Leadership bytes from Edo –2

I thought I was done with the Edo State matter last week. However, the events that have played out since the disqualification of Governor Godwin Obaseki from participating in the primaries of the All Progressives Congress have revealed the underbellies of the gross dysfunction in the dynamics of leadership in Nigeria as well as the apparent conscienceless and unprincipled nuances that undergird such dynamics.

Since it is out of the purview and intent of this column to delve into the nitty-gritty of the events, I will not bore you with the sickening details. It would have been amusing if only it wasn’t so tragically disheartening. So, I will limit myself to the leadership lessons to be learnt therefrom.

The People’s Democratic Party has been in court with Obaseki over the incongruity of his certificates. Yet in a sad twist of fate, the same Obaseki left his party, picked the membership form of PDP on Thursday last week and was given a clearance that same day to contest in the primaries of the party which has now been postponed to accommodate his declaration of intention. It would be safe to assume therefore that the court case is dead on arrival. Wasn’t this the same ground on which PDP got the governorship seat in Bayelsa? What if Obaseki wins the election as PDP candidate and the APC goes to court citing the Bayelsa case as precedent? When you make crooked men rulers, never expect them to draw straight lines!!!

When a leader is driven by considerations other than the collective interest, he will obey laws in breach and in time, if no one challenges him, make himself the law. By virtue of the Nigerian electoral laws, election tickets are given to parties, not the individual. What that should mean is that when a person relinquishes his membership of a party, he should be honorable enough to vacate the position that he was holding in trust for the party. But the Nigerian political space parades leaders who have no regard for the very law they run to when they are clutching to a straw for survival. Governor Ortom in Benue State, Saraki in Kwara State, Tambuwal in Sokoto and so many legislators who routinely change parties without vacating office! Whenever individuals become bigger than the laws of a society, that society will never develop because it will be bogged down by the impunity of such immunity.

No two people in an argument can be totally right or totally wrong. Relationships are based on an entente that factors in the possibility of infallibility on either side of the spectrum. Great leaders make compromises to accommodate the viewpoint of others, not because they (the others) are right but because they want to learn, gain better understanding of a situation and are more concerned with the collective goal. No matter how misguided you think the other party is, remember that even a dead clock is right at least twice a day! Between Oshiomhole and Obaseki, who exactly is wrong and who is right? Both and neither!

I don’t know what books these gladiators read, but diplomacy (not couched deception) cannot be a strong subject in those books. When leaders raise other leaders, they must let go of any tenterhooks and simply let those they have raised function. Breathing down the shoulder of your protégé because you want him perpetually indebted to you is puerile and reveals clearly that there was an ulterior motive for raising that leader in the first place. In my functions as Pastor, Life Coach and Business Consultant, I have seen this at play in various settings. I know pastors who developed serious health challenges because some subordinates they trained and were raising to lighten their burden in ministry jumped ship at very critical times in the pastor’s life and ministry when they were most needed.  I also know of corporate organizations where the management hardly spends money to train their staff anymore because they have experienced staff exodus in time past after such staff have been exposed to sometimes expensive training.

By nature, humans hug control. When we cannot control situations, we attempt to control people! As a leader, recognize that there may be chinks in your own armour. Even idols have clay feet. Unless your name is God, NEVER attempt playing omnipotent and omniscient over anyone’s life. If you raise people and they still go ahead to stab you in the back even when you have done nothing but good towards them, not to worry, life is in stages; what goes round eventually comes around! Use your position to lift others up for the simple reason that you want to make life better for others and in appreciation of the fact that you also made it to the top because some people gave you a chance and made their own shoulders available for you to climb on. The kingmaker must never become the king’s puppeteer too. Step aside and watch your protégé shine. Even if they don’t admit it, their performance is a reflection of your glory!

Any infractions you condemned in others must not become your own Achilles’ heels. Oshiomhole waged war against godfatherism and prebendal politics before and when he was governor. It is not appropriate to uproot a model in one hand and then seek to replicate the same now that you are out of office.

On the other hand, I have a strong feeling that Obaseki must have read and mastered “THE 48 LAWS OF POWER” by Robert Greene as well as “THE PRINCE” by Nicolo Machiaveli. In the former, he probably learnt the technique of doing everything to cut loose and alienate those who help you into power so that they do not compromise you. From Machiaveli, he must have learnt that as long as you achieve your objective, any strategy deployed is fair game even if it includes burning the house you live in down! For such people, then end not only justifies the means but also the meanness. Neither is a model for meaningful leadership.

