‘Power-sharing’ in Nigeria: where is the obligation for results?

A time to learn how to learn and lead

There is a sound reason the Chinese place a high premium on continuing leadership education. They have their eyes on the world. As a result, they have continued to wax strong as local champions in key global markets, including of course Nigeria. There is a great reason India greatly values continuing education for its leadership teams. Look how the nation has recognized brain power and tech savvy as its passport to the world. Equally, there is now a compelling reason for the Nigerian leadership teams to re-enroll in the constantly evolving school of continuing leadership education. Leaders who have ceased to deliberately seek knowledge are just like those who do not read. They are no better than those who cannot read.

As Nigeria’s president-elect works on calling up his mastermind team, this seems the perfect point in time for reflection on the need to get the basics right from the outset, especially with regards to getting better at learning. On this note, ‘don’t forget the priorities’ sounds like the magic four words for the Buhari think tank to chew on. To cap this off, it may also be fitting to add ‘…be super smart with thinking about tomorrow. And while at it, don’t forget the lessons of yesterday.’

Of stumbling stones and building blocks

Why is critical thinking and learning from both emerging trends and history two areas worthy of heightened attention in Nigeria’s leadership clubhouse now? While the point here will require a level of elaboration that may not be suited for this forum, a quick summation on the essentials will suffice. Essentially, there are several lingering governance blind spots still begging for attention in the Nigerian system, but taken in the context of our opening paragraph, the following two fronts seem to need the most urgent attention:

1. The absence of a robust forum for sharing the ‘lessons-learned’ wisdom of experience:

Nothing points to where a nation is going as much as what it learns and does with both its past experiences and newly emerging ideas. Do these become building blocks for continuing progress or stumbling stones that checkmate national aspirations? Failure on this front guarantees that with each passing year, the same policy monsters, process fault lines and incentives for dodgy behaviors re-surge to waste golden opportunities and gulp down additional chunks of scarce resources. The risk and cost of this bottom-grade play seems to be what many Nigerians have somewhat fatalistically come to accept as the way things are because of corruption. Here is the irony. Corruption is far from being Nigeria’s singular Achilles heel. Leaders who are entitled ‘knowers’ of everything and yet not nimble enough to be committed ‘learners’ of much are just as dangerous.

2. Zero emphasis on continuing leadership education:

Once installed, too many of Nigeria’s team captains begin to equate high office with expertise on every subject. The predictable results include the relegation of best-practice view of processes and apathy towards incremental learning. In a very dynamic and increasingly globalizing world, this is akin to driving blind on the speed lane. The one expertise required of leaders as a must is knowing what experts to deploy for what ends, what results to expect within a set time-frame, and how to inspect for the desired outcomes.

Learner leaders understand the efficacy of relentless learning as a power tool for driving innovation and expanding the social and economic frontiers for the pursuit of worthwhile endeavors and wealth creation. Just ask your teenage kid to work your newest gadget and you quickly begin to appreciate how much is still out there to learn. Whatever you observe is likely to constitute a tiny window into the untouched homework that is piling up for knower leaders seeking to lead institutions, cities and nations while remaining absent from the school of reformatting knowledge. They never drive good results.The case has been made repeatedly. Those who cannot learn cannot teach others abiding principles, or lead institutions and nations to greatness.

Buhari as a tour bus driver? 

As an essential element of learning from both history and emerging trends, think of this. Wouldn’t it be awesome for Nigerians to be constantly briefed and engaged on what constitutes the Buhari approach to the economics and politics of governance? Is this not what a tour bus driver routinely does in order to keep the passengers engaged from the takeoff point to the final destination? To maximize the value of the tour experience, first, the driver reassuringly refreshes the audience’s understanding of the final destination, the approximate time to get there, and the key features to look out for along the route. This is the trust and buy-in point. Think of a Buhari administration that runs on this trust and buy-in idea.

