Leadership is hard… great leadership is very unique! Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown especially in our very peculiar country where both the leaders and the led seem to be working at cross-purposes.
This is understandable. Sadly, in Nigeria, responsible and responsive leadership is in very short supply. Leaders prove to be insensitive, neither obligated to the people nor the national constitution and other laws of the land.
Beyond textbook definition, two recent developments in the polity need to be cited as practical examples of responsible and or responsive leadership. First is the withdrawal of the compulsory voting bill by the House of Representatives after public backlash. This bill which had passed second reading aimed to make voting mandatory for all eligible Nigerians. Many Nigerians opposed the bill as it contravened the constitutional right to political dissociation as well as urged the lawmakers to concentrate their legislative energies instead on solving myriads of economic problems confronting the beleaguered nation.
It was reasoned that, in future, the legislature can only return to such utopian prescription only after they had corrected electoral malfeasances like absence of electronic voting, election violence, lack of trust in the electoral system, unbundling of INEC and establishment of Electoral Offences Commission as well as other issues that stop peoples vote from counting. Commendably, the Speaker of the Green Chamber was humble enough to acknowledge among other things that lawmaking is about serving the people and any new law must respect personal freedom. This development gladdened the hearts of many Nigerians. This is a good example of responsible and responsive representation.
Another good example of responsible leadership was the news that the SSS had paid ₦10 million in damages to a Sokoto-based businessman who was mistakenly shot by its operatives during a 2016 operation in Jos, Plateau State. This compensation was ordered by a Federal High Court ruling in 2018. Past DSS leadership were not interested in this pathetic case but the present DG was refreshingly different. He directed that the compensation be paid and an extra ₦10 million ex gratia to compensate for the time lost, bringing the total compensation to ₦20 million. Furthermore, the D-G of the SSS also directed that the victim be integrated into the SSS healthcare system. This incident had occurred during a pre-dawn raid in 2016, where DSS operatives had mistakenly shot the businessman, who bore the same name as the actual suspect, an alleged gunrunner later apprehended. Although, this reprieve is belated, but the positive gesture has greatly positioned the DSS as a responsible organisation. This is unlike many other security agencies that shamelessly parade poor record of justice, fidelity to rule of law and obedience to Court judgments.
What the examples above go to illustrate is that leadership can be humane and rule of law compliant. Leaders must realise that they are servants of the people. The highest office in the land is the office of the citizen. Citizenship is the highest stake anyone can have in a country.
A responsible leader listens to the outcries of the people and ameliorates the sufferings of the masses. Many judgment creditors across the land cannot reap the fruits of their litigations because of wicked leaders and other man-made bureaucratic bottlenecks.
The gist of this intervention is that the hallmark of responsible and responsive leadership is taking prompt decisions that are in the public interest. Only a leader with humane disposition can do that. Nothing more pretentious.
Leadership at any level is as good as the man or woman at the helm of affairs. The world view, spirituality, exposure, empathy, likes and dislikes of any leader or Chief executive defines the direction and priorities of the government. This is why it is critical not to have anything to do with mediocre people in leadership positions. Jean Giraudoux once said that “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”
The beauty of leadership is being responsible and responsive. A responsible leader takes responsibility. Government is not rhetorics or winning verbal warfare. No one is elected or put in charge to give excuses but to make a positive and visible difference in the lives of the citizens. Any leader that cannot deliver on this simple mandate of making the visible difference between the past and present has failed ab initio.
A leader is responsive if his or her response to the yearnings of the led or masses is prompt and decisive. This can be through quick wins/palliative measures and or legacy/signature polices, actions and projects.
Sadly, you cannot outsource knowledge and the wrong people keep getting the job. You cannot give what you do not have- nemo quod dat non habet. You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. That is the paradoxical situation we find ourselves now.
A new normal is possible!
Prof Obiaraeri, N. O.
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