A leadership consultant, Mr Adetokunbo Obayan, has stressed the need for Nigerian leaders to go beyond making promises to connecting with the followers by ensuring that they have a say in how they are governed.
Mr Obayan’s statement is his opinion about the promise by President Goodluck Jonathan in an Independence Day speech that he will fulfil all promises he has made to Nigerians.
The leadership consultant told Channels Television that Nigerian leaders should move from a “patriarchal mode, where they feel feel they control power to help Nigerians, to a mode where they will see themselves as people that need others to move to where the nation should be”.
“I have come to a conclusion that we seem to think that what we say is more important than what we get.
“Outside there, there seem to be a belief in Nigeria which I have observed, especially Nigerians in position of authority, that we are not allowed to say negative things and we are not allowed to say where we have fallen.
“The president said he will keep his promises and I am trying to think, how many promises will he keep in the next seven months and by the time he wins another election, it is another sect of promises we are looking at. When you begin to look at the gap between those promises, we are still where we are.
“We are having too much of spin and sound bytes that make things sound nice,” he said.
According to him, as much as the speech is important, the factor that makes an address meaningful, which is the credibility of the statement, should be considered as well.
“As much as we need to sustain hope, we also need to do is to create a platform that says, this how we are getting there, this is what I am hoping to do together with you fundamentally.
“We have a problem in Nigeria where people assume that the man at the top has all the powers to make the changes that the nation needs.
“If the man at the top is able to mobilise the entire people to move with him to move in a direction, we have a greater chance of achieving what we want to achieve,” Mr Obayan stated.
He further stressed the need for a level playing field to be infused in the electoral process, as it would help ensure that Nigerians have a say in governance, a situation he described as the “best opportunity that democracy provides”.