The Nation Newspaper

Tag: leadership

  • Knocks for democracy, leadership at special session

    It was knocks all the way yesterday for the nation’s democracy and its leadership. Two prominent guest lecturers and scholars, former presidential candidate of the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC) and Political Economist, Prof. Pat Utomi and Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lagos State University, Prof. Abubakar Momoh, berated Nigerian leaders at the special parliamentary session in commemoration of the second anniversary of the Seventh Assembly and 20 years anniversary of the June 12, 1993 election.

    They came down hard on the government and leadership at all levels.

    The theme of the anniversary was: ‘June 12 and the entrenchment of democracy in Nigeria’.

    Utomi said there is a deep erosion of the legitimacy of the nation’s democratic process and since no government can function without legitimacy, there is need to recover the legitimacy if governance must live up to its responsibility of catering for the welfare of the people and ensuring economic development.

    In his lecture, entitled: ‘Democracy, the rule of law and role of the legislature’, he said: “Our democracy has lost its legitimacy over the years. Unless we have a clear democracy where people speak through the ballot box, we cannot have the kind of legitimacy we need. We are determined as a people; we can prevent abusers from leading us to where we are today.”

    While decrying the regime of impunity, especially among the leadership and their cronies, Utomi urged the legislature to rise up to the occasion because it is better placed as the representative of the people.

    He said it should ensure it churns out laws to check the tendency and ensure the law is applied.

    Maintaining that enough has not been done to recognise the importance of June 12 for the nation’s history, Utomi said: “Today is a day to celebrate passion, commitment and courage of a man and other actors that made June 12 historical.

    “Prof. Humphrey Nwosu was a man that changed the course of history forever in this country. He managed to give Nigeria a credible election no one could dispute.”

    Momoh, who spoke on the topic, ‘20 years after June 12, which way Nigeria’, said the poll has certain meanings and symbolism that should not be lost, adding that June 12 is an idea and not about MKO Abiola. “It is beyond MKO Abiola.”

  • Zeleza’s testament on bad leadership

    In Smouldering Charcoal, Tiyambe Zeleza, a Malawian, born in Harare, Zimbabwe, tells a compelling story of life under a corrupt regime in Africa. He deliberately chose two families – one poor, the other rich, to let people into the obnoxious political system that dogged the life of most African nations soon after independence.

    Newly independent African nations had bigger hopes of attaining both economic and social status to help the citizens live a better life. Everywhere people turned to, there was that zeal and vigour to work to build a new nation. Industries and factories were taken over by the local people themselves. The civil service was manned by young Africans who had only returned from overseas with bags of degrees to grapple with the new dispensation at home.

    It was within this momentous mood and setting that Chola found himself after returning home from the US to be part of the people to rebuild his young nation. As a journalist, he found himself engulfed by people in leadership who did not want him to report the truth.

    Obviously, dictatorship was in vogue, everyone sang the praises of the president, who was seen to be infallible, ubiquitous and untouchable.

    Those who wished to say the truth were branded terrorists and saboteurs; they were either killed or maimed for life. Dambo, a young lawyer and an activist and a friend of Chola, was murdered and thrown into a river. It was done to serve as a deterrent to others who were gingering to foment more trouble for the government. It was from that moment that Chola decided to sit up to assert his own rights as a citizen.

    Mchere was poor, indigent and as a factory worker, hardly ever had enough to cater for his family. As he struggled to actualise his dreams, the stark realities of a nation in the bowel of poverty stared him squarely in the face. And so, due to poor remunerations and salaries, they preferred to go on strike. It was such a heavy blow on government that a lot of them were hounded in prison. Thus, the hope and dreams of a lot of vibrant youths hitherto eager to serve their nation hung in the balance.

    Zeleza, indeed, chronicles the story of two families from different social and political classes to demonstrate what happens in a draconian regime to all the people. It was purposely done to draw together the very issue of what bad government can do to the psyche of the people irrespective of class or education. The story is told with deep precision and passion to show why African nations and societies still remain behind in terms of development; in terms of respect for human dignity.

    The story of Malawi invariably is also the story of Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mali or Angola. All African nations have been made to live bellow poverty level due to bad leadership. As you go through the book, all you feel and perceive are injustices, wickedness, victimisation and all the bad examples of people at the helm of affairs which are not too far from what you also feel wherever you are in the African continent.

