Our Fellowship Dilemma
By
Ogwu Paul Okwuchukwu
ogwupaulo@yahoo.com
Nigerians often complain that the
problem of Nigeria is leadership. That is quite true but not the whole
truth. Although leadership has a major role to play in the emergence of
any just and equitable society, to attribute every failure, misnomer and
problem to leadership is to blame every human failings and adventure to
God. It is true purposeful leadership and other factors that most
societies, establishment, organisations blossoms and prospers but that is
not all. We are so accustomed to blaming leadership that we neglect to
play our part in ensuring the overall progress and prosperity of the
society and the country. There is no doubt that due to lack of effective
leadership we face difficulty daily in the social, economic and political
sphere. In addition, an effective leadership will ensure good environment
for business and governance to thrive. Also effective leadership will
provide the necessary framework that will help for policy formulation and
implementation. Added to this, effective leadership would ensure good
governance and an example for others to follow, but it would neglect our
collective responsibility if we attribute everything to leadership and
fail in our responsibility as followers. We fail as followers when we fail
to do our part.
We fail as followers when we fail to obey
and abide by simple traffic rules and drive in a manner that questions our
commitment to life. We also fail as followers when we fail to obey the
common law that governs the land and act in a way that is inimical to the
progress of the society. Is it the leadership that encourages some of the
students and their parents to encourage and abet examination malpractice?
Is it the leadership that supports the idea of surrendering our
responsibility as human beings to the whims and caprices of supernatural
forces we do not know or understand ?We have learnt to attribute
everything to leadership failure that we tend to even blame mosquito bites
to the bad leadership in the country. We blame leadership as if it is the
president that tells a police officer on the street to collect twenty
naira from motorist and drivers. Is it the leadership that encourages the
people to engage in all forms of crimes and things to the detriment of the
society? I do not really know; if it is the leadership that tells the
parents to leave the responsibility of imbibing morals and values to their
children. Is it the leadership that promote hatred and disunity among the
population? A situation where people living among friends in another part
of the country for several years are hacked down to death over a
disagreement that both parties are unaware of. The level of animosity
among the different ethnic groups ,religions and among the different
classes should not necessarily be attributed to leadership. Is it the
leadership that encourages the disregard of our cultural and moral values
from the family to the local level? Is it the leadership that is debasing
our morals, love and close family relationship that have always been the
envy of the people from the western world? Is it leadership that
encourages the people and the local population to encourage our leaders
and those that are entrusted with the position of authority to loot and
embezzle funds? As government appointee and political office holder, you
will commit the greatest crime in the land when you refuse to use your
position to better the pockets of your local community and population. The
pressure the population mount on them is not to actually provide any
tangible project but for their immediate financial and other benefit they
we will get. Is it the leadership that encourages the people to collect
money and vote for candidates that we know that are there to enrich their
pockets? Is it not equally the youths that encourage and aid the
politician in the snatching of ballot papers and the rigging of election?
Also is it the leadership that tell us to take public goods and properties
as no man’s property. Is it the leadership that throws litters in the
streets? Is it the leadership that have elevated the act of lying and
insincerity to a national culture?
Is it leadership that makes us to be
disorderly in the conduct of affairs in public places and abhors law and
order. Is it the leadership that made it the norm for us to use every
opportunity to defraud, lie, and show lack of commitment and sincerity in
almost everything we do? Is it the leadership that encourages the
traditional institutions to award chieftaincy titles and honours to
questionable character? Is it our leadership that encourages the
citizenry to engage in crimes within and outside the country? We the
followers’ should also bear some responsibility for the calamity we are
witnessing daily.
We should be able to reduce the ego of our
so-called leaders by making them appreciate the importance of the
fellowship. The followership sells itself so cheap that the leaders do not
appreciate their worth. When we ignore them and make them to realise the
importance of doing things in a formal way, they would realise the
enormous power the followership wields. We should learn to question their
judgement in what ever they do. They should realise that they are leaders
because of the followers. Moreover, some of the people recruited from the
followership most times end up committing the same atrocities we blame the
leaders from.
Although we need leaders to provide the
necessary framework and enabling environment to ensure the sustenance of
the society, we also need the followership to play their own role. The
leadership should also serve as examples for us to follow but they are
part of the whole. It is also important the leadership provide the
necessary political will to drive the values, vision and mission of the
society.
They are several things we do that we blame
the leadership without taking time to reflect
on the role we would have played as
individuals to improve the life of our community. We should all strive to
make a difference or to make our own contribution to our families, local
communities and not to blame the leadership in every mishaps, actions or
inactions that affects us. It is akin to somebody shifting his
responsibility and being in his own comfort zone
The leadership has as much stake as the
followership. They are both contending forces fighting to eclipse the
other. They are constant conflict between the two. In as much as the
leadership are failing in their function, the followership has also not
lived up to their expectations. Let the followership join hands to fight
for or defeat the opposing force and establish the kind of society we
want. Nobody surrenders an advantage to play a second fiddle. We fight
over things if we want to have an advantage. The fight starts from the
family to the national level. The leadership in Nigeria have shown over
time that it cannot reform itself so it time they are made to do so. The
time is now.
Our leaders have failed to reform or
transform themselves; the followership needs to reform her selves. We can
only do this by uniting, being patriotic and obeying the law, demanding
for the right things and doing the right things in our little corner. We
need these and other positive traits to confront the leadership.
|