How Bad Followership Breeds Bad Governance In Nigeria! By Sylvester Udemezue

(Culled from a piece originally published on 11 June
2010)

“No sane Nigerian will doubt the point that Nigeria is nothing
to write home about, especially when compared to other countries of
the world, even countries that used to be on the same pedestal with
Nigeria.

But, while I agree that the crop … of leaders we have had since
independence has contributed to the pitiable plight in which our
country Nigeria has found itself today, I personally am of the view
that the Nigerian followership and people cannot go free of any
blame in this respect. Take as an example, can a leader rig an
election without the cooperation of the people.

If our leaders are bad, is that why almost every living Nigerian
today wants to get rich quick, without working for it? Is it the
sorry condition of our educational and economic sector that has
forced Nigerian students to abandon the reading culture (a
veritable pre-condition to the development of a civilized and
enlightened society) for cultism, brigandage and buying of
certificates? A typical Nigerian wants first-class in his degree
exams without working hard for it; to drive in the latest Toyota
Prado jeep three months after leaving the university.

In summary, materialism has engulfed Nigeria like a wild fire….
And both the leader and the led are swimming in it. Tell me what
happens to the elections if Nigerians decide to not allow
themselves to be used to rig elections. But give a Nigerian
University Professor one Million Naira and he would be prepared to
snatch ballot boxes and inflate figures in an election.

Some schools of thought are blaming the failure of the system of
things in Nigerian entirely on the leaders. With due respect, I do
not share in this view. Is it the President of Nigeria that should
be blamed when a Senator or House member decides to pocket the
money earmarked for the development of his constituency, instead of
using it for the intended purposes? What I am saying is that our
leaders have so far not fared well, but a better, less greedy and
less materialistic followership could help to bring about a
purposeful and more transparent leadership.

Experience has shown that it takes the cooperation of the people
for the leaders to be corrupt; the moment a leaders knows that the
people around him are not willing to cooperate with him in his evil
ways, that, in fact, they are determined to expose him, he would
desist from engaging in evil. … we (both the leaders and the led)
therefore are together to blame for the pitiable state in which
Nigeria finds itself today.

To heap the blames for all our woes entirely on the leaders is,
I think, with due respect, to miss the point. This is one side of
the coin; the other side is that we must from the onset tell
ourselves the gospel truth, namely that we can never have a perfect
leader. Even the Philosophers who had proposed the idea of a
perfect king, on seeing that this was not feasible, later settled
for an alternative: the reign of the Philosopher-King. The question
now is, who is the Philosopher-King? We cannot know him by mere
looking at him; the test of the pudding is in the eating.

All the people that are shouting against bad governance in
Nigeria, I assure you that the moment you entrust them with power
for two minutes, they will turn monsters overnight. But I
respectfully assure you also that if we elect a known thief as our
leader and he knows we are responsible, and that we would not
accept or condone any nonsense from him, he would behave himself.
It is because our leaders are aware from the beginning that they
have willing tools in the hands of the people, the followers, that
is why they do whatever they wish and get away with it at the end.
So, if our leaders are criminals, we should know that we are the
ones who made them what they are. If, from the moment we voted our
leaders into power we, Nigerians, had resolved that this is the way
we wanted to be led and governed; and we really are determined to
follow our words with sincere, concrete actions, the leaders would
behave themselves. A ready example comes in mind: former President
Obasanjo and his third-term agenda; look at how Nigerians rose up
and spoke with one voice in opposition to it, and it was
immediately defeated, and OBJ was forced to respect the Nigerian
constitution he had sworn to uphold. Several other examples
abound.

But let us assume, on the other hand, that we elect a Pastor or
Bishop or Chief Imam to be our President. As long as materialism,
get-rich-quick-without-working-for-it remains our watchwords, we
would end up corrupting the leader, thereby making him a bad
President ….Can one pour clean water in a contaminated pool and
expect the clean water to remain clean? Good followership begets
good leadership; it is hardly the other way round. Countries like
the USA, UK, Canada, etc are said to have good leaders today and
therefore enjoy good governance, basically because of the
responsible, refined, and reformed conduct and attitude of their
citizenry.

Nigerian President would not easily indulge in mis-governance if
he is aware that Nigerians are not willing to accept it from him; a
reformed society grows a reformed leader. How many Nigerian
students still read novels, plays, etc? How many Nigerians are
willing to reject money and chose the path of honour, even if it
means dying in penury? Should the fact that a Nigerian graduate is
still unemployed be a justification for his taking up arms against
his fellow, equally impoverished, citizens, or for his accepting
money from politicians or leaders in exchange for perverting and
twisting the rules of a game?”

~~ Sylvester UDEMEZUE, contributing to an
online debate on June 11, 2010.

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