NIGERIA: The Danger Of Having A Docile Followership Base

(Tuesday RapAround) NIGERIA: The Danger Of Having A Docile Followership Base

For a nation to be termed great, in the real sense of it, its followership base must be very strong.

This is so, why still not shying away from the need for an equally solid, competent and purposeful leadership – leadership with a difference.

A strong followership base, simply refers to a virile class of people who not only take well-informed decisions when it matters most, but also ensure that unpopular and ill-informed postulations have no place of abode in the society. This class of people has nothing whatsoever to do with age – it cuts across various strata in the society.

They have a very strong discerning mind and are highly sophisticated. They cannot easily be cowed or railroaded to buying into what is generally considered anti-people, divisive tendencies and largely unpopular permutations. Their integrity is never in doubt – the more reason desperate politicians cannot hijack and use them for selfish agenda.

Achieving their aims and aspirations is never done violently. Rather, it is through strategic planning and structured interventionist programmes or outreach.

We have seen instances where people were drafted to join protest match. This still happens till date. These people get paid, clothed and or offered stipend for being part of the one-off demonstration or as the case may be. The funniest part is that majority of those drafted into such one-off venture may not even know what such demonstration was all about. They are best known as blind followers. Should a nation then rely on this category of people as followers? It is eminently suicidal and speaks of potential doom.

However, where there is such an enlightened base – a class of people that are cosmopolitan in thinking/reasoning, behaviour and interaction, the leadership, no matter how hard they try to deny the existence of such robust followership base, is constantly put on its toes on the inherent dangers of not meeting the sophisticated needs of the people it governed at any point in time.

Where this happens, the society benefit immensely from it. This is because the leadership is alive to its responsibilities – always having it in mind that quite a number of highly sophisticated people are somewhere watching its activities, and as such, is on the move to deliver.

But where you have a cheap and docile populace, the leadership feel relaxed. It is true that an average Nigeria leader prefers to have a rather manageable and an unassertive followers than imagine coping with highly sophisticated ones.

Without being immodest, everyone (leaders inclusive) know clearly the very problems bevelling Nigeria as a country. Those in government, particularly, can say 1001 things about the daunting challenges which have repeatedly brought our dear nation Nigeria to its knee many times.

Sadly, the so-called leaders have however, failed to proffer workable solutions to the myriad of challenges in the country. This is largely due to near absence of assertive followers that constantly challenge the leaders to do what is just, right beneficial to all and sundry.

These days, it is not uncommon to see praise-singers praising public office holders to high heavens, when it is crystal clear that performances of such leaders are nothing but junk.

But quoting from the words of the former speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Na’Abba that some past leaders (including the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari) were accidental leaders who never prepared for governance, would it be sufficient to then hold the followership responsible for this ugly trend?

The home truth is that at one point or the other, the so-called accidental leaders were elected (that’s if election actually took place or the outcome truly a reflection of the voting pattern) by the electorates.

This brings to fore once again the moral obligations at the doorsteps of the electorates – the people. This, coupled with the overriding perception and or judgment on who or which candidate to vote for in an election. Faced with this very dicey scenario, an independent voter who is well enlightened on the dangers of choosing the wrong candidate, may well take an informed decision by voting the right person.

But where you have a mass population of people who truly cannot see beyond the tip of their noses; people whose utmost desire is what they stand to benefit at that material time – people who after being given two, to three cups of rice and five yards of ‘aso ebi’ (popular parlance used to describe Nigerian fabric for occasions), they are ever willing to mortgage their conscience and future and that of generations yet unborn.

This, clearly, has been a great disservice to our fatherland. It is our greatest undoing in our quest for a virile and prosperous nation, where there is justice, equity, fairness, peace and progress.

Regretfully, people who are well aware of this apparent challenge, instead of striving to make things work in accordance with best practices, by constantly encouraging capacity building, orientation and reorientation of the people, they turn in blind eye. Sure, they rather prefer the status quo to remain since they benefit from it. It’s most unfortunate.

With huge population of docile people – those who really cannot think for themselves, a potential army of social destabilization and disharmony; anything you throw at them, they take it hook, line and sinker – without questioning. This is a festering social sore that bestrides the length and breadth of the Nigeria. This among other ugly trends have succeeded in helping Nigeria to remain a ghost of its potentials after several years of continuous pillaging by all and sundry.

In the long run, this unfortunate scenario has succeeded in giving us a nation, a country in the midst of a corruption tsunami. A tsunami that is ably supported by ill-informed followers. The very type that is being promoted and celebrated by society, village dwellers ignorantly.

The nature of leaders that we have today are the type that pauperized their followers with a view to getting commanding loyalty from them. They discretely encourage and promote poverty in the land because they know it remains a very potent avenue to get total support from the poor, hapless, unsuspecting members of the public.

The whole thing is intertwined. There have to be a drastic move to change this ugly trend, else, in matter of few years the nation will be a shadow of itself.

Nigeria’s population as of today is almost 180 million, while that of United Kingdom is 65 million. When the various elements (including the moral, psychological and intellectual sophistication) that constitute these two figures are weighed side by side, one would realize that Nigeria is nowhere – not even with the almost triple-size population.

This means majority of Nigerians fall below par. This, is surely, not a good omen. The people must wake up from their slumber and confront the evil forces that have successively navigated the ship of our beloved Nigeria towards the path of perpetual delusion.

Thank you for your time!