Leadership selection and need for an educated following

POPULAR discourse on national issues in our country has been centered on the performance or otherwise of leadership and in a sense, this is rightly so as leadership occupies the center stage and the buck ultimately stops at the desk of the leader. However, I wonder if this focus on leadership has not led to a neglect of the significant role of the followers and the need to educate each citizen as to the role the individual must play in nation building. The average Nigerian citizen has an interesting approach towards the question of leadership selection. Leadership decisions are often based on considerations such as immediate short-term personal benefits or just a feeling of proximity to power arising from ethnic, religious or political affinity which have no bearing on the realization of the developmental outcomes which will be of greater benefit to most of the people. This approach to leadership selection can be closely examined and understood by taking a look at how some basic life decisions are made namely; how different ladies approach the important question of the choice of a life partner and how we decide on the choice of vehicular transportation to employ when heading to different destinations

There are ladies who have a “long term”, long distance perspective when going into a relationship and accepting a marriage proposal. They anticipate a relationship that will endure for a lifetime and take that into consideration when assessing prospective suitors. With this approach they consider not just immediate benefits like wealth, an opulent lifestyle or the satisfaction of immediate wants which are transient,but long-term needs and concerns such as compatibility, shared values and character which are all required for any relationship to go the distance.

The other category of ladies has a more short-term perspective and are on the look out for a relationship that will last for as long as the good times persist. They are good to go with any proposal that meets their immediate priority of servicing their appetite for a life of opulence and ostentation without regard to considering if that suitor has the fundamental character traits require to survive the rigours of a relationship that will last the distance. Also, transportation choices as simple and as routine as they appear are driven primarily by the desired destination particularly when funds are not a constraint. Therefore, it is intuitively evident why journeys to farther destinations are typically undertaken by planes, ships and cars as against the use of motorcycles or bicycles.

Leadership selection by the populace will produce more qualitative outcomes when the majority understand that political parties and political leaders are all vehicles to transport a nation and its people to a desired and defined destination.

The key words here are desired and defined. If a people do not have a desired destination and have not gone a step further to give that desire shape and structure by properly defining their expectations, it does not matter which political party or leader they chose, their prosperity and success will be a matter of happenstance and not clear intention. The questions that I have for every citizen of Nigeria who I hope will read this piece are as follows; have you decided on your preferred destination on the journey of nation building which we all are currently travelling albeit unknowing to many? Have you decided to strive for and build a nation whose success and prosperity is a product of intentional effort and not happenstance? Have you defined at a high level, the outcomes that you want to see in the different aspects of life such as healthcare, education, infrastructure and overall quality of life? Have you decided to rise above political, religious or ethnic considerations for the leadership decisions that you will make for various elective positions?

It is my opinion that we are where we are as a country today due to the failure to answer these questions with a reasonable degree of objectivity.

As a people we have repeatedly chosen to undertake on foot a journey to the distant destination of a national ideal that can be proudly handed down from one generation to the next. We have focused for so long on our differences and have been blinded by them such that as each election year approaches, we oscillate between supporting a political party or candidate without basing our choices on the responses to these fundamental questions.

It is therefore not hard to comprehend why we are no closer to our destination than when we started out five decades ago.That despite the immense natural resources that have been bestowed on us in such quantities that many nations can only dream of having in several lifetimes, the vast majority of the people hover just above or are condemned perpetually to life beneath the line of poverty. That despite the innate resourcefulness of our people and the consequent rich pool of human resources evident for all to see, tangible economic growth, the type reflected in simple indexsuch as the number of people able to eat three decent meals in a day eludes us.

Democracies that have flourished have something in common, the ability to pursue certain ideals irrespective of the political party or leadership elected to office. Ideals which leadership is held accountable to and for which excuses are not accepted in the face of persistent failure to deliver.Ideals which are ingrained in the collective mindset of the populace and handed down from generation to generation, cherished like family heirlooms which though not worth much in monetary value are highly valued for what they represent, a connection to a legacy to be improved and built upon.

Our nation is at a critical stage in its (non)development and we all must agree on and commit to those ideals that must be in place before we commence another cycle of leadership selection. We owe it to the children and generations yet unborn to get this right for the consequences of our collective failure are better imagined than experienced.

Iyekolo writes this piece via oiyekolo@gmail.com

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