    The story is so real and provocative, so close to the people who are usually at the receiving end. In other words, Zeleza’s world is our world. It is our own story, the story of inept and corrupt leadership, depicting a people suffering in the midst of plenty and in the hands of their own brothers and sisters.

    In the end, the people were wont to persist, fighting diligently to regain their self esteem; to reclaim their own commonwealth. Zeleza did not fail to point that out – this is our own and we must redeem it and move forward to the next level.

  • A good day to die

    A good day to die

    Leadership is hard. It is not a walk in the park; not if you want to get it right. Early in my career I looked forward to being given the opportunity to lead a team. It was another rung to climb on the career ladder; another notch on my career belt; another trophy to decorate my resume. I was actually naïve and egotistical enough to believe that I would be a natural leader. After all, I was a bright student in school and an outstanding performer at work so it was easy to extrapolate that I would also be an outstanding leader.

    Or so I thought!

    Alas! Leadership requires a lot more than cognitive and technical abilities. Human beings have feelings, ambition and a free will. They have attitudes, expectations, personal beliefs, preferences, strengths, weaknesses, biases and blind spots. Guess what… they don’t leave them at home. Scarcely will you find a readymade, fully baked and perfect individual. At best, human beings come with potential, like diamonds in the rough needing some cutting and polishing before they shine. It is the leader’s job to help himself and others sift through all that baggage to focus energy on those things that drive success, while mitigating the risk of those that lead to failure.

    Leadership, therefore, is responsibility. The essence of leadership is to get a group of individuals to buy into a collective vision, and willingly work in a complementary and interdependent manner to achieve results that they could not have achieved working independently. Leadership thought has changed dramatically from the early Great Man and Trait Theories, that suggest that leaders are born not made. Research on the great leaders in world history has shown that, though similar in some ways, these leaders have each succeeded leveraging different attributes. Consequently, it is impossible to come up with a universal list of effective leadership traits.

    Later people began to notice that effective leadership was not so much about inherent traits, but behavior. Successful leaders behave in certain ways, while unsuccessful leaders behave in other ways. This school of leadership thought believed that leaders are made not born, and effective leadership can be regarded as patterns of behaviors or styles that can be learned. This view was taken further by another school of leadership thought which proposed that there is no “One Size Fits All” leadership style. Leaders choose the best course of action based on situational variables, and must vary their leadership style to suit the situation and person.

    Today, the theory fast gaining popularity is the Transformational Theory, which proposes that the leader’s role is to transform organizational and individual performance by motivating and inspiring his constituents to see the importance and higher good of their contributions to the collective goal. By signing up to be an entrepreneur and leader of a business with a vision that goes beyond being a “mom and pop” shop, I have chosen to play the transformational leadership game. This means that I have chosen to be responsible and accountable for the success of people who choose to work for and with me. If leadership competence is genetic, I don’t have those genes. So, like many other people who find themselves thrust into leadership positions, I have to saddle up for the long ride on my journey to destination “Effective Leadership”.

    The journey, quite frankly, will not be easy or comfortable. It will stretch me and require me to do things that don’t come naturally to me. I know the leader I want to be and I have yet to become that leader, so I find that I die every day as part of the process of my becoming the best leadership expression that I can be. I often quellmy first and most primal reaction to situations and people, and take time to reflect on the best action that will get me closer to the kind of leader I choose to be. If I had my way, I would only be responsible for my own work, but big dreams require big sacrifice, and to achieve my dream I must enlist the support of others, hence effective leadership is a mission critical competence that I must master.

    I encourage you this week to think about your leadership, whether of self or others. Are you constantly reinventing yourself as a leader? Are you flexible enough to adapt your leadership approach to fit the situation or person? Do you motivate and inspire others to realize their potential? As leadership thought continues to be refined and re-defined, one thing is glaringly obvious, what made leaders successful yesterday and today will most likely no longer count in the success of leaders tomorrow.

    If you are interested in knowing more about your leadership profile, enroll in my “Discovering Leadership Effectiveness” workshop this Tuesday and Wednesday. Email me for more details.

