On-going Citizens’ revolt tagged #End-Bad-Governance in Nigeria this week has provided yet another opportunity to tell our leaders at all levels that what they witnessed this week is what happens whenever leaders fail to listen to the people who employ them.
The week of rage and attendant destruction in parts of the country have always happened wherever leaders anywhere have failed to listen to the people that they are hungry and they perceive non-performance and low productivity, a development that can stifle national development. This is another time to tell our leaders that what happened this week isn’t any handiwork of any opposition. It is another opportunity to enable them reflect on the fact that they have failed woefully to listen.
Besides, our leaders at all levels need to know that they will continue to experience this kind of revolt as long as they ignore the expediency of serving public interest. And that is why I would like to direct them to the constant writing on the wall here that they need to borrow from the ancient word of Moses paying attention to the ‘burning bush’, which hasn’t consumed the bush yet. Our leaders need to swallow their pride and vanity, understand the times to know what to do to raise public trust in government. Our leaders need to stop talking down on the citizens they are elected to serve. They need to begin to exercise the discipline of reading good books on political leadership, history of how and why nations failed and how and why empires aren’t too big to fail. Our leaders need to begin to study secrets of successful private sector leaders and learn from them some critical success factors, classic performance indicators and discipline of execution.
Our leaders need to note that in today’s world, you cannot deceive anyone by hiding truth in a grave. Truth hidden in a grave used to stay there for about three days. Now it is about three minutes to there hours, thanks to the power of social technologies. Nothing is hidden from our children anymore.
So, let me take our leaders through some simple lessons this week on what make citizens of most developed countries to prefer most times leaders who have been successful in the private sector. This isn’t a time for technicality of a master class. It is just to share one simple habit of highly effective leaders – The power of Listening, yes Listening. One young leader in Nigeria on Linked-in, Sheila Ojei calls “Listening”: “the leadership super power”. She is a young leader. Follow me on what she is saying about that “super power”:
“Whenever I’m asked about my leadership approach, my immediate response is always, “I listen.” This may seem an unconventional choice, as typical leadership jargon often highlights attributes like innovation, creativity, adaptability, and motivation. Nonetheless, the art of listening, frequently undervalued, truly unlocks a leadership superpower.
Why is listening so important? Primarily, it cultivates trust and respect. Leaders who listen attentively demonstrate regard for their team members and citizens’ viewpoints, nurturing an environment of openness and trust”.
Our leaders and their managers should not dismiss this perspective as a private sector performance strategy. Our duty bearers need to know that most leaders who are being acclaimed for good economic management even in global context are leaders who use the private sector approach to management of public funds and performance indices. These leaders treat the citizens as if they were customers who are to be satisfied in the marketplace. These leaders adopt customer-centric approach to governance – just because the customers are needed for the next political recruitment called election. But our leaders here don’t listen to the voices of reason and wisdom because they think they don’t need voters for the next elections. They listen to the voices of thugs and corrupt state electoral officials and even judges who will retain them without recourse to the ballot power.
Too many missteps in the last one year three months have shown clearly that our leaders don’t listen to their teams members and what the people say they need at this time. Our leaders do what they like even with public funds.
In the second part of Inside Stuff article titled, #EndSARS And The Power of Truth (2) The Guardian, Sunday November 15, 2020, I asked a question: ‘What did Buhari hear loud and clear?’ as a rider to the title. Below is an excerpt from the second part:
‘Since the first part of this article, on November 1, 2020 a lot of water has gone under our already rickety bridge of #EndSARS protest and the curious election stalemate in the United States. Since then there have been some manifestations of other curiosities on the consequences of #EndSARS significant campaign for a better Nigeria and the 2020 election that is still stressing the power of institutions in the United States, which has always been wielding her power as the bastion and guardian angel of democracy. Although, the so-called ‘leader of the free world’ is still in the eye of the storm as the 2020 election remains inconclusive more than two weeks after, the consequences of our #End SARS protest on the country and the protesters cannot be ignored at this time. It is getting ‘curiouser and curiouser’ what the President Muhammadu Buhari meant on October 22, 2020 when he told the nation in a broadcast that he had heard the #EndSARS protesters’ message ‘loud and clear’. Now, there are court orders to freeze the bank accounts of some of the suspected leaders and organisers of the epic protest. Most of the protesters are being detained by the same police force whose alleged brutality triggered the protest. Most of the protesters have been listed on the watch-list of national security agencies’ dossier: they can’t travel. It is also understood that police protection has been withdrawn from agencies, institutions, business enterprises and notable individuals who supported the historic protest too. What is worse, the protesters are being treated as terrorists before our very eyes despite the fact that the same president said he heard the youth and leaders of tomorrow ‘loud and clear’.
