Nigeria’s Crisis of Followership -By Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú

The blight of hypocrisy extends beyond Abuja, and well beyond politics and politicians. We have a crisis of followership. As Nigerians, we don’t obey the law and we do not follow the rules…It is a failure of followership, when we elect politicians who are not fit to be head of households to high office.

Every now and then we bemoan the dearth of leadership in this country. It is about time to bewail the lack of quality and responsible followership. The usual refrain is that leadership is our bane, that leaders are not leading by example, that people holding leadership positions dwell in a cocoon of special privileges, isolated from the concerns of the real world. It is a lie! The blight of hypocrisy extends beyond Abuja, and well beyond politics and politicians. We have a crisis of followership. As Nigerians, we don’t obey the law and we do not follow the rules. We are anyhow people, who do things anyhow and do anyhow things. Responsible followership is made more difficult because Nigerians pretend to be religious yet they are not godly. In our churches, the clergy preach prosperity and in the Mosques, the Muslim clerics preach fundamentalism. Altogether, we are a people sold on alchemy instead of accountable leadership and responsible followership. They tell us, alchemy is possible but in their hearts, they must know it is impossible. It is absurd, blaming the leadership for everything when these leaders were bred among us. It is even more scandalous to vote time and again for leaders who have failed. It is irresponsible when we follow these leeches blindly, fail to call them to account and demand their removal. It is a failure of followership, when we elect politicians who are not fit to be head of households to high office. It is a patent lack of self worth, when we mortgage our present and the future of our children by taking inducements in cash and kind from politicians in exchange for our votes. That is why I find the zoning of political offices, the silliest expression of Nigeria’s failure of democratic followership. Elect whoever can do the job! Make it a level playing field.

As we look up to the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari for strong leadership, Nigeria needs followers who will build on this achievement of electing a man of character by picking the next generation of leaders who are worth following from now on.

In a democracy, you cannot be a good follower without voting. In all the elections that have taken place since 1999, statistics show most Nigerians of voting age did not register to vote, and many who did, did not vote. Voter apathy is not one of the hallmarks of good followership. It is okay to demonstrate a healthy contempt for politicians and be politically disengaged. It is not okay to abstain from voting. Voting empowers the voter. In a totally dysfunctional country like ours, we cannot afford a citizenry with marginal concern for politics and those who seek to lead us. Those who spend time thinking about politics and public policy do not do so because such matters are of marginal importance; they think about politics because they believe it is important. In addition, they want their thoughts and views out there and they impose it on those who do not care.

In the words of President Jimmy Carter who created and adopted the slogan – ‘A government is as good as its people,’ we cannot wallow in sin and expect to revel in God’s abundant Grace. We must be good followers to breed good leaders because we the citizens frame the discourse and terms of reference. As we look up to the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari for strong leadership, Nigeria needs followers who will build on this achievement of electing a man of character by picking the next generation of leaders who are worth following from now on. This is because, a good leader emerges when followers seek long term solutions, requiring vision and sacrifice. It is only a committed followership that can pick a leader who can bring to fruition a vision of an all inclusive, unified and prosperous nation with far-reaching managerial objectives, and with defined and measurable success under execution. In our politics, we have to be willing to follow something greater than ourselves if the crises of direction in Nigeria is ever going to abate. Our disastrous national outlook is symbolic of the rampant propensity for pursuing self-interest that we have settled for as a way of life, especially in our politics.

The social media has altered the nature of engagement in collective conversation and dissemination of information and it is just the beginning. It has shifted the balance of power in favour of the governed, with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube becoming powerful weapons in the hands of the youth and dissatisfied voters…It is now business unusual.

More than ever before, Nigeria faces dire social, economic, political and environmental disasters, whose creation can be found in greed, self-interest, and an astonishing lack of courage, integrity and unity of purpose. In the ministries, churches, schools, corporations, we follow the leader without having the liver to distance ourselves from reprehensible acts. Now that a new dawn is upon us, we owe it to ourselves and to generations unborn to develop an internal compass of goodness, integrity, morality, and humane connection. We must move away from the culture of passing accountability, responsibility, and concern for others to someone else. Nigeria cannot progress as long as we continue to exist as islands of self-interest in a bid to corner more national resources for our enclaves. As followers, we must see ourselves as connected and part of the national whole.

This article will not be complete without acknowledging an encouraging positive in our prairie of desolation. There is something worthy of cheer, a threat to the status quo and a new weapon for political awareness and mass action. It is the social media. In just a few years, the Internet/social media has changed the dynamics between leaders and followers profoundly. Information is instant and readily available to everyone with a cell phone with serious implications. The ubiquitous cellphone has become an important weapon in the dissemination of information. With a click, a career can be made or ruined by a single picture, a voice recording or a video. The social media has altered the nature of engagement in collective conversation and dissemination of information and it is just the beginning. It has shifted the balance of power in favour of the governed, with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube becoming powerful weapons in the hands of the youth and dissatisfied voters. It also exposes an important generational gap between the youthful tech-savvy generation and those who are a generation or two older in leadership positions. It is now business unusual. The youth demographic is idealistic, patriotic and very politically aware, having been deprived of real opportunities by their parents’ and grandparents’ generation. A politician ignores this demographic at his own peril.

Our pork-barrel democracy cannot withstand the awakening and onslaught of civil society groups, student union, professional bodies, trade unions, churches, ethnic associations, underground media, intellectuals, journalists and adherents of new media.

Electing Buhari shows how powerful you are as a follower. Unseating an incumbent is a convincing evidence of your power. The power of a leader resides with you because you empowered him to lead. If a leader does not lead, withdraw that power. Leaders do bad stuff when followers stand by and do absolutely nothing. Understand your civic responsibility. Understand the responsibilities of followership. Obey the law, be a good citizen, become a monitorial citizen – an engaged citizen who does his best and demands the best, not one who prays for the best. I once wrote that, “As monitoring citizens, we can become purposeful actors in our government, in our economy, in this country. By becoming smart mobs, we can form new relationships, assert new public values, and mobilise political, economic, and cultural power to translate these values into action.”

We can and must redefine Nigeria by combining the energy and enthusiasm of bottom-up social social media enabled organising with existing top-down hierarchical structures. Our pork-barrel democracy cannot withstand the awakening and onslaught of civil society groups, student union, professional bodies, trade unions, churches, ethnic associations, underground media, intellectuals, journalists and adherents of new media. Who are we willing to follow? What and why are we following him? What kind of a country are we seeking to build? These are the pertinent questions we have to ask ourselves because if there were no followers, there would be no leaders.

Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú maintains a weekly column on Politics and Socioeconomic issues every Tuesday. She is a member of Premium Times Editorial Board. Twitter @olufunmilayo