Leadership Vs Followership Question In Nation Building

The Insight by Lateef Adewole

There is a common cliché that “people deserve the leadership they get”. How true is this? The people, which in this case, refer to the masses that make up a group. They are ‘the led’ or called ‘followers’. The one chosen from among them to lead being the leader. This choosing has a process, whether democratically or imposition. Overall, the emerged leader will reflect, largely, the character, disposition and attitude of those he or she is leading. This explains that saying.

One issue that often generates much debate is the roles and responsibilities of the leaders, vis-a-vis, the followers, in any organisation, especially in the transformation of a country, in nation building. The argument on one hand is that the leaders are responsible for this. On the other hand, many people believe the mass of the people greatly determines the direction that any organisation or country will go and the progress it will make.

Firstly, let us define what leadership really means. According to Oxford dictionary, leadership is defined as “the action of leading a group of people or an organisation.” There is another more suitable definition by McKinsey. It states that “leadership is a set of behaviors used to help people align their collective direction, to execute strategic plans, and to continually renew an organization.”

There are different types of leadership styles. They include: authoritarian (dictatorship), participative (democratic), delegative (laissez-fair). In some other texts, transactional (managerial) and transformational (visionary) are added. Each of this style of leadership has their merits and demerits, and where they are most suitable. In most organisations, a mixture of all of them are applied as appropriate. Same is applicable to a country.

Like in Nigeria, we have had years of military dictatorship. We have been running democratic governments in the last 24 years. All appointees of government into the MDAs, like Ministers, Commissioners, heads of government parastatals and agencies, are in positions of authority as delegated to them by their principals. One type I can say we have had the misfortune of not having is transformational leadership, especially at the national level, in my opinion.

For a certain period, especially pre-indepedence, we had a glimpse of what transformational leadership was at the regional level of government that was operated then. This was most conspicuous in the Western Region of Nigeria, under the leadership of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. This has been well documented and I won’t belabour it again. Afterall, “oju lo mo oun t’oyonu.” “Res ipsa loquitur.” The fact speaks for itself. Many of those transformative landmark achievements are still being referenced after over six decades. Other regions also did their best at that time.

Unfortunately, Chief Obafemi Awolowo did not have the chance to extrapolate such developments to the national level. All his attempts at leading the nation failed, not once, not twice but thrice. That speaks volume about the kind of people we are and the peculiarity of country we have. This also reinforced that cliché stated earlier. May be, we did not deserve transformation leaders like him because of our ways. We shall return to this later. Let’s look at followership.

On the flip side of leadership is the led. I am not always very comfortable to call the rest of people who are being led, ‘followers’. It often sounds derogatory in my ears. Like leadership, followership is defined as “the actions of someone in a subordinate role. It can also be considered as a specific set of skills that complement leadership, a role within a hierarchical organization, a social construct that is integral to the leadership process, or the behaviors engaged in while interacting with leaders in an effort to meet organizational objectives. As such, followership is best defined as an intentional practice on the part of the subordinate to enhance the synergetic interchange between the follower and the leader” (according to Wikipedia).

From the above description it can be seen that followers are as critical as leaders, given the interrelationship and interdependence between the two. There will be no leader if no one is ready to subordinate themselves to him or her. How this is achieved reverts back to the style of leadership earlier mentioned. People follow voluntarily as seen in democratic system or being forced to accept the leader like in authoritarian system. Each also goes a long way in determining the effectiveness of the relationship and the possible outcomes to achieve. Even dictatorship has limit. You can force a horse to the river but to force it to drink water from it is another kettle of fish.

Bringing all these preliminary analysis to bear on a nation and its governance, how can a country transform from being mediocre to what can be called a great one? Whose responsibility is it or who has greater responsibility to achieve this between the leaders and followers? This is where the debate ensues. After much thought, I am of the opinion that leadership is far more responsible than the followers, for many reasons.

