Nigeria needs visionary leadership

Nigeria-map-colourWHEN nations succeed, reference is often made to the goodness of its leadership. Good leadership is measured on the strength of the vision/goals, whether these are potent and formidable enough to propel the people (the nation) to greatness or at best steer them away from impending calamity or doom. The same also applies when nations fail: pointed fingers always go in the direction of the leadership. Leadership in the sphere of politics has been a major determinant in the production of successful and failed nations alike. Developed nations such as the United States of America, Russia, Germany and Japan China, among others, owe their development to strong visionary leadership in their political sector.

In Nigeria as well, we had leaders such as Nnamdi Azikwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Anthony Enahoro and Aminu Kano, to name a few, in the first republic. All these leaders had some things in common: a genuine love for service to their motherland, commitment to Nigeria’s development and the provision focused leadership. They were in the forefront of the movement for the independence of the country. These people are unforgettable because of their contributions and dedication to the development and establishment of a country being governed with peace, justice and equity, even though most of their ideas were opposed by the unrelenting, unscrupulous opposing fronts. These generations of past Nigerian leaders had clear vision as well as understandings of what they wanted and how to go about it governance-wise, and they were not pretentious about it. Their era brought many first to Nigeria, such as the first Television station in Africa, ultra modern sports stadium (Liberty stadium), the tallest building in Africa (“Cocoa House”), among others. Their era also set the tone for the greatness we attained, as well as the respect and recognition accorded to us till date. ‘Giant of Africa.’ Theirs was the age of leadership vibrancy.

Today, the Nigerian political leadership has become synonymous with corruption, collapse of family and community values, inordinate pursuit of material wealth, do-or-die politics, hues and cries over marginalization resonating in calls for “resource control”, “restructuring”, “true federalism”, “confederation or outright secession”; looting with impunity, lack of respect for the rule of law, and electoral fraud. The words of Simon Sinek, that leadership is not about the next election, it’s about the next generation, appear to have fallen on the deaf ears.

The things of the glorious past have all been lost to profligacy and lack of vision on the past of those entrusted with managing the affairs of the country at all levels. Our political terrain is blessed with a few good men while largely populated by men and women lacking what I call the 2Vs; values and vision. Today, political parties are not better either. The national and local assemblies which should serve as checks on the executive have also been compromised on the platter of greed and emptiness. The question still not answered is, what positive things can be said about leaders these days? At this time of global economic crisis, Nigerians are at a loss regarding where salvation is going to come from. The country is in a dire need of leaders of men/women and resources that will put it back on track. In the 60s, Nigeria was classified with China, India, Malaysia and Singapore as “developing countries.” But data from the Yearly Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have shown that Nigeria is nowhere close any of her peers at independence.

Whereas, Singapore, China, Malaysia and India nave since attained 96.8 per cent, 96.4 per cent, 94.6 per cent, and 72.1 per cent literacy levels among their respective populations, Nigeria trails far behind with 59.6 per cent. Wide gaps in unemployment rates are evident between these countries when compared to Nigeria. China with the highest figure of population has just 4.1 per cent of her citizens living without employment. In Malaysia, the unemployment rate is 3.5 per cent, while the rate in India is 3.4 per cent and in Singapore, it is 2.2 per cent. With 13.9 per cent, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated to be one of the highest in the world. At the same time, we have had our share of megalomaniacs whose main ambition was to loot our national inheritance and skin us to the bones, in order to make collective paupers out of us all. This group of elopers derive pleasure from denying citizens their rights.

Unlike the aforementioned developed countries above, of course, they understand the importance of visionary leadership in their country. And they know that only good quality and visionary leadership can spur development in Nigeria, especially with the nation richly blessed with both Natural and Human resources. Like John C. Maxwell, a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. Hence, there is call on the country’s political leadership at the three-levels of governance (federal, state and local) to do the right thing by moving the country forward. Modern states make conscious efforts to build unity out of diversity, as only a few are monolithic in the true sense of nations. A critical factor in building bridges across divides is visionary leadership. What then does visionary leadership entail? The visionary leader never settles for the norm if the norm is mediocre, or worse, dehumanizing or destructive. Then, the visionary, in some way, spread the seeds of that vision- those possibilities-so that they might take root in others and find their way into our common reality. The true visionary walks the fine and often challenging line between the inspired world-intuition, reflection and the material world of action, effects, systems, powerful special interests, ego, status quo, and tangible results. The visionary is a conduit between those two dimensions of higher thought and our physical reality.

• Aromolaran is a student of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State.