By Sir Kefas Lamak
Critical to every society are the leaders they choose for themselves, their leadership styles, and the rule of law governing the society. Leadership and leaders determine the growth, development, or fall of a society.
For example, leaders can prioritize the economy and the best economic policies that work for them, security networks and apparatus that best serve society, education, and infrastructural development. So, if a society flourishes, the leaders take the credit, and if a society falls apart, leaders are supposed to take the blame.
Nigeria has experienced four major styles of leadership and governance: monarchial (dominant in pre-colonial periods), colonial, military, and democratic. Each style has its history, stories, and legacies. I’m never surprised to hear people say they like aspects of colonial rule.
Similitude, a few scholars have questioned whether Africa was prepared for democratic systems before colonialists handed over power to our founding fathers. The public offers opinions from their history readings, stories they heard, or experiences.In recent years, Nigeria has been unlucky with its election of democratic leaders, which has led to an enmeshed and incessant economic crisis and inflation such that many people were thrown into the red line of poverty.
Civil servants, mainly, are at the receiving end of this crisis. Most civil servants in Nigeria live and depend on monthly salaries, which are never enough to pay for their living expenses and those of their families. The country’s resources only circulate within a trivial proportion of the elites (politicians, military and para-military officers, and business owners).
The country has also had its worst period of insecurity and insurgencies during the past administration, where militias rampaged communities across the country, killing and kidnapping men, women, and children in their houses and sacking entire villages.
As a concerned patriot, I have written various articles on the challenges of insecurity facing Nigeria and the need for international communities to intervene vigorously in Nigeria. Also, as an ambassador of peace, I have uncountably urged Nigerian leaders and the populace to look for local ways of negotiating peace or confronting the situation. Read my opinion, “Nigeria Security: The Thorny Path, Expectations, Clarion Call,” Daily Trust (2023). Until now, many Nigerians have been in disbelief that insecurity can ever be reduced to the barest minimum.
Permit me to ask a few questions: As a non-aligned political party citizen of Nigeria, did you notice that insecurity has reduced so much in the few years that Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been in office? Doesn’t Tinubu deserve some appreciation and support for whatever he and his team do to bring peace back to the country? When last did we hear of kidnappings on the Abuja-Kaduna Road? How about the herdsmen militia killings in Middle Belt communities? How about the door-to-door and house-to-house kidnappings by militias? Pockets of illicit activities may continue, as they do in many countries worldwide, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia.
We quickly look up for comparisons. In my opinion, Tinubu is a leader who has Nigeria at heart and is doing well regarding peace and security. How about strikes and education? I know that since the election of Tinubu, there has never been more than one strike in Nigerian institutions involving students and professors, compared to the many we had with previous administrations.
Again, whatever Tinubu and his team are doing to prevent strikes in Nigerian public schools is good. What happens after strikes abate? Tinubu needs to boost education in Nigeria. His administration needs to provide the basic and modern facilities, resources, and support professors need to provide the best education for students. Nigerian students and professors in public institutions deserve more.
Professors deserve higher salaries and allowances to attend international conferences and publish their research internationally. It is not helpful for the country’s future for professors to teach in multiple schools and institutions, scrambling for higher pay to cater to their families’ needs. The government needs to prioritize all aspects of education and boost it for the sake of the future of young people in the country.
I hope President Tinubu has plans for education reform like the deadly blow he has dealt to insecurity. The president and his team must up their game on the country’s economy. I have visited Nigeria three times since Tinubu was elected president, and I heard the cries of Nigerians on the streets. People are going through hunger, suffering, and pain. Poverty has been on the increase.
Nigerians are expecting more from an experienced leader and a trained financial expert. It is understandable if the country’s economy is dreadful with a military ruler or a professor at the helm of affairs; however, seeing the same appalling conditions prevail with a well-respected accountant like Tinubu at the helm is unspeakable.
Sir, please improve your economic policies to relieve the masses’ suffering. Most of us had hoped that the Federal Government would manage the subsidy money generated from savings derived from the oil sector to embark on infrastructural projects that the common man or woman can benefit from. However, sadly, Mr. President used it to increase monthly state allocations to governors, with little or no visible difference to show. While the masses are suffering, most governors offer no accountability for the money they receive.
What if the president had created an agency to manage the subsidy money to provide road networks, housing, schools, and businesses from one state to another? Let’s say funding five states at a time? I strongly affirm that giving the subsidy money to the 36 governors and the FCT was one of the greatest mistakes of President Tinubu’s administration.
However, given what I saw the president do with insecurity and strikes in Nigeria and his gestures on the tax reform and refurbishing of the Port Harcourt refinery, he has a long-term plan to better the country’s economy.
Given all that I raised in this piece, I still want to go back to the question of leadership I raised at the beginning of this article. Is Tinubu the leader Nigerians are about to discover, or is he like any other past leader? Could we have asked for a better leader who can put insecurity to a stop within a one-year period like Tinubu has? Would Tinubu have done better if he had received the appreciation and support of more Nigerians? I did not support Tinubu in the 2023 election, and he was never on the list of leaders I would ever think I could come to terms with.
But Tinubu is changing the general perception about himself and his team by tackling Nigeria’s insecurity and religious divide. Bravo to Tinubu, Shettima, Ribadu, and Chris Musa for all they are doing to make the country safe for every citizen of Nigeria.
Sir Kefas, University of Iowa, USA Email: lamakkefas@gmail.com