The Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the world as\nwe knew it. By the time this is all over and, hopefully, treatment and vaccine\ndeveloped, economies will lie prostrate, globalization will be in retreat, and\ngovernments may rise and fall. Leadership and its responses have been tested\nfrom Beijing to Rome, from Seoul to Washington DC, and from Abuja to Pretoria.\nWell beyond the roving virus, Nigeria has long been afflicted with its own,\npre-COVID ailment: a scarcity of leadership combined with a preponderance of\ntoxic politics that has left us a broken country. The economy has long been\nanemic. Poverty reigns. Sectarian agendas, distrust and conflict, promoted by\nindividuals in positions of authority, have prevented our country from becoming\na nation with any unity of purpose. Boko Haram has waged war on us, undefeated,\nfor the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How will we select our leaders in the post-COVID world, seeing how we have\nfor decades failed to invest in our health system? Nigerians are so poor they\nrefuse to stay at home to protect their health because absence from their daily\nhustle is equal to death from hunger. No electricity. No running water to wash\nour hands. And in many parts of the country, \u201csocial distance\u201d is a strange\njoke. The physical and communal warmth in our cultures will brook no\ninterference from COVID. Some imams and pastors, steeped in conspiracy\ntheories, remain completely obliviousness to public health and science by\ninsisting on holding worship congregations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leadership determines the progress or failure of nations. It is a sacred\nresponsibility. We have a choice to seek its real emergence in the Nigerian\npolity in a proactive manner, or to wallow in short-term thinking and activity,\ngoing around in circles and ever remaining an \u201cunder-developmental\u201d state. Here\nare seven ways we can fix our leadership crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, we need to be clear in our minds about what leadership really means,\nwhat we should have but don\u2019t. Leadership is the ability to inspire, motivate,\nand mobilize a unit of human beings \u2013 family, organization, institution, state\nor country \u2013 to make steady and measurable progress. This ability is strongly\nlinked with vision. To inspire and mobilize, the leader must have a clear\ndestination in mind. Where are we coming from? Where are we going? Where do we\nneed to get to, and how do we get there? What values, ambitions and strategies\nto attain those ambitions will drive this journey?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without this worldview, a strategic ambition placed in the context of\ndomestic and external realities, a country like ours can exist, alright. We\nhave plodded along for a while now, \u201csurviving\u201d, frequently on the edge of the\nprecipice but (so far) always pulling back from the brink. But this pattern\nwon\u2019t take the 100 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty anywhere near\nprosperity. Instead, we should be thriving. This is the difference between\nbecoming the \u201cblack China\u201d, on the one hand, and the strategic war-game\nscenarios in Western intelligence agencies that \u201can implosion of a country of\n200 million people will unleash a flood of refugees\u201d, on its region and the\nworld. In one scenario, we take our destiny in our hands and create the future\nwe want. In another, we are a problem that the world\u2019s strategic thinkers worry\nabout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leadership also calls for an ability to manage risk. As a summary of Dr.\nBen Carson\u2019s book \u201cTake the Risk\u201d puts it: \u201cNo risk, pay the cost; know risk,\nreap the reward\u201d. Choices have to be made, and all choices have consequences.\nSound, informed, strategic choices lead to progress. The complacent worship of\nthe familiar, the gods of small things like crude-oil dependency, the pursuit\nof ethnic and religious hegemony in a plural and secular state, lead only to\npoverty and conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, we must now make our politics a real leadership selection process.\nIt is increasingly obvious that the current contradictions of the Nigerian\nstate cannot be sustained for much longer. Something will have to give. Who has\nthe vision, the capacity and the competence to lead Nigeria into the 21st\nCentury as a modern, prosperous and stable nation? This is the central issue we\nmust address, as our politicians joust for power in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, Nigeria\u2019s next political leadership should emerge through a process\nof negotiated consensus, and then placed into an electoral process in all or\nthe leading political parties. This is what happened in 1999. It is not ideal,\nbut the times call for it. Our politics has become so broken in the past decade\nthat, left to itself, and with \u201cdemocratic\u201d outcomes determined mainly by\nfinancial inducement, it is unlikely to produce the leader Nigeria needs now.