The feedback to my article, published on this space last Thursday, reflecting on how the economy of Southeast could be re-worked for the good of all conveyed one concern –the southeast leadership. All thumbed-up my views but expressed fears about the quality of political leadership of the region. Many are convinced that the southeast is yet to elect the sort of leadership that would attend to its issues with a mindset that is elevated beyond personal wealth. In other words, the southeast, since 1999, has not been able to elect a leadership that thinks people, including society, before personal privilege. Some commentators said to me, “great article, but do our leaders read?”
That question got me thinking. I always believed that leaders are readers. If however, it is true that our leaders don’t read, then, Igboland, indeed Nigeria, is in for a bigger problem. My thinking is that every leader must set aside sometime out of his 24 hours to do three very important things -meditatively commune with God for insight; read very serious books, reports and analysis, especially, those contained in business school journals and finally, think critically positive. The last is what our leaders do a lot. They actually do think and critically too. However, consequence of their thinking, as publicly proven, has always been how to swindle and cook the books to escape the EFCC. For if they really think critically about the people and society ahead of personal privileges and social value after office, they certainly will not deliver projects that fail even before they get back to their offices from the commissioning ceremony.
I am however, not under any illusion that the leadership, as presently constituted, will work that magic that will transform economy of the region, especially in an environment where political leadership is seen as contest for improved personal worth in terms of property ownership and cash value. What this therefore calls for, is a thorough review of the leadership recruitment system in Igboland. I am tempted to suggest that until the Igbo people deliberately re-work their leadership recruitment process, such that only the self-contented, who had weaned him/herself from want and conquered poverty, both of the mind and the pocket, is empowered to lead, the region will continually be in motion without actually moving anywhere.
I believe this has become imperative because leadership expression since 1999 has shown that an elected leader and, manager of the resources of a state, whose first inclination is to build the next big house in his village and buy every available land in his state capital, acquire bigger houses in Abuja, Dubai, London or Washington, will think less about building and equipping schools and hospitals in his state. Often, such a leader surrounds him/herself with persons of similar inclination who help clog his faculties with thoughts that he just got an opportunity to escape personal poverty and become the next big phenomenon in town, especially, in an environment where an individual’s value is sadly, measured by how much he is perceived to be worth, moneywise.
Changing such a leadership recruitment process won’t be easy. However, it is something that should, and ought to be done. We must be able to devise a new system which elevates leadership recruitment and make it a much more serious business than leadership itself. If we keep letting ourselves in to the destructive argument that the process is not for the self-respecting, the decent, the self-contented, we will leave ourselves at the mercy of the brigand and the crook and the deceitful who will throw at the people, of course with the help of a ‘godfather’, whatever they asked for in order to have the powers to convert the commonwealth to personal purse for management of personal debts, personal privileges and satisfaction of previous deprivations. This is why the leadership recruitment system needs re-working.
If we look back critically, we probably will realize that we started getting it wrong when we allowed persons of shadowy characters, who had suddenly acquired money and became financially rich, to take over the traditional rulership of our communities. That destructive enterprise created a situation where men of learning and letters where looked at as having no community value because they did not throw money as public ceremonies. They only spoke grammar. Gradually, our youths caught the bug and became psychologically sold to the idea that money rules. For many of them, it was immaterial what enterprise one got involved in so far as one came out with tons of cash. So, we created communities where values meant nothing.
From the conquest of the traditional institution, the next port was political leadership. I believe this is reason our leadership recruitment process focused more on those who actually have no business with leadership. I, like many people, do not believe that political leadership should be a free for all. Yes, democracy allows for equal rights to vote and to be voted for. Agreed, it also dictates leadership by majority vote. But it is impossible to give the majority an opportunity to choose from among only the best? The best here is viewed in terms of vision, preparedness, learning and capacity to elevate public good above personal privileges and satisfaction of previous deprivations.
This is where the recruitment system comes to play. The demography of the southeast is not such a complicated one that its leaders cannot engage themselves to narrow the leadership search. This can be done by engaging the political parties to the set the criteria, within constitutional limits, for leadership recruitment. To my mind, this is an urgent need. It is one that is possible if the generality of the people agree to subject their political will to a leadership recruitment system that is peopled by persons of impeccable character, operating within a political structure that identifies, and supports, a major political front for the region.
This may sound naive. But when we look at the Chinese political leadership system, we may find a lot of examples that had worked, and are still working, for the good of the people. It takes a seriously minded people to create a system that work for their needs. Southeast needs such a system in order to correct the leadership mishaps that it had experimented with since 1999. If we don’t re-work the recruitment system; we shall continue to go round in circles while using political leadership as a tool for the satisfaction of personal deprivations and wan