The then President Buhari had told Nigerian youths on October 22 that their voices had been heard loud and clear as the #End SARS protest continued to spread across the country then. Buhari who also urged the youth to discontinue the street protests and engage the government in finding a solution to the challenges arising from state of the nation specifically said: “I called on our youths to discontinue the street protests and to engage the government to find a solution. Your voices have been heard loud and clear…”
But as so many surprised Nigerians were to ask later: what was the basis for the crackdown on the young Nigerians after the then President said he heard them loud and clear? I had then asked why the demonisation, persecution and even prosecution of our children because they spoke truth to our power? What happened thereafter to the protesters, the media and civil society activists didn’t show that the then President Buhari actually listened to the protesters who boldly canvassed for better conditions of service for the Nigeria police officers. The President had then promised a radical reform of the police and most of the state governments set up investigative panels on the consequences of the protest.
Is there any sense in which we could say that Buhari actually heard the EndSARs protesters loud and clear from what happened this week? The answer is blowing in the wind because Buhari in truth didn’t listen to the youths who revolted because of police brutality. That is why Tinubu should listen to the current lamentation of the people that there is hunger in the land. He should listen to the outcry over recklessness with public funds. He should listen to the people’s loud voices that there is inexplicable, hyperinflation of food items and electricity tariff has become unaffordable. The protesters are also saying that if there can be transparency in the oil and gas sector to the extent of dealing with the fuel subsidy’s “very bad people” as Patrick Alley calls the world network of corrupt people, then Dangote’s Refinery can breathe and come to our rescue.
…The revolt oracle in 2021In an Inside Stuff With Martins Oloja in The Guardian, on Sunday October 24, 2021 titled, ‘Before ‘The Wretched of The Earth’ Revolt Soon’ the quote below was the opening paragraph:
‘When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe’.
― Frantz Fanon
The predictive article was triggered by an investigation by the International Centre for Investigative Report (ICIR), which had then revealed excessive, multiple taxation of the poor, in Nigeria’s commercial and political capitals. Excerpts:
‘Lagos NURTW generates N123bn annually’
On July 22 this year, the International Centre for Investigative Report (ICIR) revealed in a major report that the Lagos chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, (NURTW) locally tagged ‘agberos’ generates about N123.08bn annually, which could service the annual budgets of Nasarawa, Niger, and Yobe states put together. The data released on Thursday July 22, showed that the money was realised through levies on passenger vehicles, motorcycles and tricycles. According to the reliable report, other sources of income not included in the report were money levied on hawkers, articulated vehicles, and persons who visited certain markets to buy goods. The report recorded a total of 75,000 buses; 50,000 tricycles; and 37,000 motorcycles in Lagos. It showed that on a daily basis, N3,000, N600, and N1,800 were levied on buses, motorcycles, and tricycles respectively. These levies sum up to N82.1bn for buses; N8.1bn for motorcycles; and N32.9bn for tricycles yearly; making a total of N123.078bn yearly.
‘The Abuja multiple taxation on the poor’
Meanwhile, the same investigative report organ also revealed ‘how payment of multiple taxes has been frustrating ‘okada’ riders in Abuja’, Nigeria’s capital…. Nigeria is generally believed to be the second-largest market for commercial motorcycling in Africa, providing an alternative means of employment for the 231,544 unemployed residents of the FCT according to a 2018 data published by National Bureau of Statistics, NBS. But this group of workers pays more in tax than their counterparts who earn better incomehat was in Buhari’s administration. And it is clear that the current administration didn’t consider the outcry of the poor in the 2021 investigations in Lagos and Abuja and has continued with multiple taxation of the poor transport workers most of whom may have joined this week’s revolt. Our leaders should note that protests occur when leaders fail to listen to the cry of the vulnerable and the poor. As Frantz Fanon mused long ago too, when the wretched of the earth revolt, it’s not for a particular culture. They revolt simply because, for many reasons, they can no longer breathe. I hope our leaders who haven’t realised that their silence isn’t golden at this time get the message that they need to listen so that they can understand our needs.