As a leader, when you choose to fight dirty, scruples are sacrificed on the altar of ego. Principles are subordinated to preferences. When the fight gains traction, all parties are not only muddied but every nose involved in the fight is bloodied. When in the unbridled rage of ego and ambition gone rogue, we burn down the very house that gave us shelter and recognition, simply because we want to be seen as the only one who is right and aggrieved, we are like the proverbial “arigisegi” wood insect in Yoruba folklore, which simply piles up the burden of the wood it seeks to destroys on its own head.

The situation appears politically beneficial for PDP now. But the chickens will eventually come home to roost. The battle for position may be won. But the victory is pyrrhic because in the long run, the war for integrity and service in leadership will be lost.

Whichever party, APC or PDP wins the Edo governorship seat later this year, Nigeria would have lost another war, this time to political terrorism with the brigandage of vicious ambition!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

 

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

 

Massive shake-up in Aso Rock security architecture
THE recent serious fiasco in security at the Aso Rock Villa has warranted a massive reorganisation of the security architecture at the country’s seat of power. The development is connected with security breach, particularly the shooting incident that rocked the Villa for about two weeks… Read Full Story

Nigeria Records 661 New Cases Of COVID-19, Total Now 19,808
Nigeria’s coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, on Friday, increased to 19,808 as 661 new infections were announced by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)… Read Full Story

APC crisis: INEC in dilemma over Edo primary
AHEAD tomorrow’s conduct of the All Progressives Congress (APC) direct primary to produce its standard-bearer for the Edo State governorship election, the Independent  National Electoral Commission (INEC) appears to be in a quandary on whether or not to supervise the process… Read Full Story

Panic, Gloom… •Experts Reveal What COVID-19 Pandemic Portends For Nigeria’s Economy
WHEN Nigerians, at the beginning of the year, expressed their reservations about the 2020 budget, especially the signing of the Finance Bill, which, they argued, would further impoverish the common man, little did they envisage the advent of a public health crisis, in form of COVID-19, throw economies of individuals… Read Full Story

COVID-19: EU, UN Hand Over Medical Supplies To Nigeria
European Union (EU) and United Nations (UN) have received and handed over urgently needed essential medical supplies to the Nigerian Government to fight COVID-19 pandemic in the country… Read Full Story

I Did Not Stop Investigation Of NIRSAL ― Malami
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has denied an online report that he stopped the investigation of the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL)… Read Full Story

Security: It Is Buhari’s Call, Not Buratai’s
President Muhammadu Buhari, last Thursday, gave a damning verdict on the nation’s security and intelligence chiefs when he told them that their best was not good enough for the nation and that he would no longer take any excuse from them for the rising insecurity in the land. According to the National Security Adviser… Read Full Story

Edo: Of Oshiomhole, Saraki’s Snail And Naked Masquerade Allegories
COURT-SUSPENDED All Progressives Party (APC) Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, a few days before his court ouster, subtly flexed his power muscles and demonstrated a commendable grasp of African proverbs and aphorisms. Taking to his Twitter handle to do this, Oshiomhole had aptly announced that his smallish… Read Full Story

90 Days Of Pandemonium: A Nation At War With COVID-19
WHEN the Nigerian Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Coronavirus codenamed COVID-19 was constituted on Tuesday, March 17, the mandate was clear. With a timeline of six months, the body was assigned to “strengthen the national response strategy, particularly in the areas of testing, containment and management… Read Full Story

Resident Doctors Set To Call Off Nationwide Strike, As NGF Intervenes
The leadership of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Saturday night communicated its resolve to suspend the ongoing nationwide strike which commenced on Monday, 16th June 2020… Read Full Story

Alleged Rape Saga: D’banj May Lose UN Ambassador Status
Just days after marking his 40th birthday, Nigerian singer and multiple award winner, D’banj has not been finding things funny as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, has ordered a probe into the allegations of rape levelled against him… Read Full Story

Nigeria’s New Rapeublic: Where Repulsively Rapacious Men Prey On Female Gender
TWENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Vera Uwaila Omozuwa had hoped to become an evangelist due to her passion for the gospel of Christ. Since the lockdown and closure of places of worship occasioned by the dreaded coronavirus pandemic began, the young lady had always sought the quietude of her church premises to study… Read Full Story

76 Nigerians Killed By COVID-19 In One Week
SEVENTY-SIX Nigerians died of COVID-19 in the last week, data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have shown. Also, 273 patients died of the disease in the country between May 20 and June 18, 2020… Read Full Story