In a crisis, all eyes turn to the leader. People want to hear something reassuring, something that gives them a sense of direction, something that makes them feel in capable hands. Because a crisis is a scary experience. Especially if we have no idea how or when it will end. Nigerians may be used to crisis, but they are not used to this kind of crisis. Pandemic, lockdown, insecurity and economic hellfire all in one. Hence, anytime it is announced President Buhari will make a speech, people tune in, hoping to be reassured, desperate not just for information, but also for inspiration.


Buhari’s speech this week announcing the continuation of the lockdown was, like all his speeches, painfully uninspirational. Dull. Wooden. Unmemorable. Read from a script with the body language of a man announcing changes to the train schedule. That he did not even acknowledge the spate of armed robberies and insecurity in the lockdown states of Lagos and Ogun was in of itself unforgivable, but the entire performance was just not it. And make no mistake, at presidential level, politics is a performance. Words matter. As does how you deliver them.

Britons remember Winston Churchill not for his policies, but for his stirring speeches during World War II. Despite being America’s president for 12 years, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is best remembered for a single line from his 1933 speech during the Great Depression: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This is not about bashing Buhari. After listening to him speak this week, I started thinking of how other Nigerian presidents had performed in this sphere. Even ardent fans of Goodluck Jonathan are unlikely to claim he was an inspiring speaker. Neither, I suspect, would Musa Yar’adua’s supporters. Obasanjo can be very witty and memorable in conversation, but his presidential speeches were no less dull and uninspiring. Abacha? Forget it. Babangida is widely agreed to have been likeable in person, but no one says they were ever inspired by him or anything he said. In fact, I doubt any Nigerian can recall a moment they felt inspired by any Nigerian head of state. This in a society full of fascinating characters. Why has a country where interesting personalities abound never produced an inspirational president?

Because the leadership selection process in Nigeria makes sure to weed out the kind of person who could become an inspirational president. To become Nigeria’s president requires the support of a hodgepodge of power cliques who control the political sphere in various areas of the country. The major power groups are centred in the north because this is where most of the votes are, but there are also various influential cliques in the south.


Because the leadership selection process in Nigeria makes sure to weed out the kind of person who could become an inspirational president. To become Nigeria’s president requires the support of a hodgepodge of power cliques who control the political sphere in various areas of the country

If you think you are going anywhere without the support of the dominant cliques of the moment, you are being naïve. Go and ask the presidential candidates who have tried it. These cliques are generally dominated by political godfathers in association with the most influential traditional rulers, religious leaders and moneybags. They are mostly men, and they are mostly men with significant egos. Most, especially the political godfathers and moneybags, got to the top not because they were the most talented, but due to their readiness to do anything for money and power, including kill and use violence when necessary. They are generally unburdened by the pesky constraints of morality. But while they usually have large egos, they are simultaneously insecure because they know deep down, they are not the cream of the crop. People like that tend to be very petty. If a “Nigerian Obama” came along, someone who was clearly inspirational and likeable, they would hate him instantly and do everything to marginalize him.


They would feel threatened by him (or her) because if you have the potential to command a national following – not just an ethno-regional one – then you cannot be controlled by gatekeepers. That’s why MKO Abiola had to be brought down. His sweeping June 12 victory shocked Babangida and the northern power groups around him. A Yoruba man popular with the northern masses? And financially independent at that. This guy would be uncontrollable. The nightmare of the numerous power cliques that run Nigeria is an uncontrollable president. By definition, this disqualifies anyone exceptional.

This is the part where I’m supposed to offer a solution. Where I say if we do X and Y, this problem can be solved. I could do that. I could use phrases like “electoral reform” and “systemic change”. I could talk about “transformational leadership” and how Nigeria needs a new kind of politics. But you’ve heard all that before. Those are nice-sounding buzzwords that have nothing to do with the reality of on-the-ground Nigerian politics.

The first step towards solving any problem is facing it honestly and squarely, at its core, not its margins. The core truth is that Nigerian politics has always been a wretched compromise at the national level. Because Nigeria itself has been one long wretched compromise. “Compromise” being a kind word considering how the country came about in the first place. The wretchedness of the Nigerian compromise is best exemplified in the idea of the “rotating” presidency. The north rules for 8 years after which it’s the south’s “turn.”

