Leadership has been a phenomenon that cuts across all divides of human existence. According to the creation story as recorded in Genesis. It was first instituted by God in the Garden of Eden when he gave man the charge to have dominion over all creatures. It therefore behooves on man to evolve a leadership style that will help to sustain God’s creation.
In the anal of history of existence of man, leadership has been identified as the driving force and catalyst that brings about societal changes. The policy and decisions of a leader becomes the mechanism that pivots all the institutional changes that pertains to the society.
Much is expected from a leader. There is an adage that says that “to whom much is given, much is expected”. Any person, be it the President, Federal law makers, the Governors, State legislature and others that hold political or public offices are accountable to the people that placed them there. Hence, they should not see themselves as superiors to those that elected them to office.
This write-up is a wake up call to all aspirants that are varying from various offices in 2019. We do not wish that our nascent democracy will be truncated by bad leadership that has no economic and political agenda.
The slogan on the lips of every Nigeria is centered on zoning of leadership instead of advocating for visionary leaders. Ethnicity and tribal sentiments will always deter the society from reaching the political limelight. Whereas in advanced democracies like the U.S.A, leadership is viewed from the perspective of service delivery, accountability, political and economic gains, food sufficiency, health for all and other social schemes that will accommodate the less privilege and the destitute in the society.
In the next general election, Nigerians do not expect that the affairs of the society will be run by cabals who have selfish interest and not for the general well being of the poor masses. They should channel all their attention to industrial and agricultural revolution so as to create job opportunities that will help the youths to be gainfully employed. The situation whereby presidents (both present and past) of the country technically make themselves ministers of petroleum indicates that there is much interest in the oil sector than other sectors of the economy.
Besides that, the agitation for zoning of the Presidency paints a clear picture about the fact that there is no equitable distribution of developmental projects across various parts of the country, thus, prompting the divide experience in the country.
In order to ensure equity in the country, the president elect when sworn into office in 2019 should endeavour to create an additional state in South-East geo-political zone so as to create an awareness that the problems of the zone is ringing bells in the nation level.
Instead of wasting the nation’s resources under the guise of the N-power scheme, the new president should promote enabling grounds for industrial clusters that would generate massive employment in all the geo-political zones instead of concentrating all the industries in the South-West geo-political zones.
Aside the creation of industries, there should also be a policy that will reflect a true federal character in the employment process. Instances of sentiments and hegemony should be avoided and all Nigerians from every tribe should be a chance at the job instead of publishing vacancies that do not exists in some of our national dailies only after the job offers have been given through the back channel.
Furthermore, the criteria for employment such as age and cognate experience should be reviewed in view of the vigorous adventures that students pass through before gaining admission into the universities, it becomes fool hardy to demand that the age requirement for employment should be between 22 years and 25 to 35 years with cognate experience of 7 years. With the level of unemployment in the country, how then can one gain such cognate experience with the absence of local industries.
In addition, multiple taxation system prevalent in the country should also be discouraged. Our youths seeking to go into money making enterprises feel discouraged as they fear that the tax system might not be too harsh for their businesses to thrive.
Other impediments that discourage the foreign investors into the country such as power, insecurity, bad roads especially in the South-East should be addressed. Our country is in dire need of a messiah that would salvage the situation ravaging the land,
We do not need leaders who do not have a vision there were promises by past and present leaders to rebuild the country but such policies and plans crumble no sooner than the political office holders are sworn into office. Nigerian’s beware! This is the time to vote wisely.
