It was the legendary globally acclaimed prolific writer Chinua Achebe who long identified that the greatest problem confronting the Nigerian nation is that of leadership. The veracity of that statement is rooted in the fact that Nigeria from independence has continued to wallow from one leadership issue to another.
It is no exaggeration to remark that successive governments have never fared better than their predecessors. Till date when it appears the country is at a tipping point it has remained a tale of woes. The million dollar question is who will get it right and return the nation to the path of development.
One critical ingredient grossly missing in the leadership qualities of those managing our affairs is character. It might not make any impression to many to state that the leadership challenges we are grappling with are borne out of character deficits irrespective of the academic and professional attainments of the leaders.
The society can fix itself if our leaders are able to fix their characters. It was not for nothing that William Shakespeare said that, “the fault is not in our stars, but in us”. Most people and nations have sought without results through prayers and spiritual efforts solutions to issues only fixing their character can resolve.
It is therefore funny and fruitless to hear our leaders’ advice the led to pray and fast for challenges which their bad character may have originated. A man’s character is his fate. Character it is said is everything. It can make or mar us.
It is also said that you can gauge the character of a person by how he treats those who can do nothing to or for them and this is exemplified typically in the behavioral pattern of Nigerian leaders.
Nigerian leaders show no concern to those they are leading because with power in their hands they become oppressive bearing in mind that there is nothing the ordinary folks can do to them or for them. They engage in class distinction and class protection through which they loot our commonwealth with impunity. This is what has now brought us to our knees.
The difference between the developed and the underdeveloped countries is manifest in the characters of the leaderships in the two groups. Nigerian and many other countries in Africa are endowed with abundant human and material resources but the character deficit of their leaders have continued to ensure that they remain lacking and struggling with development.
News Echo wishes to admonish our leaders to adopt good characters because it pays the greatest dividend. Our character is borne out of choice.
We make our choice and our choice makes us. Need we remind that the populace is not fooled by the hypocritical attitude of our leaders which is enveloped by lies and deceit?
A government that lies and continues to lie over issues that are very obvious can never win the trust and confidence of the people. They can only reap what they have sown: sabotage. We are now at a cross road where many are calling for the head of our leaders because they have not been found worthy in character to lead the people out of the woods.
We insist that nothing can work in this country except a change of character from those calling the shots else we are fighting a fruitless war. We need the character change now.