So, if by some chance, a brilliant transformational leader with a realistic plan for developing Nigeria emerges in the north in the next few years, he or she has no chance of becoming Nigeria’s president until 2031 at the earliest. How does that make sense if you really sit down and think about it? I think in fifty years, people will look back and wonder at some of the absurd arrangements being accepted today in the name of this wretched compromise.

That Nigeria is not working is not a coincidence. It is high time we acknowledged that the 923,000-odd square kilometres which constitute the space called “Nigeria” needs to be radically reimagined and reorganized. This is a normal historical process. Most countries that exist today did not exist a hundred years go or existed in a different form. Great Britain, the creator of Nigeria, is constantly being remodelled. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are run very differently today from the way they were 50 years ago when all power resided in Westminster.

In his speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of the Nigerian civil war this January, Wole Soyinka urged Nigerians to ask themselves a simple question about how Nigeria has been constituted: “Have we been had?” I think this is a good question to start reflecting on seriously. Otherwise, the Nigerian experience will continue offering nothing more than simply more of the same.


https://businessday.ng/columnist/article/why-has-nigeria-never-had-an-inspirational-president/amp/

iwaeda:
In a crisis, all eyes turn to the leader. People want to hear something reassuring, something that gives them a sense of direction, something that makes them feel in capable hands. Because a crisis is a scary experience. Especially if we have no idea how or when it will end. Nigerians may be used to crisis, but they are not used to this kind of crisis. Pandemic, lockdown, insecurity and economic hellfire all in one. Hence, anytime it is announced President Buhari will make a speech, people tune in, hoping to be reassured, desperate not just for information, but also for inspiration.


Buhari’s speech this week announcing the continuation of the lockdown was, like all his speeches, painfully uninspirational. Dull. Wooden. Unmemorable. Read from a script with the body language of a man announcing changes to the train schedule. That he did not even acknowledge the spate of armed robberies and insecurity in the lockdown states of Lagos and Ogun was in of itself unforgivable, but the entire performance was just not it. And make no mistake, at presidential level, politics is a performance. Words matter. As does how you deliver them.

Britons remember Winston Churchill not for his policies, but for his stirring speeches during World War II. Despite being America’s president for 12 years, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is best remembered for a single line from his 1933 speech during the Great Depression: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This is not about bashing Buhari. After listening to him speak this week, I started thinking of how other Nigerian presidents had performed in this sphere. Even ardent fans of Goodluck Jonathan are unlikely to claim he was an inspiring speaker. Neither, I suspect, would Musa Yar’adua’s supporters. Obasanjo can be very witty and memorable in conversation, but his presidential speeches were no less dull and uninspiring. Abacha? Forget it. Babangida is widely agreed to have been likeable in person, but no one says they were ever inspired by him or anything he said. In fact, I doubt any Nigerian can recall a moment they felt inspired by any Nigerian head of state. This in a society full of fascinating characters. Why has a country where interesting personalities abound never produced an inspirational president?

Because the leadership selection process in Nigeria makes sure to weed out the kind of person who could become an inspirational president. To become Nigeria’s president requires the support of a hodgepodge of power cliques who control the political sphere in various areas of the country. The major power groups are centred in the north because this is where most of the votes are, but there are also various influential cliques in the south.


Because the leadership selection process in Nigeria makes sure to weed out the kind of person who could become an inspirational president. To become Nigeria’s president requires the support of a hodgepodge of power cliques who control the political sphere in various areas of the country

If you think you are going anywhere without the support of the dominant cliques of the moment, you are being naïve. Go and ask the presidential candidates who have tried it. These cliques are generally dominated by political godfathers in association with the most influential traditional rulers, religious leaders and moneybags. They are mostly men, and they are mostly men with significant egos. Most, especially the political godfathers and moneybags, got to the top not because they were the most talented, but due to their readiness to do anything for money and power, including kill and use violence when necessary. They are generally unburdened by the pesky constraints of morality. But while they usually have large egos, they are simultaneously insecure because they know deep down, they are not the cream of the crop. People like that tend to be very petty. If a “Nigerian Obama” came along, someone who was clearly inspirational and likeable, they would hate him instantly and do everything to marginalize him.


They would feel threatened by him (or her) because if you have the potential to command a national following – not just an ethno-regional one – then you cannot be controlled by gatekeepers. That’s why MKO Abiola had to be brought down. His sweeping June 12 victory shocked Babangida and the northern power groups around him. A Yoruba man popular with the northern masses? And financially independent at that. This guy would be uncontrollable. The nightmare of the numerous power cliques that run Nigeria is an uncontrollable president. By definition, this disqualifies anyone exceptional.

