Nigeria at 50: Leading Change by Ituah Ighodalo

By Ituah Ighodalo

What is Change?
Change can be positive or negative. Something can change from the better for worse and something can change from bad to good. In our context in this article, we are looking at change as that process of transforming something from what it is to the best it can be. It can also be defined as the process of making things better and making better things continuously.

Why must things Change?
The world itself is constantly changing. We have had several world orders that have brought one form of change or the other to the world through their cultures and technologies or way of life. The Assyrian Empire – The Babylonian Empire – The Persian Empire – The Greek Empire – The Roman Empire. The British Empire. What happened during Noah’s time is not what is happening today. There have been changes in knowledge, changes in thinking, changes in circumstances, changes in lifestyle, changes in attitude, changes in the economy.

From our perspective of positive change, there is always a better way of doing things. Before the advent of colour television, we had black and white TVs; before that there was TV without sound. Now we have the Cable News Network and satellite TV. We have had the Betamax, the VHS, the CD, the DVD and now the Blueray. The GSM phone technology and email have now become common place. Before we had to rely on telegram and analog phones for our communication purposes.

There is something waiting to be discovered by you. The men and women that led these discoveries and made these changes of monumental proportions are men of like mind like you and I. They did not have two heads, or four eyes or 15 fingers. They were willing to pay the price to see change and be the change agent. They were willing to lead change.

At 50, Nigeria must change
What was Nigeria like in the 50s, 60s, and 70s? Nigerian universities were amongst the best in the Commonwealth in the 60s. We were the leading exporters of cash crops like cocoa, oil palm, and groundnut. Our green passport was highly respected. Nobody frowned at you or looked upon you with contempt for owing and carrying one. Sometimes in the 1970s, our then Head of State stated unequivocally that lack of money was not our problem but how to spend the much available money. We lent money to other nations. The naira exchanged at good rates with the dollar and the pound. Nigerians didn’t have to travel abroad for medical check-up.

What is the situation like today? There is no power supply; the roads are bad, our medical infrastructure is so deplorable that treating malaria and typhoid has become a problem for our doctors, there is no food and people are going hungry, education is poor with those who can afford it sending their children to US, UK and even Ghana, Botswana and South Africa for higher education; the private schools hae virtually taken over the primary and secondary school sectors yet there is no improvement in WAEC and NECO scores. Unemployment is at an all time low, our currency and economy are weak and cannot support basic manufacturing and trading processes and the attitude of the people towards their nation is weak and deplorable. In short things are tough.

Why are things the way they are?
How did we get to the situation we have found ourselves in? Several reasons could be adduced for our problems with the main one being leadership or a lack of it. We have had poor, uneducated, uniformed, visionless, uncommitted leadership by largely selfish and ignorant people who lack proper training and character.

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister comes from a generation of leaders who have held positions of responsibility and accountability. The opposition Labour party in the UK is led by the Miliband brothers, who also descend from a generation of leaders. In the US, a relatively younger nation than Britain; you must demonstrate your leadership track record that has benefitted society. People come from the Congress to become Senators and Governors before saying they want to be President or Vice Presidents. People are also held accountable. Same in Singapore, Malaysia, even India and I dare say Ghana. In Nigeria, we have enforced a process that never brought up the best.

You cannot give what you don’t have.

How do we change or lead a change?
(1) We must be ready and willing to change: there must be a willingness to leave the past and move into the future. Change cannot happen if the people are stuck in a time warp unwilling to move forward.

(2) We must see the change: This is where vision comes in. We need people who can communicate that change to others. Myles Munroe at a seminar earlier in the year said “you can only lead people to the degree of the future that you have gone yourself. The act of leadership is taking people from where they are to where they have never been before. The result of true leadership is discomfort and change. The most important source of leadership is vision.” The change we yearn for must be something that can be easily communicated to others.

(3) We must find the people with the appropriate character to lead the change: leadership is all about personality and character. Again it was Myles Munroe that said “an army of sheep led by a lion will always defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.” It’s all about character. Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people is not short of human resource. It’s just that the system keeps throwing up those with corrupt and questionable characters. That must change.

(4) We must put in the processes for change: Processes in our educational, religious, electoral, and legislative and governance systems that will bring about change must be put in place. If someone has tried a process that works that brings about change, that process must be documented and taught to others and replicated across all spheres of our society.

(5) We must commit to and be faithful to the change: We must be ready as a people and as a nation to endure the hardships and the consequences that the change will bring about. Change is not always easy. People naturally will always want to remain in their comfort zones. They have to be forced to change their thinking, their attitude, their way of life. We must be faithful as a nation to such changes

What do we need to lead change?
(1) Education

(2) Vision

(3) Determination

(4) Strength & Hardwork

(5) Truth, Boldness, Honesty, Integrity

(6) Capacity, Skill and Gift

(7) Fairness

What do we need to do for Nigeria?
(1) Corruption must stop: We must discourage corruption at all levels. Corruption does not take place only in government. At religious organisations, private offices, schools, even our homes, we must discourage all forms of corrupt practices.

(2) People must be enlightened, informed and emboldened: We must bring our people out of ignorance and fear. A situation where our leaders continue to enslave the people in order to lord it over them must stop.

(3) We must insist on clean electoral processes: The people must rise up and get involved in the electoral process. No more armchair politicking. We must all register to vote, go out to vote on election days, monitor the whole process in our different areas and generally get involved.

(4) We must search for right leadership with the right character and proven track record, encourage and support them to participate

You must be ready to get involved at whatever level, starting with yourself and your environment. It is possible and Yes, We can. God bless Nigeria.