plaetton:

There are too many current and past examples to prove that leadership matters.

America today is a good example.
America produces the best in every area of human endeavor.

Now, can you say that the current American leadership under Donald Trump is reflective of the American society?
The answer is no.

Donald is an extraordinary leader in the worst possible ways, and look at what America has become in just 4years of his leadership. His incompetent response to the covid19 pandemic that has claimed 230,000 American lives is reflective of HIS OWN deficit of leadership qualities, and does not reflect the general character of the American citizenry.

The leadership provides the standard cues for moral and ethical conduct that trickles all the way down to the followership.
That's why the citizenry put their hope and trust in the hands of few individuals, to organize them, protect them, and establish higher standards of moral and ethical conduct. When those appointed or elected to leadership positions fail to rise up the calling, when they settle for the service of their personal interests, that character trait again becomes infectious, and trickles down to the citizenry . Nigeria is a typical example.

If it were simply a matter of leadership, Donald Trump would be preparing for his second inauguration right now. The reason why he isn't is because 78 million Americans decided that character and competence outweigh brazen appeals to racism and pandering to religious extremists. What the American example actually illustrates is the importance of good CITIZENSHIP by millions of ordinary people, and this civic-mindedness is precisely what is missing from Nigerian public life at all levels. Nigeria can never enjoy good leadership unless the masses of ordinary Nigerians prioritize that over the usual sectarian, "our turn"/"you chop I chop" rent-seeking mentality.

orisa37:




The Military, The Police, The DSS, In KADUNA The Kastellas and The various Security Organizations in all the 36 CONSTITUTIONAL STATES of the Country are now harassing disturbing and collecting BRIBES AS STATES IGR everywhere.

False.

The military, the Police, the DSS and security Organizations in all the 36 CONSTITUTIONAL STATES do not collect bribes from anyone. It is Nigerians in these organisations that collect bribes to do their constitutional duty. The monies collected as bribes do not reflect in the accounts of these organisations.

omohayek:

If it were simply a matter of leadership, Donald Trump would be preparing for his second inauguration right now. The reason why he isn't is because 78 million Americans decided that character and competence outweigh brazen appeals to racism and pandering to religious extremists. What the American example actually illustrates is the importance of good CITIZENSHIP by millions of ordinary people, and this civic-mindedness is precisely what is missing from Nigerian public life at all levels. Nigeria can never enjoy good leadership unless the masses of ordinary Nigerians prioritize that over the usual sectarian, "our turn"/"you chop I chop" rent-seeking mentality.

Shout it out loud.

Add to it our greedy, wicked and selfish nature.

wirinet:

That's what I have been saying, Nigerians are the government.


No one is excusing the government or rather governments. What I am saying is that the problem with government is the same problem with our families, clans, tribes, states, churches, mosques, associations. There is no difference between our churches whereby the leader appropriate all donations for his personal use and government where the head appropriate our common wealth for his personal use.

Ordinary rice and noodles that various leaders of the society including traditional rulers were asked to distribute to the public was hoarded and you are blaming government. Government is not manned by spirits or aliens but by Nigerians.


That's what this post is about. It's about the lack of understanding of Nigerians of what leadership and responsibility entails. We cheat in all circumstances, even when we don't need to. I run some businesses and I have lost close to 500,000 this year's alone due to dishonest staff. Ask anyone running a business in Nigeria what his greatest problem is. He will tell you power, government and staff(both in terms of competency and trustworthyness)




There is a school of thought that believes that a people get the leaders they deserve. Don't you see the correlation between honest, dynamic and dedicated LEADERSHIP DEFICIT and honest, dynamic and dedicated FOLLOWERSHIP DEFICIT?

I can't blame you for your point of view. However it appears from your argument that you don't know the essence of government.
If I may ask you, why do you think we need govt in Nigeria?

If you look at the history of Nigerians dating back to pre colonial times. We weren't corrupt. In fact in ancient Benin kingdom a market woman can leave her product and go home, only to come back and grab the money later. So how did we get here?

I hope you know everything we practice today was introduced by the British, including corruption. So if government introduced corruption and you are claiming they cannot stop or eradicate it rather its the citizens who should check their ways. That amount to foolishness on your part to understand history and relate it to present day reality.

wirinet:


It's amazing Nigerians are refusing to see this fact. We are living in denial. You cannot survive in the Nigerian system if you are not corrupt and ready to cheat the system. I know a very upright police man, and I can tell you he loves the police job. He went for various training abroad that borders on forensic science. He had never received a bribe. When he was posted to a road block at the Lagos airport, he was unable to bring in "his target". He has since been transferred to do admin work at Abuja. Meanwhile officers that meet "targets" are given rapid promotions and given juicy postings.
Same for political careers. If you don't show stupendous wealth within a year of getting an elective or political appointment, your family will curse you, you pastor will do deliverance on you and your village will ostracise you.