    “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” John 12:24

     

    Read more of Adetayo’s articles athttp://readinessedge.wordpress.com/

     

  • Leadership is Nigeria’s problem

    SIR: There is no gainsaying that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is in difficult times. Ditto the states governors. The truth must be told, Nigerians are expecting purposeful, resourceful, Godly leadership. One is deeply surprised that since May 29, 2011 when we began another democratic dispensation, Nigeria’s development continues to be hampered by bad leadership, moral decadence, hunger, poverty, insecurity and deep-rooted corruption. Our leaders tell lies under oath, trust in deceitful words. They make promises and break them.

    What Nigerians need now is a good and God-fearing leader who will work hard in raising the standard of living of the people, transform the society, enact policies that would give all Nigerians a sense of oneness.

    Some of the challenges of national integration and development in Nigeria include economic crisis and poverty, unequal development, crisis of governance and poor political leadership.

    Nigeria has big potentials to become one of the most powerful countries of the world, and for it to occupy such position, it must transform its system, integrate the people, grow the economy, fight poverty and hunger. Nigerians and the leaders should also allow God to direct the affairs of their governance.

    Nigerians and the rulers should be full of prayers, to empower the Goodluck Jonathan administration to tackle the raging socio-economic and political problems facing the nation and capable of eroding national unity and stability.

    President Jonathan needs to urgently tackle the energy problem, revive industries, encourage entrepreneurs, create mass emoployment for the youth, look into the security situation in its entirety, tackle the war against corruption seriously, adhere to the tenents of the rule of law, improve infrastructural facilities, convocation of prayer summit at all levels of our government among others.

    Sincerely, Nigerians must create the atmosphere of trust, transparency, honesty and accountability in the spirit of the fear of God, otherwise it will remain where it is. We have to harness the God’s given abundant gifts of nature around us to make the country great. Our leaders have to learn and start taking decisions on what is best for the country rather than their self-serving interests. Unless and until we address the challenge of leadership, the country can never move forward.

    Religious leaders in the country should not feel shy to address issue of bad leadership and also make their views read and heard.

    • Prophet Oladipupo Funmilade-Joel (Sekunderin)

    Lagos

  • ‘Leadership is about handling pressure’

    ‘Leadership is about handling pressure’

    Ndidi Nwuneli is the initiator of LEAP Africa, director, Sahel Capital and the co-founder of ACCE Foods. Yetunde Oladeinde had an encounter with the social entrepreneur at this year’s edition of the annual Oye Women’s Conference which took place at the Metropolitan Club in Lagos last week.

     

    THERE are a number of female entrepreneurs who run small and medium scale businesses all over the country today. However, a number of these women are just struggling to survive and make ends meet like their male counterparts. Ndidi Nwuneli talks about some of the challenges as well as how women can network and conquer the business scene.

    She said: “Women work so hard and sometimes you wonder what gives them so much energy. When they are passionate about something, they work all day and night to make it succeed. Unfortunately, most women don’t like to work together. Usually, I ask a number of women why this is so. Is it a trust thing? The truth is that as a lone ranger, you can’t go far.”

    One challenge that women face, Nwuneli noted, is the fact that women have so many talents. “They can do so many things at the same time. Sometimes, I tell them to write out everything they do to find out how passionate they are about these things. You need to constantly ask questions like, ‘Does it give me energy for risk or does it give me for joy?’”

    She continued: “Most times, you find the ability to take risk and have everybody around you. The truth is that whether you make money or not you have to pay their salaries. Sometimes, we try to debrief them by blind-folding them to get a feel of what it would be like in real life. When we did this we realise that some of them don’t like to be blind- folded.”

    Personally, Nwuneli says she prefers to be in charge and help others discover and rediscover themselves. “Leadership also depends on how you handle pressure; some people handle pressure well while others do not. It also depends on how much value you place on a particular thing. For some women, it could be their work or career while for others it is the children and husband. So you have to figure out where the other competing priorities are.”

    LEAP focuses on helping young people discover their talents and how to leave a legacy behind. “I started LEAP because I was angry with the state of affairs. We had trained about 20,000 people directly and about 200,000 people indirectly. Interestingly, we measure impact not by numbers but what we do especially through our leadership and ethics programmes. I like to start things and not end them and so we have had two successions at LEAP, giving others the opportunity to be who they want to be.”