All through the tour experience, the already excited customers are kept abreast of interesting and important milestones and their unique stories. Those who stay awake participate fully in the experience, becoming more aware and empowered as they capture picturesque views of interesting events and sights. Those who snooze too frequently miss out, finding a compelling reason to stay alert and participate the next time around. Ultimately, there is a unique blend of value focus and goal congruence that makes the tour a shared experience between the expert driver and the paying passengers. Of course the driver never seeks to put the audience to sleep and give a second-hand gist of the tour after the fact; doing this will make the journey just about the driver, instead of a shared experience. The journey itself and the education and empowerment it provides is an inherent part of the destination, one that creates a communion between the driver and driven.Think of a Buhari administration that fully appreciates how this works.

In order to forge a productive relationship between the citizens and their government, Nigeria’s leaders at all levels must become expert tour bus drivers. To make this transition, they must necessarily stop acting like fun-bursting and rigid old-school parent figures and become committed and curious stewards. At this point, Nigerians need to know from source how their commander in chief and his ‘senior brigadiers’ plan to make their needs and aspirations the Buhari main things. And they need to know what is being done on their behalf, right as it is going on. No, not after the fact, right from the get go and all the way! And definitely not after lots of water and Naira have gone down the wrong channels with no clear discernible value in sight and lots of ‘how the dog ate the homework’ stories. Please!

To share or not to share

If the history of Nigeria’s demonstrated approach to political power and how to share and wield it is anything to go by, right about now, countless hours have already gone into lobbying, stumping and arm-twisting on who gets into what position and what interest groups and sections they represent. Good or bad, this has been Nigeria’s wobbly trickle-down strategy for power and wealth sharing. There is no need to judge this history at this point; it is what it is. Given the reality of today’s governance priorities however, we can certainly attempt to prep for a more informed judgment call on how best to position better for tomorrow.

The first challenge Nigeria faces as a nation of people and aspirations today is that there is much less wealth to distribute, and thus much less brand power to wield or waste. If the leaders insist on being stuck on the ‘national cake sharing’ mindset, much of what is to be shared will now need to be borrowed from countries that have perfected the art of good governance. Secondly, if the art of continuous learning is to rank high in Nigeria’s leadership list of essentials, all must realize that wealth distribution is the easiest part of governance – if indeed there is wealth to share. It is also the most misinformed approach to governance, if ‘sharing’ means the right to receive and fritter away resources, rather than the obligation to build up from all corners based on some set standards. At any rate, sharing presupposes that sweat equity building is a core part of the process, otherwise, why build a culture around sharing what you cannot create or sustain? The elephant in the room is wealth creation. This is about asking and answering one foundational question. How does government lay the foundation for team leaders to lead by example and on purpose so citizens can engage, follow and thrive.

When a government engages citizens in a democracy of dialogue and value delivery, leaders become learners and citizens become empowered to create. When citizens flourish, governments gain mileage. The simple reason is that thriving citizens return the favor through taxes and other activities. These returns loop back to fund the government and grow the common wealth. Okay, this is all theory in the Nigerian context. Yes, the Nigerian governance culture has been spoiled by ample oil revenue for too long. Also agreed, this has been roundly implicated in the debate on why the country has not developed a healthy respect for the idea of the power of tax-paying citizens and the need to account to them. But is this it? Isn’t there more out there beyond good and logical reasons for the absence of good old common sense? Shouldn’t Nigeria be shooting for only the presence of both the common good and uncommon brilliance now? From our observation post, there seems to be no more bandwidth for being best at making brilliant excuses now.

Results or regrets? 

Beyond the familiar ground of endless jockeying for positions, there is a much more important question. The billion Nara question is one that is sure to compound into multiples of billions on either the plus or negative side, depending on whether or not the new team gets it right. How many productive hours have been spared for actual visioning on what each prospective office holder must deliver for the nation? This is infinitely more important than who gets to occupy what position. So how will the new administration work the modern magic of dogged mutual interest race for medals over the placid positioning of personalities with no compelling marching orders for results?

