Is Yar’Adua a Leader?
By Tochukwu Ezukanma
Nigeria is a colossus of unrealized potentials: a somnolent giant in need of awakening, a floundering ship groping for direction, an heterogonous and discordant country in want of a unifying theme, an artificial sovereignty in need of a redefined purpose of nationhood, a dispossessed and downtrodden populace thirsting for better times, hungering for a good life and longing for social justice. Essentially, Nigeria is a leaderless country desperately in need of leadership.
Leadership is not management. Already, there are too many managers in Nigeria. Managers and administrators tend to be narrow-minded conformists prepossessed with the exigencies of the time. Consequently, they can only manage the status quo. On the other hand, leaders are courageous, strong willed and farsighted men. They see more than others and then labor to bring into existence that which others, sometimes, can neither perceive nor comprehend. They set the moral tone and bring about a new dispensation. While management tries to solve problems and improve situations, leadership represents a current in history. Management is prose, and leadership is poetry.
For example, Moses was a leader. He led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt into freedom and en route to the Promise Land. Before he was chosen to play this role, there were administrators among the Israelites who administered the existing order. The conservatives amongst them may have been concerned with ensuring that the Jews were good slaves loyal to their slave masters. The progressives among them may have demanded better conditions for their people and possibly protested instances of excessive brutality on the part of the slave drivers. They were all concerned with the necessities of the present, resolving issues within the limits of what was. It required a leader to usher in a new order.
Leaders are dreamers. Moses was a dreamer. He dreamt of peace and unity among his people. He saw ahead of others the need for a unified front against the oppressor. He tried to share his dream with his people: he joined an Israelite in a fight against an Egyptian, and he preached unity to his kinsmen he saw fighting each other. They could not understand him. He got into trouble and went into exile.
Richard Nixon, a one time president of the United States of America, called this farsightedness, this ability to dream, “having the mountain top view”. Martin Luther King Jr., that most prominent Black American leader of the 20 th century, dreamt. He talked about his dream of an America where people will be judged by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin. Robert Kennedy, that idealistic aspirant to the US presidency whose life was snuffed out by an assassin’s bullet, was a dreamer. He talked about his capacity to dream when he said that “others think of what is and ask why, I think of what is not and ask why not”. “What is” is the status quo, and that is the purview of managers and administrators. “What is not” is that which only a dreamer, that man with the mountain top view, can grasp, and as a leader labor to bring into reality.
Is Umaru Yar’Adua a leader? He lacks most of the visible attributes of successful political leaders: big ego, force of personality and that electrifying oratory that stirs and uplifts the public. Interestingly, unlike no other Nigerian civilian president, he succinctly stated the mission of his presidency. His 7 point agenda can actually be restated as a 1 point agenda. The other six programs listed in the 7 point agenda are contingent the one agenda - respect for the law. So, the central theme of his presidency can be summed up as to cultivate a culture of reverence for the law in Nigeria.
The talk about respect for the law in Nigeria is momentous. It is chaos that forms the basis of most of our societal ills. So, a solution to this problem of disorderliness will have enlivening, elevating and redemptive consequences for Nigeria. However, the question is how is Yar’Adua dealing with this problem: as an administrator or a leader?
If he is just an administrator, his attempt to establish law and order will have no profound effect on the Nigerian society. It will only tinker with the existing social order and make modest improvements here and there. It will send some corrupt government officials and their business associates to jail and deter some corrupt activities. But it will not bring about a reorientation of the Nigerian mind towards the law.
It has been speculated that not much can be expected of Yar’Adua’s presidency because he is reined in by powerbrokers who will not countenance any major shift in the social structure. However, if he is a leader, and armed with the inordinate powers of the Nigeria presidency, no power broker, no matter how resourceful, or interest group, no matter how entrenched can successfully bridle him. Because in addition to being farsighted and courageous, leaders are men of indomitable will resolute on changing the course of history.
The moral regression of the Nigerian society over the years was palpable; it brought about a deep-rooted and pervasive tendency to break the law amongst Nigerians. So, to get Nigerians to obey the law will require not just the prosecution and imprisonment of some corrupt officials and fraudulent businessmen, but an ethical and moral revolution. There must be a total transformation of our collective attitude towards money, work, sacrifice, honesty, loyalty, civic responsibility, etc. Yar’Adua can achieve this only if he is a leader. Only leadership can bring about this transformation by changing the moral tone, redefining the national disposition and fostering a new national sense of purpose.
To successfully change Nigerians into law abiding citizens will be of monumental significance. Nigeria will become an unrecognizably changed country because all facets of our national lives for long trapped in the gloom of lawlessness will be lit up by this new sense of veneration for the law. Democracy will blossom and effervesce as there will be no more of that most egregious breech of the law - military seizure of political power. Elections will be fair and free as the election umpire, the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), in accordance with the law, will maintain its neutrality and revere the will of the people as expressed through the ballot box. A principled system that ensures an equitable distribution of the national wealth will supplant this unconscionable system that engenders the inordinate opulence of an elite few and consigns the majority of Nigerians to desperate poverty. The refreshing list will be endless.
Essentially, it will nudge Nigeria inexorably towards a renaissance that will herald her joining the ranks of the civilized and prosperous nations of the world. It will be the Nigerian equivalent of being led out of slavery into freedom, that is, from shackling anarchy to liberating orderliness, and en route to the Promise land.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria
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