I have yet to meet a leader with a chronically negative attitude who was able to continually sustain positive momentum - John C. Maxwell, Founder, The INJOY Group, USA
It was in the late 1980s and the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, EPG, which had Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo as co-Chairman Press Conference was holding in London. He had just been asked whether his antecedents especifically the nationalisation of British Petroleum, as part of Nigeria’s demonstrative endeavour, that Britain’s continued support of the apartheid regime in South Africa when he was Nigeria’s Head of State would not have exposed him to some form of bias after visiting South Africa on a fact-finding mission.
Barely had the reporter concluded his question when Obasanjo charged at him. Obasanjo said if he knew just a little about what he saw on the fact-finding mission while he was in power, he would have acted even more aggressively towards those condoning apartheid. After his response, there was pin-drop silence in the hall.
That is the passion and commitment with which an Obasanjo pursues whatever he believes in.
Unfortunately, however, his pursuit of a reform agenda encapsulated in his New Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy, NEEDS, with unbriddled vigour seems headed in a direction which appears devoid of the introspection which normally accompanies such gargantuan policy initiatives.
For a president who loves to quote Lee Kuan Yew, the miracle man of Singapore who transformed his tiny sand-bar nation from one with a per capita of less than $1000 at independence in 1963 to one with about $30,000 today, it would be pertinent to help President Obasanjo with one statement from Kuan Yew regarding how to engage a reformation process.
“Our greatest asset was the trust and confidence of the people”, Yew said, in his now famous book, FROM THE THIRD WORLD TO THE FIRST, THE SINGAPORE STORY: 1965 - 2000 (Singapore And The Asian Economic Boom). He made the statement while discussing the power in the support of a people.
In the case of Singapore, Yew was able to first and foremost, carry the people along in the onerous task of building a nation out of nothing. He succeeded because he was able to carry them along.
In the words of John C. Maxwell, “Leaders get into trouble when they put their desire for results before their willingness to develop themselves in areas of competence and character.”
It has become common place to hear people say that President Obasanjo means well for Nigeria. But that is where it all ends. And the next question is: Is Obasanjo doing well? The answer to this would depend on what you see. But the reason for this is simply because Obasanjo missed the basic rule of pursuing a reform.
For a man who believes that putting in place policies that are on their own good would lead to a reformation of the people and the system, Obasanjo may discover late in the day that for so long as the people are yet to buy into him, for so long will his reform efforts be pooh-poohed by the very people for whom he is (or claims to be) working .
Also, more importantly, there is the need to strike a synch between the desire to accomplish and the capacity to deliver.
True, President Obasanjo has been able to, no matter how small, attempt a diversification of the Nigerian economy with massive investments in the gas sub-sector of the Nigerian economy, most Nigerians are still asking where all the money being made from crude oil sales, since 1999, have been going. By 2006, Nigeria would reaping so much from gas sales will have to equal, and latter surpass, whatever Nigeria would be realising from crude oil sales.
But the Nigerian polity, as it stands today, cannot sustain any reform agenda because also the structures needed for the sustenance of any reform initiative(s) are either wobbly or not in place.
Is it the politicians, the Constitution, the electoral system, the values, the virtues, the needed culture to put the country first before self. The political parties operate like investment banks; the politicians, the investors. Ethnic strife is on the ascendancy.
To get out of the quagmire, there would be a first need for the people of Nigeria to agree on the basis of their togetherness, once that is settled, other issues would fall in place.
The referential USA did no less. And Singaporeans agreed to pull out of the merger with Malaya (now Malaysia), with all its attendant inconveniences, to build a nation they want.
