Last year, I took out time to pursue a year-long post-graduate diploma programme in Cultural Administration at the Abuja Centre of the Federal Government-owned National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO). I spent the inter-semester long break at National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru, near Jos, participating in the month-long Policy, Strategy and Leadership Course No. 22. Both programmes illuminated my understanding of leadership and management, and showed me why Nigeria always draws blank in everything leadership.
There is need to retouch the NICO Act. Rather than calling it National Institute for Cultural Orientation and its certificates-awarding arm, NICO Training School, which sounds quite elementary, the National Assembly might consider Nigeria Culture Institute or National Culture Institute. In addition, it may also be nice to factor NICO and NIPSS into our leadership recruitment process. Anyone angling for executive, legislative or judiciary position across our all governmental strata should first have a good command of the finer details and inter-workings of our cultural diversity as well as policy and strategy administration. At worst, this could be made a pre-swearing in prerequisite. Even a crash course would offer our leaders this basic leadership savvy.
Leadership is at once fundamental, indispensable and talismanic. An all-sheep nation with a lion leader can perform wonders. Conversely, a nation of lions led by a sheep would go nowhere. Until Nigeria realises the omnipotence of leadership and does something about it, it would keep swinging like a bad pendulum. Nigerians become leaders sans first understanding jurisdictional cultural variety or having full grasp of policy and implementation strategy
For example, in a recession economy such as we currently endure, the ubiquitous chorus is, ‘no money.’ Yet, a few public office holders, who are worthy leaders, are scratching up magic with bare hands. I was recently invited to Ikono Local Government headquarters in Akwa Ibom State and saw firsthand how journalist-turned-politician, Hon. Itoro Columba, the Council Chairman, had literally rubbished the no-money refrain. My leadership model called P. P. & S. (Passion, Planning, and Strategy) is at work in Ikono and indeed everywhere you see dividends of leadership!
So, what kind of leader are you?
First, unlike what nearly all textbooks say, I think that we can use boss and leader interchangeably. That point about a leader being lovable while a boss is bossy is a myth. There exist leaders who are awfully bossy, and bosses who love to a fault. For me, a leader/boss in a position of authority (formal) or simply respected or loved or feared (informal) is a person who knows the way, shows it effectively and generally guides people (followers, family, mentees, etc) to a destination of significance or success. A leader/boss could be one’s supervisor, ‘blood’, teacher, friend, mate, mentor, counsellor, senior, junior, etc. I prefer the synonym, ‘boss’, because of its generic and intelligible values. While confusion hovers occasionally over who a leader is, we all know who a boss is, always!
At this juncture, with NICO and NIPSS teaching that there are many styles of leadership but that the top three are democratic, laissez faire and autocratic, we can infer that these are the three main types of leader/boss. However, I think that a democratic boss can also be given to laissez faire and autocracy. Since this discourse is about Nigeria, not North Korea, the question again is: what type of democratic boss are you?
Here are the options: godly or Satan-personified, firm or weak, liberal or bigoted? Have your pick so we can tell if you are part of Nigeria’s problem or solution. It no longer matters what type of boss the people think you are. What now counts is the type of boss you think you are. The buck stops at your table, remember. God bless Nigeria!
Road travel in Nigeria: Abuja to Uyo, case study
Although it is more of a comedown status symbol in Nigeria, travelling by road, where flying is possible, appeals more to me, especially now that impassability is no longer a huge part of the deal. Apart from aviaphobia/aerophobia, which torments me to no end, I enjoy land travel because it educates me best about my fatherland.
Please join me on the eight or 10 or 12 hour road trip from Abuja (the so-called centre of the country) to Uyo (capital of Akwa Ibom State in the South South). Since I am not the driver and I’m fully alert from departure to arrival, I become instantly a student of everything Nigeria. Welcome to the Road School that wordlessly teaches the good, the bad and the ugly sides of Africa’s snoring giant!
I always leave Abuja early. So you don’t scream, let’s say my early is 5am. The city either doesn’t sleep or wakes up early, because even at such hours you’d find so many people on the road. Secondly, I’ve come to learn that Nigerians are very time-conscious. And, thirdly, this is a delectable and unique country: rich vegetation and picturesque landscape (from Abuja or FCT, through Kogi, Benue, Enugu, Imo and Abia into Akwa Ibom), one country, different cultures as well as the sheer landmass.
Everything about the trip is good, right? Wrong, there are some bad and ugly sides to our roads: the untold lawlessness, the mind-blowing dirtiness and the crass failure to tap into begging opportunities. For instance, I think our security agents are completely ill-positioned and overwhelmed. This forces them to deploy crude roadblock methods and tools: exploitation, intimidation, tree trunks. The alarmingly higher concentration of checkpoints on the three-hour south-eastern stretch (from Kogi/Benue/Enugu boundary to the Ikwuano LGA end of Abia State) than on the three, four other stretches of the journey put together also leaves one reflecting on the possible intentions.
Other horrible infractions on our roads include dangerous/drunk driving, abusiveness, and the general tendency to be above the law by drivers and sundry road users. Sanitation-wise, our highways might be the dirtiest in the world. Even the one leading out of FCT (into Lokoja, Kogi State) is in a state. Yes, contractors are taking eternity to complete what would be a pretty motorway, but what assurances are there that we would stop throwing refuse out of moving cars or allowing wild shrubs to grow by the roadside or on the median of dual carriageways as witnessed all over?
In any case, while Abuja to Lokoja Highway filthiness is third division; that between Lokoja and Ajaokuta, second division and the one between Kogi and Benue belongs in the championship, the end-of-discussion mess that wins the premier league booby prize must be the horrific scenes at Obollo Afor, Enugu State and Okigwe Junctions 1 & 2, Imo State where traders stand in muddy refuse heaps to sell food/food items to travellers. Either God is a Nigerian to not have allowed an epidemic hitherto or several ad hoc deaths have gone unreported!
Finally: the opportunities I see on our roads. Federal, State and Local Governments could sign three tripartite agreements. One: employment generation for roadside community cleaners and security. Two: agricultural mobilisation to tackle unemployment and food sufficiency deficit. And three: national orientation. Travellers are in dire need of mentality-reengineering campaigns!