    Success in business, Nwunelis explained, is about a gap you want to fill. “This is the time of life where they need to figure out who you are, whether you want to fit in and find out what problems you want to solve. In our society, what you see is people going into a particular business because someone is doing it. Most times, they do not find out the challenges the other person has passed through. A successful business is one that constantly innovates and develops new strategies.”

    The amazon runs a food processing business with her husband and the value statement was a company by Africans for Africans. “Starting ACCE Foods was propelled by passion and a sense of urgency. Whenever we travelled out of the country, we found that the food we buy is one third of the price of food in Nigeria. The price of food is astronomical and we import over 90 per cent of what we consume.

    “We wanted to show that we could do it. We wanted to do things differently. Most companies have Chinese, Lebanese and other foreigners as managers. Now, we are onto the third production manager because we want the best for the company. So, there is an important issue around choice.”

    The process, Nwuneli informs, involves understanding the nature of the competitive landscape, identifying strategic options and then evaluating and making choices. “Most of the foods produced in Nigeria is organic and about one per cent is affected by pesticides while a few use fertilisers. So there is an advantage because this is one of the few places in the world where you can have organic food.

    “For someone going into tomato cultivation, this is lucrative at the moment. It is only the cherry tomatoes that are being imported now, unlike what we had in the past. Paste, however, is huge substitutes and it is very cheap, it is imported and they just pack it. Land does not also pose a big problem for agric business because in Epe you can get land to rent for farming with about N15, 000 a year.”

    Nwuneli adds: “Some state governments also give space to encourage farming. However, if you want to start an airline business it is not so easy. This is relative to space, getting the license and you would need a lot of capital here. Oftentimes, women focus more on the product and forget about the other part of the strategy. It is good but it is better to keep your eyes on the line.”

    She also stressed the need to build companies that would outlive their owners. “How many women have companies that have a board? If a company is about a person, what happens if she falls sick for a month? But if you have a board you would be taken seriously. Having a board is a prerequisite for funding. You need a strong board that is credible. In return, the board would feel honoured in helping us shape the future. Don’t fill your board with friends; it is better to make use of people you respect and those who have value to add.”

    Stressing the need to have mentors and critics on board, Nwuneli adds: “It is better to have people who can tell you when you mess up. You can’t do it alone. You also need champions, prayer partners who can push you. We need to keep our best hands, people with exceptional character because character is important. We can help them to become market leaders. Unfortunately, we live in an environment where the issue of integrity comes up every day. Your relationship with others, their superior knowledge, intuition and vision are important. Taking decisions and admitting mistakes also make us human.”

    It is also pertinent to think about a succession plan from the first day. “Life expectancy now is 47, and for women it is a little higher, say 49. So you can see that a lot of people are living on borrowed time. We also need to differentiate between management and leadership. We also need to change our mindset and stop working for free. They need to pay for your services and as women we need to be discipline when it comes to money.”

    Touching lives and leaving a positive legacy, she believes, is more important than fame. “I went to a US website and they have all the tricks in products that are substandard. These includes some coloured and contaminated spices that include corn starch, dye and extracts. Everyday people are dying and half of the problem is from the food consumed. All of us owe it to ourselves to leave a legacy of excellence. When I hear what people who have passed through me have achieved, it makes me very happy. It is not about you but what you are called to do. St Francis of Assisi said it’s no use walking anywhere to preach unless you are preaching in your walking. ”

  • Leadership journalists arraigned in Abuja

    •Granted N500,000 bail, a surety each

    The Federal Government yesterday arraigned two journalists with the Leadership Newspapers in Abuja.

    But Justice Ademola Adeniyi of the Federal High Court, Abuja, granted each of them them bail with N500,000 and a surety.

    They were arraigned on a six-count charge of conspiracy, forgery and publication of false information.

    The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to them.

    Justice Adeniyi granted bail to Tony Amokeodo, the paper’s Group News Editor and Chibuzor Ukaibe, the Political Correspondent.

    Both sureties, the judge held, must have landed property within the jurisdiction of the court and must also have legitimate means of livelihood.

    Prior to the arraignment, the court ruled that because of the recent Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Ralph Nwazurike and others, the accused were not entitled to witness statements before their trial would begin.

    Following the court’s ruling, which granted the accused bail, defence lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said he was challenging the competence of the charge and the jurisdiction of the court.

    The judge told the parties that the defence could not raise an objection at this stage. He ordered the defence to formally file an application to that effect.

