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Leadership lessons from Anambra

By Benjamin Ifezulumba
25 July 2016   |   3:16 am
The news from the states and even the Federal Government is these days often gloomy. It is about declining national revenue, non-payment of salaries, increasing poverty, collapse of businesses, strikes by both labour unions and professional associations...
 Willie Obiano

Willie Obiano

The news from the states and even the Federal Government is these days often gloomy. It is about declining national revenue, non-payment of salaries, increasing poverty, collapse of businesses, strikes by both labour unions and professional associations, growing severe security challenges, etc.

There is hardly news telling us of strategic steps taken to get the nation out of the woods. We are not told of even something as simple as how the government plans to utilise the fantastic amounts of money regularly recovered from unconscionable politicians and other public officers during the President Goodluck Jonathan administration for our own benefit. It is as if Armageddon is finally here.

It is the responsibility of the leadership everywhere to communicate optimism to the people. Once the opposite obtains, the society or organisation in question pays a heavy price. This is true of political leadership as it is of organisational leadership. The leadership everywhere is meant to inspire confidence and not to dispirit the people. In communicating optimism, it is most effective when it is done with commitment.

Jay Elliot, former senior vice president at Apple Corporation, who was particularly close to Apple founder Steve Jobs, has in a new book told the story of how infectious Jobs could be with his optimism, citing the example of a new computer product named the Lisa which was being introduced shortly after he (Elliot) joined the firm. “Steve told me the Lisa would be such a breakthrough that it would make a dent in the universe,” writes Elliot. “You couldn’t help but be in awe of talk like that; the line has been an inspiration for me ever since, a reminder that you won’t get people working for you fired up with enthusiasm unless you are fired up yourself…and you let everyone know about it.”

Maynard Gordon, the American automobile and management writer, has shown that pessimism can ruin an organisation or society. In the book, The Iacocca Management Technique, Gordon gives the example of the Chrysler Corporation which was going into liquidation in the late 1970s, noting that chief executive John Ricardo was so negative-minded that he “could always see troubles on the horizon.” But when Lee Iacocca took over the company’s leadership and sent out positive vibes in spite of great odds, Chrysler won the hearts of not just the media but also Congress and the White House. It received a great lifeline which enabled it to come back to life. Chrysler’s revival remains one of the greatest comeback stories in global corporate history. And Iacocca became one of the most storied Americans ever.

It is by no means fortuitous that Anambra State has in the last two years impressed management and leadership practitioners and scholars. At the 2015 annual Zik Leadership Awards where Governor Willie Obiano was honoured with the award for good governance, Prof. Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School who is also founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership, spoke glowingly of the current state leadership.

He said he was pleased to see, among other landmark achievements, that Awka, the Anambra State capital, now has three bridges which compete with the famous Ikoyi-Lekki Bridge in Lagos in engineering design and finishing aesthetics. Senator Ben Murray-Bruce from Bayelsa State has been wondering how a state which receives a relatively paltry amount from the federation account monthly has continued to excel in different facets at a time that 28 out of 36 states in Nigeria cannot pay salaries without assistance.

The kernel of this article is not to show that the current administration in Anambra State is impressive. After all, personages like Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations, who is from the state and Most Rev Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria, have been saying so in public; states like Kogi now understudy how Anambra manages its finances efficiently and effectively. This article is rather keen to point out that the Anambra State government displays the key leadership element of optimism in a season of national anomie.

And this attribute has implications for national leadership. For instance, when the national economy began to tank heavily last year because of the huge decline in oil revenues, most state governments threw up their hands in the air in despair. But not Anambra. Obiano announced a new policy thrust which he called doing more with less. And it has been working. Exactly a year ago, a 16 per cent increase in salary across board was announced with immediate effect and the governor is reportedly considering another increase if the internally generated revenue (IGR) improves significantly toN2.2 billion monthly from the current N1.2 billion level.

Optimism must be grounded in reality, otherwise it will be naiveté or even a swindle. A few weeks ago, the governor announced a new programme to fill all potholes in the state. He followed up the announcement quickly and mobilised road maintenance plants and equipment in the three senatorial zones to get cracking at once. 150 young men and women were employed to work in the three senatorial zones simultaneously. They have been working ceaselessly under the supervision of experienced engineers. The government has also recruited scores of young men and trained them as traffic wardens. Even if these young men and women are paid the minimum wage, it will go a long way to deepen their confidence in not just the state government but in the country as a whole. Of course, it will enable the new employees to provide succor to their families.

In other words, optimism can be communicated only when the government is delivering the goods. When Bill Clinton told Americans while campaigning for reelection that “this is a good time for the economy”, they believed him. Unemployment was at an all-time low of three per cent. When Obiano says Anambra is the safest state in Nigeria today, people chorus yes! Kidnappers and vicious armed robbers were almost overrunning Anambra State two years ago when there was a leadership change in the state. Kidnapping and armed robbery in the state are now history, and in their place is a new wave of investments totaling about $4.2 billion, with the majority going to agriculture. Quite a number of estates are coming up in Awka and other cities. Anambra still leads the nation in education, taking the first position in almost every educational contest. There is optimism in the air in Anambra State.

The Nigerian leadership needs to change the present national negative narrative. Some optimism must be injected into the Nigerian space, so as to change the national mood. Anambra State provides an important leadership lesson.
• Ifezulumba is of School of Postgraduate Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State.

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