I had broached this issue in the past but the president current medical trip brings it up again. I have a principle NEVER to gloat at anyone who is sick; also never to put them under pressure. Therefore I will not join the gang of those who are asking for the president to resign. I believe, in as much as he is public property, a president still has some prerogatives and rights. He has a prerogative to lead life as a normal human being. That someone is a leader doesn’t mean he should be dehumanized by followers tossing him here and there, trampling on him and making all sorts of demands. In Nigeria, many people misunderstand leadership to be the dehumanization of those who offer themselves to be leaders. Even I have had cause to resist people who want to barrage and stampede me in my small roles as leader of men and women. A leader should be firm, and must never become a plaything in the hands of his followers.
There is however a fine line here. Whereas a leader has the right to lead a normal life, at what point do the rantings and proddings of the led become excessive and at what point can he speak up and defend himself from being dehumanized? Also, at what point should followers show their leaders some love and respect without expecting anything in return and even in spite of past mistakes by the leader? And at what point should they pull the plug and say ‘well, we don’t care whatever happens to you’? These are all questions swirling through one’s mind at times like this.
Leaders are human. They have their fears, their hopes and aspirations too. Firstly, no one wants to die. I have seen people up close who get gravely ill. I have never met anyone of them who prayed to God to hasten the process because he wants to die. Instead, they hold on to life with hope, until their last breath. That is why it may be extremely difficult – not impossible – for a leader to resign to fate during illness. Usually, at that level, resigning from their position is as good as committing suicide. Life is good. Do you know that? This life – the very simple things such as the air we breathe, the food we like, the bright, blazing sun, the quiet of night, the moon and the stars, the gadgets we’ve invented to make life more enjoyable, and most especially the people we love, make life oh so beautiful. Most people, no matter the misery of this world, wants to give these great things up. This is good. But we usually take life for granted until it nears the end.
That is why I argued fervently and painfully during the Yar’Adua saga. I was shocked when the Americans through their media mounted a campaign that Yar’Adua should not return to Nigeria; that if he returned he will cause confusion. I could only put such statement down to the fact that indeed those ‘oyibo’ people don’t have our own type of native intelligence. I wondered how a man, indeed a leader of his people, will be outlawed from coming back to his country, even if just to die. When Yaradua made it in at night, they made so much hoopla about the matter and many of those who are again on Buhari’s neck to resign, as well as those supporting him, did not see the implications of what the Americans were doing. They wanted Yar’Adua out by any and every means and I smelt a rat. Of course we know what happened after. Today, we have fallen into the same trap. Nigeria is a country that never learns from anything. How a people can keep repeating the same mistakes is a great wonder indeed. In the Yaradua case, people like Akunyili dug in, and Jonathan though he was looking for power (to do what at the end?). He ended up getting the power. He didn’t even go for Yaradua’s burial.
Spiritually it is abominable to mock the sick or put them under pressure. That is my point. Again, no one knows when the end shall come for them. In this life, all of us will die eventually, no matter our accomplishments, acquisitions or how much we enjoy the life.
How should followers behave towards their leaders? I understand perfectly that our leaders have wronged us greatly. I am also a victim. And indeed it is hard to find pity in our hearts for these leaders. But we have to be careful lest we become monsters. Because of the decades of disappointment, Nigerians have become vicious and are ready to tear into any leader at the first signs of weakness; especially physical weakness. Is this who we are? As I’ve always said, there are roles for us to play as followers too, though the bigger burden is on leaders. Where we are today is a situation where the leaders hold the followers in disdain while the followers become more and more unruly, unfeeling and uncooperative. The leader-follower relationship has broken down and for now, the leaders hold the aces and are using it very mercilessly. They determine who gets what. Of late, they’ve been cornering everything to themselves.
Let’s look at history. David Livingstone was said to have written about the black people he met around today’s South Africa in the 19th Century:
‘The population is sunk into the very lowest state of moral degradation… No one can conceive the state in which they live. Their ideas are all earthly and it is with great difficulty that they can be brought to detach (themselves) from sensual objects… All their clothing is soaked in fat, hence mine is soon soiled. And to sit among them from day to day and listen to their roaring music, is enough to give one a disgust to heathenism forever. If not gorged full of meat and beer they are grumbling, and when their stomachs are satisfied, then commences the noise termed singing.’
Is this who we are? I doubt. But if we detest such description, we have to do better than we are right now.
Then what is the role of leaders towards their followers? The role cannot be captured in budgets and big grammar and policy documents. The roles of leaders also differ, depending on the state of their people’s development, their history and current circumstances. For Nigeria, in my humble opinion, the role of a leader will be too narrowly defined if we focus on economic jargon and terminologies like GDP and so on. A proper appreciation of the role of the Nigerian leader must centre around how they ensure that the Nigerian specie evolves and improves over and above what Livingstone described above. For now, not only are Nigerian leaders not measuring up even in the peripheral considerations, but nothing is being done on improving the overall quality of the Nigerian mind. Many would agree that even the minds of most Nigerian leaders are still quite primitive. So as they say; ‘You cannot give what you don’t have’.
In spite of our leadership failures, the youth should by now have learnt that it is time to stop focusing on the old, and start building the new. Presidential illness is not a novel thing the world over. A cursory research reveals many interesting ailments of British and American leaders; ranging from cancers, to stroke, to depression, Alzheimer’s, heart diseases and even blindness. Nigerian leaders and followers could certainly do better. If leaders and followers are getting worse as human beings, and being more and more unfeeling towards each other, then there is no future.
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