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By Ernest Osogbue

There is nothing more dishonorable than for a leader to lose touch with his followers to the extent that they no longer listen to him. This is my personal summation after many years of listening to different presidential addresses dished out of the confines of Aso Villa. For many years, I have made efforts to dissect the speeches put out by our presidents, and I have been disappointed.

As a younger man, I was captivated studying the exploits of leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Fidel Castro, John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X (El Shabbaz), and others. These leaders almost had their followers eating out of their hands. I have always dreamt of my country having a leader akin to any one of these historical figures. After all, these men did not descend from outer space, they were men born of women. What set them apart was that they were ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things. Howbeit Nigeria cannot produce such extraordinary leaders?

From studies, I have discovered the five attributes that make for great leadership; character, vision, empathy, resilience, and impact. These attributes were present in different measures in the above leaders. And I want to personally add the ability to communicate. If you check, you will notice that all these men had the ability to communicate with, and mobilize their followers, either by words, or by deeds.

This brings me to the Nigerian leadership, where in the last 25 years of democracy, we have had leaders who were unable to meet the above standards. Our presidents have come across as rulers who lord over their people, rather than as leaders taking them on a journey to the promised land. Listening to our leaders speak is like listening to a parade commander addressing the troops. From President Obasanjo to President Yar’adua, Jonathan to Buhari, and now to Tinubu. The story is the same; no link between the leader and the people. Though Jonathan made some effort, it was mostly puerile and ineffectual.

Over the years, I listened to presidential addresses as a matter of duty; that a citizen must necessarily listen to his president. However, I became disillusioned. Despite that, I continued to do my duty by listening to every presidential broadcast. It was not until President Buhari that I suddenly realized that I did not have to listen to any presidential broadcasts.

After his first two presidential addresses, I was so disappointed that I suddenly had an epiphany, I became liberated. I realized that I did not have to listen to the man, it is not an offense not to listen to a presidential broadcast. I had been punishing myself over the years staying tuned to drab uninspiring messages from uninspiring leaders without realizing that I did not have to listen to them. My eyes were opened to the fact that to be a good citizen only required me to obey the laws of my country, and that not listening to the president is not against the law.

I recently skimmed through the text of President Tinubu’s last address to the nation, and I was miffed. Outside of personal adulations, the president simply tried to counter the opposition and to impress macroeconomists. There was nothing in the address for the long-suffering Nigerian people who mostly bear the brunt of wrong economic policies and who are actually responsible for the development of the country by their combined aggregate efforts. Majority of our people are regular office workers, retirees, artisans, truck pushers, market women and traders, bricklayers, subsistence farmers, students, unemployed people, and the like. These are the people our president should be addressing, but instead, he prefers to address those who make noise on television.

If as the president said, the GDP has improved, how does that affect the price of beans and garri in the market? The president came across as being detached from reality. Empty platitudes and admonitions to be patient are not enough, a leader must demonstrate by his words and his actions that he is in the trenches with the people. President Tinubu bought a new car, a new jet, and has been globetrotting since being sworn-in, enjoying the perks of office. Is that how to be in the trenches with the people? We were buying petrol at #195 per liter, before he came to power, we now buy the same product at #1,100 and above per liter, with its concurrent impact on the prices of foodstuff and transportation. How long shall we be patient?

While accepting that politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose as postulated by Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York State, it is still disappointing to see President Tinubu, arguably the most grassroots oriented politician to become president in Nigeria, be so detached from the people. He has suddenly become blinded by the vagaries of office and false reports from his acolytes. President Tinubu has allowed himself to be swallowed by the shark of Nigerian politics.

Abuja roads are locked down from Aso Villa to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport three hours before the president detaches himself from the goodbye embrace of his wife, Oluremi Tinubu. In that time Abuja residents go through hell as their day is disrupted, with those needing emergency medical services left to die in traffic, because our president is traveling. Man-hours are lost and businesses suffer because the IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, and the NSA, Nuhu Ribadu; cannot deploy choppers or find a more scientific mode of ferrying the president to and from the airport. What manner of leadership is that?  

My dear President Tinubu, it is not too late to do an about-face. You were expected to be a different and better president, one with a hands-on approach to leadership. If you still wish to be remembered for good by the people, the time to break free from the fetters of office is now. You need to be your own man. The man who dances on the streets with the people, feeling their pulse and knowing their desires. You must remember that life is not measured by longevity, neither is leadership measured by how long. Rather, life and leadership are measured by their impact on others even if it is only for a short period.