Charisma is a magical quality that makes those who follow some leaders to do so almost blindly . Such followers are immune to the faults of such leaders and may even rationalize such faults as rare assets that others leaders can never have . It is of such leaders that I turn my attention today not only from history but contemporary events that happened in the last one week . The aim is to show that charisma is not merely political or leadership showmanship and such leaders invariably leave indelible marks in the sands of time that even those who don’t worship them like their numerous supporters sometimes acknowledge , no matter how grudgingly they do so .
Starting with history one can easily pick Zik , Awo and the Sardauna as three eminent Nigerians that have given charismatic leadership especially during our first republic and our very beautiful but now nostalgic political experience with regional politics . I have deliberately not called the three leaders by their full names because the way I have called them is what drives their fanatical supporters and the hearing of that alone is enough to send their supporters into a frenzy of joy and celebration and their opponents into sheer panic at the mention of their names . Zik led the fight against colonialism after taking the mantle from his mentor Herbert Macaulay in Lagos and used his newspapers especially The Pilot to torment the colonial masters on the rights of colonial citizens till independence was won and he became our first Nigerian president . Awo’s legacy was free education in the west which was the challenge that the Sardauna adopted in the North because he was a school teacher , a role his successors abandoned .This has left the North behind the rest of Nigeria in terms of educational development even though the North has been in power either during military or civilian rule more than the rest of Nigeria . I have deliberately left out our military leaders because military intervention in politics is a democratic aberration and a violation of the rule of law because in a true democracy power does not flow from the barrel of a gun but from the ballot box .
We leave Nigeria and acknowledge other great African charismatic leaders like Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana who were elected into power while in prison under colonial rule and went on to win independence for their nations . Peron of Argentina and later his wife Evita still make Argentines swoon nostalgically even though their leadership was tainted with corruption and abuse of office later . Winston Churchill was a war PM of Britain whose war rhetorics was an incentive to his nation to face the might and wrath of Nazi Germany under Hitler and succeed to win victory with the Allies in the Second World War . It is instructive that when the woke culture in Britain recently wanted to redress the havocs of racism and tried to rewrite history by calling Winston Churchill a’ racist’ for calling Mahatma Ghandi , the charismatic leader of India a ‘ half naked barbarian ‘, present UK PM , Boris Johnson, who literally worships Churchill as a war hero , called the bluff of the cancel culture and the woke culture suffered an unexpected set back till now in Britain unlike its huge progress in the US and EU .
In contemporary politics both at home and abroad in recent times I want to highlight some leaders who have demonstrated the gift of charisma which has made them to flourish in terms of leadership and relevance even at times against the tide of public opinion and in spite of the luggage of political controversy hanging around their neck . I pick the Jagaban of Nigeria, the ruling APC presidential candidate running for the Nigerian presidency on the Muslim Muslim ticket that has generated so much controversy . I pick former US president Donald Trump who is defending himself against keeping classified documents in his Mar Alago residence and in a concession to a redressed political aberration I add OBJ as an elected leader as the third party in this triumvirate of charismatic leaders of nowadays .
I recall a story when on the occasion of a birthday of the political sage , Awo , the then military ruler, IBB congratulated him and said that whether you like him or not Awo has been ‘the issue in Nigerian politics ‘ most of the time . Reportedly Awo folded the letter in apparent satisfaction , told his wife it was time to sleep on that note and the old political warrior died shortly after . Such a description from a military ruler gave immense satisfaction to Awo . I say in this column today that whether you like him or not the Jagaban is the main issue in Nigerian politics and democracy today and it has been a long and tortuous journey to arrive at this my assertion . It is not an’ Emi Lokan ‘ episode alone .I t is a pragmatic observation based on a mixture of performance in office , a large heart and unqualified magnanimity acknowledged now timeously and nationally and cascading on a charisma that makes his opponents fear to stand on the path of a moving train or charging bull with predictable and politically suicidal consequences .
Look around you and feel the momentum around the Jagaban candidacy and the furore that will not go way over the Muslim Muslim ticket and you will be surprised that in ,spite of this the ticket is not losing steam but is gathering accommodation and understanding even in unexpected Christian quarters and you can sense that this ticket is like an idea whose time has come and with which no one can do anything about , not to talk of stopping . Of course you may attribute this to the pedigree of the Jagaban on the many bridges he had built over the years but remember that but for the Emi Lokan cry of Indignation and betrayal he would have been discarded into the cheap heap of political history . Only Charisma could have revealed the time of the lamentation and indignation of Emi Lokan and that is why the Jagaban has become the issue and cornerstone of our 2023 presidential election that can only be resolved the way he and most Nigerians for now want it resolved . And it is in his favour .Again I say loud and clear, that no one can stop an idea whose time has come .
In the US , the government of the day that succeeded Donald Trump hate him for two things . The first is that he says the 2020 presidential election he lost was rigged and the second is that he is on trial via a committee that already alleges he called for insurrection on Jan 6 , the date in the American constitution that the Electoral College must certify the US election based on electoral votes allotted for each state . Trump’s supporters believe him blindly on those two issues . Indeed they believe anything that government subsequently accuses him of is based on the fact that he is right that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and that he was being framed for fomenting insurrection on account of this . The recent raid on his house fuel this view of political oppression by his followers . In addition members of his party on the Jan 6 Committee have not sought reelection in the Republican Party under the firm grip of Trump and those who have like Liz Cheney have lost the primaries election . Trump is on the crest of charisma and the Biden government is about to shoot itself in the leg in the way it handles him for the mid term elections in November2022 and the coming presidential election of 2024 .
Let me end on a controversial note in saying that OBJ is a charismatic leader in his own constituency , which is the military which he led after the assassination of late General Murtala Muhammed . Later he led the military in the metamorphosis of that institution into a civilian military that changed its braid cap and boots into flowing agbadas that make the military the dominant force in terms of past military officers dominating our politics , our senate and state houses today . Even OBJ could not believe when they told him in S Africa that he would be president. But he became one 20 years after handing over power to Shagari as military ruler . Till today OBJ has been the only Nigerian leader to speak against his former military colleagues in office before he was elected democratically as president in 1999 . Abacha almost killed him and his survival of that nightmare ensured his charisma as a leader in his military constituency . That explains why he could not understand why democratically and politically , his own people the Yorubas , prefer Awo and later MKO as their charismatic leaders of democratic worth and value leaving OBJ to enjoy the charisma of the military that still holds him in great respect and value as their leader of choice for all times .
I dedicate this piece to another charismatic leader in religion , the former Provost of the Cathedral Church of Christ Marina Lagos , the Very Rev Sope Johnson who died and was buried recently at the age of 92 .He was a great leader of the Cathedral on the Marina . Since politics is ubiquitous and exists everywhere including the family and the Church , I doff my heart to the brave and sterling service of a great theologian who raised the standard of worship at the Cathedral of his time to such lofty heights that one recalls with nostalgia and fond memories . May his soul rest in peace Amen .