There are certain recurrent features in countries that have evolved and grown from a poor and backward status to a developed, prosperous and continually evolving one. They have been blessed with good and purposeful leadership. But it is not just about blessing, which creates the impression of some benevolent spirits gifting them with good leadership. They have worked and made sacrifices for the emergence of good leadership at all tiers of governance. In the alternative, a ruling class that is committed, patriotic and knowledgeable have emerged and taken concrete and targeted steps that moved the whole society into modernity and development.
Various challenges have been confronting Nigeria as a nation since independence and these challenges have refused to go away. These challenges cannot be wished away; they must be resolved by human beings, since in the first place, they were products of human interaction. It is the position of this discourse that the most fundamental of our challenges is the failure of leadership, illustrated in the picture of a mediator or umpire becoming a combatant or a party to the crisis while still insisting on his mediating role. The leader is the social engineer who uses the instrument of law and policy formulation, implementation and review to solve societal challenges and leads the nation to its manifest destiny. In this context, law is formulated in a process that targets solutions to critical challenges; it is not ad-hominem or made to hold down the progress of any section of the country.
The energies and resources of every country is limited and is best utilised in a scale of preference to get the best out of the opportunity of their deployment. It is the task of leadership to drive the energies of the people in a most productive way through a visioning process that understands that the challenges and forbearances of today drive the achievements of tomorrow. Therefore, leaders invest in a visioning process which brings about a certain level of unanimity of purpose; being an amalgam of many sub-visions which crystallises into the big national picture. A national agenda emerges, where every group and sub-group finds a space for the realisation of its sub-vision or agenda. But the caveat is that none of the sub-visions should be so contradictory of each other as to lead to its non-realisation or the destruction of the livelihoods of other groups. There is also the element of complementarity where each group within a nation finds that its prosperity and progress will be enhanced by the progress of other sub-groups. For instance, more purchasing power from consumers of commodity A will lead to increased income for the producers of the commodity which will then lead to a mutual interest between producer and consumer groups. Great visions are then converted into laws and policies through a process of collaboration between the executive, legislature and the people – from civil society, the private sector, academia, etc. Once the legislature enacts the laws, the executive runs with them to transform the society to new heights. This will include new laws and policies in agriculture, education, health, housing, industries, etc. which would emerge from a broad consensus of the people.
Good leadership builds national cohesion and claims the benefits of progress in any sub-group for the whole nation, rather than seeing innovation and development as benefitting or to be attributed to a part of whole. The most beautiful example is when Nigeria plays a football match and a goal is scored, it is usually the flag of Nigeria that is raised. Many Nigerians do not sing the national anthem but for football matches. However, a scientific invention in one part of Nigeria never attracts this kind of national support to take it to the next level. Industries, businesses and ideas that create employment and add value across the whole federation have been sabotaged because of their location. Again, the fact that a section of the country is more educationally advanced than another section, cannot found a policy that seeks to hold back the group from advancing further; rather, it should be a background for increasing the opportunities available to the group that is backward through a competitive race to the top. It should not and cannot be a race to the bottom as is presently the case.
Proper management of religious diversity should not have created the kind of challenges that we witness today. It should have been managed as the blessing of the rainbow and we would be available to take the benefit of every available name through which blessings could be granted to humanity.
Also, leadership taps and converts challenges, weaknesses and threats to opportunities through a process of re-engineering and re-definition of issues. It is about optimism, creativity and getting the best out of any situation, no matter how bad it seems. For instance, the herdsmen challenge of today is a robust opportunity waiting to be converted into the prosperity of a booming industry that involves meat, dairy, leather and whole value chain of animal feed, meat products, transportation, etc. It is also an opportunity to create jobs for conflict managers and transformers and get a new thought process in the populace that properly directs anger, grievances and feelings of hurt into historical moments of transformation to a higher level of development. The offer by the Kano State Government for free land that can support hundreds of thousands of cattle has been spurned by the government at the centre as it seems unwilling to take it up. The large land mass of Niger State (more than double the entire South East of Nigeria) which is blessed with water and arable land can also support big cattle ranches. These are opportunities waiting to be harnessed.
Good leadership builds confidence in the people through the instrument of the rule of law, access to justice, equality before the law and equal protection of the law. When people break the law especially, when there are grave violations of human rights, the leadership conducts a through unbiased and impartial investigation, brings perpetrators to justice through the courts employing due process, mete punishment to offenders, give guarantees of non-repetition and compensation to victims of violations. Leadership is not about appearing helpless and watching tens of people slaughtered on a daily basis while requesting that we pray to God. It is also not about sticking to failed service chiefs who watch and fail to prevent the spilling of innocent blood.
Nigeria needs a new brand of leadership, a charismatic, cosmopolitan and knowledgeable leadership that drives reforms, utilizes the energy of the people in a positive way; takes no side in conflicts but mediates as an impartial umpire. An ethnic champion, religious fundamentalist masquerading under any guise, a divisive personality or an insensitive fellow can only take Nigeria backwards. The leadership should build societal confidence through adherence to the rule of law. It should be a leadership that can inspire the young generation with its qualities, positive quotable quotes. Nigeria is in dire need of a true leader who truly belongs to all Nigerians and cannot be appropriated by any sub-division of the country.
