By Sani Sa’i’du Baba

My dear country men and women, permit me to acknowledge the fact that the moves to adopt direct primaries by the two major political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is good news. Although I learnt that some party members have vehemently disputed such decision, especially those that perceived failure with the direct primaries. We could recall that the president has joyously assented to the not too young to run bill, but its obvious that chances have always been blocked for the young, and other deserving competent people by the indirect primaries that seems to be a multimillion Naira business for both aspirants and the delegates whenever there is primary elections in Nigeria. This is how our country had been losing very competent and precious people, great people that would have sparkled if they had the chance to be elected into any elective office. Very unfortunate! In some cases, competent people lose interest to participate in Nigeria’s political process due to fear of defeat and humiliation. But as Socrates says, one of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Very true! You don’t have to necessarily contest to become relevant, but the idea that you will not get PVC, you will not vote, m believing your vote will not count, are the most catastrophic.

Many people in Nigeria wish to be leaders, but very few of them seem to understand the essence of leadership. As Aare Dele Momodu use to say, leadership is about managing human beings and resources. And that you cannot manage other people or a society unless you manage yourself first”.

Personal growth should be a component part of credible leadership. It is about serving the people, having a sense of responsibility, providing the people the service they need, or “getting things done through the people”. Instead, the political leaders use government policies to buy support from the people after every four years. If I may ask, why is Nigeria difficult to change? Why has Nigeria failed to develop with abundant human and material resources at its disposal? Why has prosperity eluded the nation? Why are many Nigerians swimming in the deep ocean of poverty? Put differently, why is there a rising unemployment rate in the society? Answers to these questions will perhaps justify why Nigerians must reject career politicians in the next general elections.

Based on my understanding, the mindset of the good people of this country has contributed immensely to the current mess. For example, we believe a poor man no matter how honest and competent he was adjudged to be, cannot win an election because of poverty. If one does not contest under the platform of either of the two major political parties, he cannot also win an election, though it has also been observed even in many other African countries. Moreover, another key issue and most catastrophic is the belief that I should reject any candidate that does not belong to my region, tribe or religion no matter how competent he is. According to Albert Einstein’s famous dictum, we cannot solve our present problems with the same level of mind-set or consciousness that created them.

Meanwhile, because of the failure of the political leaders of Nigeria to change their mindset and embrace creative and innovative ideas that will transform and restructure the system, Nigeria’s non-functional education and health care systems will continue to threaten the growth and development of the economy as these are the engines that drive individual and national productivity. But I honestly feel that “failure is not an option” for Nigeria. However, what Nigeria will become is the society the leaders and followers have decided to create. Without a doubt, majority of the people wants a leader who can lead from the emerging future possibilities.

The challenges facing Nigeria appears to be deep-rooted in the mindsets of the political leaders and the nation’s extractive political and economic institutions. As a result, there is a serious disconnection and lack of trust between the leaders and the lead. So it appears that, leaders are likely to have either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset that can be changed. I strongly believe that Nigerian leaders should possess the fixed type of mindset for obvious reasons. Likewise, leadership can be transformative or transactional.

Transformative leaders are those who have a vision to mobilize people to action, while transactional leaderships are addicted to quid pro quo “If you scratch my back, I will scratch yours”. This style of leadership seems pervasive in Nigeria. Yet, another type is leadership that hands down orders from top to bottom. This style of leadership is mostly adopted by leaders who want utmost control over the decision making process in an organization. Also, most of the leaders of Nigeria appear to fall within this category; the society has powerful leaders without effective institutions to tame their actions. Nigeria president is probably the most powerful president on earth as suggested by Aare Dele Momodu.

