned us to the bones in order to make collective paupers out of us all. This group of interlopers obsessed with principle of self-aggrandisement cut across the military and their civilian counterparts. Their reason was nothing other than their insatiable hunger to pillage the country so as to have us bow, beg and cringe at their beck and call. Their names are better interred with their horrendous past than to list them again in this piece. Today, leadership (political leadership) in Nigeria has become synonymous with corruption, electoral fraud, looting with impunity and lack of respect for rule of law. The words of Thomas T. McAvoy that the glory of a great politician in a democracy lies in his ability to furnish leadership for good, while he uses his own political power to preserve the rights of the people against injustice, appear alien to the present Nigerian leadership. Every positive things of glorious and historical past have all been lost to profligacy, ineptitude and lack of vision on the part of those entrusted with managing our country at all levels. Our political terrain is blessed with a few good men while largely populated by untrustworthy men and women lacking values and morals. Today’s political parties are not better either; they are true reflections of their membership. The national and local assemblies which hitherto should serve as check on the executive have also been compromised on the platter of greed and emptiness. What positive things can be said about leaders these days? Nothing! At this critical time of global economic crisis, Nigerians are at a loss regarding where the hope is going to come from. The country is in a dire need of leaders of men/women and resources that will put the country back unto the tracks again for the continuation of our journey to the proverbial ‘promise-land’. Unlike before, post independence Nigerians (that is, Nigerian born after the country attained self-rule from the British colonialists) are asking questions, yearning for answers and hoping for what a friend refers to as ‘our own Obama moment’. The unfortunate thing however is that nobody seems to be listening or pretending to understand the morality of their questions. The dilemma for this post-independence generation of Nigerians is that, unlike their parents and grandparents, the fact that they are more educated, sophisticated, widely travelled, and belong to the internet and technological generation underscore their impatience for change. For these Nigerians, beyond living in a world demarcated by cables and computer systems, they also have been witnesses to changing political trends in today’s global world. The collapse of apartheid in South Africa, the tearing down of the wall separating the East and West Germany (Berlin Wall), fall of communist governments in Soviet union and Eastern Europe, the birth of Orange, Yellow and Red coalition actions in Ukraine, Kenya, Thailand and other places in the world where bad leadership or rulers have been forced to give way to peoples’ power happened before their eyes. These occurrences around the world, perhaps, explain their exasperation as to why the same has not happened in their motherland. They are witnesses to how a young African American with a funny African name, who campaigned and won a free and fair elections to become the 44th President of United States of America is providing good quality and visionary leadership to his people and indeed the world in this perilous economic times. Hence, their hope and dream for a visionary leader in Nigeria. Of course, they understand the importance of visionary leadership in any country. And they know that only good quality and visionary leadership can spur development in Nigeria. Like John Gardner, they also understand that only visionary leaders can conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts. Hence, their call on the country’s political leadership at the 3-levels of governance (Federal, State and Local Governments) to do the right thing by moving the country forward. They do know also that most of the current crop of current leaders at federal, state, and local government levels cannot offer the country the much desired visionary and quality leadership the country so much need at this moment. What then does visionary leadership entails? The visionary leader is a conduit and source of inspiration and courage for the people must emboldens him/herself to let a specific vision "speak out through him" even though others might disagree, since an illuminating vision often casts light on current imperfections, arousing the ire of the protectors of the status quo. A visionary is what Oscar Wilde called a dreamer who "can only find his way by moonlight, and his/her punishment is that he/she sees the dawn before the rest of the world." As Agape International founder and spiritual director, the Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith, said, a visionary leader helps awaken and direct the inner strength of the people. The visionary leader never settles for the norm if the norm is mediocre, or worse, dehumanizing or destructive. Then the visionary, in some way, spreads the seeds of that vision – those possibilities – so that they might take root in others and find their way into our common reality. The true visionary walks the fine and often challenging line between the inspired world - intuition, reflection, and the material world of action, effects, systems, powerful special interests, ego, status quo, and tangible results. The visionary is a conduit between those two dimensions of higher thought and our physical reality. Paraphrasing Peter Drucker, a visionary leader helps to direct the resources and the efforts of the nation and its people toward opportunities for economically and politically significant results. This sounds very logical; I add that a leader as a manager of resources and its people should be able to rise above petty political intrigues. To be visionary, regardless of the era in which we live, is to envision another possibility – or even that there is hope and possibility at all. Then the visionary, in some way, spreads the seeds of that vision – those possibilities – so that they might take root in others and find their way into our common reality. They don't allow themselves to be hypnotized by the lemming mindset or the mass hallucination about what's popular or "normal". Instead, they are interested in pulling people up; they invigorate and stir a greater possibility. Most importantly in Nigerian context, visionary (political) leadership involves generating people-focused and centred programs, which are based on sound economic and political ideals that are capable of helping the country to progress towards greatness. Such programs will not only translate into concrete and visible results, it should also transform peoples’ lives by guaranteeing abundant life. It involves setting new set of goals and heights to be attained for the people and country as a whole. A visionary leader will not need the services of the same old ‘experts’ whose ideas have led us into this abyss we currently occupy. Visionary leadership go beyond sloganeering and propagandist projects such as the “rebranding Nigeria” project. A quick reflection into history shows that we have had such too many - WAI, MAMSER, and Heart of Africa Project. A visionary leader instead of wasting the nation’s resources, and time on rebranding and renaming, would rather re-energise the manufacturing sector, re-invent the health and economic sectors, and rehabilitate the road networks from Maiduguri to Calabar, Enugu to Port-Harcourt, Lagos to Benin, Ibadan to Ilorin, Sokoto to Jos, and Abuja to Kano to name a few. It will also take a visionary leadership to re-position our education sector (in the areas of policies, curriculum development, quality and delivery) for the challenges of the 21st century. In other words, it is the ability of the country to qualitatively educate her burgeoning population of young people from kindergarten through university that can assure economic growth, development, breakthrough from poverty and misery. With visionary leadership also come functional energy sectors that will guarantee uninterrupted and efficient services throughout the country and put an end to peoples’ reliance on power generating sets. So much has been written about the implications of the lack or irregular power supply on economic development and industrial growth. Therefore, to imagine that after a decade since the return to civil rule and 2 years into the current administration, the only thing that is constant is the continued lamentation about how gargantuan the power problem is or the inability of the government to confront the so-called power sector saboteurs and mafia, leave much to be desired. Nigeria today, is in dire need of visionary leaders and not the rulers currently occupying our political space. The perplexed nature of our problems has left the whole nation wondering whether we have any true leaders left at all, much less truly visionary leaders. And yet, such truly visionary leaders do exist, and they can be found in both expected and unexpected places. In less than two years from now, electioneering campaigns will commence for 2011 general elections, with all kinds of individuals seeking to be elected or re-elected into various offices at both the state and federal levels. The major problem with Nigeria’s fragile democratic space is that among all these individuals, are only a few good men and women. Anyone who is familiar with how unworkable Nigeria seems (politically and economically), will agree that only true visionaries can help put the country back on the road to recovery and renaissance. The importance of this call at this time of our national history is because only real vision and true visionaries can lift us out of the present muck and mire into the higher realms of human potential and possibility. Unless there is a take-over of the affairs of Nigeria by true visionaries, our survival as a country and people is very doubtful.
Kola-Olusanya is an Assistant Professor in the School of Environmental Studies, Queens University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada
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