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Plato’s Idea Of ‘philosopher King’ And Nigerian Leadership Crisis
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CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Today in Nigeria, leadership in all facets of our life - government, industry, education, church and what have you - has come to be the hub of the country’s problem. Chinua Achebe summarized it thus in his book “The Trouble with Nigeria†that, “the problem with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.â€[1]
In a global level, Oyebola minced no words when he said in his, “Blackman’s Dilemma†that, “very poor leadership appears to be the Blackman’s greatest problem.â€[2]
Achebe, articulated it further as the inability of the leaders to rise to their responsibility:
There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenges of personal example, which are the hallmarks of true leadership. [3]
Lack of genuine leadership has been chorusly condemned and generally blamed for poverty and the travails of the Nigeria society. There is no doubt that Nigeria’s or Africa’s problem is due to lack of leadership. Rev. C. Kingston Ekeke, Nigerian-Atlanta based pastor observed that there are at least three main areas of failure in Nigeria’s leadership. For him they include: “lack of bold and courageous leadership, lack of moral ingredients of leadership and premature exposure to leadership.â€[4]
Our country is doing little to develop the younger generation on the act of leadership. No one wants to take the risk for the survival of our country. The few who want to demand for their right are being pursued about. Think of Alhaji Mujaheeden Dokubo Asari, the fearless and outspoken leader of the militant Ijaw youth who has persistently and passionately called for an independent state of Ijaw people and peaceful separation of Ijaw people from Nigeria.
Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, the leader of the revived movement for the actualisation of the sovereign state of Biafra (MASSOB) is not left out. There is nothing like press freedom in the dictionary of Nigerian leaders. The military dictator of Abacha was able to silence the people of Ogoni after the brutal killing of Ken Saro Wiwa, a man of intellectual ability, and his Ogoni compatriots.
Most of those who were at the helm of affairs both at the federal and state levels were retired military men who were trained …to defend the nation from external and internal aggressions. Their war-war style of administration instead of the jaw- jaw method practiced by civilized human beings took this country many years back.[5]
Many of our leaders, weighed down by avalanche of criticisms, always fall out with the Press. Think of several imprisonments of human rights defenders like Gani Fawhinmi, Femi Falana, and Baba Omojola. Nations must certainly grow out of challenges and criticisms.
Many Nigerians are yet to enjoy much of the dividends of democracy such as good roads, pipe borne water, rural electrification, healthcare services due to the poor performance of our leaders. For our leaders, all these matter not. Today millions of Nigerians would not be starving to death if our leaders had known that there primary duty is to care for the masses and not to enrich their foreign accounts and western mentors. Regrettably, all they are interested in is having masters degree in travelling outside the state, competing on who becomes the widest traveller, and making every possible plan to handover a state bereft of infrastructure.
Now that we have seen that our problem is that of leadership, we have to implore the idea of one of the prominent political theorist, Plato -philosopher king.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
Page 1 of 5
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