\nRealistically, this negotiation needs to take place within and across the\npolitical parties, ethnic blocks, civil society, traditional rulers, elder\nstatemen including our former presidents, youth, and gender. While, for now,\nthe APC and the PDP are the dominant parties, we cannot write off the possible\nemergence of a strong third force combining \u201cnew breed\u201d with disaffected\nmembers of the old order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourth, the role of equity and justice in nation-building must be frontally\naddressed. It\u2019s possible to do so without compromising the emergence of\ncompetent leadership. The unique political positioning of the Igbo of\nSoutheastern Nigeria since the civil war 50 years ago, and the need to achieve\ntrue national reconciliation from that trauma, is an important factor in the\nfuture of Nigeria. Candidates from the major ethnic groups \u2013 Yoruba,\nHausa-Fulani \u2014 and a Niger Delta minority, have been voted into office by every\npart of Nigeria, the Igbo Southeast included. But Nigeria has yet to elect an\nIgbo as its president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond the sad reality of its ethnic geo-politics, what Nigeria needs most\nis good, competent leadership. That possibility abounds in every part of our\ncountry, including the Southeast. But, given Nigeria\u2019s quest for nationhood and\nthe country\u2019s already frayed existence, the opportunity exists to kill two\nbirds with one stone. Even more fundamental is the imperative of a new\nconstitution that returns Nigeria to a true federal structure. Without a\nconstitutional restructuring of Nigeria, the country has no future, as economic\nprogress and political stability will remain elusive. Our next national\npolitical leadership selection must squarely address these related issues of\nnational equity and constitutional reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fifth, fixing Nigeria\u2019s leadership crisis requires that the middle class,\nintellectuals and youth consciously engage in politics. Ideas rule the world \u2013\nat least in the parts of it that are making real progress. Our independence\nstruggle and post-independence politics were led by intellectuals and\nprofessionals from the middle class. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu\nBello wrote tomes to express their ideas. Today, philistines and\n\u201cmumullectuals\u201d have largely replaced thinking people as leaders. If we are to\nsecure the future of our children, Nigeria\u2019s middle class must reclaim its\nsurrendered space and retire from its self-inflicted political apathy. That\nfuture is threatened by weak economic management and a return to debt slavery.\nOur youth should take its future in their own hands. They should (a) join\npolitical parties and engage in structural politics, as opposed to just\nactivism or an ineffectual obsession with social media; (b) register to vote\nand vote in elections, regardless of distractions and obstacles; and (c) run\nfor office where they have the relevant qualifications and experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sixth, electoral reform is job number one in Nigeria today. Without it, we\nhave a democracy in name only, a hollow ritual. The recommended negotiated\nconsensus towards new political leadership in 2023 must include extensive\nreform of our electoral laws and institutions before the end of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, reading is essential for leaders, because leadership can be\nlearned from reading and from training. I recall my interview on CNN Television\non this subject some years ago. The program \u201cReading for Leading\u201d, anchored by\nthe inimitable Richard Quest, interviewed global business and economic leaders\non how reading made them better leaders. As Admiral James Stavridis (rtd),\nformer Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and until recently Dean of The Fletcher\nSchool of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University writes in \u201cThe Leader\u2019s\nBookshelf,\u201d his book on leadership, reading is essential for good leadership\nbecause it helps us evaluate ourselves (\u201cwhat would I have done in that\nsituation?\u201d), allows us to think deeply about who our heroes and role models\nare, sharpens our written communication skills, and improves our leadership\nskills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have excellent leadership in the Nigerian private sector, but we need\nmuch more of that leadership caliber in the public sector in order to create\nthe enabling environment for mass wealth creation. Nigerian corporations train\ntheir staff in leadership to a far greater extent than the public sector. The\nCentral Bank of Nigeria in my time was a major exception. We invested heavily\nin leadership and other training for the staff and management, and I hope it\nhas remained so. My leadership vision was shaped in the reserve bank by such\nrich executive education programs in leadership as Harvard Business School\u2019s\n\u201cMaking Corporate Boards More Effective,\u201d Harvard Kennedy School\u2019s \u201cLeading\nEconomic Growth,\u201d and the Wharton School of Business at the University of\nPennsylvania\u2019s \u201cGlobal Strategic Leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leadership training should be more institutionalized in the civil service.\nRare for an African country, Ethiopia has a civil service university. Political\nparties should have their officials and candidates trained in leadership at\nhome and abroad. In early 2019, I concluded consultations on my planned\npresidential run with a visit to my old boss at the United Nations, the late\nformer secretary-general Kofi Annan. When I mentioned this matter of leadership\ntraining and preparedness for aspiring or serving political leaders as we\nchatted in his office in Geneva, the sage diplomat smiled. With a twinkle in\nhis eye, he gave me advice: \u201cDon\u2019t call it \u2018leadership training,\u2019 Kingsley.\u201d\n\u201cAfrican politicians don\u2019t believe they have anything to learn from anyone.\nWhat you do is to invite them to a \u2018leadership conference.\u2019 Wisdom. Three\ngbosas to \u201cleadership conferences!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022Kingsley Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria\nand a presidential candidate in 2019, is the Convener of To Build a Nation\n(TBAN), a non-partisan citizen\u2019s movement for electoral and constitutional\nreform.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cLeadership is not about a title or about a designation. It\u2019s about impact, influence, and inspiration.\u201d \u2013 Robin S. 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