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Leadership at the State Level and the Call for Women Governors By Dr. Sylvester Omosun Fadal San Jose, CA. USA In the words of Edgar Z. Friedenber, “What we must first decide is perhaps how we are valuable, rather than how valuable we are.” Perhaps, it is time for us to take a comprehensive analysis of how valuable most state governors are. Best practices have been defined by several great empirical brains all culminating in a finite point…it drives effective performances and is often built on trust, communication, credibility, accountability and other characteristics that makes positive differences and channel things towards continuous growth and success. Do some of our governors have “best practices” mottos? Obviously not as clearly indicated by the management approaches and gravitation towards money engulfment prevalent among them. Not too many of our 36 governors can be commended based on performance. I have long posited that OBJ may not be the best choice to lead a nation that was left “injury-prone”, by our past leaders recognizing the critical factors needed to initiates development that filters from the top to the lowest common users, the Nigerian people. What has come to light the last few months that has perhaps cemented my growing suspicion is the leadership behaviors of our governors, especially a few arrogant, “supposedly” America, British, or foreign-educated claiming governors that have continuously displayed poor leadership behaviors, with a penchant for publicity and a gluttonous tendency towards growing their wealth. It is time for Nigerians to rise against these governors that are neither qualified nor have displayed a willingness to learn how to leverage the principles of effective leadership and continuous improvement within their states. Their disposition are predictable like the actions of dogs to bacon bones by their aggressive desires to (a) take behavioral and habitual attacks on anyone that criticizes them, (b) exonerate themselves out of guilt, even when, their names have not been linked to questionable actions, (c) seize every opportunity to leverage their ineffectiveness and non-performance in their efforts to do the opposite, (d) cry wolves to divert attention from their growing efforts to siphon monies into their foreign accounts and (e) strategically questioning the presidency as an attention diverting technique. At the moment of truth, in their finest hours, would these governors be comfortable patting themselves on the back as having served their states in a worthy cause? Would they, in the words of Vince Lombardi, “lie exhausted on the field of battle-victorious?” Sometimes, recognition is best deserved when earned rather than bought. These governors passionately seek respect and follower ship, from those they lip-tickle with financial powers. The entourage they build out of their positional and most-definitely short-lived financial prowess will dissipate as soon as their titles and power are gone. They will try to gain new followers across the world but most people of integrity will stigmatize and isolate them because of their ill-gotten wealth. They will strive at acceptance by trying to buy love and marry new wives often the ages of their daughters and that too will be short-lived when their wealth losses value to the value-based women they marry. They will seek to portray themselves as changed men but society will ignore them and embrace new leaders of opportunities. They will try speaking wisdom-based messages but again, the messages will be obsolete and moot because we must have heard them all. They will advocate rights for the masses though they failed to recognize those rights when they had the opportunity. Their final efforts will be a little too late. Nigerians needs to embrace a new generation of state governors…specifically women. They are often more forthright, they seek answers to questions not for the personal financial benefits it may bring but for the goodness it may have on the masses. They are more emotional and will likely orchestrate, implement and realistically evaluate programs to measure their successes and bottom line values to the masses. They are more passionate and would lead with compassion and care. They multi-task better and would be able to deliberate and manage multiple issues with optimized focus on continuous improvement. They are less promiscuous and will not marry multiple men and will most definitely not spend the state’s money on assorted men in various ways. They are less likely to swank about being wealthy or the number of foreign accounts they have. They may be craftier but they are better in understanding the fundamentals of applied behavioral analysis and the importance of knowing the indicators that predict performance outcomes. They are finally, less likely to travel to London, Paris or the United States with loads of foreign currency because their significant others (hopefully) and/or children will be there to remind them of the possible consequences of their actions. If you doubt the underlying strength of women to influence and indirectly govern, you may want to asked yourself what Anenih, Stella Obasanjo and Audu Ogbeh’s spouse have in common and why these folks are the unheralded principle governing body of Nigeria today. |