Now that Gaddafi is Dead...

Its funny how tables can turn overnight.  The once strongman of Libya was captured like a chicken early today when he was trying to flee from the overwhelmed city of Sirte, his birthplace which has been his hiding place since he was deposed in August this year.  This once reverred messianic persona who throd over the landscape of Libya like a collosus is now killed and has left the realms of the living.

There are lessons that we should learn from the mistakes and mishaps of others but most often than not, we do not get down to learn these lessons.  Gaddafi was alive when Liberia's Samuel Doe was captured and butchered like a goat in the 1990s when Prince Yommie Johnson and longtime Liberian war-lord turned President, Charles Ghankey Taylor led a splinter of rebellion against his regime.  Even the Ecowas Monitoring Group co-sponsored by the Nigerian government under the leadership of President Ibrahim Babangida could not save the then famous Sergeant Samuel Doe.

In the wake of the Arab Spring which spread across the Arab Magreb in Africa, Gaddafi saw how Ben Ali of Tunisia and his old friend, Hosni Mubarack were swept  by the whirlwind.  He never took notice to quietly stand down and take a deserved rest.  When the youths in his country began the uprising which led to his eventual removal and now death, he called them mad dogs and insisted that Al Qaeda was leading the "rebellion" and went as far as saying that the youths had taken some drugs which has led them into some kind of delusion.  Now we know who was being deluded. 

There are other sit-tight leaders still hanging around the African continent and in the Arab bloc.  In Africa, Cameroon's Paul Biya is approaching the 30 year mark, Eduardo dos Santos in Angola is been there about the same time.  Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe is in his 31st year as the only President to have led the republic since independence.  A dynasty of succession of leadership of sort is taking root in Togo with Eyadema Jr now in the saddle after his father passed away after over 30 years.  I believe that Gaddafi was also not unaware of the pranks that Ivorien former President Laurent Gbagbo tried to play after losing the election to Allasan Quattara late last year.  He was eventually captured after some months of dilly-dallying.  Despots and autocratic leadership will always end up in shambles.  If you always want to be a leader by hook or by crook, you will be hooked by a crook as well.

Gaddafi's demise should sound a clear signal once again to all undemocratic and authoritarian leadership across the African continent and the world at large that in today's world, there is no hiding place for the wicked.

A word is indeed enough for the wise.

NIGERIA: What manner of governance?

It is with pain in my heart that I write this post on Nigeria's leadership crisis.  It is a crisis because Nigeria has had issues with leadership since its advent as a nation that sought to lead itself since 1960 when it was handed an independence on a platter of gold by the British colonial masters.  We have had the misfortune of having leaders who were mostly rudderless and having no clue where to lead the nation.  As a matter of fact, some of our leaders needed to be properly led first before stepping into such positions of authority.  A whole lot of them had no personal leadership in their own lives - little wonder then that they could not lead at the political or national levels.

Leadership from the concept I seek to address here which is a scarce commodity in Nigeria is strange to many people in positions of authority in the country today.  While real leadership is about adding value to the lives of the people one is expected to lead, in Nigerian parlance based on the way politics is played, leadership is about a personal ambition to get a position of authority and command respect from people and at the same time use the position to amass wealth and display such wealth stupendously amongst the poor and disadvantaged Nigerians.  The former concept of leadership changes the society and adds value to the citizenry while the latter leaves the people more impoverished and the nation more sapped.

To my thinking, very few Nigerian leaders from 1960 were actually prepared to lead this vast nation.  My readers may chose to agree or disagree with me but we have had only two people who were actually ready to tackle Nigeria's leadership issues from the day they took over the reigns of leadership.  These two individuals knew from day one what their mission was and they set about doing it.  One of them started out and was cut down by the bullets of fellow soldiers in a bloody military coup.  The other came on board with grand plans but was sabotaged by the kind of people he surrounded himself with.  They are General Murtala Ramat Mohammed and General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida respectively.  All other leaders apart from the first set of leaders from 1960 to 1966 were all circumstantial leaders who got into leadership by chance and therefore had to try finding their feet while already in the saddle.  By the time they get an idea of what to really do having spent and wasted time trying to understand the complexity of the Nigerian situation, their tenure would have expired or they would be busy trying to enlongate their stay that they end up losing focus on the main business of governance and leadership.

The same is the case for the Goodluck Jonathan administration which is presently enmessed in a lot of problems it is finding difficult to grapple with.  Goodluck Jonathan was a circumstantial governor of Bayelsa State with no ambition or eye for Aso Rock until President Olusegun Obasanjo drafted him to run on a ticket with late Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua in the 2007 Presidential Elections.  He was still trying to get used to being thrust in the center when Yar'Adua took ill and he had to be saddled with the responsibility of becoming an Acting President.  While at that, his boss died and he became a substantive President.  Amidst all kinds of confusion, he announced his intention to run for the President and riding on the crest of popular acclaim for having a minority candidate and being so "innocent", he won the Presidential Election.  Now is time to lead the nation and he is being found wanting.

Communication as a leadership tool

The Nigerian people are becoming enlightened by the day.  They can tell when a leader is confused.  The best way to douse such insinuations (if they really are) is to speak directly to them.  There is a place for press statements through the Special Adviser on Media and Communcations, there is also the role of the Minister of Information and all the Cabinet Ministers responsible for specific job functions but the real leader of the nation is the President.  The buck eventually stops at his desk.  If he has a major policy thrust that he wants to carry out in the nation like the current issue of the State Governor's opposition to the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and their insistence on the removal of the petroleum subsidy, as a President, is expected that he takes to the airwaves and address the Nigerian people directly on the issue.  He could also call a Presidential Press Conference and address the nation through that avenue and take questions off the hook from the members of the Aso Rock Press Corp.  That way, Nigerians can be properly informed.  But the reverse is the case.  The President of Nigeria is silent and many of the other leaders are busy engaged in a cacaphony of noise thereby confusing the Nigerian people and leaving a picture of a confused leadership.

When the British nation was under attack by Nazi Germany during the World War II, the Prime Minister of the British, Sir Winston Churchill spoke to the heart of the nation and charged them to be strong.  His voice represented the English nation's resolve not to be cowered to submission by the madness of Germany's Hitler.  On the strength of his powerful communication, he galvanized the English troop even though weak compared to the Germany machines to victory.

Every remarkable American President had changed the tide of the mood of the nation at adverse times through direct and powerful use of words to communicate to the American public.  Besides the prepared speech and the paraphenalia of state protocols, powerful leaders have been known to speak off the hook from their heart to convince their citizens that as leaders, they were on top of the situation.

Why would President Jonathan play the ostrich at this time of our national emergency and by not communicating directly with the Nigerian people?  It is time to speak your mind about the critical issues and if you think we oppose government's position, try your best to convince us and if we are not, do a rethink.  You are there to serve us and not the other way round.  Be courageous and be bold.  Take the reins of leadership and give the Presidential job your best job.  A whole generation of people is counting on you and the destinies of millions is hinged on your decision today.  We are waiting.