The first republic in Nigeria could be said to be the last time the country had populist leaders, individuals whose leadership prowess came from the people, Leaders who were respected and adored, men who were ready to improve themselves and their leadership style even at their own detriment, men who respected the wishes of their people, men who engaged in populist policies that would benefit the people.

Currently the Nigerian political field is dominated by players with zero integrity, myopic players, corrupt, wicked, inhuman, anti democratic, irrational, egoistic and evil players. These men, who have turned themselves into demi-gods, are capitalising on the weakness, docility and sharp division among the Nigerian people and also the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the Nigerian constitution and various institutions to cause chaos, impose themselves on the people and make the country look like the state of nature.

The 2019 Election, one of the worst in the history of elections in Nigeria has deposed a lot of Synthetic leaders and created new ones. Who are Synthetic leaders? These are leaders who are unreal, who use all manner of deception, and fraudulent means to fix themselves in position of leadership. These set of people are entirely in leadership for their selfish, parochial and primitive interest.

Nigeria since the end of the first republic has been led by synthetic leaders, which explains why the country has remained the way it is without much development since its existence. The return to democracy in 1999 brought a ray of hope and belief that the country for the first time in many years would have populist leaders, but the opposite has been the case.

The country has been moving from one fraudulent election to another, Election is seen as a zero sum game, where winner takes it all and the looser is vanquished. While the electoral body try its best to ensure a credible election process the political class and elite are also scheming to ensure that elections are heavily manipulated to their own favour and at the detriment of the electorate.

This situation has led to the underdevelopment and destruction of the country with its corresponding institutions and depicting the country like the Italian society in the 14th century as described by Niccolo Machiavelli where he stated that

“The jealousies among the states were so severe that none wanted to cooperate with each other. He (Mach) saw that in the entire Italy there was no single powerful prince who could go ahead. There were corruption, moral degradation and infidelity in every sphere of the society, Italy was the characteristic example of a constitutional decay. Cruelty and murder became the day to day affair. Values and principles were banished from the society. Christian honesty and ethics were the values of the past. Profligacy and debauchery were frequent. Struggle for power was very common. Naked selfishness reigned everywhere. It was an age of bastards and adventurers”.



This picture of the Italian society depicted by Machiavelli as far back as the 14th century is exactly the same picture of Nigeria today in the 21st century.

There seems to be no end to this anomaly as we are stuck in a tunnel whose end we can’t see as these Synthetic leaders have ensured that we remain in this dark tunnel while they continue with their deception of ensuring we see the light at the end, it is almost a hopeless situation.

A free and fair election would end the emergence of synthetic leadership, but the ruling political class has ensured that such would never happen, therefore it is up to the people to come together engage in civil disobedience, demonstrations, launching agitations and embark on revolution to drive away these few monsters who have imposed themselves on the people and have blighted their future.

The 2019 elections has shown that Nigerians would for another four years experience synthetic leadership, some areas might be lucky as they got their choice of leaders even in the face of tyranny, oppression, intimidation, harassment, and attempts to manipulate election result. But the same can’t be same for some.

In as much as I try to avoid the mentioning of names in this write-up, I almost can’t resist the temptation to mention the name of the Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara.

Hon Yakubu Dogara who despite being in the opposition has been able to surmount all political obstacles and attacks to hold firmly to his area of influence and provide quality leadership to his people and the Nation. Having been in the Green Chamber since 2007, he has endeared himself to his people so much that in a very religious conscious North east, his religion or political affiliation isn’t considered when assessing him.

No nation moves forward with bad, evil and egoistic men who fraudulently manipulated their way to power and leadership positions.

For the country to move forward, Nigerians must be prepared to do away with Synthetic leaders through elections, civil disobedience and revolution, improve their level of consciousness and continue to engage in self-examination.



https://www.lainonline.com/2019/03/28/the-synthetic-leaders/