    Justice Adeniyi adjourned the matter till May 16 for further hearing.

  • Crisis of leadership and legitimacy

    Crisis of leadership and legitimacy

    It is a big party with a huge power base. It is an oak tree offering shades to antagonistic gladiators. Many of them are often rebellious. The protracted crises ravaging the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its endless, yet unfruitful reconciliation, make the ruling party to wobble on in self-delusion and decay.

    The battered state chapters have no rallying point to look up to for inspiration. Since the crises are overwhelming at the centre more than the distraught state branches, the renewed push for cohesion at that level has no prospect of altering the rigid character of the divided house.

    There are three characteristics of a political party. These are ideology, organisation and leadership. The three features are highly connected. But the PDP, the acclaimed largest party in Africa, lacks ideological outlook. Its lingering leadership crisis has no ideological connotation. Therefore, the party cannot generate ideas for the government it midwifes. Thus, the PDP’s manifestoes shallow. The uniting factors are power retention and power consolidation for personal gains. Although the party has structures created by its constitution, they are severely weakened by the power-loaded PDP President, who as the national party leader, has assumed the status of the alpha and omega.

    Except the pioneer chairman, Chief Solomon Lar, other chairmen emerged, following the endorsement of their candidature by the President. In the party, the word of the National Leader is law. He brooks no opposition. In the Second Republic, the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) fully subscribed to the idea of the party caucus, of which the President was a member. Its members met under the national chairman. I this dispensation, it is an outdated idea. The party secretariat, literarily, is the President’s bedroom.

    The root of the rot is the weak political culture, which has made democratisation of the political parties a herculean task. Party discipline in the First and Second Republics aptly mirrored the “leadership discipline”. But the regional or ethnically-based political parties were built around personalities who were perceived as ethnic champions. Thus, as recalled by the former PDP chairman, Chief Barnabas Gemade, “ the whole idea of political leadership in Nigeria has been based on regional politics, zonal politics and tribal politics, up to 1999 when we began to float national political parties”.

    “The stability of political leadership in administering those parties in the past was because parties were formed and owned by a group of people that were homogenous. But today, we have started seeing parties constructed around people from different backgrounds, different callings in life, different political ideologies, coming together to form one political party,” he stressed.

    Gemade stressed that a national party, which is a product of political dynamism, creates opportunities for the scramble for political control. “You begin to see sectoral conspiracies and, since it has been said that politics itself is a series on the concentric circles of conspiracies and when those things are no longer circles, then, there are compartments of conspiracies, then you also begin to see a lot of agitation internally about ascendancy and descendancy and here, PDP has suffered this more than other political parties because it is much more difficult to forge homogeneity, especially in a political party like the PDP,” he added.

    With the emergence of PDP, which has a national outlook, came the challenge of democratic party leadership evolution. The party would have naturally tried the path of surmounting the challenge, if its first national leader was not retired soldier, who could not adjust to the requirement of democratic civilian life.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s meddlesomeness in the party management had becone an integral part of party culture inherited by one of his successors, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Just as the former President virtually stamped the candidature of Gemade, Ogbeh, and Ali, President Jonathan also insisted on the current chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. Thus, in the PDP, the national chairman is like the President’s appointee.

    The implications are not farfetched. Whenever the succession battle of the President is factored into the considerations for the national chairmanship, internal democracy is the first casualty. Also, when the majority of the party chieftains are forced to embrace and relate with the party leadership that did not evolve democratically from majority consent, the chairman will always swim in the pool of legitimacy crisis.

    There is the thinking that Tukur has given the office some mileage. Should he be pushed out, as being suggested in some circles, the party will continue to swim in crises.

     

  • Leadership photojournalist recounts ordeal

    Leadership photojournalist, Mr Benedict Uwalaka, who was brutalised by a Director of TOS Funeral homes, Bayo Ogunsola and his accomplice during the release of corpse of victims of the Dana Airline crash has recounted his ordeal to a Lagos High court.

    At the resumed trial of the matter before Magistrate B.O. Osunsanmi , the plaintiff, Uwalaka while testifying at the resumed hearing of the trial of the Funeral Director, Bayo Ogunsola, who is the first prosecution witness narrated his experience in an emotion laden voice while being led in his Examination-In-Chief by the Police Prosecutor, Inspector Benson Emuerhi.