Brother you are totally correct but I am afraid you are "throwing pearls before swines" with your message. Nigerians are notoriously hypocritical. They never introspect or recognise their own contributory misdeed and behaviour. Many steal and cheat as a way of life yet always point at leaders as the sole reason Nigeria is underdeveloped.

I cannot count the number of times people who are themselves corrupt and wicked are before me complaining bitterly and hypocritically about the wicked and corrupt nature of leaders.

Nearly most mechanics are thieves who inflate price of parts and rip people off with arbitrary labour charge.

Many Artisans (welders, carpenters, plumbers, tiles etal) are crooks who only need to think you are rich, perhaps because of how you speak to bump up the price of a job 3000% more than they would charge others. I had a roofer who charged 300k for a job and he even complained this was little as he wanted 450k originally.

I thought I got a deal only to discover from a worker of a very good roofing firm that they can do same job for 150k !!!!! Needless to say I sacked the roofer on the spot and got the new guys in who ended up doing an excellent job and even had to correct the mistakes made by the crook who wanted 450k !!!!

What is mentioned in your article, i.e conspiracy to steal and cheat, I have experienced as the worst display of many Nigerians backbone of dishonesty and crookedness.

Recently a friend of mine had a situation where he discovered his PA, driver and former driver all colluded with a generator repairer to inflate repair work on a plant generator by more than 50k Naira!!!!

Chef goes to the market and will buy 3k meat and 10k assorted foodstuff to come back and say he paid 10k for the meat and 20k for the assorted foodstuff merely because he knows there is no woman in the house.

During the recent protest curfew in my Lekki hood, we could not go out and had to use POS service. POS operators who sell 5k for 100 Naira now sold the same 5k for 500 Naira.

Those who hoarded petrol wanted 1000 Naira for 1 litre of petrol when same one litre sells for 160 Naira at the filling station which happened to be closed because of the curfew. For 2 or so days we were in hell entrenched on us by the greed, dishonesty and exploitative tendencies of our fellow Nigerians and not leaders.

With dishonesty, crookedness and deceit being second nature to most Nigerian, tell me how many of them will not do worse if made Governors, Senators, Reps, Ministers or local government chairmen today. We are fooling ourselves in Nigeria.

plaetton:

My old friend,
How have you been ?
It's nice to discuss with you again after a long while.

Nice talking to you too. Hope you are doing fine. It's not been easy, but as I always say "when the going gets tough, the tough gets going"

I do get your points, and we agree on everything here, except one , the most important one.

That's what makes the world interesting, different people's with different points of views and experiences. We are all able to learn from each other.

Who determines direction ? The head or the tail ?

Same dilemma as the chicken and egg question.

Just look back history . It has always taken the courage of extraordinary individuals or collection of individuals to stand up, organize a scattered population, establish the standard norms and rules , and then move the society in one direction or another.

Agree, but the extraordinary individuals or collection of individuals must have the people behind them. If the people don't support them, they would simply be crushed by the powers that be.
The ken Saro-Wiwas and the Gani Fawehinmis would not survive the Nigerian society because they would not have the masses behind them.

I do agree that in the present Nigeria society, one has to take a lantern and search from house to house, looking for just a few honest people in all of Nigeria.

Agree. But why? Because our Family, cultural, societal and even religious values have broken down.

We all know that the human mind is very malleable, and that humans, by nature, are always hungry for someone to mold their minds for them , someone to protect or lead them in one direction or another. The proliferation of churches in every street corner in Nigeria is clear testament to that hunger. It is a very loud cry for leadership, sense of belonging and direction.
Look at the power that pastors , priests and Imams have over their flock.
A morally lofty pastor, priest or Imam will infect his flock with his moral loftiness. And conversely, the greedy and wicked ones will likewise infect their flock with their character deficits .
This is why leadership is a sacred
calling.

Still boils down to message people want to hear. Ever wonder why the churches that attracts millions of people are the ones that promote instant wealth, instant miracles, unmerited riches, etc. If a morally lofty pastor start preaching moral loftiness, hardwork, honesty and learning to live a contented life, his church will empty out within a month.

There are too many current and past examples to prove that leadership matters.

There are extremely very few of such leadership examples in Nigeria.

America today is a good example.
America produces the best in every area of human endeavor.

Not exactly correct. America steals the best in every area of human endeavor from all other nations of the world.

Now, can you say that the current American leadership under Donald Trump is reflective of the American society?
The answer is no.
Donald is an extraordinary leader in the worst possible ways, and look at what America has become in just 4years of his leadership. His incompetent response to the covid19 pandemic that has claimed 230,000 American lives is reflective of HIS OWN deficit of leadership qualities, and does not reflect the general character of the American citizenry.

I think that the Trump phenomenon is a reflection of current feeling of the majority white population, who feels they are losing power and influence to minorities and immigrants.