Thursday, February 17, 2011

Bad Leadership vs The Absence of Leadership!

Leadership, in my own jungle definition, is showing the way. It means looking for the best way to achieve an objective!


So when leadership is said to be bad, it means it is showing the wrong way, or not finding the best way! The absence of leadership, is exactly what it says, the lack of, the existence of a vacuum, where there ought to be some kind of leadership!


Nigeria has been going through torrid times recently! We have had continuous religious, and ethnic clashes in the Northern states of Bauchi, Gombe, and Borno state. Plateau state, has been exceptional in the brutality, and ferocity, of the killings. We wake up each day to news of another massacre, and orgy of killing!


Has the government become accustomed to the killings, and it no longer sees them as a problem?


Could it be true, like the words of  Bongos Ikwe in his song that, whats wrong is right, and whats right is wrong?


In all this, there has been a perceptible, palpable,and pointedly vacuous  leadership! 


The government seems to be ever closing the barn door, after the horse, the chicken, the sheep, and the goat, and even the tractor, have all bolted!


They have become experts at commiserating, and doing nothing!


Our country is simmering with  pent-up inter-ethnic, and intra-ethnic,  inter-religious, and intra-religious crises! 


If you add to this miasma, the political, and criminal assassinations, and kidnappings: we are living in a state of anomie! 


All this in peace time, and at a time when we are making billions from the spike in crude prices!




It then bothers the question, why then do we have a government in place? 


What is the duty of government, if it not to safeguard the lives, and livelihoods, of law abiding citizens? 


Could this government be negligent in it's duty, and no one is calling it to order? Or has it become like the hunter's dog, that can no longer hear it's master's whistle, and is thus destined to be lost?




If you look back at the history of the People's Democratic Party, PDP, over the last twelve years, it has presided over the worst period in the decline of security this county has ever witnessed, bar the civil war!


It seems to be living up to it's ugly moniker of being the People Destroying Party!




As far as I can see, this country has not enjoyed leadership of any form! We cannot accuse president Goodluck Jonathan of bad leadership! That would be very unkind, and unfair! 


It would be like accusing a student who was not present in class, of cheating in that exam! 


What we can accuse Jonathan of, is not offering leadership at all! 


He has not shown up when it mattered most! He has behaved like a fellow whose wife, and daughter, were ravished by his houseboy, and all he could do, was to leave it to God! 


He is afraid of being blamed for taking a decision that went bad! 


Taking bad decisions, harsh, and unpopular ones, and living with the consequences; is all part of offering leadership! 


He should stop prevaricating, pussyfooting, and tippy toeing, around our maniacal problems! 




They require strong uncompromisingly forthright leadership to solve! 


Right now, his curriculum vitae does not have that!




He should stop junketing from one church to the other, looking for prayer contractors to beseech God for him! 




He is looking for salvation where help has not been advertised! 


Nations elect leaders for the sole purpose of taking matters into their own hands, our own case cannot be different! 


Nigeria cannot afford to live in denial, and expect God to do for us "the things which we ought to have done", while doing "the things which we ought not" !


We cannot leave Nigeria's problems to God! 


We did not vote God to power! 


We voted the PDP!


If we say God is the one who is to solve our problems, then we might as well just become a theocracy!


If the PDP, and by extension, President Jonathan, do not know how to solve our problems through creative, proactive,and visionary, leadership, they should toe the path of honour (which has become extinct in our political landscape) and resign!




Enough, is enough! 


I can no longer keep quiet, and watch as Nigerians are harvested from their beds at night, by vile men, who have taken advantage of the absence of leadership, to maim, and to kill!  


We cannot defend the fact that Nigerians are relocating from different states, because of insecurity!


Then what is the purpose of government, if it is not to offer leadership? 


Good,or bad, Nigeria needs leadership fast!






MAY GOD BLESS NIGERIA,MY NIGERIA,FOREVER!




1 comment:

  1. Thats why Nigeria is considered a potentially failed state..because there is no leadership....the people will have to demand for it...no followers... no leaders...its the resposibility of the populace to demand leadership, until then it will be buisness as usual for the political elite!

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