    According to him, “On August 9, 2012, I went to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), for the release of the dead bodies of the ill-fated Dana Airline crash. I saw a lot of reporters and photojournalists from different media houses both from within and outside Nigeria.

    “We were there for many hours when some one shouted that they have started to release the bodies.

    We all rushed to the scene and discovered that they used two vehicles to block the ambulance that carried the dead bodies,” Uwalaka said

    Further in his testimony, he explained that he started looking for an angle where he could get a good shot since he could not go back to the office and tell his editor that he did not get a shot of what happened at the scene. From a distance of about 30 metres, I took pictures of the ambulance twice. The next thing I heard was, “What did you snap? Show me your camera. Give me your camera.”

    “I held onto my camera tightly but this man in black shirt, who I later identified as Ogunsola just came and dragged my camera. He started reigning blows on me. While he was beating me, I still held on to my camera tightly. Someone wearing a white shirt came from behind, pulled my leg, hit my head with something and so collected the camera.”

    “I was soaked with blood as a result of the beating. It was later when I watched the TV that I saw that he hit me with a bottle.”

    According to him, in his statement at the Police station, he wrote the man in black shirt and white shirt since he didn’t know their name.

    “I was later told by my colleagues that the man in black shirt was Ogunsola, who has been arrested by the Police and the one in white shirt was “Idowu”. “I was treated at LASUTH and asked to stay for 24 hours for medical examination,” Uwalaka stated.

    When asked for the evidence of his injury by the prosecutor, Uwalaka burst into tears.

    “My photojournalist colleagues showed me pictures, I equally watched it on Tv and downloaded a picture on Internet. I saw myself soaked in blood,” Uwalaka said in tears.

    The prosecutor tendered the statement Uwalaka made at the police station, medical report from LASUTH and the downloaded picture from the internet as exhibits in the case.

    Though the Defence Counsel, Tunji Ayanlaja (SAN),  objected to the downloaded internet picture as exhibit based on admissibility issue, the court admitted it.

    “I object to the admissibility,it is not a direct evidence. He did not take the photograph himself, I urge my lordship to reject it.” He argued.

    However, Magistrate, Osunsanmi admitted the picture saying, “The witness identified the camera shown in picture as his own so picture admitted as exhibit.”

    The prosecutor at this point applied for a short adjournment to enable him tender the witness’ blood soaked clothes as exhibit.The magistrate adjourned the case till May 10, 2013 for further hearing.

  • Firm out with teacher-school leadership services, others

    A new education consultancy firm, First Veritas Educational Content Delivery Limited, has launched a line of education products aimed at boosting quality content delivery in education.

    The products include: teacher and school leadership services, e-learning solution, book content, question bank, the school manager and the Veritas Teachers Institute.

    Launching the range of products at its headquarters in Ibadan last Tuesday, the firm’s Managing Director, Mr Gbenro Adegbola, said the firm evolved to meet specific needs identified in the education sector.

    He further explained that the products are not just aimed at helping teachers gain more efficiency but to also use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to deliver contents faster, easier and in most effective ways to learners. He stressed that the company would also lift the standards of school management through its products thereby making impact on learners, teachers and school owners.

    Giving some details on the book content product, Adegbola assured the firm would work on many curriculum-based workbooks and textbooks that enhance teaching and learning. He added that the firm would explore e-publishing for authors to make the content available to many more readers across the world.

    On Question Bank, the firm has compiled many past questions of various subjects in public examinations with study tips with in-built assessments opportunities.

    While the School Manager helps proprietors enjoy easier and more effective management of their schools, the teachers institute specialises on training and re-training of teachers – all at affordable prices.

    Launching the products, renowned medic, Prof Akin Mabogunje praised Adegbola and his team for the initiative. He particularly praised the team for using ICT to deliver its products.

  • Lessons from Boston; 2020 or 3030? Crisis of leadership, where is the love?

    Lessons from Boston; 2020 or 3030? Crisis of leadership, where is the love?

    kudos to American law enforcement and citizens’ response in the Boston bombings. Federal Nigerian budgetary authorities take note. Security costs big money in the budget and not security ‘votes’ that are stolen! Enough of police and political ‘security vote’ corruption. We have enough fingerprints from our repeated ID cards and voters’ cards, and mug shots from passports and SIM registration for a Nigerian National Police Database and you say there is unemployment. Who is afraid of being caught?

