The dawn of a New Year is often a time of great expectations, of hope and ambition, of dream of a better future and thoughts of a better life. This is the wish of a lot of people, not just for themselves, but for their country. Truth is, while individuals are largely responsible for what they decide to do, whether to be happy or the opposite, the political leadership plays a big role in shaping and realising the aspirations and visions of the country. These desires can be delayed or vitiated by poor leadership. Unfortunately, that’s where Nigeria is stuck today. It’s like a broken mirror. That’s why there’s this nagging, dampening feeling across the country. For many, 2021 has begun like 2020, a bad taste, with virtually everything in disarray, with the nation seemingly on the brink. But it’s not difficult to know why: Poor leadership. Indeed, anybody who is closely following our leadership recruitment, especially since 1999, will find some foreshadowing that break the heart. This is in spite of abundant human and natural resources in the country. In the midst of so much discontent that is ripping apart our nation, the questions remain: Why is Nigeria, despite its endowment not getting it right?  Or, is Nigeria jinxed in the leadership scale? Why are Nigerians going through prolonged hardships, with poverty and hunger ripping them apart?                                     

On this score, I stand with Mr. Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State and Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the 2019 general elections. Obi who stands as a pillar of hope and strength in the midst of so much windblown ethnic, tribal and religious confusion in the country, recently in Awka, the Anambra State capital, blamed the challenges facing the country to lack of competence and credibility of leaders we elect into public offices.   

Any country that continues in this trajectory will continue to suffer from poor leadership. His words: “the only reason our political leaders continue to find excuses for their failures is because they are not competent. It’s incompetence that fuels over-dependence on oil revenue when many productive sectors are left unexplored”. Corruption, he says, “flourishes unfettered because we don’t have competent and innovative leaders across different levels of government”. For him, the solution begins with recruiting capable hands into our public offices. Only then, will our nation be set on the path of economic growth and integrated development. Few will disagree with his submissions.                                

“Difficulty is one excuse that history never accepts”, says Edward R. Murrow. From Obasanjo presidency, to the Buhari administration, they have had a briefcase of excuses for failure to deliver on their promises. A responsible and functional government does not keep a library of excuses for its failings. As former American President Gerald R.  Ford said in his memoir, the presidency” is not a prize to be won, it is a duty to be done”. The glamour of the office should not be what attracts people to it. It should be the desire to do something great with the mandate given by the people. But, here, every successive administration blames its competence, its lack of performance on its predecessor. Each administration that comes to power forgets that every problem it has inherited comes with its own seed of solution.   A great nation cannot escape its responsibilities, because responsibilities abandoned today will definitely return as more acute crises tomorrow. The point Peter Obi made was crystal clear: the failure to understand what leadership is meant to serve is the main reason why Nigeria continues to sail through rough seas, instead of calmer waters after years of democratic governance. All our presidents since 1999 – from Obasanjo, to Buhari – have obvious, hidden, but dangerous flaws or personality quirks.         

These flaws are often being exploited by those around them, at the detriment of the country. While Obasanjo saw himself in the presidency as Nigeria’s “messiah”(which he was not, but one of his kitchen cabinet members, Chief Tony Anenih said Obj was), late Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan were somewhat faithless on how to use the power of the presidency for the general good. And Buhari is portrayed by his handlers as an imperial president who cannot be criticized. In all of them, a common thread runs through: They abandoned their commitment to the nation and pursued personal agenda. Buhari appears the most guilty of them all. No where has his government compiled a more dismal record than in its handling of security of the country. Every passing day, insecurity gets progressively worse. Criticise and be attached. This image of a ‘do -no-one wrong president, has become a licence for terrorists to fish in troubled waters.  That’s why the war against Boko Haram may remain unwinnable for years to come. That’s the reason for the strident calls for a change of Service Chiefs.

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Worse still, this administration has not projected a calm and steady hand in defeating the terrorists and bandits that have held the nation at knife-edge. The problem of where we are today is a sad story of poor leadership, a leadership that has been stodgy and unimaginative in handling critical problems of immediate sort that confront us.    It’s worthy to note that success of any administration is measured at every stage of that government, not at the end of its tenure. But to do that, that administration, that president, must know why it’s elected to do.  A President is not elected to complete the square or balance geopolitical ecosystem. That is why you have a dismal record of trust in in successive administrations in the country.  It’s so because there’s a near-zero ability of the leaders to define goals, the vision and purposes of what they want to do once elected in such a way that gives coherence to the citizens.            

As far as the PDP is concerned, history will be kind only to leaders who make things happen for their country and better things for their citizens. As the party(PDP) has said many times over, the Buhari presidency is a history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts. The desire to leave something permanent behind as evidence of a work of a lifetime is often with every leader, every president from the days of their youth. It’s about looking ahead to posterity. Indeed,with  eyes on the future, every president believes he will be judged by history for his success or failure in fulfilling the promises that brought him to office. In this case, what did Buhari promise he would do when he campaigned for the presidency?  Has he been able to accomplish them?  I believe as he is doing his last lap in office, these questions weigh heavily on his mind. He sees, I guess, a conflict between his role as president of Nigeria who “belongs to no one”, and his role to ensure equity and fairness to all as he swore to be, and not a president of a section of the country as his critics often allege. In the end, it’s the judgement of history that every president fears the most.                             

Some of the questions presidents often ask themselves are: will I like to be remembered as a preserver of my nation’s peace and unity? Or as the man who has enforced the law with equity and fairness to all, or a president who presided over the division of the country? The judgement of history often doesn’t come fast, but historians do. But there is always a good place in history for any leader/President who wants to succeed.           

The starting point is to define his goals, his vision and purposes of his government in such a way that gives coherence to his administration. He cannot achieve these goals, this vision and purposes if they are packaged in a mishmash manner. Most critical is the fact that the presidency is not a prize to be won; it’s a duty to be done.         

So, ultimately, a President is judged by the many things he initiated and accomplished. These include legislations, programmes/policies that  affect the lives of the peoples in a profound, positive ways and that can move the country forward.