It was Ralph Nader who submitted that “the function of leadership is to produce more leaders not more followers! Reverse is the case with the Nigerian state and that’s particularly puzzling. You look at the current Nigeria and wonder just what purpose she serves as a nation. From the ward councillor all the way to the top, hardly will you find up to 20% who are actively engaged away from building followers to mentoring leaders.
At a time, President Buhari was welcomed to Kano it will seem, by 2 million people who abandoned their businesses if they had one; offices, or homes etc. We were told some even paid their own transport fares from whatever nooks they reside in just to come catch a glimpse of Buhari the enigma? Although, not in the same size and nuance, Abiola commanded such a march. Atiku too will argue that in his own way, he commands such a crowd and you can go on and on all they way down to the ward councillor. But has this always been the case in Nigeria?
Answers may not be readily available and one may need to look deeply first at the culture of the so called Nationalities within Nigeria, before taking a trip down the history lane of this Lugardian contraption to maybe make some sense of this niggling anomaly.
Culturally, only the Igbo have been reported as being truly autonomous and independent in their individual and social alignments. At least, that use to be the case. However, with the current realities, even diehard Igbo people will agree that that is no longer the case. This bastardisation started when the colonial occupants of Nigeria attempted a reenactment of the Northern Indirect Rule in the Southeast by assigning warrant chiefs to administer authority. Although this system is on record to have failed, I reckon it didn’t do so completely as evidence abound of Hausacentric following including in the case of Kanu and late Odumegwu Ojukwu before him who were able to command a herd mentality that was hitherto unheard of in the Igbo folklore. Many have argued that this was perhaps a birth of necessity. They may be right. But that’s not my focus.
The Hausa are the worst example of unquestionable followership! Unlike their Yoruba counterparts whose culture also teaches unquestionable loyalty to elders, leaders or anyone ahead of one in age, title or office; the Hausa’s have been further shackled by a conveniently quoted and selfishly interpreted religious injunction that simply declared that reverence to elders or constituted authority is akin to faith in God! Follow the leader, it said!
Politicians are very smart people! They have, whether overtly or tactically used the clergy to drum this message in such a way that people begin to accept it without asking the proviso questions. For instance, should I follow a leader who is not with God? Surely, God will never ask you to just follow blindly now will he?
While the cultural and leadership system of my tribe – Eloyi – also teaches reverence to leaders, it is set up in such a way that virtually everyone has a say as issues are sometimes discussed from the home front, before they are scaled up through the various stages to the Kuse general assembly – a gathering of clan leaders depending on the severity of the matter.
For instance, if a matter that is not of a capital nature like murder or rape etc. is brought before the Osu (Chief) of a settlement, he is sure to first ask if the matter has been discussed through the lower systems. If not, he will refer the petitioner back to the highest ranking member of the family to commence discussion on the matter at his level. That’s a deliberate system put in place to create and empower leaders at various spectrums in the chain of administration. But, even this Eloyi elaboration has become more academic than anything else today.
It is now unfortunate that blind following whether religiously decreed, culturally admonished or necessitated by current realities is fast becoming the mainstay of our national existence and it begs the question: for how long? It is disturbing to see where repulsively corrupt politicians are celebrated to high heavens! Is it for impoverishing the people or carting away funds meant for hospitals, education, roads etc. to empower their children who are sent abroad to study and return to start living lives larger than those of highly placed hardworking civil servants? Do you now blame the civil servant for dipping their hands in the cookey jar?
You hear of ordinary LGA Chairmen owning homes in highbrow areas of Abuja when their workers and pensioners at LGA’s they administer are owed backlogs of their pay and you wonder just how kleptomania has taken on a new form. This is why it becomes very hard to feel sorry for these same LGA workers for instance who are owed money, but who have the presence or is it absence of mind to turn around and start following the same people pauperizing them. Is this a case of Stockholm syndrome? It must be the chronic variant! A quote previously associated with George Orwell but has now been denounced by the Orwellian Society declared that “a people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims… but accomplices”
As one person who has enjoyed mentoring from the likes of Brig Gen S Ibrahim, Brig Gen SS Ibrahim and great minds like Mike Omeri and many others, and as one who is now actively engaged in mentorship, let me close with my own conclusion. As long as we continue to follow leaders who want more followers instead of reproducing themselves in others, no amount of reforms will change this nation. Not restructuring, not balkanisation and certainly not the current system!
