The Search For A New Nigeria (8): Nigeria Needs Bold And Creative Leaders
The Search For A New Nigeria (8): Nigeria Needs Bold And Creative Leaders
Great leaders have three things in common: inner light, inner vision and inner strength. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. Pick a leader who is strong, courageous and confident, yet humble; a leader who encourages diversity, not divisiveness.
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a moulder of consensus”. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debates, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”
“Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you” – Abraham Lincoln, the famous philosopher and former president of the United States of America gave an admonishment to great minds and would be leaders.
Leadership grows like tall trees. It needs both toughness and flexibility – toughness for accountability; flexibility to adapt to changes with a compassionate and caring heart for self and others.
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A great leader is motivated not by power but by compassion. Servant leaders like our former president Umar Musa Yar’adua of the blessed memory, a firm and honest leader. On the day of his inauguration as president he openly confessed to the rigging of the 2007 general election in his favor and subsequently put in place a committee headed by Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais to remedy the anomalies.
No wonder former governor of Imo State Ikedi Ohakim wrote this about him on May 5, 2021:
“He was a Muslim but was loved by Christians. He was Fulani but saw Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and other tribes in Nigeria as one. The truest Nigerian who didn’t segregate or choose one tribe over the other.
“Under his watch, an Igbo man for the first time in Nigeria’s history became Inspector General of Police and not only one but two Igbo men consecutively Mike Mbama Okiro (2007 – 2009) and Ogbonna Okechukwu Onovo (2009 – 2010) were appointed Inspector Generals of Police.
“Under his watch, an Igbo man Air Marshall Paul Dike was the Chief of Defence Staff. Under his watch, A Yoruba man, Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin was Air Force Chief.
“He didn’t appoint all the Service Chiefs from his zone so as to make it clear to others that they don’t belong. He made us all feel like Nigerians.
“He understood the pains of marginalization and under his watch, peace returned to the creeks.
“Under his watch, we all still had hope for a better and greater Nigeria and there wasn’t any real agitation to break up Nigeria as we see today.
“He understood that the Smile of a Crocodile wasn’t the way to gain the trust and acceptance of a people neither did he allow Pythons to dance across the Southeast as we see today, which has turned the once peaceful Ala-Igbo into a pensive zone sitting on a keg of TNT.
“The leadership style of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua should be the lesson notes subsequent Nigerian leaders should have copied.”
That submission is complete in itself. In the meantime, Nigeria’s security situation rather than abate is getting worse by the day. Many other issues of concerns like: poverty, hunger and job loss, have adversely affected many people in our country Nigeria.
For us to be together again and be respected globally, our country Nigeria needs a strong, courageous and firm leadership like the types of leadership provided by our Wakanda like heroes: John Jerry Rawlings, Thomas Sankara and presently the wonder-boy of Rwanda, Paul Kaigame.
As a nation destined for greatness, we also require the types of leadership and wisdom of our past heroes in the continent of Africa like the great ‘Madiba’ Nelson Mandela, ‘Nwalimu’ Julius Nyerere, and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. This is certainly the irreducible minimum of qualities, that is the requirement for the rescue mission in Nigeria presently.
In the precarious situation of our country today, the drumbeat of war is getting loudest and anarchy is looming. Those who are responsible for where we find ourselves as a nation today and took us through this journey of perdition should be humble enough to make restitution and initiate the process of atonement before it is too late. Our country is at war, the center can no longer hold.
What is currently going on in the South Eastern part of Nigeria is similar to how it started in the North Eastern Nigeria that birthed the prolonged “Bokoharamists insurgency”. The insurgency have consumed unquantified resources, materials and the finest of our frontline soldiers. Can we afford another zone going full blast? The answer is no.
Once again, this is a clarion call – a call to duty and the cry for peace. The everyday rhetorics, press releases and incoherent statements from non state actors and the state officials should cease to be “we” against “them” or North vs South that is playing out every now and then. Enough of grandstanding! It is time to act wisely and save our nation. A word they say is enough for the wise.
WE ARE AT THE DELICATE BALANCE WHERE LEADERSHIP IS REQUIRED.
Richard Odusanya is a Social Reform Crusader and the convener of AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE ACRI
The Search For A New Nigeria (8): Nigeria Needs Bold And Creative Leaders
