The title of today’s piece is not original to me. I guess we all know great intellectualism is not totally about originality. It is more about information and knowledge available to you and then what you make out of them ultimately. How new and insightful your deductions are relevant to current existence determines whether men will dub you the great intellectual or not. So I got the above from a relation, a lawyer, Chinedu Dike, who practices in London, England. It was, as would be expected, during discussions on what the trouble is with Nigeria.
He summarized everything in this coinage that has turned out to be the title for today’s outing. Of course if you do a critical review, you will see it encapsulates all that is wrong with our society. Leadership! Of a truth this relation of mine is not the first to identify this challenge. Some of own great world citizens like Chinua Achebe had identified same to the point he wrote a book on the subject matter. Hope many still remember the book, “The Trouble With Nigeria” – a book that got quite a good attention across board. There is this theory that university lecturers are not tired of teaching the young undergraduates that “a problem identified is a problem solved.”
One would think that coming from scholars it should be the truth and nothing else, but from perspective of events in our society it will appear this theory is the make-up of ambitious intellectuals whose desire was to have something to their names. We have identified leadership to be at the root of our debilitating kind of underdevelopment, yet every time we see enough to make us know that nothing is changing in that regard. Rather the more we get hooked to the discovery, the worse things seem to get. We seem to agree for instance that lack of credible electoral process seems to muddle up the leadership recruitment process and in our opinion everything should be done to ensure the electoral process is not only sanitized but is made credible. The incumbent president said this much and swore elections under his watch will meet expectations.
When it was time to walk the talk few weeks back with proper amendment to existing electoral law, our leaders felt shy of embracing the right options. They said elections could not be uploaded electronically neither would the results be displayed in the central server of the electoral body for all who may care to see in spontaneity how the citizens voted. The excuse was that network was not everywhere. This is 21st century, with so many internet companies competing for new markets and where the political leaders can transfer huge campaign funds from their villages in different parts of the larger society. Our leaders chose to stroll in primitivity at a time the pulls of modernity had become so intense. What is the big deal in transmitting results electronically? Couldn’t the gap be filled in few months if the vision is change and improvement?
The truth we should know is that effective leaders are ahead of their people and society. Great leaders see the future many years ahead and beauty is in their drive to draw it very near. Our variant of leaders here are happy to line behind the people and society. Is there any wonder why things are upside down here? They will give and undertake all manner of subterfuge to keep the relationship that way. This is the root of our tragedies.
Last week, the larger society was treated to another round of perfidy. Our president who rode to power also on account of austere lifestyle organized for his son a wedding ceremony that was vulgar in its timing, opulence and profligacy. The wedding took place in a part of Kano State. But that was not the attraction, what was, was the decoration of the airport with private jets at a time the economy kept dangling between recessions and suffocating stagnation. Society is poor, unable to fund routine obligations including simple matter of salary payments, but individuals particularly public officials are so well off they could afford to own or hire private jets. Nobody should get anybody wrong on this; the terrible state of the society and her people should not debar the first family or any other person in the rooms of power and authority of their private obligations and even indulgences but the state of the society, parlous situation of the people can be very compelling reasons for temperance and visible moderation, especially if those involved are public officials. It is madness to celebrate when one’s sibling is lying there, dead cold on the floor. Law may not be infringed but it will amount to clear show lack of inhumanity. Rejection of humanness in our governance affairs is responsible for elimination of compassion as a major component in our governance process. Those who can see will tell the consequences are becoming too costly. It is reason public officials say, “I do what I want and people can go to hell if they chose.” Indeed human life has become cheaper than those of animals.
The North from where the president hails is in turmoil, in near anarchic state with killings and kidnappings the order of the day. At the time the president hosted this very lavish party, citizens, many of them young persons that are yet to enjoy any benefit of citizenship were still hostages held tight by terrorists in various forests across the region. Schools in some of the states in the region are closed down even as you read this. Security agents were in the remotest corners fighting bloodthirsty deviants and losing lives to keep the rest of us safe. It was over these our president and his many guests, many of them contributors to the current mayhem, flew past to indulge in orgies that ended up mocking our society as one that is poor, yet goes about borrowing more money to fund not serious productive projects but the hedonistic tendencies and naked indulgences of many of these leaders with acute leadership deficiency syndrome. A friend calls them the idle rich class.
Certainly, the timing for such aggrandisement wasn’t right neither was it right to display opulence and profligacy at any time of the kind we saw last week. Such acts twist the nerves of societies terribly, in sane places with rules such outing attract security agents who will want to know what one does for a living, profits one makes and how much tax has been paid into the state’s coffers. Here it is not so. Those who pilfer from the people turn around to rub it on their faces in the most annoying fashion. We can’t say we are broke as a society, with millions unable to find daily meals, accommodation and healthcare and yet put up with the kind of “show” we saw last week. Definitely, the young man even if he is working or engaged in business, he could not on his own have afforded to foot the bill of that outing. Even if he could, the perilous times we are in and the peculiarity of his circumstances as the son of a president should naturally call for deep circumspection and then restraint that should follow.
True leaders think differently and come out differently. They are propelled by very higher ideals, which may be incomprehensible by the people initially but the content and sincerity make them develop patience. True leaders are driven by purpose and then a passion which inspires others. In our case it is difficult to see the purpose and passion that drives our leaders. Is it nepotism? Is it vain religious postures? Or wearing the ethnic badge? Better still lack of vision and unending crave to steal public funds using all kinds of crafty devices? In common issues our leaders don’t only fail, they muddle up everything. Petroleum Industry Aaw would have been given a thought but our leaders could rise to adequately compensate those who ordinarily should own the resources and pay tax. They talk of private initiative but mean loss of jobs and increase in prices to be borne by same class rendered jobless, helpless and very vulnerable.
People say we are learning, backward society, and yet we find people hold the view we are evolving. The question will be evolving from what to what? How long is this process? See developed countries, behold the roads and general aesthetics and compare with what our leaders, who never get tired of going abroad, do here. Why are our leaders not talking about mechanised farming and industrialization, social security, productive education, international trade balances? Are we not ashamed we have leaders insisting on grazing routes in a society of 200 million people in the 21st century, in as season when fellow humans elsewhere are thinking about relocating to outer space? We need quality leadership now, more than ever before. Pains of acute leadership deficiency syndrome is becoming too much to bear.