On accessible leadership: The missing link

WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER

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Truth be told, the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, judging from the nature and structure of the bold policies it introduced and still introducing since its inauguration fifteen months ago, has shown that it has projected substantive plans to address perennial anti-development challenges of Nigeria. Unfortunately, despite all these policies, the country has continued to face economic hardships that defy bookmakers’ explanations. The petrol subsidy has, against projected plans and palliative measures, continued to create untold general hardship; the dollar floating policy has up till now been unable to achieve the net objective of strengthening the naira. We have gotten to the point where we keep wondering what is wrong; and why good policies are appearing non-feasible and the government’s good intentions are becoming more of an object of ridicule among the vast majority of the populace.

I have wondered often where we got it wrong as a nation and as a people. We literally do not lack in enabling resources to build the life and development we hope for, nor do we lack in human power to pull and push our system to the Eldorado we desire. Way back before independence, we were a very strong nation depending solely on agriculture and outputs from farming to run our various regions as effectively as it came at that time. The Western region developed massively on the strength of proceeds from cocoa plantations and auxiliary produce; the groundnut pyramid served the Northern region’s development needs so effectively and the Eastern region was doing well enough on the strength of its oil palm plantation and other exportable produce. There was no way it could have been projected at independence that Nigeria would become a nation some years into the future, struggling with poverty, and at a level as bad as it is in the last twenty-five years.

Today, with ownership of the eighth largest gas deposits globally, massive oil well, and stupendous oil money, rather than progressing, we have retrogressed over the last few decades, to a nation on its knees. Our reality is now a nation begging for survival; a citizens population without access to quality education, quality medicare, quality water and quality basic foods. We remain a nation absolutely dependent on imported consumer products of technology growth from everywhere else. We are a nation beaten by continuous and unsolvable corruption and insecurity, despite monumental and genuine governmental responses, as it appears.

I have wondered a lot, why aren’t these governmental intentions translating to beneficial results for the country? Why do we appear again and again as a nation doing nothing to solve its many problems because we are not seeing respite despite many actions? The Muhammadu Buhari administration was strong on ending corruption in the country; the policy direction was obvious, yet, it was defeated and corruption only soars, and like the popular parlance, won both the battle and the war. The current Administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a line up of wondrous economic policies to transform the nation’s economic system; the petroleum subsidy removal, the exchange rate floating and many other bold policies are strong enough to create the long needed changes, yet, what we are seeing is a strong opposition and dwindling national condition. Now, to many, the policies are bad for our system and want them repealed.

However, the questions are: are the policies bad for our system and not needed? The answer is capital NO! Why then, aren’t they working? That is a million dollar question for all of us to provide an answer to. Economists all over the globe, locally and internationally, for decades have made the same submission that removing fuel subsidy in Nigeria is a step forward for the country. But where are we now? Almost fifteen months after the bold removal. What else is missing? What factor are we ignoring?

I came across what I perceived to be the missing plug. Over the decades, we have had many ambitious leaders; governors and presidents alike across states and the centre, who all came in with a zeal to transform the system and evolve better states and country theoretically, but failed, because they always, unconsciously, ignore a very critical element of leadership effectiveness and societal development. They have all; always ignored the citizens’ participation and contributions.

I come to realise that leadership in the context of national administration does not end with having beautiful and workable plans and projections for the country, but more importantly, to be approachable by the citizens to provide guideposts, encouragements, directions and even detours when needed. Administering a country is a partnership work between the leaders and the citizens. The elected leaders must always remember that they are selected from a pool of capable population since everyone cannot be leaders, and not possibly because they are the sole custodian of administrative capacity to run the system.

In the words of John Buchan “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.”  The best result is obtained when you realise the potentials and the capacities of the people you lead. Leaders would strengthen their leadership role when they understand the benefits of allowing themselves to be accessible to the people they lead. When they begin to reap the benefits of initiating, orchestrating and engaging the co-creating of pubic goals and expected results with the citizens, via a conscious collaborative act. This will literally evoke the mobilisation of the knowledge, ideas and resources of citizens and resourceful stakeholders within the system. The idea is to make result-oriented leadership through a construct that sees elected politicians working through policies and developing policy solutions through a problem-focused interaction with relevant and affected actors from the economy and civil society, including users, volunteers, citizens and other actors.

Currently, as a nation, citizens’ participation is at a dangerously low level. This has been the main cause of citizens’ opposition and mistrust towards many and almost all government policies, because they cannot see their inputs in them. We have somehow lost focus from the basics of democracy, which ought to be a citizen-led and dynamic system, while we now practice individual-minded leaders assuming the right to unilaterally make decisions for all and presume that everyone should accept by default whatever decision is made for them, even without their inputs.

As a nation, and coming mostly from our leaders across all tiers of governance, we have for decades jettisoned the real essence of politics and democracy, a statement that people should work together and help one another, for the greater good of their communities. A statement that we are united to a collective effort to tackle our community’s challenging issues. Rather, the people have become alienated from the processes and structure of policy formulations and decision making in the community where all decisions directly come to affect their lives and living conditions.  We now play a kind of politics and leadership system that is distant from the grassroots, institutionalised and out of reach for most citizens. We now run administrative systems that do not represent our basic needs as a people.

We have derailed and need to return as much as possible and as soon as possible to the point where the decisions we make as leaders would be as close as possible to the on-the-ground needs and expectations of the people we govern. The people know what they want, they know what projects serve their expectations the most, and expect a government that takes inputs from them as much as possible. They want a government in place that listens to them and effectively integrates them in the decision-making processes that create trust, mutual communication for all the stakeholders and development for the units and the nation at large. The people want a government that creates platforms to organise them into participation, and collective actions that achieve incredible development for their communities.

The reason why we have to grapple with citizen’s repulsion and rejection of government actions and have to deal with criticisms, protest after protests, is because the people continue to feel alienated from government programs and cannot explain the reasons they should bear with and exercise patience with government decisions. If you don’t know why the decisions are made, it is normal that you would not accept a waiting time for its maturity to fruition.

It is time our leaders begin to come to term with many realities; the time when they would begin to listen to criticism, to what is written and said about them; and not to take all sources as enemies. They should begin to see positives in many antagonisms; some of these critics only want to push the leaders to make mutually beneficial changes, and not necessarily haters of the government or the president. A leader needs these people’ you don’t need to be an expert to run a state, or a nation, what you need is to be a good listener and people to listen to.

In the build up to the protest of the last few weeks, we saw some elements in leadership, who were able to easily douse the tension in their localities because they have build trust and rapport with their constituents, by making themselves accessible. These are leaders who have come to realise that whatever position they hold today is ephemeral, and that whether it is tenured or not, they would not be there forever, and their achievement would eventually be a measure of how well they relate with the people they lead, and how freely they are accessible while they sit on the high chair above the rest.

While noting the recent appointments of new Directors-General by President Tinubu, I had to do a little bit deeper background check with the available public records. The newly appointed DG DSS, for instance, is one who had high commendation by his peers, his subordinates and many others. He is said to be one who takes the welfare of his men seriously aside from his competence on the job. This is the kind of leader we need across the board. However, a caution to the new DGs is that they should be careful not to be seduced by the allure of their offices. They should endeavour to listen to their officers and men and to act accordingly. Otherwise, the dark men in the corridor of power would want to, as much as possible, lure them away from reality and for their selfish ends.

The secret is simple: leaders who make themselves available to their people will enjoy a huge reciprocated response of volunteered information and advice that make governance easy and acceptable by all and at all times.

GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA!