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WHEN a leader seeks the highest office in the land, and sees it as a prize to be won, not as a duty to do, raw political power to him becomes inseparable from what power ought to be used for – using power to some great end – to achieve great purposes. When that leader gets that power he ruthlessly sought, chances are that he will use it to pursue parochial agenda, and to bend people to his will. It’s not to accomplish any real change or renew hope. That is why, to paraphrase American journalist, author and Pulitzer prize winner Robert A. Caro, ‘what leaders do when they are trying to get power is not exactly what they do after they have it’.
For two and a half years after he was sworn in, it is not unkind to say that President Bola Tinubu has been more of a leader in title than in public perception. It appears the weight of the office is getting too heavy on his shoulder. A closer look at him seems like the crises of insecurity, constant abductions and killings across the country, and the recent threat by the American President Donald Trump, have turned out to be timed to political perfection to expose the deficit in President Tinubu’s leadership style. It has made him, to borrow the words of Lyndon Johnson(the 36th U.S. president), to “look like a naked man with no presidential covering, a pretender to the throne”, hemmed in the fortified Aso Rock as if he was an illegal usurper.
But he is not. He is our elected President. However, he looks lethargic as if Nigeria was sicker than he had imagined before he sought for that high office. The problem is, our president seems not to know how to aggregate the citizens’ capabilities to achieve a common purpose. If he appears confused on how to tackle the challenges of immediate sort confronting the country, it could be, as some former Army Generals argued last week, that their ranks and equipment may have been infiltrated by terrorists. To be fair, a lot of things call forth sympathy and empathy for President Tinubu: Imagine nine states in the North reported to be in firm control of bandits. And in Katsina state, 20 out of the 34 Local Government Areas have reached a truce with bandits.
According to NTA, Council Chairmen and traditional leaders of the affected councils were in attendance when the agreement was signed. The bandits were in triumphant mood, riding in their motorbikes firing gunshots in the air. Journalists were barred from filming the meeting with the bandits for “security reasons”. Just on Sunday, Nov. 30, gunmen stormed the Cherubim & Seraphim Church in Yagba West LGA in Kogi state. They kidnapped a pastor, his wife, and other church members. A day earlier, a traditional ruler in Kwara state was kidnapped. His abductors are demanding a hefty N150m before he would be released. A bride and 28 others kidnapped in Sokoto over the weekend.
Sadly, all of this appears to be the price all of us are paying for allowing politicians to get to power without our mandate. Their preoccupation is their own personal interests that supersede national our interest. No nation makes progress in the absence of the people’s mandate. Every elected President rises or falls as a result of his own action or errors of judgement. Early months of every administration provide a unique opportunity to make impressions about the man at the helm. The truth today is that, nobody in Nigeria or abroad who is keenly following events in our country needs anyone to tell him or her, what to like or dislike about Tinubu presidency. Obviously, the most disturbing issue is that terrorists have taken over the country. Even foreigners are weeping for Nigeria.
Recently, Bill Huizenga, a Republican Congressman from Michigan, USA, and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, tried to fight back tears while discussing the present horrible situation in Nigeria. He criticised the Tinubu government for not doing enough to address ongoing violence, abductions and killings by suspected radicalised Islamists. Huizenga said:”I went to school with kids in Nigeria. We have good neighbours who would have been missionaries there, who have families and friends”, he sobbed. He described what’s going on in Nigeria as “outrage” and alleged that the Nigerian government “sits back and does not act”. He also accused Nigerian media and lawmakers of “deemphasizing the gravity of the situation” in the country.
Perhaps Huizenga isn’t far from the truth. But the enemies within the Tinubu government are making things more difficult for him. They are fifth columnists. These are people who have been accused of working in cahoots with the terrorists. Maybe, the President is aware of them, and for whatever reason, he refuses to kick them out of his cabinet. Last week, Minister of Defence Mohammed Badaru, made a careless, disingenuous statement when he highlighted the risks of bombing bandits hideouts in the Sambisa forest. He said, “yes, we know their location, but some of these areas are places where direct could endanger civilians… and these forests are where bombs cannot penetrate”. And you ask: In this age of technology? This amounts to capitulation. How low can a minister go? That sounds like the voice of an “enemy within”. This man is one of the barefaced deceivers that have made things harder for Tinubu to govern.
There are scores of such men who may be profiting from the present terrorist attacks that have become a lucrative enterprise in the North. Love him or hate him, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, you hardly can fault his passionate love for Nigeria. That’s a virtue that is absent from the Tinubu government. Obasanjo’s response to the present insecurity in the land comes close to a perfect definition of what a leader ought to do in a period of crisis like Nigeria is currently facing. At a public function in Jos, Plateau state, Obasanjo delivered one of his strongest criticism yet of Tinubu’s administration. “This government has failed the primary duty of protecting the citizens. It seems incapable of protecting us. If our government cannot do it, we have the right to call on the international community to do it for us”. This is the time for people to speak truth to power. Tinubu is sleeping behind the wheel. He should sit up.
On the other end of the scale, few questions beg for answers: Is Nigeria cursed on the leadership index or are we the cause? Is true that every nation deserves the kind of leaders it gets? Why is every current government in Nigeria seems to be worse than the one before it? These are questions every student of power and leadership should engage his mind in. Something is clear: There’s something wrong in Nigeria’s political leadership recruitment and succession . A lot of things don’t sit right. The present generation of politicians is such a poor fit for the offices they occupy. The crass incompetence we have seen in the present administration makes the mind squirm. It’s the worst that Nigeria has been unfortunate to have in 26 years of the present democratic dispensation.
What we have today is an unprepared, accidental leaders, driven more by personal, vaulting ambition than service to the nation. By definition, accidental leaders have no incisive intellect, no political insights that can lead to a prosperous nation. With a cynical leader at the helm who lacks the skills of how to use power to accomplish great things, he finds it hard to aggregate the capacities of the citizens towards achieving a common goal. That’s why President Tinubu is unable to respond quickly to challenges that call for his immediate attention. It took Trump’s threat to awaken him from his slumber. Don’t be deceived, Tinubu is not serious about implementing the so-called security plan with the U.S. government. There’s no sincerity of purpose, it is a mere cosmetic exercise. There is no talent to rein in terrorists.
This is not a dig at the President. What’s you see that looks like a response to insecurity is all about style and no substance. Trump, don’t be fooled by the Nigerian government. Contrary to claims, security and welfare of Nigerians rank low in Tinubu’s priority list. He has no success story to sell that will bring about security of lives of the people. Propaganda is the government’s Unique Selling Point(USP). There’s no vision either. As Robert Caro once said, without a vision beyond a leader’s own advancement, he is almost paralyzed once the goal of acquiring power has been achieved. Tinubu’s focus is 2027. Nothing else matters. But you have a country to govern, and that is disappearing. Imagine the potpourri of characters announced over the weekend as Ambassador-designates after over two years of anxious wait.
Look closely at some of the names: some of them look like jesters. It’s like a reward for criminality. It’s a national embarrassment that some folks from drug rehab made the list. If one may ask, why is the name of MC Oluomo not among the ambassador nominees? Is Reno Omokri a better he-goat than Olumo? Omokri, means “he-goat” in Urbobo. Well, as one cliché says, you don’t go searching for virgins among the occupants of beds in a maternity ward. There is no honour among thieves. This is the summary of what has robbed Nigeria of its greatness. Things may get worse before getting better. That’s why the president may find it much harder to govern even if he gets re-elected in 2027.