It is not untrue that leaders emerged from among the people (followers). In fact, it is assumed that the followers actually chose the leaders in democracy. Therefore, the followers can be said to cause the leaders to be and should be responsible for whatever leaders do. However, responsible leadership, especially, transformative one, distincts itself from the followers by raising its level of thinking and capacity to deliver. A problem cannot be solved with the level of thinking when it was created. A leader is one because he or she is expected to rise above the level of those they lead.

In Nigeria, we, the people, find it convenient to criticise our political leaders. And rightly so to a large extent. We expect them to perform “magic” to transform our lives suddenly. And when this doesn’t happen, distraught sets in. However, we never ask ourselves what are our own responsibilities to make such transformation happen. The saying attributed to President John F. Kennedy of America, in his inuagural address to inspire Americans that: “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”, does not apply to us. Sometimes, this could sound justifiable when we assess the actions of those we put as leaders too. What are they doing for the country themselves?

Everytime I made reference to China as my benchmark for what transformation of a nation and greatness are, and compared it with Nigeria, a senior friend and an avid reader of my articles, always disagreed with me. He insisted that a China that has existed for thousands of years cannot, in anyway, be compared with Nigeria of just over a century. He believes that the age disparity is to China’s advantage.

While this is not disputable, my position is that, even at that, China has not been like it is presently in hundreds of years back. The breathtaking, unprecedented advancements in all spheres of human endeavours that we are witnessing from China started just over four decades ago. At a point in their recent history, a leader, rallied like-minded others together and decided on this new path. They built the national value around their vision, which the people were made to buy into, whether voluntarily or otherwise. Where was Nigeria over forty years ago, about same time?

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At that period, Nigeria was very rich as a country. About fifty years ago was the oil boom era. Nigeria suddenly came to money that they did not work for, and therefore, did not know what to do with it. That must have prompted such statement made by former Head of State then, General Yakubu Gowon, who said that “Nigeria’s problem was not money, but what to do with it.” This typified what the Yorubas called: “ajogun ewu etu, komoyi agabada nla” (he who inherits undeserved wealth, would never know the value of hard work to make such wealth). That was our case. And that ruined us.

It was at such moment that transformative leaders rise up to the occasion and lift their country and people to greatness. Unfortunately for Nigeria, the personality with such capacity, has left the military administration of Gowon by then. I am so sure, as many will agree with me, that had Awolowo still being in Gowon’s administration when that boom reached the peak, nearly every kobo would have been maximally deployed to change Nigeria’s story for better. This was a man who managed the federal government finance through a 30 month old war and they did not borrow a penny, due to his managerial dexterity and high level of financial discipline. What would he have done with “too much money”? We never had the chance to know. So sad.

Historically, humans are the same everywhere, with only slight variations informed by their immediate environment. All human beings have tendencies to do both good and bad things. The environment where they find themselves will now determine which side they gravitate towards more. In Nigeria, one tragedy that has befallen us is the deep-rooted, high level corruption. But, is it only Nigerians the human beings that are corrupt in the whole world? No. But it becomes pandemic (I think it is now beyond endemic) because our society condones and encourages it.

The system has so broken down that it does not have the capacity to mete appropriate punishment to the guilty, especially high profile ones. Those who are responsible for enforcing the rules and laws are as, or more guilty. A police is expected to prevent crime, or confront, arrest, investigate, prosecute and ensure punishment of criminals, in a law court where judges are responsible for adjudication. Are you seeing what I am seeing? These are two government institutions that have continued to compete for the two top spots on corruption index annually. I say no more.

Who is responsible to make the system work? The leaders ofcourse. That is why they were elected or appointed in the first place. A visionary leader, competent, courageous with high integrity (few of the qualities of a good leader), can drive the change required to change the narrative. Such leader should be ready to lead by example, not precepts. With a steel-like resolve and inflexible implementation of right policies, the system will respond over time. With a more responsible and responsive system, the people will be compelled to adjust to the new normal. With larger majority beginning to do the right thing, such a nation is bound to begin to rise in positive trajectory to its greatness. Such is the story of China.

