Should we blame the president?

If things go wrong, as they often do, should we blame the president? President Muhammadu Buhari does not think so. He told the graduating students of Senior Course 40 of the Command and Staff College, Jaji, last week that the tendency in this country “to lay the blame for the state of affairs on the doorsteps of the leaders alone” was not right. It is unfair even, if I may add.

I heard a variant of this argument some years ago. President Goodluck Jonathan, obviously feeling frustrated and unappreciated by the avalanche of criticisms, some fair, others not so fair, against him reminded us kindly that he was not the cause of the problems of Nigeria. He was right. Indeed, some of our problems as a nation are so old, they are more than twice his biological age. 

What pushed both men to complain is what I call the burden of power. Funny thing, power. You seek it, you get it, you exercise it for good or evil, you enjoy its privileges and then its burden begins to weigh down or even crush you. When you survey the social scene and see that the voices you hear are not those of Shina Peters and Ebenezer Obey extoling your uncommon humanity but of Chief Gani Fawehinmi and Beko Ransome-Kuti laying the cane across your back and reducing you to the level of the chairman of a village association – you feel the burden of power. When you feel unappreciated because you believe you have become the people’s hero and yet the mud is thrown in your face and your best decisions and actions are shredded like a piece of paper put through the shredder, you feel the crushing burden of power. 

I would imagine that this would be the point at which a leader begins to wonder about the injustice inherent in power and the exercise of power theoretically for the good of the greatest number of the people. Consider the sweet irony. A man gets the vote of the people and becomes their leader. He gets there by demonstrating that he has the wisdom to solve the people’s problems; to market hope of a better tomorrow to them. Yet, when he takes decisions that, in his considered view, are wise and altruistic and beneficial to the people, the people dare to question him and make him look foolish. 

Power is the most sought after possession in all human societies. People kill to get it. People steal to get it. People cheat to get it. But so far in the history of mankind people who have held and exercised power have somehow been crushed by it in one way or the other. Think of the fate of dictators who exercise absolute power and do not usually lack a retinue of praise singers. Their absolute power is often pulverised by the power that passes power – the people’s power. Check the pages of history. I will name no names.

The protocol of power is tangible but the essence of power is elusive. It is one reason why the wise exercise of power oft leads to foolish and unintended consequences. This is something those in power will always wrestle with for as long as human societies hold on to the wisdom of having one man or woman as a leader. A leader is not just the man who leads; he is also the man set up to take all the blame when things go wrong. The position comes with flattery wrapped in beautiful colours – the fortress that accommodates the leader and his family; the presidential jets at his beck and call; hundreds of men and women ready and willing to minister to his every need; the road cleared of mere mortals so he does not suffer the trauma of traffic bottle neck caused by the powerful trailer drivers on the streets of Lagos; his and his family feeding at the expense of the state – the whole panoply of the protocol of power. 

Yet, how think about this. Why is it that a few months after some people take over power, their hair begins to rapidly turn grey? You would think that men who live in this unbelievable security in this incredible lap of luxury would be a telling evidence that, to quote the Chief Moshood Abiola, power sweet – for the mind and the body.

It is not difficult to see why Buhari and Jonathan complained of the unfairness of blaming only the president. The president is only one man. There are 197 million other Nigerians. Should the 197 million people be absolved of blame if things go wrong? Would it not be fair for the 197 million to accept a share of the blame? Is it fair to expect this one man to solve all the problems of the 197 million in the country?

Buhari admitted that the leader necessarily has a larger chunk of the blame. He said, “Yes, leaders have a major role to play in providing direction and the enabling environment.” He then went on to maintain that “the citizens’ role is also vital in our attaining meaningful transformation of the society.”

There is no such thing as a shared leadership. No leader shares power with the people. Only one man leads. All the rest are a combination of helpers and saboteurs. It is not out of mischief that the people have a tendency to blame their leader when things work out contrary to their individual and group expectations. The leader is the man who volunteers to solve the problems of his society. In a democracy, the people believe him and give him the vote. It follows that the leader who fails to do as he promised must carry the watering can – and carry it all alone. It is the way the cookie crumbles.

Whatever role the leader plays is major, not minor, in the lives of the people and the polity. It is not in the natural order of things that the tail should wag the dog, if a leader fails to provide direction and the enabling environment, there are obvious consequences. It is in the nature of human beings to share in the successes of a leader. But not his failures.