The death of former Soviet leader leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine , a former Soviet satellite state is a very important news laden with history as well the need for scrutiny on the quality of leadership at crucial moments in the history of the world .Leaders globally make decisions that make or mar their reputation and history is always there to judge them and to applaud or condemn their sense of responsibility and accountability in the context of the decisions they make or refuse to make .In Nigeria the President while receiving some governors said reportedly that Nigerians will soon appreciate him because he will not interfere or influence any more elections till he leaves office .Similarly the MD of NNPC justified the decision to award oil pipeline security contracts to private contractors as the right decision because there was an open bid and that is enough to give oil pipe lines contracts to warlords who later under arms turn round to declare secession and agitate for self government against the government that gave them pipeline protection contracts .Anyway the governor of Ondo state is not impressed that government is giving huge contracts to private contractors on security but is not prepared to allow the state governors to have state police or the security wherewithal to protect their own citizens who are being killed in large numbers by terrorists , bandits , kidnappers and armed Fulani herdsmen .
I have highlighted all these decisions to show that leaders at times are the architects of their own misfortune in the reckoning of history especially when they make decisions that are plainly stupid and unreasonable but insist on getting the job done no matter whose horse is gored . It is my intention to highlight such draconian and controversial decisions today both in the present and the past starting with the death of Gorbachev the innovator of Glasnost and perestoika who nevertheless presided over the liquidation of the former Soviet Union and its dissolution into its 15 constituent states .
I believe I do not exaggerate if I say that present Russian leader Vladmir Putin will certainly regard the demise of Gorbachev as good riddance to bad rubbish , which really is in bad taste but is borne out by the fact that , all his political life , since becoming Russia’s leader , Putin has been trying to undo what Gorbachev achieved , which is the collapse of the Soviet Union .Putin since coming to power has squared up to the west in rejecting a unipolar world dominated by the US and with the weakness of the Obama Administration then over Syria and the use of chemical weapons against Syrians by their government , the invasion of Crimea in Ukraine in 2014 and now the invasion of Ukraine , Putin is telling the world that Russia will have its way and does not need the patronage or support of the west . Putin has a fitting ally in the Chinese and they are teaming up to make life difficult for the west whose priority any way is to enforce gay rights and destroy family life both of which goals are an abomination to both China and Russia . I doubt if Gorbachev will get a state funeral as he is adored far more in the west than at home in Russia .Even that adulation is a source of fury and intense indignation for Putin as he concentrates on using oil to deal with the EU nations who stupidly under the leadership of former German Chancellor Angela believed that oil pipelines built in cooperation with Russia will not be used as weapons of war .Which is what has happened now since the west imposed economic sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine .
Let us now compare some of the hard headed decisions that serve no public good at large but which some leaders persist in executing just because they are in power . I do not agree with the NNPC MD that it was the right decision to give oil pipeline protection contracts to private companies who later use the money to acquire ammunition and rise against the state . It is a suicidal way for any government to willingly breed insurgency and rebellion against itself .There is no sane explanation for that and it cannot be the right decision .Similarly the Federal government should do more to help the states protect their people by allowing them to have state police . It is the wise thing to do and the government should not make non interference in elections its main legacy when the issue of insecurity and the challenge of forces of insecurity are mammoth and are making security of life and property the main concerns of millions of Nigerians as they go towards the 2023 presidential and general elections .
I see this sort of decisions with dubious motive and intent in some issues especially with the drive for climate change and the destruction of the fossil fuel industry in the EU nations and the US .An observer has noted that collapsing the oil industry because of climate change will create poverty in the developed world . This is because they have no oil, and prices will rise and people are preparing to use coal or wood which was something they did ages ago .What is the use of preparing the world for the future when one cannot exist comfortably in the present ? Yet the Biden Administration campaigned on making climate change its priority and sees rising fuel prices and the attendant inflation as hardships to be endured on the way to a green energy world compatible with its campaign for an energy free world .I cannot but marvel at such misguided and economically ruinous policy and legacy .
Similarly the decision of the FBI in the US to invade the residence of former President Donald Trump lacked foresight and circumspection and the FBI should know better . Given that Trump was harassed in office with the Russian Collusion hoax which the FBI started and could not prove even with the Muller investigation , the FBI should have evolved other ways of letting the former president know that he is violating the rules on how presidents keep classified documents and put him on notice for further action if he did not play ball .Now the Facebook boss has revealed that it was the same FBI that dropped the hint to the tech giant that Hunter Biden’s lost and found laptop could be another Russian misinformation. That was on the eve of the 2020 US presidential election which Trump believed he would have won if the Hunter Biden laptop content was investigated . The FBI aborted the investigation and Biden won. . It is quite easy for Trump’s supporters to conclude that the FBI is up to its old tricks of finding nothing good in Trump both as incumbent and past president when on the eve of his announcing his palns to contest again in2024 the FBI took the unpredecented decision to raid the house of a former president .The FBI should know it stands on wobbly feet in its investigation since it has established malice and hatred for Trump in his one term in office on the Russian collusion and has since lost credibility on any investigation on the same Trump now bracing up to contest for the [presidency again in 2024 . The FBI should learn fast that those who live in glass houses should not only not throw stones but must also acknowledge that in law , those who come to equity must come with clean hands. In raiding Trump’s house mindlessly the FBI threw caution to the winds and left its ratings on credibility in tatters and its legacy and foresight at an abysmal , dubious low . Which is pathetic for an investigative bureau, indeed .