LEADERSHIP IN UNSETTLED TIMES With more than 400 reportedly killed in Cairo last week Wednesday, the Arab Spring in Egypt has turned out to be a classic case of a mismanaged revolution. Nigeria is a nation on the brink of a revolution; we have a lot to learn from the Arab nation. Failure of leadership could easily drive a nation into chaos, especially where there’s little quality advice in evidence at the highest level of governance. The Muslim Brotherhood’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi’s ill advised policies alienated a lot of other stakeholders, and that led to the present turmoil in that country. A leader is as good as the counsel he gets. Of course, that also depends on his character or disposition, which invariably defines the type of leader he is – if he is the type that listens, is all knowing or egocentric. With the way things are in Nigeria today, it can be argued that there is no coherence in the policies of Aso Rock and nothing typifies that fact than the recent visit of Sudanese President, Omar Al-Bashir on whom there is a warrant of arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Nigeria now risks sanctions over this action. What this suggests is that the advisers of President Goodluck Jonathan are either not doing their job or the President is being misled on issues as critical as this. There’s an urgent need for the President to reassess his policies and begin to initiate well thought-out policies, to forestall a repeat of this gaffe. Already, we are suffering from his double standards with regard to the war against corruption; the main reasons for the battered image of the country. Nigeria doesn’t need another controversy after the Alameseigha saga, which recently provoked global outrage. The management of international relations is certainly not one of the strong points of this government. Ironically, this was an area where we earned global respect under the military regime of Murtala- Obasanjo era. Our democracy is moving at snail’s speed while the suffering masses continue to groan over economic alienation. All is not well with Nigeria, and to compound an already complex situation, the President is seriously distracted by his many contrived crises, the Rivers State problem being a case in point. There are critical segments of the polity he cannot sideline because he’d need them to strengthen his government and give it the cohesion he badly needs during this turbulent period of youth restiveness and violent crimes, if he hopes to achieve anything worth its name before 2015. But he is rather becoming increasingly combative to his own peril. This is completely out of character because he projects himself as a humble, powershy leader. Jonathan is on record as saying he should not be expected to govern like an ex-dictator just to be perceived as a strong leader. But that is exactly the way he is coming off now with the many punches he is throwing at opponents. With all the mayhem we have witnessed in Rivers State, where his cronies are engaging Governor Rotimi Amaechi in a 2015 power struggle, even his supporters must be disappointed. This is not what we expect at the mid-point of his term. He ought to be refuelling his Transformation Agenda while also trying to reinvent himself as an effective leader who could wield our dangerously polarized nation together and make institutions of state provide the expected deliverables. According to Russian Novelist, Leo Tolstoy, ‘’Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself ’’. President Jonathan is the exponent of transformation but he must first of all transform himself. He should recalibrate himself to be able to face the daunting challenges effectively. He needs to disengage himself from his siege mentality; change his awkward leadership style and repackage his Transformation Agenda to address the immediate needs of the people. He needs to evolve new strategies to deal with the resurgent Boko Haram rebels who are proving to be more difficult to contain, despite the recent military offensive that was supposed to have disabled the group’s strike capability. Instead, the terrorists are now emitting greater venom. They have unleashed their killing machines on students in boarding schools, and nobody knows who their next target would be. The prognosis seems to grow dire. Indeed, these are the times that try men’s souls. Our security forces have tried everything in the books to contain Boko Haram to no avail. On this issue of security, the President might have acted too late; no one should accuse him of not doing his best. His Amnesty proposal has been pooh-poohed by the terrorists, leaving him with few realistic options. Now that the administration appears to be at its wits end, perhaps Mr. Jonathan may consider convening a national stakeholder’s summit to examine other options of resolving the conflict, not just with Boko Haram, but all the other disparate armed groups troubling the country. Perhaps it is time for an inclusive solution to a national problem. Things have never gotten this bad since 1970 when the war ended. Sometimes, leaders need crisis to bring out the best in them. This may just be President Jonathan’s defining moment to transform himself and the country and etch his name in gold.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 21:52:27 +0000
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