Insensitive leaders, docile and uninformed led

Mr. President freshly went to Kano State and the whole of Kano went berserk while in receipt of him. This has become the foremost yardstick that PMB is using to measure his effectiveness and performance in office. But what Mr. President and his team do not understand is that being popular and being effective are not one and same. No doubt about it, Buhari is the most popular politician alive today in our nation state and because no one has ever become the president of Nigeria riding on the back of performance and know-how, but riding on the back of religion, money and tribalism.

I do not have both the time and space to take you down memory-lane on how each of our former presidents was received in every State—where they were strong while they were in office. It was not because they were good to those people. It was just because those people did not know that those they were worshipping were the ones inflicting suffering on them and their children. So if Buhari wins in 2019, it is not because he has brought anything significant to the national table, it is because the led are both amazingly and startlingly uninformed and docile.

Nigeria will not truly move forward—until virtually every citizen becomes completely informed and full of zip. The breed and brand of followership the citizens of Nigeria are providing right now cannot birth a great nation. The kind of followership we are bringing to the table now is colored with sycophancy and hypocrisy. It takes citizens—who know their fundamental human rights to keep pushing their political leaders to keep delivering the best that exists on earth today. Today in Nigeria, when a governor gives our people “I better pass my neighbor generators,” instead of demanding for a stable electric power supply, our people would bend down worshipping him. And when a lawmaker sinks some boreholes, instead of doing what he is voted into power to deliver, our people would stoop so low, licking his grubby-boots. Politics has drained so much value from our people.

Some hours ago, the news of a young governor did fly out as a bird and landed on the window of social media. Years back, it would make me weep, but it does not make me weep anymore. Why? It is because I have been able to unearth that the Blackman—either young or old—is not wired to lead. And I am beginning to conclude that the best we can offer the world is to follow those who know how to lead.

Also, I used to be amongst those advocating for young folks to come into the realm of politics, climbing to the highest height possible in our polity, but now, I do know better. Our leaders, either young or old are highly insensitive and unfeeling. No matter how hard things are in the country, it does not change our leaders from changing classy and luxurious cars as diapers. Is there anything wrong in buying posh cars? No! But buying expensive cars when people are dying of hunger is the height of insensitiveness in leadership. Real and true leaders do not remove themselves from what those they are leading are going through. True leaders and the led are supposed to be going through same thing, but in Nigeria, the fad is not the same. I doubt if the president of Nigeria and his cabinet members are being owed even a day salary, let alone a month, but most of our workers have not been paid for several months. A State owes twelve (12) months’ salary while the governor opened his new mansion for the whole world to see. Can a leader be more insensitive than that? Even if he used his own hard-earned money to build it, the truth is, the time he chose to build it, is very wrong.

Nigerians are clearly being enslaved in their own country, but most of our people do not know. How much of freedom do you have an access to as a citizen? How much of world-class social amenities do you have an access to as a citizen? Until you travel outside of Nigeria, you would not know that you are not being treated as a human being. But instead of our people to daily ask questions that would move us forward as a people, we are neck-deep in the septic-tank of sycophancy that cannot deliver a great tomorrow.

A man committed suicide some hours ago because of 40,000naira and the following day, nothing was said about him by those in the corridors of power. Our leaders do not care a hoot! They only care about themselves and their family members. Both the leaders and the led have become so desensitized as a people. We hate ourselves so much. And we are so religious, but we are extremely God-less. To truly change Nigeria, our leaders will need to stop being insensitive and the led will need to become full of zip and clued-up. Until these happen, we would not leave where we are as a people.