EVERYTHING RISES AND FALLS ON LEADERSHIP

I have watched with utter astonishment how leadership is not made to be largely responsible whenthings go wrong in a family, company, institution,state, or even a country. The above caption depicts my thoughts about leadership. Leadership can make or mar a country, an institution,an agency, a company, a department, a region, or even a family.The leader is the driver of the vehicle, and he determines the direction of the vehicle.

In this post, I will be sharing examples from the Nigerian polity. It is also an opportunity for us to engage andexchange views on the topic of leadership in our nation, Nigeria.

If this topic is not trashed, leaders will always blame citizens for their shortcomings.It is time for leaders in all strata to begin to take responsibility and see where they aren’t meeting up to the expectations of the people they are leading. It is important to state that when the first man fell, the first person God asked questions was the man.He asked the man first because the man was put in charge. Ironically, he took the greatest consequences.

When an organization wants to make a change, they change the CEO. Likewise, the CEO takes responsibility for the good
and the bad that happens in his domain. We need to situate what leadership is. Everything rises and falls on leadership. I have heard people complain about the kind of followers/citizens they lead.

Ironically, no human being in the world was born sane. I mean, born to follow rules or born to be obedient and upright.Or how do you explain a baby who is being breastfed by the mother and suddenly bites the mum and startssmiling. Who taught the baby to do wickedly? It is in the nature of man to oppose rules and want to be disobedient. It is the leader who will think of how to make them straight. What sets one nation apart from another are the rules put in place by the leaders. Followers don’t make rules. They abide by the rules set by their leaders.

As a reader of the Bible, you are aware that God got to a point, and he regretted making man because of their actions.
What did God do eventually? He set out laws and added the consequences. It is the fear of consequences that makes people obey laws.Even in developed countries, people don’t willingly obey laws. They obey the rules because they are afraid of the consequences. Leaders are responsible for the kind of people they produce. Your role as the leader, amongst other things, is to shape the mindset of your followers or team members.
This is why corporate organizations have a culture that they impart into everyone who joins the company. We like to make reference to Rwanda today. We even, go there for conferences, but the president took over a country where the citizens were killing oneanother. In other words, the citizens were killers. Do they still kill today? Absolutely no! Something must have changed.They don’t kill again because the leader there knowsm everything rises and falls on him.

I know some will say this is a dictator, but I will seek your patience as we journey together.There are examples that you will come across and are not from a dictator. Rwandan president put laws in place as well as the consequences.Everyone goes to Rwanda today and applauds its cleanliness. The citizens didn’t become clean overnight. They became clean with the right consequence management.This article is not to exonerate the citizens of theirresponsibilities. However, it is to highlight that with the right decisions and actions from an upright leader, the citizens will fall in line. Everyone has a part to play innation-building, but the leader carries the burden.

In Lagos state, Nigeria, we can see what theCommissioner of Environment is doing. He saw that citizens have built houses on canals, and this wrong action leads to flooding every year. He didn’t complain of the level of depravity. He pulled up his sleeves and got down to work.This resulted in the pulling down of some buildings. With his actions, it will be difficult for you to see someone going to build on a canal in Lagos state,
Nigeria.It may take many years to come, and that may be because the current tempo may not be sustained.

When Mr. Fashola, the executive governor of Lagos state [2007 – 2015], cleaned Oshodi [a business district in Lagos known for harbouring notorious gangs], it was not the citizens that cleaned it. It was the leadership that cleaned it. It’s all about leadership. We all remember how Governor Fashola stopped a senior military man who passed through the dedicated Bus Rapid Transit [BRT] lane. That singular action made people sit up and understand that there are grave consequences for driving on the BRT lane. If that action had been allowed to slip away without consequences, it will give confidence to more people to take the restricted lane. When you see people misbehave continuously, it is a sign that there are no grave consequences for their misbehaviour.

Have you ever imagined what Lagos would look like if there was no LASTMA? LASTMA is the traffic management authority in Lagos, Nigeria. That is the power of leadership. Someone saw that we are breeding chaos if we don’t put checks in place for transportation in Lagos. Today, that model of LASTMA is being adopted in other states in Nigeria. Let me restate again, no citizen anywhere in the world obeys rules willingly. It is always a result of consequences that people follow rules. Those consequences must apply to the rich and the poor.

You can’t, but remember the herione of NAFDAC. NAFDAC is the food and drug agency in Nigeria. Dora Akunyili was the DG of the agency at that time. It was the same agency that was dormant for many years, and from the moment this great woman took over, the direction changed.The nation is yet to recover from the impact of her leadership during her time in that institution. Fake drug merchants were sent out of business because of her leadership. Unfortunately, there wasn’t consistent leadership, and that is why we’re back to the same issue years after The political class, through the legislature, is expected to make and pass laws as well as the consequences.

Citizens can’t set rules. Citizens can’t be responsible for consequence management. It is the leadership that does that. The leadership must know the burden on them.There are some parts of Lagos, Nigeria, where peopledon’t break the traffic light. It is no other reason other than the cameras that have been installed to pick anyone who breaks the traffic light. You will pay your fine the day you want to renew your papers. Any leader who keeps blaming the citizens for his failure is failing in his responsibilities. No CEO will ever blame his associates for his non performance. It is our responsibility as leaders to know how to manage our followers. If you have sheep as followers, you deal with them as sheep, and if you have goats as followers, you dealwith them as goats.Your kind of followers determine your leadership style. This is one of the reasons there is what is called theory X and theory Y in management.

There are many more examples, such as when Mr. Nasir Elrufai was Minsiter for FCT in Nigeria.He changed the landscape as if no one had ever been minister in that federal capital before. Ever since he left, no leader has been able to manage
that federal capital effectively.

Another example is when the Lagos state government reformed their judiciary. It was not the citizens that reformed it. Rather, it was the leadership. As political leaders, we must have moments we will tell ourselves the truth, the expectations of the citizens are very high. One last example I will mention is that of Dubai, as highlighted in the book: My Vision-written by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.Today, Dubai is the toast of the world. It came by leadership. The citizens followed along in the direction of the leader. Every leader is the one who will make the kind of followers he desires.

As leaders, we must wake up to the burden of responsibility that lies on our shoulders.
God bless Nigeria and all her citizens.