Nigeria’s defective leadership practices and weak democratic institutions have been blamed on the absence of sustained mutual relationship between good leaders and effective institution building processes.
Leadership and development experts say Nigerians have continued to believe in the possibility of a strongman coming to fix the country in one go. This was largely the motivation for electing Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s president during the 2015 elections.
Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State says there is need for symbiotic relationship between good leaders and strong institution to deliver national credibility and development as Nigeria struggles to build good leadership and strong institutions.
Ganduje, who made this statement at the recent 2018 Annual National Management conference, also stated that good leaders build strong institutions to help them achieve national goals rather than personal objectives.
“The existence of a strong, objectively analytical institution is likely to strengthen the hands of a courageous leader in order not to pander for emotive demands that are not in the long-term interests of the generality or majority of the citizenry,” governor said.
The conference however charged strong leaders to rely on strong institutions rather than ‘strong men’ who tend to place their interests above national development goals.
Olakunle Iyanda, president and chairman, Nigerian Institute of Management, gave some reasons why Nigeria needed to shift from reliance on strong men to strong institutions.
In his words, “Strong men are human, and therefore mortal. Strong institutions are immortal and more enduring. They are less susceptible to manipulation and corruption.”
Being inanimate, effective institutions do not have personal ambitions that can lead to decisions that are motivated by base human drives that focus on self-serving and self-aggrandising objectives.
“We must therefore strive to build strong professional institutions, such as the National Assembly, the civil service, the security agencies, political parties, etcetera, that have helped many other nations to emerge within a short period from poverty to affluence and development,” he said.