How does Buhari plan to ensure that his senior troopers hit the ground running real miles in a harmonized manner? How will the general ensure that actions and decisions taken by his lieutenants will be such that will best serve Nigerians and turn over decent returns on every cent of public expenditure? How do fiscal allocations to State A, Ministry B or Institution C fit into a unified national plan? How will the tour bus be kept in shape and fully serviced for the assigned tour? What specifically will Buhari ask the new president’s men and women to deliver as critical components of a cohesive national strategy? Indeed, what will Buhari do with the ubiquitous federally funded silo fiefdoms that serve best as outlandishly expensive incubating grounds for corruption?

Since Nigeria’s incoming administration is sure to need to borrow a lot more money today to execute its mission, how will Buhari refocus office holders away from the ‘business as usual’ mindset and get his sector captains fired up for the sweat and dust of real work? How will the president-elect govern on clear deliverables and turn up the pressure-cooker impetus for sound and measurable results? Indeed, how will Buhari demand, command and measure performance? This really is the bottom-line question.

For as long as Buhari will captain the Nigerian ship of state, his goal ought to be clear and concise; to make improving the welfare of Nigerians and the revamping of the stock price of the Nigerian brand his non-negotiable main thing. And guess how most Nigerians really want the goods to be delivered to them at this point? In results they can take to the bank so they can pay bills for concrete values and quality services! They want a tour bus that is well engineered to accomplish its mission, and a driver that will take them along all the way.

Nigerians hunger for results that clearly make them better off today and tomorrow than they were yesterday. And they do not need rear-mirror tales of what should have happened yesterday; only solid steps of directional progress today. While this is certainly not too much to ask, there are still too many rivers yet to be crossed. Unfortunately, as often as one explores the importance of results in how successive Nigerian administrations have tended to engage key operatives and sector leaders, blank is perhaps the most charitable description for what stares back at you. Except for very few and very rare exceptions, the big men and women of Nigeria’s corridors of power never seem to be under pressure to deliver results capable of increasing Nigeria’s fire power as a global player. The more commonly visible pressure seems to be one fed by the intense need to get re-appointed or re-elected. Even with regards to this though, not even the best performance has proven to be a decisive factor for longevity. So what is? Will Buhari change the playing field and add performance to the position-sharing template? Will this be done even if only for the sake of millions of Nigerians already severely undeserved by their so called senior representatives?

Your call now, sir! 

As should be expected in any situation where one repeats the same behavior while expecting a different outcome, lack of attention on the learning front of leadership has been utterly costly for Nigeria. Ideas and projects bloom and die with each new administration, with very little consistency of follow through. Predictably, each new administration complains about inheriting a black eye from the last one, only to become a good example of what is wrong to the next regime. From the side, it all sounds like a joke, but there are too many intelligent players on the scene for this to be the case. So how do seemingly smart and classy players casually preside over such a classless comedy of failed expectations and shattered dreams?   When is a situation that seems like a very expensive joke more of a sweeping oversight? What really is the difference between the two anyway?

On another front, each successive regime pounds its chest and appears to set its teeth against corruption – at least in words. Then it quietly settles down and begins to fatten up and age into status quo as corruption runs its errands a matter of fact. Meanwhile, much waywardness continues to depress positions and institutions that seem to operate on a yo-yo diet of recurring federal allocations followed consistently by lean results, empty treasuries and unhappy workers. How is the Nigerian zeal for the pursuit of happiness to be found in the troubled waters of discounted oil revenue, jaundiced currency exchange rate and potential captains prepping for same-old, same-old?

With the brand of federal system Nigeria operates, we cannot of course apportion much blame for the unproductive national-cake-sharing culture on any one issue. That would be way too simplistic. But we can at least acknowledge what there is to acknowledge. There is so much still left unsaid and undone when it comes to a concerted focus on setting national priorities and investing in the capacity for both internally generated revenue and committed focus on leadership for intended outcomes. Will Buhari make the right judgment call for course correction?

Please stay tuned.