NIGERIA: LED WITHOUT VISION

NIGERIA: LED WITHOUT VISION

One of the marks of great and true leaders and leadership is vision. A leader is meant to know where he or she is heading for and in so doing guide the followers to the land of promise or to the delivery of the coveted service. On the journey, it may not be clear to the followers, but the leader has a mental road map of the way.

The journey of the nation Nigeria started with some prominent Nigerians who came to a logical conclusion that Nigeria must be governed by Nigerians. A simple vision. But strong enough to die for. Amongst these were the likes of Sir. Ahmadu Bello, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Herbert Macaulay, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Funilayo Ransome Kuti, Sir. (Dr.) Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (all of blessed memory).   

Though these honourable Nigerians were from different cultures, regions and practiced different religion, they had a common goal. A common vision. This vision was to free Nigeria. This, they exalted above tribe, creed, religion and people. No wonder they were unstoppable.

Unfortunately, in the zest and zeal for the freedom of Nigeria, the vision did not see beyond the freedom to prepare for. This became a problem shortly after the independence as the first coup d’etat took place in January of 1966.

General Aguiyi Ironsi, suddenly had power thrust upon him, hence the beginning of a lack of National vision by the subsequent leaders in Nigeria aside from personal and vested interests. The coup that occurred in the same year, 1966, which brought General Yakubu Gowon into power, was more or less a retaliatory one, and eventually plunged the nation into the dark history of the civil war.

The Gowon administration was later toppled by General Murtala Mohammed with the reason (not vision) to correct the wrongs of that administration. A failed coup, though costing the life of General Murtala Mohammed, brought power suddenly on the shoulders of General Olusegun Obasanjo on his first leadership.

Alhaji Shehu Shagari was elected in the 1979 elections and sworn in amidst so much fanfare. Nigerians hoped that things would be better. The hope was still on when in 1983, the General Muhammadu Buhari/ General Babatunde Idiagbon administration took over the helms of affairs. Again, this administration had a pseudo-vision, skewed to fighting corruption only without any thought of national development or nation building.

Alas, in 1985, the General Ibrahim Babangida regime came into power and clung unto the power for nine years and the cracks in the nation started growing deeper. A result of an extented lack of vision. He handed over to an interim government of Chief Earnest Shonekan, whose administration had the sole mandate to conduct elections and hand over!

This was a piece of cake for General Sanni Abacha who seized power. Of course, he seized it. What was he going to do after taking it? Again no vision. His sudden death in office saw a transfer of this power to General Abdulsalam Abubakar who thankfully only stayed in power for one year and handed over to a democratically elected president: General Olusegun Obasanjo (Rtd).

Did he have a vision for Nigeria? A doubt. Especially for someone coming straight from prison. Yes he brought mobile phones et al into the nation. But then, vision for a nation is bigger than such meagre achievements.

As at August of 2006, the late President Umar Musa Yar’adua was looking forward to his retirement as a governor, having served for eight years in Katsina State from 1999 - 2007. Fast forward to December 2006, he emerged as the presidential candidate of the PDP. He had five months to develop his vision for the nation. His painful demise again saw power suddenly fall on Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, his then Vice President.

The GEJ administration was loathed by Nigerians for so many reasons and the theme Change was well packaged for us. It was Anything-But-Jonathan (ABJ). Honourably, he relinquished power (the first in Nigeria and Africa) to Rtd. General Muhammadu Buhari. It took PMB six months after taking office, before a cabinet was formed (there has been no change since then, even with so much abuse). Three years down the line, the administration was still blaming the GEJ administration for Nigeria’s problems. What a shame. One would think that the administration knew what to do and would hit the ground running.

Recently there was a gale of defections between the ruling and the opposition parties. The Senate President came up and declared to the world that one of the reasons for his defection was that, in his words, “The Federal Government appointed over 200 persons into juicy offices without allotting any slot to me or (Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu) Dogara. Everything went to Katsina, Katsina, Lagos, Lagos. If not for the love I have for Nigeria, we would have scattered everything”.

What a shame! The Yoruba proverb translated says “the elders are not hasty in speech, but rather hasty in seeing”. This is the Senate President speaking. The third citizen of the country. The late President J. F. Kennedy said “think not of what your country can do for you, but think of what you can do for your country”.

Aside from the honourable men and women who fought for the independence of the nation, successive administrations have had no vision for the nation to develop. As epitomized and communicated in clear terms by Dr. Bukola Saraki, the sitting Senate President, the leaders we have in Nigeria only have vested and personal interests.

We must wake up and elect leaders with a vision! It doesn’t stop there. We must also hold them accountable and demand their recall when they are not performing.

#ANewNigeriaIsPossible #ANewKwaraIsPossible.

MansaMusa has spoken!