    Here we are struggling to become among the world’s leading economies by 3030. Ups, sorry. I meant to type‘2020’, but my computer chose ‘3030’. Certainly it seemed it will be 3030 to me, in darkness all weekend, my ‘generator finally dying’. It is unimaginable incompetence that 52 years after independence and ‘self-ownership’, with no colonialist to blame, we have merely 2,000 to 4,000Mw while aides, governors, ministers, politicians, contractors and civil servants take home stolen billions. Our current 2,000-4,000Mw in Nigeria is the power to a small western city. Abroad they talk in Terawatt which is 1,000Gigawatt. A Gigawatt which is 1,000Megawatt. A Megawatt which is 1,000Kilowatt. Every government in the last 40 years has failed in power. They also abandoned roads, water and education. It has taken 40 years to ‘consider’ a second Niger Bridge and 30 years to repair expressways. Schools still have no books! What is the level of incompetence – 80 or 100%? The Japanese love their people and replaced the Fukushima nuclear plant losses in three months using companies which provide urgent power through generator ships and large land generators connected to the local grid. We could have done this, years ago. Giant generators consume far less than the million+ generators in Nigeria from ‘I fine pass my neighbour’ to the 1,000KVa VIP giants powering the President, his men and women, NASS and country homes and governors, first ladies, assembly men and civil servants. If Nigeria had a people-loving leadership there would be 100,000Mw now. It is a multiple failure of power policy, commitment of professionalism, political will, competence and a power failure of love. Ultimately it is brain failure and malicious failure of responsibility. Mass transit, mass power supply are better than mono-transit like the lethal motorcycles and dangerous power sourced from belching generators and substitute power in 40 million Nigeria homes and hovels. No love!

    The economic losses in family, business and intellectual activities from political incompetence can be calculated by NISER and departments of Social Sciences. The sheer magnitude can only be realised if you, the reader, add up how many 25 litre kegs, filled to 30 litres, are used daily in your home, office, street, estate, office block, by government officials and NASS homes and offices, by your factories and those near you. Multiply that by 365 and then by N4000/keg to get the cost of government incompetence. Your tax pays for political home and office generator and you cannot even get a tax rebate for the losses you encounter paying for power substitution at home. Then add the cost of purchase and maintenance of every generator. Trillions! No Nigerian escapes paying.

    Imagine what you would have done annually, times 30 years, with that extra money in your family and office pocket! Add to that the cost of darkness and powerlessness. Your family cannot function optimally and does not read at night with resultant loss of academic potential. Many homes have been broken because the husband has proved ‘inadequate in the power supply area’ and unable to provide ‘one keg of fuel/day and four/weekend’ – a status symbol. You lose business. Business costs are too high. In fact the tax man has no right to take anything until he gives a ‘fuel allowance’ for your home and office- government officials get this free. The people making the money are the generator sellers and maintenance staff, the fuel billionaires and those bribed to keep power off the grid. Through government incompetence we have been unable to refine our fuel in our refineries. But here comes, yes of course and just in time, a brand new Dangote Refinery to the ‘rescue’ us, just as he ‘rescued’ the falling price of flour, sugar and cement, abi? Na waya o! Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. Do we want power and fuel rescue again by Dangote billions? Do we pay another heavy price for the Dangote touch?

    No other leadership in Africa, at war with itself or neighbours, and with such large resources as we have in Nigeria will allow its peoples to suffer so much from the lack of supply of the third element of civilisation –electric power- third only to air and water. Water has gone and the air may be threatened. Can we have a leader who is willing to surgically excise political profligacy and introduce part-time legislation houses? The surgeon has to operate on a family member to save the nation.

    Under the burden of a blighted leadership and its ‘CINS: Corruption, Incompetence, Neglect and Selfishness’ a generation of Nigerians has been led badly and has missed out on Nigeria being great. Will Nigeria disintegrate? Amalgamation celebrations and ‘De-amalgamation’ debates loom. The gum cannot be forced to work. It is love that will bind us, nothing more, nothing less. Bombs and political bombast will disintegrate us. No matter how evil you are, do some good or Nigeria will be destroyed and die!