From any angle it is viewed, leadership is by no means easy. For one, it necessitates inspiring people or followership towards achieving a common worthy goal, notwithstanding the odds. For another, leadership tends to try the soul of whoever is entrusted with it because of the burden of responsibilities and obligations involved. Apart from providing the compass of direction for people to follow, a person in such an exalted but tasking and sensitive position is also required to be driven by progressive and indispensable indices like vision, mission, pragmatism and dynamism. This is not to gloss over the requisite lofty values of leadership, including intelligence, honesty, integrity, accountability, trust, humility, discipline, diligence, common touch, patience, perseverance, confidence, courage, commitment, determination, equanimity, empathy, compassion and selfless service.
If truth be told, the aforementioned leadership qualities are the hallmarks of President Muhammadu Buhari. Since his assumption of duty, Buhari has been engrossed in the herculean task of rebuilding Nigeria from her political and socio-economic ruins. To this effect, he has warned that it would no longer be business as usual in governance in the country, especially with regard to inefficiency, corruption, mismanagement and impunity in public institutions and negation of the basic tenets of the rule of law, due process, human rights, justice and common good. The President has also promised expectant Nigerian people, many of whom victims of terrible legacy of misrule, a new dawn where leadership will be exercised in the strictest sense of the word.
Evidently, within few months of being at the helm of our national affairs, Buhari has demonstrated the right stuff he is made of. Apart from shunning the razzmatazz of affluence, influence, fame, extravagance and arrogance often associated with power, he has opted, to the delight of our popular masses, for a low-key life with his family. In this connection, Buhari has refrained from recognising the so-called Office of the First Lady, which, after all, is not provided for in our constitution, but rather preferred his dutiful spouse, Hajiya Aisha, to be simply known and addressed as “the Wife of the President”. In so doing, he has saved Nigeria billions of naira that were often frittered away through that office under successive regimes.
In the light of the current austerity in Nigeria partly caused by the decline in global crude oil prices since last year and partly by the monumental corruption, mismanagement and impunity attributed to the immediate past regime, President Buhari has unfurled a number of laudable measures to cut the cost of governance in the country. As part of such measures, he and his vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, have set an example by slashing their salaries and allowances. Besides, their administration has shown keen interest in streamlining or merging some parallel ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government that are consuming billions of naira worth of taxpayers’ monies through annual budgetary allocations without showing much for their funding – no thanks to corruption and mismanagement that have militated against their workings.
So far, the mere fact that there is now pervasive fear and caution in Nigeria about being caught for official corruption since the inauguration of the Buhari government is not only a cause for celebration but also a major achievement. This is considering the ineluctable fact that widespread embezzlement of public fund is mainly responsible for arrested development in the country, as egregiously shown in economic and industrial backwardness, poor infrastructure and social services, mass poverty, chronic unemployment and alarming increase in crime and violence. Against this backdrop, President Buhari has shown great courage and determination to combat this menace in all its ramifications by naming, shaming and prosecuting its perpetrators as a salutary lesson to others. Apace with this campaign is his administration’s implacable commitment to revitalising our ailing economy by means of diversification, human capacity building, agriculture, harnessing our abundant natural and human resources, resuscitation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), attraction of foreign direct investments, increased foreign trade, exploration of alternative clean energy sources, amongst others.
In a dramatic show of leadership sensitivity, Buhari not long ago authorised the release of a huge bailout of N713.7 billion, to enable 36 states of the federation offset their outstanding debts, including arrears of salaries owed to workers in some states and commercial loans. Indeed, such an economic protection package remind us of social welfare initiatives formulated in the United States (US) during the extremely challenging times like the New Deal by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to cushion the effects of Great Depression of 1929/30 and the Great Society programme developed in the late 1960s by the administration of Lyndon Johnson in the heat of the deep divisions wrought in the country by racial segregation and the anti-Vietnam war campaign.
As part of the new beginning in Nigeria, President Buhari has reassured Nigerians of his irrevocable commitment to build an all-inclusive system in the polity, including a broad-based government. This is encapsulated in his now famous statement that “I am for everybody and I am for nobody”, which has indicated his inclination to rise beyond the confines of sectionalism and the notorious political godfathers and cabals, in his determined effort to engender a new political society that will work for its struggling people.
To address the serious challenges of ethnic militancy and religious extremism and the accompanying violence, bloodshed and depredation in Nigeria’s trouble spots like South-south (Niger Delta) and the North-east, the Buhari administration is articulating long-term regional development plans for the areas alongside other geo-political zones that have their peculiar security problems like armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism, piracy, crude oil theft, farmers-herdsmen’s conflict and cattle rustling. Recently, the President issued a directive for the immediate implementation of the long overdue report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the clean up and remediation of the crude oil – devastated Ogoniland. Earlier, the appointment of Brigadier-General Paul T. Boroh (rtd), an illustrious son of Niger Delta, as the coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) by Buhari had elicited a groundswell of commendations for him from the key stakeholders in the region, including the former militants. This is just as the appointment of Major-General Tukur Buratai and Major-General Babagana Monguno (rtd), all from the conflict-ridden North-east, as Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and National Security Adviser (NSA) respectively. Interestingly enough, with the recent appointment of the new service chiefs, our armed forces have intensified their offensive against the deadly Boko Haram sect with ample support from our neighbouring countries in pursuit of his administration’s vow to crush the terror group by December.
In a bid to improve Nigeria’s relations with the US, Buhari was on a four-day tour of that pre-eminent super power last July at the invitation of President Barack Obama. It is notable that part of the likely dividends of that newsworthy event for our country are possible relaxation of an embargo on arms sales and training of our military, provision of security and intelligence expertise in the war against Boko Haram, economic cooperation, trade, investment and assistance in tracking and returning of our looted funds laundered abroad. This is not to mention the pledges by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to set aside about $300 million to fight malaria in Nigeria, along with the gigantic sum of $2.1 billion being proposed by the World Bank (WB) for the rebuilding of infrastructure in the conflict-ravaged North-east.
In all, with the resolve of President Buhari to overhaul the governance system and its institutions in Nigeria for efficient and unfettered service delivery, it is self-evident that he is a purposeful leader with the overall interest of our fatherland at heart. Although the task of national rebuilding facing his embryonic administration would be daunting, especially in a formidably difficult time like this marked by the cumulative effects of economic plunder and rot caused by some of our previous regimes, the prospects of our expectant people reaching the Promised Land are not yet lost. While hoping that he would remain focused in his avowed objective to turn Nigeria around by delivering the dividends of democracy, the citizenry are called upon to be patient with and supportive of his promising administration. At the same time, they should close ranks, irrespective of ethnic, religious, political or ideological affiliation, in order to forge ahead with mutual tolerance and forbearance as a people with a sense of common national destiny. This is especially now President Buhari is leading us gradually but assuredly in the historic march of change towards the realisation of our Manifest Destiny as a great national community.
- Emeh, a social researcher, wrote from Abuja .