In addition, leadership is about inspiring others to excel. In a democratic society, power is said to come from the people at the grassroots. In making decisions the leaders must be cognizant of the opinions and needs of the people. And the leader will assume responsibility for what went well and what went wrong because true leadership is about taking responsibility wherever responsibility needs taking. The essence of leadership has always been about sensing and actualizing the future. So far, one of the best leaders Nigeria could ever had was late MKO Abiola, who would have galvanized Nigeria to nothing other than unity and prosperity. Guess what? He was not a carrier politician. Nigeria is therefore in a desperate need of someone with MKO’s template.
Debates about why Nigeria has failed to develop as it should with abundant human and material resources at its disposal have been raging for decades. Some have noted that the problem is due to the absence of effective leadership. Yet others have observed that Nigeria is stuck in its present sociopolitical and economic predicaments because the leaders have been unable to change their mental models, which has prevented them from building critical institutions and infrastructure capable of transforming the society into the 21st-century system. Yet the political leaders who apparently have “fixed mind-set” appear to think that Nigeria can be transformed into an industrialized society without changing their mentality, reframing their meaning of leadership, building functional institutions, and designing and implementing pro-growth policies. The political leaders of the developed countries could not have transformed their economies into the healthy and productive state they are today without shifting their mentality that enabled them to lead from the emerging future.

Leaders of developed nations are known to have continually shown their knack in managing difficult situations by crafting functional strategies that align with the culture of the society or organization they lead. When a society, a person, or an organization has a problem, the first instinct will be to find a solution(s) to the problems. A well designed strategy is a symbol of action that will enable the authorities to achieve the desired goal, whether it is changing the behavior of a people or engineering a social change. A strategy is a “game plan” to achieve one or more goals. It is a plan, a “how” and “a means of getting from here to there”. A strategy is a solution to move from where you are now to where you want to be and this is exactly what is lacking in our leadership today. Nigeria leaders pays a lot of attention to how they could win an election rather than fulfilling their promises, while doing almost same thing every day for the people and expecting different results.

As mentioned earlier, Nigeria is facing myriad social, political, and economic problems. Yet the leaders do not appear to have the skills and knowledge to design and implement effective strategies to resolve the issues. For instance, they are unable to tackle the infrastructural and institutional problems, improve the nation’s standard of education, and rebuild the economy. The nation’s system of education and that of the economy must align to make a difference in the life of the people. The recent three weeks’ notice by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on their planned strike action is enough to justify. Issue that has been lingering and inherited administration by another without being able to bring a lasting solution. Perhaps because they patronize world standard and best universities for their children, while allowing universities back home to decay. The political leaders should flip the lens around a little to work out ways to serve the public good. They should collectively “develop cross-sector platforms of innovation and leadership” for positive change in the country.

It has been noted that Nigeria’s leadership quality is in its DNA. For instance, the fundamental causes of Nigeria’s weak economy are poor leadership and governance that have contributed immensely to non-functional infrastructure and institutions, low quality of education, and lack of practical skills and knowledge to drive the economy. There is no discernable change of attitude on the part of the leaders to address the shortfalls in the system; they are not willing to put their egos aside and listen to the people. They are mired in what has been branded “ego-system awareness”. The political leaders appear to worry about the realities in the eco-system only when there are serious national issues that threaten their own well-being such as the Corona virus crisis that knows no poor no rich, described as “an epidemic without mercy”.

At this critical juncture, Nigeria needs a leader who is committed to leading the society to a bright and bold future. This is because political stability in any country comes with the development of the institutions and infrastructure that drive the economy, create employment, and take care of the people’s needs. Nigeria has abundant natural and human resources that will enable the people to tackle their family and community obligations, only if the leaders can change their “mental models” and move from their ego-system awareness to eco-system reality. Without the political leaders reframing their thinking model and their meaning of leadership, without fixing the infrastructure and institutions that drive the economy, without transforming the education system into the 21st-century model and equipping the students with the knowledge and skills to compete effectively in the knowledge-driven global economy, and without taking care of the needs of the growing number of the people in poor health, the society will remain unproductive and underdeveloped. Career politicians that led Nigeria both directly or indirectly have failed us, and deserve to be rejected come 2023. Otherwise, the children that they are grooming abroad today will be the ones to inherit us tomorrow.

It is imperative therefore, to stop the lamentation, get your PVC, vote and make sure your vote counts both during the direct primaries and the general elections. Period.