(By Goke Omolade)
“Indeed, forth and back, each nation deserves its own rulers or leaders and none can possibly claim to have reached a state of perfection; not even democracy, the global eulogised form of accountable governance since its Grecian days. One functionality of able leadership is transparency which willingly every leader has to be subjected to and this is why representative governance, aptly couched in democratic ethics, periodically offers ample opportunities for change of leadership whenever needs be.“
Continued from yesterday
COMING nearer home, the dissimilar influences of its three larger-than-real figures (Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello) on the nation in general while they lasted did not help matters; for as one actor was pushing the nation towards needed development and unity so too were others pulling it away! Perhaps, among these three personalities existed both centripetal and centrifugal forces and those gifted with hindsight of reckoning would recall that it was the very day that Awolowo was finally buried, after having been kept in a mausoleum for so long, that Azikiwe died. Was there any cosmic/spiritual connection to this or was it a mere co-incidence, too? Would Nigeria’s story have been different if this troika had manifested at separate generations? Any surprise why Nigeria has continued to be assailed by all fair-weather rulers accountable to no one except their pockets and generations-yet-unborn through mindless, massive looting? Perhaps, owing to the yawning absence of serious-minded and altruistic leaders, its obviously deprived and disoriented citizens have been made so desperately wicked, ravenously corrupt and needlessly enervated that career crimes and diverse deviances have resultantly become ways of life while universally acclaimed virtues like merit, honour, integrity and hard work amount to next-to-nothing.
Just below the southern tip of Africa, the whole world at the moment is, metaphorically speaking, at a freezing point over the demise of a 95-year-old patriarch, South Africa’s Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela. Put simply, Mandela was a virtual saint on a special mission to the world which he dutifully accomplished and his type comes once in a millennium. His leadership style was widely celebrated as an epitome of personalised sacrifice, sound patriotism, consensual coalition and universal crusade of freedom and liberty for all as well as being a relentless champion against skin discrimination. In fact, if Mandela had lived up to a millennium (1000 years), the world would still have mourned his exit because of what most part of his life represented.
Here lies a curious question; would Mandela have made his noted mark on the marble of time if he had been born in any other nation, say Nigeria? Because, nearly all existing elements and theatrics of power play would have disconnected or debarred him from being manifested.
In the Latin Americas, deliberate efforts are consistently made to improving their citizens’ lifestyle along political and economic parlance and having suffered a similar colonial experience like Africa but with an increasingly conscientious and benevolent leadership, it would not be long before a new lease of life dawns. The linkage effects of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) bloc on Brazil, the princely power house and the only Portuguese-speaking nation in a region of over 30 Lusophone countries was beginning to manifest in better and fruitful intercourse. Similarly, the duo of Mexico and Argentina makes a good pair of developmental partners for Latin America’s needed advancement. Strategically located from each other; Mexico in the far North, Brazil in the Central and Argentina in the South; the combined trio are moving in the right leadership direction to pulling the entire region towards total development.
If there is any nation that was hewed out of near nothingness and initial emptiness, it is Israel which has come to symbolise what a corps of committed, unyielding, clearly-sighted corps of leaders can brew out of deprived and dislocated people. Birthed in May 1948 out of adversity, desperation, warfare, thorns and hopelessness; its leaders then, as now, are always in the forefront of nation building and if anything, Israel has continued to strive even in the midst of wars of attrition with the combined 45 odd member-Arab League/23 Islamic member-Bloc. Apparently conscious of its security alliance with America which, for all practical purposes, strategically regards Israel as its 51st state; Israel has therefore spared no resource whatsoever since its troubled foundation to affirm its survival!
Indeed, forth and back, each nation deserves its own rulers or leaders and none can possibly claim to have reached a state of perfection; not even democracy, the global eulogised form of accountable governance since its Grecian days. One functionality of able leadership is transparency which willingly every leader has to be subjected to and this is why representative governance, aptly couched in democratic ethics, periodically offers ample opportunities for change of leadership whenever needs be.
Back to the ageless riddle of the egg and chic as which of either comes first; ditto the issue of leaders and their citizens, who should rank more important? Can there be sanity and orderliness in an atmosphere where rulers lord it over their people or the latter resort to anarchy? At the outset of a new reign of governance, every government enjoys a period of honeymoon, that is a time-lag when committed errors of judgment can understandably be glossed over after which subsequent blunders are painstakingly nailed on the score-card of those in power. As everything human has its expiry date so do all who are in charge of human affairs and no matter how long or tenacious-minded; death is a lever of all animate things; human or otherwise.
No less important should be the resolved commitment of the citizens to stand up to the often-excesses and recklessness of those in command of their nations’ destiny. Usually, these habitual tin-gods suffer from the disillusion of invincibility, power tenacity and institutionalised kleptomania which characteristically give them a false sense of perpetuity. The current imbroglio enveloping the entirety of Egypt is a burning case study. That Egypt’s present military impostors have seemingly bitten more than they could possibly chew is glaring and it is just a question of time before they are humiliated off the power scene.
As for what makes nations tick; these can quintessentially be situated in the people’s readiness and eternal vigilance to right all wrongdoings from any quarter vis-à-vis charging reigning leaders to be articulately altruistic and far-sighted for the greatest number of their society in view.
• Concluded.
“Opinion pieces of this sort published on RISE Networks are those of the original authors and do not in anyway represent the thoughts, beliefs and ideas of RISE Networks.”
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