Many other countries have followed this path of transition and attained or attaining this level of transformation too. One is the beautiful story of Singapore under its former leader Lee Kuan Yew, which everyone loves to refer to. He documented this in his book, “From Third World To First: Singapore Story: 1965-2000.” This is a useful template for other third world country hoping to lift itself out of the doldrums.

Some other countries I often referred to include United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dubai is one of the Emirates. And it can be called ‘the 9th wonder of the world’ because of what it has become within the last five decades, just like China. They might not have invented their own revolutionary transformation like China did, but they deployed the proceeds from their God-given natural resources: crude oil and gold majorly, just like Nigeria is also blessed with, to bring all possible advancements to their previous desert country, and make it the most visited globally now. What did we do with our own? This is where the leadership counts most. One visionary man made that possible.

The African example is Rwanda. This is a small country actually. It is one with a similar history of a deadly civil war that ravaged it about thirty something years ago. It was a harrowing experience for the people. In the midst of the ruins, one man rose from that ashes, took hold of the leadership of that country, brought all parts back together, reunited the people and did everything to heal the wounds. As a consequence of such deliberate action, the country is now seen as a model to others, especially in Africa. That man is President Paul Kagame. Where was our own Kagame or Lee Kuan Yew?

All I have highlighted did not exonerate the people, followers, from the rot. What the people contributed was actually greater, given that they occupy every nook and cranny, whether in public service or private sector, all of which constitute the entity called Nigeria. Civil servants should rank highest in corruption index. The police and judiciary are actually subsets of civil service, in a way. The bribery, negligence of duties, nepotism, favouritism, lack of merit-based process of recruitment and on-the-job progression, and all manners of bad things, characterise the civil service.

What about private sector? People operate like shylocks. Everyone tends to game the system. Majority avoid or completely abandon their civic responsibilities. How many private people and organisations pay taxes? How many pay the appropriate amounts among those paying? Most hardship that we experienced are escalated by people in private sector. Like now, people are complaining of naira scarcity, in reminiscence of Emefiele’s evil era, but the CBN said over N3 trillion cash is in circulation. Where is the money? Some people must have been hoarding them to sell.

The dollar exchange rate that has been spiralling, what is causing it? Majorly by speculators who have been maniputing the prices for their selfish gains. What of cooking gas, diesel, etc? All these are controlled by the private sector players who inflict pains on the masses for outrageous profits. Is that not unpatriotism?

But it all boils down to leadership. It is still the responsibility of the leaders to monitor and regulate the market directly or indirectly, set and enforce the rules, and punish whoever breaks them, by sabotaging government’s efforts. Not acting as appropriate falls back to failure of leadership.

In summary, while the masses, who form the body of the followers, have responsibilities as citizens of any country, are expected to discharge same and exhibit patriotism in their words and actions, they cannot be trusted to do so, at least, not always. Therefore, the task of making them do the right thing, either peacefully or forcefully, is that of the leaders. “Agbara ojo ko ni oun o n’ile wo, onile ni ko ni gba fun.”

Leaders must be up and doing in their duties as leaders. “Omo t’oni iya oun ko ni sun, oun na ko ni f’oju b’orun” (a troublesome child who causes their mother sleeplessness will have no sleep as well). But this will only be possible where there are visionary, responsible, courageous leaders who can lead by example. Do we have them in authority now in Nigeria? I doubt. What we have is tokenism. Few leaders who try to show some flashes here and there. Some are in less powerful position of authority and influence, like the indefatigable Registrar of JAMB, Professor Is-haq Oloyede. He has remained the reference point since previous administration till date. There are few less prominent others like him too.

The big elephant in the room is actually the leadership recruitment process. How did our leaders get to offices they occupy? Why were those exceptional ones like Awolowo never had the chance to lead the country? All these are serious issues that need deeper analysis. It is not part of what this article plans to cover. I shall write about this in the nearest future.

May God continue to protect us and guide us aright.

God Bless Nigeria.

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December 16, 2023.