This is the part where I’m supposed to offer a solution. Where I say if we do X and Y, this problem can be solved. I could do that. I could use phrases like “electoral reform” and “systemic change”. I could talk about “transformational leadership” and how Nigeria needs a new kind of politics. But you’ve heard all that before. Those are nice-sounding buzzwords that have nothing to do with the reality of on-the-ground Nigerian politics.

The first step towards solving any problem is facing it honestly and squarely, at its core, not its margins. The core truth is that Nigerian politics has always been a wretched compromise at the national level. Because Nigeria itself has been one long wretched compromise. “Compromise” being a kind word considering how the country came about in the first place. The wretchedness of the Nigerian compromise is best exemplified in the idea of the “rotating” presidency. The north rules for 8 years after which it’s the south’s “turn.”

So, if by some chance, a brilliant transformational leader with a realistic plan for developing Nigeria emerges in the north in the next few years, he or she has no chance of becoming Nigeria’s president until 2031 at the earliest. How does that make sense if you really sit down and think about it? I think in fifty years, people will look back and wonder at some of the absurd arrangements being accepted today in the name of this wretched compromise.

That Nigeria is not working is not a coincidence. It is high time we acknowledged that the 923,000-odd square kilometres which constitute the space called “Nigeria” needs to be radically reimagined and reorganized. This is a normal historical process. Most countries that exist today did not exist a hundred years go or existed in a different form. Great Britain, the creator of Nigeria, is constantly being remodelled. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are run very differently today from the way they were 50 years ago when all power resided in Westminster.

In his speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of the Nigerian civil war this January, Wole Soyinka urged Nigerians to ask themselves a simple question about how Nigeria has been constituted: “Have we been had?” I think this is a good question to start reflecting on seriously. Otherwise, the Nigerian experience will continue offering nothing more than simply more of the same.


https://businessday.ng/columnist/article/why-has-nigeria-never-had-an-inspirational-president/amp/

because of the colonial masters ,, they left Africa in a mess ,, they created selfishness in the hearts of African people so we can never progress .

Is Nigeria inspirational?

Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo Tarawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, e.t.c. were inspirational leaders.

Weren’t we told sai baba was ‘inspirational’ in 2015 and 2019!? What changed? Has the honeymoon ended already?

Ndi ara!

We only love inspirational liars

Cause stupid people do the voting

Vote\Rig a Scorpio in and you will definitely have one. Until then enjoy your country I'm not kukuma a Nigerian anymore I'm now a citizen of the Newworld.

If you're talking about since 1999, you're correct but if you mean right from Independence, you are wrong.

Becos d region with d lowest IQ has held us in bondage

We had the likes of Sowore, Moghalu and others with passion as presidential candidates during the last election, but the masses themselves rejected them, not just the political heavy-weight cliques that the article refers to.

I watched countless interviews of "ordinary" Nigerians on the streets espouse the same old candidates that had lead them into the mess they are in and I wondered why? You'd here them say the likes of "Let's give Buhari another chance", "Let us try Atiku", "Buhari has done well", "Atiku was VP before so he knows how to..."

I was just speechless, sad and almost moved to tears, wondering why none of these "ordinary" Nigerians wouldn't mention Sowore, Moghalu, or anyone new and responsible. It just didn't make any sense to me.

It just seems like the masses are under a spell, a jutsu of sorts! Come 2023, you may here them canvass for the likes of Tinubu, Ibori, Ganduje... sigh, the never ending cycle of suffering and smiling.

VaselineCrew:
We had the likes of Sowore, Moghalu and others with passion as presidential candidates during the last election, but the masses themselves rejected them, not just the political heavy-weight cliques that the article refers to.

I watched countless interviews of "ordinary" Nigerians on the streets espouse the same old candidates that had lead them into the mess they are in and I wondered why? You'd here them say the likes of "Let's give Buhari another chance", "Let us try Atiku", "Buhari has done well", "Atiku was VP before so he knows how to..."

I was just speechless, sad and almost moved to tears, wondering why none of these "ordinary" Nigerians wouldn't mention Sowore, Moghalu, or anyone new and responsible. It just didn't make any sense to me.

