March 26, 2009
I have come across truckload of Nigerians saying that a people or citizens get the kind of leadership they deserve. Even well schooled ones keep mouthing this cliché with no end in sight. I seriously refuse to agree with such line of argument. It is my mindset that the opposite is the case – that is, that, leadership gets the kind of citizens it deserves.
Whenever commentators within Nigeria blogosphere and conventional news outlets air this kind of view, they play into the hands of authority people in Nigeria. This is another way of saying that citizens are the fall guys who should bear the brunt for the failure of the system while sleazy leaders in Nigeria are the stand-up guys. And I ask, how do your blame weapon-less and penniless masses for the sins of the powerful man in Aso Rock who has the Nation’s gunboat and strong room with which they have cowered the populace into passive bystanders and hopeless cowards?
And to disarm repressive regimes, like the pocket-seize dictator sitting in Aso Rock from their gunboat and the cash in Central Bank of Nigeria with which they menace the populace into complacent onlookers and pathological do-nothings is not a cakewalk. I’ll go with Che Guevara option on this rather than be in pacifist crowd psychology mass movement with a Mahatma Gandhi or a Martin Luther King Jr. Che Guevara once recommended: “I believe in armed struggle as the only solution for people who are fighting for freedom, and I act according to this belief. Many will call me an adventurer, and I am, but of a different kind – one who risks his skin to prove his convictions” George Bush Jr., Jerry Rawlings and Nelson Mandela who once used terrorism and unconventional methods against apartheid South Africa would agree with me that to settle scores with dictators and oppressive regimes, violent struggle and the force of arm is the only language they understand.
Making the case that citizens get the kind of leadership they deserver is like saying that the masses should be setting the pace and calling the shots for authority people to comply with. It is like making believe that the masses control the Central Bank of Nigeria, the military and other whatnots with which to march a Nation forward or backward. The leader in a democracy who controls the country’s wherewithal with which to effect change in the positive, coerce opposition or throw dissidents into concentration camp is the one that calls the shots and as well as the person who get the kind of citizens he or she deserves and not the other way round. A leader is the linchpin in a democracy and it is he or she that sways statecraft, calls the shots and set the example by which rule citizens and society play: Therefore, it is leadership that gets the kind of citizens it deservers, since everyone take a cue from him and ply by the moral ethical standards he sets. A corrupt leadership will beget and deserve corrupt citizens. This is the case with Nigeria.
The well-moneyed American business man George Soros, in his book: “The Bubble Of American Supremacy” quoted the star economist Jeffrey Sachs as saying that “the two major sources of poverty and misery in the world are bad location and bad government.” There is no mention of bad citizens here! Now hear George Soros continue: “By bad government, I mean repressive, corrupt, or inept regimes, failed states, and internal conflicts. There is not much one can do about bad location, but a lot can be done about bad government.”
Experts across board agree that bad leadership and bad location are the two most likely things that can grow a banana republic and race that failed state to the bottom steeply. Only in Nigeria that you hear this twisted version of how a people get the kind of leadership after their heart desires. Only in Nigeria you see citizens talk about cashiering followership or citizens for the missteps and wrongdoings of leadership. The wisecrack that, the buck stops at the table of the boss is a clear-cut display that leadership should bear the brunt of failure and not citizens. He calls the shots, has the Central Bank of Nigeria, the military and cohorts of other state paraphernalia at his disposal to effect changes and let the citizens follow.
When Buhari steered our Statecraft in the eighties, the goodness of leadership shone like light: Nigerians walked on a straight line and put their hands where everyone plus government can see. The slightest underhand and corrupt tendencies were checked with no delay. Buhari´s exemplary leadership style inspired positive awe until this day. Buhari would not tell you to be on the line or stay away from corruption and other vices without him setting example. If he told you to tighten your belt and live thrifty like the Spartans, he was ready to live by that example – unlike Obasanjo and Yar´Dua who’d urge Nigerians to live rough like Jesus Christ while they are living like fraud as if they are members of the Gambino crime family or members of the Coolio Gangsters Paradise. Buharis´ critics might shame his regimes´ regulations as to have been somewhat over the top but the masses had confidence of trust in Buhari and they took a cue from him and tagged along. Franklin D. Roosevelt once said of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastacio Somaza: “He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” Buhari may have been heavy-handed with his approach to fixing Nigeria but he has been the best from the rest of his cohorts of erstwhile Nigerian head of states. Buhari´s incorruptible disposition is my sweetness – he’s the only onetime head of state living modestly. Even if he’s a son of bitch like some would say, he is our own son of a bitch
Nigeria’s problem is the churn of wayward leaders. We are not bedevilled by natural disaster and not located near danger zones. We are blessed with abundant human and natural resources: This is what George Soros, Jeffrey Sachs and plenty more aficionados on this topic will tell you. Our leaders in Nigeria have lead badly and have gotten the kind of deviant masses they deserve. Our Citizens have modelled themselves in the bad image of our leaders that the by-now fake re-branding will not do, to turnaround our home and native land in the positive.
There is also this mindset flying about that Nigerians will hold their leaders accountable if they pay taxes. I do not think that paying taxes would make Nigerians to stop being couch potatoes and softies when it comes to taking actions against their corrupt government. Germans and Italians paid taxes during the eras of Hitler’s Nazi and Mussolini’s fascist dictators and could do nothing to their bad leaders. One should not underrate the huge powers a leader wield in a country and when he chose to torment his citizens, taking action on such leader will not come about just because citizens pay taxes. Italians even sold their properties and personal effects to support dictator Benito Mussolini in the 1930s when he was broke after he launched attack of territorial expansion on Ethiopia.
Like one Peter M said on the Guardian newspaper blogsite: (Nigerians pay NEPA bills that they did not use without taking actions. Peter M does not see how paying taxes would make Nigerians take action.)
A trusted leader like Buhari, Pat Utomi, Femi Falana, Gani and co. who is from the movers and shakers community in Nigeria should stand in as the fountainhead and organise the masses into protesting against our leaders. There has to be an ace man who organises the ordinary people to take their destinies into their hands in setting the records straight with icily ruthless leaders and institutions like the ones we have in Nigeria. Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. stood in to mobilise Everyday people to act and react in their various countries.
S. Njokede writes from The European Union
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