Addressing the Trust Deficit Index in Nigerian Leadership

In the RED BOOK – which is the bible of Maoism, the Chinese Marxist – who was the arrow-head of the Cultural Revolution in China adopted an eclectic approach to governance. Maoism is a mixture of Marxism-Leninist thoughts with its accompanying Trotsky's interpretation. Since Mao ZeDong is a product of Confucianism, the RED BOOK espouses that the primary goal of government is education. The primacy given to education is against the background that en educated person can easily contribute to the well being of the society. Maoism advocates that democracy and education are inseparable. Mao is a good example of a leader the Chinese trusted even years after his death. Rightly or wrongly, most of the dictators around the world; Hitler, Mussolini; Stalin etc were respected because they were consistent and therefore trusted by their people. This is not quite so in Nigeria.

A couple of days ago, I culled this statement from the facebook: “PARADOX OF NIGERIA: Critical infrastructures in Nigeria are collapsing. Medicines are drying up in hospitals and youths are leaving university without jobs because the people are told there is a lack of adequate cash to fund improved well being for them. But do you know that a staggering surplus fund of fifteen billion naira (N15 billion) was paid into the account of the Police Pension Office in 2010 while retired police officers continued to die from want and neglect by the nation to which they gave their all, while in service? (sic).”

The same person wrote again on his facebook (sic) “Evil has persisted in Nigeria because our so called political leaders have penchant for burying the truth ''for peace sake''. The attempt by the Governor of Abia State to sweep under carpet revelations emanating from the altercation between DG of SEC, Ms Aruma Eteh, and the House of Reps Committee on the Capital Market is taking corrupt practices too far. I do not know what the interest of this 'confused' Governor is in a potentially criminal matter. It is not a matter that calls for PDP-type 'family-reconciliation'. It is a matter that involves stealing and misuse of the money of the people of Nigeria. There has been accusations and counter-accusations. In a society that wants to be seen as progressive, the next line of action is for the appropriate agency to investigate these allegations and prosecute all those found to have acted illegally or gotten their fingers burnt. In that wise, I am finding it very difficult to comprehend the rationale for the intervention of the 'boy-boy governor'. Could it be there is more to this than meets the eye?”

Two issues run through these verses of lamentation namely: corruption – which has lacerated the moral ligament of the nation and acute distrust of our leaders. This trust deficit index has built up in Nigeria over four decades, such that the Nigerian masses can hardly trust the pronouncements of political leaders at any level. But why will the masses trust their leaders? Our federalism was established on a distorted, pseudo foundation. The forceful lumping together of the multifarious odd ethnic nationalities in 1914 by the British was done in such a manner that he voluntary consent of the constituent ethnic groups was neither sought nor obtained. This historic mistake can only be corrected through a well-constituted Sovereign National Conference, SNC. The call for a SNC has become more imperative in the light of agitations from all parts of the country for true federalism.

Because of the distorted pattern of the evolution of our federalism, leaders were socialized in a culture of ethnicism – with primordial attachment and sentiment toward their ethnic groups. Nigeria has been making frantic efforts at searching for national integration.

Now can the federal character principle work when government is insensitive to the plight of oil producing communities? Is it a federal character of “monkey dey work, baboon dey chop?” The governors of the South–South geo-political Zone should come together to agitate for the control of the resources. When federalism is tilted in favour of ethnic majorities and the allocation of resources is skewed in favour of those who monopolize power, the federal character principle is not practicable.

Leadership is one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Leadership also implies the ability to influence others in the direction of the desired change. Leadership is vision-oriented in that a leader is assumed to have a clear vision of where the group is going and how to arrive at the destination safely. It is the proper and credible articulation of a leader's vision that brings the passion to drive the vision. Any leader who is imbued with both vision and passion must communicate these virtues to the group in a clear, unambiguous manner. This is why everything rises and falls on leadership.

An important ingredient of leadership is Integrity, which is the integration of outward actions and inner values. A person of integrity is the same on the outside and on the inside. A leader with integrity can be trusted. Unfortunately, integrity is a scarce commodity in the political class. Another is dedication, which implies the expenditure of time and energy to accomplish the task at hand. Lack of dedication among civil servants has paralyzed the bureau. Around the nation, work ethics is dead.

Nigeria is in short supply of leaders who inspire confidence and lead by example, doing whatever it takes to complete the next step toward the vision. By setting an excellent example, leaders can show followers that there are no nine-to-five jobs on the team, only opportunities to achieve something great.

A leader has to be magnanimous enough to ensure that credit for successes is spread as widely as possible throughout the organization, but takes personal responsibility for failures. Effective leaders are humble hence they recognize that they are part of a group or team. A humble leader is not self-effacing but rather tries to elevate everyone. Leaders with humility also understand that their status does not make them higher than others. Mahatma Gandhi is a role model for Indian leaders what Martin Luther King Jnr and Nelson Mandella was to the Americans and South Africans respectively. In addition, good leaders are open because openness builds mutual respect and trust between leaders and followers. In governmental administration openness translates to transparency and accountability in the transaction of government businesses.

In Nigeria, the Trust Deficit Index of leaders is so high that the best of government's intentions are misconstrued. This is because of ideological bankruptcy at the level of politics, self-aggrandizement at the level of managing the economy and dishonesty at the level of policy implementation. Today, Nigeria is full of probe panels; and more than 30% of former public officer either have cases with the anti-graft agencies or the people they served. Some of them run away days before their official tenures expire. Again, the institutional mechanisms for checks and balances are very weak, leaving room for unnecessary manipulations and wanton circumvention of ground rules and regulations necessary for regulating public morality and crusading against corruption. It is lack of public morality, the zigzag manner we handle very significant issues and the get-rich-quick syndrome that have combined to reduce us to the stallion of beggars rather than the colossus that we are.

Nigerians can still reduce the trust deficit index in governance by emphasizing accountability of public office holders.Accountability in any society begins by holding institutions and their leaders' accountable, building mechanisms to comply with the terms of accountability, and transparently reporting on performance. These are the bedrock principles. But delivering social justice demands more. Accountability is a necessary adjunct to the power that government exercises in our society. Thus If corruption is the most damaging disease that any organization must confront, as discussed in the preceding section, then accountability and transparency are the major cures

In the practical operation of governance, accountability connotes that government should be run in such an open manner as to encourage participation such as the competitive tendering of government contracts. It also implies that government contracts are process massive anti-corruption campaigns involving all public officials and the President, Public sector reforms to reduce, if not completely eliminate, the opportunity for corruption, especially through the comprehensive monetization of benefits to public officers.

The success of public governance will ultimately be judged not by the citizens not by those in governments. It is citizens who are demanding greater transparency and accountability from government as well as greater public participation in shaping policies that affect their lives. Second, good governance and the fight against corruption should not just be catchwords in international co-operation. They represent the keys for successful reform and for equitable and sustainable development. We cannot afford to continue with the massive Trust Deficit Index in our leadership.

Idumange John
Is Deputy President, Niger Delta Integrity Group