It just seems like the masses are under a spell, a jutsu of sorts! Come 2023, you may here them canvass for the likes of Tinubu, Ibori, Ganduje... sigh, the never ending cycle of suffering and smiling.

true talk,after the experience of the 2019 election i resolved never to bother my head on Nigerias issues,just focus on myself,the poor nigerian masses are ok the way they are

Because Nigeria is all about anti igbo!, take it or leave it, only an igbo man who can fix Nigeria, unfortunately the one Nigeria zeal is no longer in ndi igbo, igbos are already on their way out, the zeal.

We need a unifying person

Commonsense99:

Because Nigeria is all about anti igbo!, take it or leave it, only an igbo man who can fix Nigeria, unfortunately the one Nigeria zeal is no longer in ndi igbo, igbos are already on their way out, the zeal.

will you stop this nonsense,you try all the time to demarket Igbo with this your stupid talk all the time,are you not tired

Veefierce:
because of the colonial masters ,, they left Africa in a mess ,, they created selfishness in the hearts of African people so we can never progress .

We are the real problem, we choose leaders based on impulse and sentiment

Simply because majority of Nigerians don't think before taking any step

ican2020:
Simply because majority of Nigerians don't think before taking any step

No one see things from tribal and religious angle majorly.
Lalasticlala

iwaeda:


We are the real problem, we choose leaders based on impulse and sentiment

election r being ringed !! We don’t hv a say in anything

Veefierce:
election r being ringed !! We don’t hv a say in anything

You may be right

You can't give what you don't have. Those that are wailing were for 16yrs , what did we get. Those that are crying now just give them an opportunity then you will know who really they are.

We don't have aspirational voters.

slimfit1:
We don't have aspirational voters.

The Truth, as plain as it may sound

Too much Pressure at the Centre doesn't make our leader reason well.

A person TJ at want to be Nigerian president with over 70% population of Nigeria ring uneducated yet none of those you listed can not convince a million Nigeria to buy into their dream ?!

Nigerians like you have no idea how revolutions are brought about. Those clowns you listed should go to the abroad n find out the alliance Macron n Trump had to form b4 they could win their election. No lunatic that can not convince an uneducated man should be allowed to rule Nigeria. They should do what other world leader did to earn that position instead of you wailing for them.

VaselineCrew:
We had the likes of Sowore, Moghalu and others with passion as presidential candidates during the last election, but the masses themselves rejected them, not just the political heavy-weight cliques that the article refers to.

I watched countless interviews of "ordinary" Nigerians on the streets espouse the same old candidates that had lead them into the mess they are in and I wondered why? You'd here them say the likes of "Let's give Buhari another chance", "Let us try Atiku", "Buhari has done well", "Atiku was VP before so he knows how to..."

I was just speechless, sad and almost moved to tears, wondering why none of these "ordinary" Nigerians wouldn't mention Sowore, Moghalu, or anyone new and responsible. It just didn't make any sense to me.

It just seems like the masses are under a spell, a jutsu of sorts! Come 2023, you may here them canvass for the likes of Tinubu, Ibori, Ganduje... sigh, the never ending cycle of suffering and smiling.

because we have a population driven by tribe and religion

EMMAUGOH:
because we have a population driven by tribe and religion

Tribe and Religion are strong ropes that bind us blindly to wicked rulers

iwaeda:


Tribe and Religion are strong ropes that bind us blindly to wicked rulers

that's the issue. 70% of the population can't think freely

West1side:
A person TJ at want to be Nigerian president with over 70% population of Nigeria ring uneducated yet none of those you listed can not convince a million Nigeria to buy into their dream ?!

Nigerians like you have no idea how revolutions are brought about. Those clowns you listed should go to the abroad n find out the alliance Macron n Trump had to form b4 they could win their election. No lunatic that can not convince an uneducated man should be allowed to rule Nigeria. They should do what other world leader did to earn that position instead of you wailing for them.

Both Trump and Macron were up against highly competent people(I.e. Hillary Clinton).

However In Nigeria, neither Buhari nor Atiku have shown competency of any kind in the leadership roles they have held in the past. Both have failed the Nigerian masses.

Would it not have been better to give a fresh candidate an opportunity to change our fortunes?

After voting for a herdsman without WAEC you expect him to deliver inspirational speeches.SMDH.

EMMAUGOH:
that's the issue. 70% of the population can't think freely

God we deliver us