Almost every major speech of President Barack Obama of the United States of America (USA) has nuggets of wisdom and foresight. To many, he is a holy man of sort whose every word resonate with divine wisdom that cannot be contradicted. There is no doubt he has a deep knowledge of human nature as well as the gift of the garb to express his views eloquently and with a flair that is akin to poetry. No wonder when he is about to make a speech, most electronic media outfits break off from their normal programmes to broadcast his insightful thoughts. And in most cases, he rarely disappoints the world. Most of his views and the solutions he used to proffer have always been thought-provokingly fresh. That's why his position on many issues has become what Readers' Digest call 'Quotable Quotes'. That is not to say, however, that he is infallible.Since he chided Africans that what we need are strong institutions and not strong leaders, almost everybody has swallowed this assertion hook, line and sinker. A week hardly passes by without one commentator buttressing its aptness as the panacea that has eluded us for so long. Nobody, from ivory tower experts to beer parlour pundits has to my knowledge, faulted President Barrack Obama's assertion. But methinks it should have been the other way round ' we need strong leaders!There can be no strong institutions without strong leaders. Strong leaders make institutions strong. Take the case of an establishment that has almost become a shadow of its former self some years back. Governing rules had not been changed at any point in time. The low tide started when one leader began ignoring the rules and regulations of the enterprise. Either through acquisitive tendencies, weakness, nepotism or just to acquire popularity, rules and traditions that had hitherto governed the outfit were jettisoned.In no time, it began to affect productivity so much so that closing down was contemplated. But when the board of directors brought in a new head who was incorruptible and a stickler to the rules and regulations, the situation changed without changing any rule.Most of our leaders today are like the man who almost ran the above enterprise into bankruptcy. For, most of our institutions are actually as strong as any elsewhere. The rot in them that we are berating today was not because the laws, rules, canons or traditions guiding them were weak or whittled down at a point in time. Our law enforcement agencies including the intelligence services, ministries, port authorities, customs, immigration, judiciary, universities, schools and other public institutions have stringent laws or rules guiding them. Some of these rules were copied almost word for word from similar institutions in the other parts of the world where they first existed and were known to be strong.For instance, the military laws and rules that General Muhhamadu Buhari met were the same applied by General Ibrahim Babangida. The way each of them performed in office as head of state was not due to the military institution they came from but their character as individuals. Only a fool would say that there was no marked difference between the general elections conducted by Professor Maurice Iwu in 2007 and the one conducted by Professor Atahiru Jega in 2011.What most of our institutions lack today are good leaders. If the so-called strong institutions of other climes were to be transposed here, they will be reduced to the level of what we have here in no time by our crop of weak leaders of today. It can therefore not be said that it is because democracy as an institution is weak, that we have been performing so poorly. Rather it is the leadership. We are in dire need of strong leaders to take us out of the mire we are, as nation, rapidly sinking in.The strong leader we have in mind here is not your typical burly or wiry, caustic-tongued and vindictive Mr Know-it-all who has no stomach for criticism, constructive or otherwise.Contrary to what most Africans especially Nigerians think, a leader should not be adjudged as strong by many of the acts we equate with strength here. For instance, the high number of opposition members a leader incarcerated through trumped up charges, should not be seen as strength. So also the number he sent fleeing abroad or he assassinated secretly. To bribe or threaten judges in order to pass judgement in their favour as leaders do here is not strength. Sending armed orderlies out to flog, shave or slap minors or motorists who did not flee on time when a leader's convoy of cars is on the road is also not an act of a strong leader as some of us erroneously think. The number of laws, such as tenure elongation or increase of emolument that a leader bribes legislators to make in his favour is not what a strong leader should also be known for as generally the case here.As a people, we are selfish and we hail acts of selfishness by our leaders as long as we are benefiting from such acts. Many of us are ready to die along with a leader who brazenly steals public funds because of what we have been getting from him as individuals. Even when we know it won't be viable, we prod leaders to create a state out of our area just because there is oil and gas money to use in sustaining such a state. We praise them when national, state or local government capitals or headquarters of newly created entities are located in our rustic villages which everybody knows do not merit it.We never want a leader to do something for the benefit of the masses but for only ourselves or our locality.Maduku wrote in from Effurun-Offor, Delta State.
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