THE LEADERSHIP QUESTION: IS NIGERIA READY FOR A YOUNG PRESIDENT?
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- There is no doubt that The Nigerian leadership is in a state of dilemma. The leadership position has been subjected to so much political and sociological punches so much so that we are now at a crossroads as to whether we should vote for a young and vibrant technocrat as against the recycled democratized past military head who want to maintain a strangle hold on power. But we delve too deep into the issue, it is pertinent for us to clearly define what and whoa leader is if scholastic justification is to be done to the subject above.
Who is a leader? A leader is a person who leads or commands a group, organization or country. If the epitome/quality of a leader requires the ability to lead and command, who among our young people represents these characteristics? Clearly Nigeria is ripe for a change in terms of the age bracket of it’s next leader; there is no questioning the fact that the power struggle among the two most dominant political parties is gradually going beyond the parties to the personality and character of the individual that would be elected.
Obviously, Nigerians have lost faith in the recycled processing of our past military leaders. These past leaders are clearly not able to handle the modern speed at which the world is moving hence, they resort to bullying and intimidation of the prospective candidates that might stand as opposition to their political schemes. The next generation of Nigerian leaders must be able to understand where the country is coming from and not plunge it back into the same mess it has been subjected to over the years. There is a definite need for the new leader to create a clear blueprint of where the country should be and this would require a change in the mindset. The idea of being superior to every person/citizen should be totally thrown out the door. The young leader must first see him/herself as a human first of all before any other official powers can be positively utilized. It is this humanity that would help the leader to make concrete and positive decisions because he/she would realize that when they leave office they would account for all their actions.
What Nigeria is a radical transformation from the old to the new if it wants the international community to regard her as a developed nation. Development is not measured in terms of the wealth of the leaders but rather the collective wealth of the people who are the citizens of such a country. The falling standard of the Naira and its purchasing power must be a source of concern for the leader. There must be a price control body that can put some checks and balances to the capitalist’s capacity to fleece the majority. The young people have to come together to choose the people that would represent the country going forward at the next polls and should not allow any form of imposition of any one by past military heads. The current ideology that all the youths are embodiments of crime and vices need to be outdated. These ideologies are outdated and it makes a mockery of our country among the international community. These ideologies are some of the baggage we carried with us from the military era and they were passed down to us from the colonial masters. This is evident in the recent findings of the Panama papers, the Paradise papers and so many other discoveries over the years. We ought to also do away with the mindset that the west has been the architect of our misfortunes and be bold and wise enough to take the responsibility of leadership upon our shoulders. I am not saying it is going to be easy but if we do not take responsibility we would be subjecting our country and indeed ourselves to the political machinations of people who are only after the financial gains of the office and care little or nothing for the collective development of the citizenry.
In addition, the government must create a social welfare system that can reach the common man on the street because the Nigerian citizen is not only the civil servants and employed persons, he is that homeless man on the street, he is that uneducated youth that is being used by politicians as thugs, he is that unemployed graduate, he is that hungry child, he is that man and woman being used for cheap labour, he is the one who has to pay for the electricity that he does not use and water that he can not drink, pay taxes for roads that he can drive on and infrastructures that serve only the rich and wealthy.
As it stands, what we are clamoring for is a leader that is humane enough to see the plight of the people and not change it for the better and that is what Nigeria’s next Young President should represent. We do not want a young President just because France and a number of other countries are towing that line; no that would be complete idiocy, we are voting for a young leader because the old ones have become greedy and insensitive to the plight of the people. As a matter of fact they are out of touch with the everyday people on the streets, they do not understand what it means for a man to commit suicide because he can no longer feed his family, they do not understand what it means for one to love his neighbour as he loves himself. These leaders are the representation of what the bible says when it says that in the last days men would become lovers of themselves.
What Nigerians should be looking for in the next elections are candidates who are not tied to the aprons of the past but represent the future. We know that once the young president gets into power the past military leaders would want to find ways to usurp him/her but that is why the love of his people must be the one and only goal of this leader. He must go out of his way to win the love of the people because that is the only power that can save him. He must represent a point of unification to every Nigerian, he must not be tribalistic because that would ruin his love for his people. It is only the love relationship between the leader and his people that would secure his reign in office.
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