LEADERSHIP has become a hot button issue the world over. It’s not a popularity contest. In financial terms, it’s like finding the profit in fairness. But because not many know the transformations of leadership, they indulge in cocky assurances that ring so hollow. It makes our politics look so uninspiring. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at a recent interactive session with top officials of the Nigerian High Commission in London, caused a small tempest when he opened a conversation on President Muhammadu Buhari as a politician and leader. He described Buhari as “possibly the most popular, credible politician in Nigeria, ever in generations”.
The vice president says popularity and credibility are factors necessary in galvanizing the whole country behind the patriotic push to rise above its current challenges. For him, President Buhari “is the only politician who can go into a place or somewhere without bossing people to gather as they will come and listen to him speak”. Really? Since the VP made that ‘superb’ commendation of his boss, high-octaned reactions have followed. The question is: when has popularity become a major attribute of transformational leadership? Has Nigeria become a “Big Brother Naija” competition where housemates are chosen based on popularity of individual housemate? As South African cleric, Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote in his book:”No Future without Forgiveness “, when a leader is surrounded by “yes men” and sycophants, that country is in real trouble. Psychologists call such people “sincere deceivers”.
These are people who know the truth but only speak what will please the master. It did not start with Osinbajo. Go back to 2002, when Chief Tony Anenih(May God bless his soul), fondly called “Mr.Fix it”, issued a ‘No Vacancy’ in Aso Rock. He described the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo as the “only reason Nigeria still remains one entity”. He added, “If Obasanjo was not the President today, Nigerians would have taken to the streets, fighting themselves”. Nobody, Anenih boasted, would have governed Nigeria as Obasanjo. With this kind of politicians, who says our politics and politicians, are not fun to follow?
As a pastor, Osinbajo needs no reminding that God places premium on words, especially careless, idle words. Idle words are empty, ineffectual. They are mere jesting, ramblings, coarse language. In his heart, the VP knows his description of the president is not genuine. But one thing is clear: When people indulge in idle words as Anenih and Osinbajo did in dressing their principals, it’s the fear of failure. That’s what happens when the sun is about to set on some careers.
I agree with some developmental psychologists that what differentiates leaders is not so much their philosophy of leadership, their popularity, or style. It’s what they call “action logic”. It means how a leader responds swiftly to challenges of immediate sort. Few politicians understand their action logic. Recall that in 2006, silver bird communication and Vanguard newspapers, conducted a survey on the most “popular and credible” presidential candidates. The outcome? Rev.Chris Okotie, then the candidate of Fresh Democratic Party, emerged the winner . But the truth is that popularity is a mere social construct. It lacks creativity of hypothesis. Often, it’s the result of contaminated bias. It lacks creative thinking. In my view, in the Seven Action Logics, developed by David Rooke and William R. Torbert, professors of Management, President Buhari falls squarely within the “opportunist leaders”. These are leaders, the authors say, who regard their “bad behaviour as legitimate in the cut and thrust of an eye-for-an-eye world.
They reject feedback, externalize blame, and retaliate harshly”. Let’s acknowledge that Buhari is popular and credible in the North . Perhaps that was why there was optimism and excitement among these folks when he won in 2015 after three failed attempts. In that regard, it will be safe to say that Buhari rode to the presidential villa like a ‘Knight on a white horse’. That excitement seems far gone now. Why? Because popularity without solid performance counts for nothing. Ask Nigerians: Are you better off today than you were six years ago?
As I wrote in this column on December 19, 2019, some of the questions elected presidents often ask themselves include: how will I like to be remembered? As a preserver of my nation’s peace and unity? Or as the leader who has enforced the law with equity and fairness to all, or a president who presided over the division of the country? In the fullness of time, historians will tell us whether the “popularity and credibility” of the president was able to make Nigeria and Nigerians better, or worse.
That’s why a President is like a shepherd who knows what stirs the hearts of the people he governs. The challenges that any nation faces are like millstones around the President’s neck. How he solves them, to a large extent, determines whether history will judge him kindly or harshly. That’s why Presidents are not judged like ordinary men. By the position he occupies, Buhari must make better things happen, and prevent worse things from happening. But the latter is the case. As American journalist, Edward R. Murrow once said, “difficulty is one excuse history never accepts”. History does not ask a leader: how popular or credible are you? Rather, how have you used that opportunity you have been given to rally the citizens and solve their problems? What legacy did you leave behind, is it that of debt, extreme poverty, or prosperity? These questions loom large, especially as tenure of a leader draws feverishly to a close. It’s so, because, the position a leader holds is a trust, a duty to do, not a prize to be won.
The president has underperformed because some of his aides have chips on their shoulders. Some of them believe Nigeria should be eternally grateful to have Buhari as president at this time in our history. Well, the result is evident for all to see. Things have gotten progressively worse because our leaders are unlearned. Change’ requires self- awareness and close leadership attention. Sadly, it appears the President is oblivious of the depth of disaffection and disillusionment across the country. The APC is losing a war of ideas that’s undermining public support for necessary change.
What they see as the President’s “popularity and credibility”, is just the continued tolerance of Nigerians of government’s inactions that ordinarily should have ruse them to protests. As Amb. Babagana Kingibe rightly said at The Sun Awards, last Saturday night, “Nigeria’s unity is negotiable”. Nothing should be off the table. President Buhari should be more determined now than ever to heal the divisiveness that has racked us so long. As the Jewish philosopher Maimonides said,” free will is offered to all men. If they wish to follow the path of goodness and become righteous, the will to do so is in their hands, and if they wish to follow the path of evil and become wicked, the will to do so is also in their hands”. Let Mr. President follow the “path of goodness”, and make Nigeria better than he met it. The power is in his hands.