COUNTERFEIT LEADERSHIP

The ability to recognise good leadership is almost as important as good leadership itself.
Real leadership is often hard to detect because of the rules and biases built into social, academic, and professional system. Hence, we are short on leadership and long on counterfeit, our coffers are filled with pyrite, and our offices are filled with pirates.

As I monitor all the hunger, starvation, poverty, unemployment, avoidable deaths that never got the chance of being avoided because of lack of miserable few naira notes to save that life, but, very far from the reach of he that was to have saved, it all came back to me in several folds. There and then, I realized that Nigeria, as a “great nation,” lacks true leadership.

Show me a true leader and I will show you a man, who is clouded by his love for people and sensitivity to their emotions and needs. Helping people feel happy and secure comes easy for such man. He fights to create lasting values at all times, always leading from the inside, knowing that character is power. He’s usually principle centred. He has the ability to keep everyone engaged, according to their propensities. He is an expert at delegation and empowerment. Finally, he must be a servant-leader who leaves behind a culture of enduring excellence.

I look at myself and I sometimes thank God for the little He brings my way everyday, which, in turn, helps me take care of all the outside responsibilities that knock on my door step every now and then. I would love to do more but am limited. The truth is that there are limited numbers of my impoverished people who I can put smiles on their faces even if for few days. How can a man who dedicated himself to the service of this country suddenly turn a beggar in the street all because of pension-pocketing by our so called leaders? Haba! Most mornings when I wake up, I find myself still in bed pondering over the happenings in my country.

I had a dream of what I expected my Nigeria to be, but wherever it took flight it is only answerable by the monkeys we have in high places. We can only help ourselves to be who we have thought, dreamt and vision ourselves to be. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and turning yourself a victim to the system, please no matter how small, let’s put heads together and start something that will give us the desired fulfillment we crave. I have finally seen that the “Nigerian system” is growing grey hair and only our determination to succeed can see us through, else we find out too late that it’s all greyed. Saying no to my parents’ dream for me and saying yes to my own dream left me in a state of poverty for years, but I got out of it with all the determination and focus I could gather. I only focused on where I was headed.

Let’s come together and find a way out of this dungeon of messed up leadership. If you agree with me that the system can be purified, then let’s purify it by being busy for ourselves and the Nigeria of our dream. Never you forget that sometimes, hunger dey wire me too, but my guy, I still dey kampke.Nigeria is faced with all manner of hardship. Many people live in penury because of bad leadership.

I believe that under proper leadership, people are showered with adequate food, health and wealth. When the leaders are rogues, the people suffer and live everyday in lamentation thereby, making the society to become a venture of tremendous speculation, frustration and diminishing returns. Bear in mind that the best leaders deliver. When a leader believes that he now has all the power in the world to gather opulence unto himself, then, we have an unhealthy situation at hand and this is the case of the Nigerian people and all the suffering and frustrations of the exceptional Nigerian youths. Power is wonderful when used properly.

The leader of high conscience creates a culture that stimulates people to do the right thing in the right way and at the right time in the society. The primary concern of most counterfeit leaders is continually how to use people to make things happen rather than making things happen for the people.Most of our so called politicians often speak of progressive conceptions of leadership and spirituality merely to win adherents and supporters, and in the same vain, they often use God’s name to bolster their efforts and pursue their personal agenda- while actually having little or no interest in God’s consciousness. General Buhari once said, “if getting to the other side matters to you and you must eat with your enemy to get there, then eat with him but while eating, use a long spoon.’’ This is what happens in Nigeria.

The system is corrupt. No level playing field. No values to imbibe. Any man who never had dream of becoming president, governor, or minister but is suddenly put there by man “godfatherism” is certainly a counterfeit leader. Why? A leader, first of all, must have a plan, purpose and direction. When it never crossed your mind to become or run for office, but you are made a leader by another, you, in more cases than none, stand a chance of being ordered, pushed, directed and planned for by the man that has put you there. We have another group whose interest is to actually be in a position to change things for the better. They, therefore, go all out to get elected.
I say to these ones, welcome saints among many sinners. But for how long do you intend to remain a saint? Of course, you change after a while because now you see what power is like, you want to keep coming back for every other voting season and will do anything to be voted back into power, and to accomplish this desire to be powerful again. Stealing becomes your surname, if you run into the shadow of your old self. You don’t even know who you are anymore.
Do we have to excuse the saints that later became sinners because of the system? Every patriotic Nigerian must have the will-power to resist anything that conflicts with your conscience. If you allow yourself to be soaked into the system, it then means that you are valueless. What does one leader use against another leader in time of crises? Money! So, stealing of public fund becomes a necessary partner.
The only way money stealing is masterly carried out in Nigeria is through the help of the political cartel.

For Nigeria to be a better place, the powers-that-be must be destroyed to create opportunities for bright Nigerians who still have dreams of what a great Nigerian should be. The problem must be uprooted to create room for better leadership. Over time, system has instilled counterfeit leadership in the Nigerian people, which makes it possible for a saint to go in but on the long run changes to counterfeit leadership because he lacks the will to say no to wrong.
If you allow your wall to crack, then you will have lizards run into it, thereby, falling it. A leader must be strong on positive values. If you allow “godfatherism” into your leadership then you have already allow your wall to crack. Your weakness is always the arena for your failure. Whatever area a leader is weak is likely the area he will sell out his people. If someone has a weakness for money, again, that will be his arena of failure. If our leaders will learn to control their senses and thus gain the strengths needed to overcome their weaknesses, they will not disappoint or embarrass themselves or their citizens. No one can be a strong leader without regulating the senses.
I thought a true leader is ABOVE DUPLICITY. This simply means that a true leader should be straightforward in both words and conduct. A true leader is he that understands before he goes in. The leader should not allow himself to be too mild, or he will be disregarded by both the governed and the godfathers who will only toss him around. He must also avoid the other extreme (of being too fierce), for then, the people will fear him, which does not create a happy state of affairs. But for a country like Nigeria, fierceness is imperative for a leader to overcome godfatherism.A leader’s duty is to his people. He should be ready to take care of them with no care of pleasing himself.
He should subordinate his own wishes and desires to those of his people, only then should he think of his comforts, appetites, aspirations, and pleasures. Good leadership means thinking first of the welfare of the people before thinking of oneself.Having said all of this, I want to say that Governor Babatunde Fashola is indeed, making many Nigerians proud but then again, I pray he has the will-power to continue to withstand godfatherism, to continue all the visible work he is doing, which is constantly spoken of by the people and even the so-called leaders. You must never give room for your wall to crack to avoid lizard invasion. You must be at alert always to be able to study your foes and friends incessantly.
I dare say that you are doing a good job in Lagos, which qualifies you, for “now,” as an authentic leader in the alternative of a counterfeit.Finally, all our counterfeit leaders who take pleasure in making the lives of Nigerians miserable, by all their incessant stealing of public funds, should always wake up in the morning to remember that there is a word called nemesis. Na God go punish all of una!

Charles Oputa (Charly Boy)