Leaders anywhere – in homes, businesses, places of worship and in politics – are not to be envied by conventional standard. Their lot is as bad as a neophyte in swimming, thrust on the high seas and being tossed up and down by the waves.
Those among the leaders who survive the vicissitudes and the inherent manipulations of followers have their Creator to thank for their survival. Some are not that lucky as the followers and aides they trust so much but unknown to them, have some metaphysical or spiritual means, holding them by the jugular and choke them to their relevant death steadily. History is replete with such leaders and followers, that to start mentioning names will bore readers because the list is long.
In the industries and other corporate bodies as well as in politics, they have dulled some of these leaders’ thinking faculties in a way that rational thinking or reasoning comes to a discount to them and it therefore makes it easy to remotely control them beyond remedy. That is why in certain cases, merit, competence and propriety had been relegated to the background and mediocrity elevated to the front stage.
Except one is flying in the face of facts and reality, only God knows how many traditional or spiritual homes the names of leaders have been deposited for manipulation at will by close aides, associates, captains of industries and political friends. Simple assignments trusted to aides are abused and in most cases corrupted for selfish interest and the burden shouldered by the leader.
Not long ago, a certain governor fell from high esteem within his political circle in one of the north-eastern states partly because he was short of good and exemplary performance when he held sway, and had turned a blind eye to the crass disrespect of most of his cabinet members and his deputy by a crude but privileged member of his “kitchen cabinet”; and when the opportunity beckoned, an electoral revolt erupted and many who keyed into the revolt did so pointing at the governor’s condonement of the bushman’s insolence towards them while they were in office. And it wasn’t really that the saucy gentleman was 100 percent loyal to the boss but played the nice guy before and “stabbed” the boss at the back. It is akin to the proverbial guy who stabbed you at the back and still asked you why you were bleeding!
Or the case of a former commissioner in Bauchi state and most permanent secretaries and some directors who manipulated their ways to the positions in a most dishonest and perfidious manner, and went on to deny their caucuses for the achievement, they piloted over sharp corrupt practices in their respective ministries, departments and agencies most especially the Ministry for Local Governments, RUWASSA and the treasury department thereby jumping from “tree to tree”, as it were, running to pastors and imams and spending the rest of the week at herbalists homes, for powers of sustainability, continuity of trust and are ephemeral and unreal.
Those who had dealings with those guys revealed how they were and are obsessed with the aura of their temporary offices that they will blurt in those moments of ego-centrism: It was common to hear primitive words from those laggards such as, “I’ m not just a commissioner or a permanent secretary but a special one for that matter that is closer to the governor than any other person”.
It was a matter of time before their pomposity burst and some have gone back to nothing. In their places, new sheriffs have arrived for continuity while some of the politicized permanent secretaries and directors are waiting for the exit door courtesy of the no nonsense new sheriff who believes in transparency, probity and good governance anchored on diligence and sincerity of purpose. Those politicized senior civil servants should in earnest start to prepare handing over notes before being visitors to the anti-corruption agencies to stand by the crimes.
These manipulators of leaders have easily forgotten an immutable point, that once they are discovered, they are visited with venom with the same intensity as the unmerited favors the leaders conferred on them before they are discovered for what truly they are.
For instance, when Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu held sway as governor, he had Umaru Heipang, Ado Sura and a host of others that remote-controlled his government.
Isa Yuguda, arrived the scene with Sani Turakin Gobir and few other charlatans that wielded enormous power while the state bled and M.A Abubakar had ears to one Ali Kumo that rated himself as the defector governor that dished out orders to those that recognized him. All is now history.
The lesson inherent in these examples is that public office is ephemeral and should make one humble and not huffy and puffy like the Sallah ram that eventually ends up in the frying pan.
In manipulating leaders, those who do so fail to realize that leaders can only assist to get them jobs, contracts or elevation; they can never sustain them in those positions permanently. The same way those who rely on the power of “native medicine or juju” to achieve their tall ambitions, fail to realize that such means of achieving their selfish desires have a very short expiry date. Were it not so, those who use tiger’s hide for life sustaining or bullet proof armlet or charm should have reminded themselves of the futility of their recourse, that if the tiger had not died, it would have been impossible to use his hide for any ritual.
In the scriptures, we read stories of those who went to war believing in the efficacy of the weapons of war but only survived for a short while, before they were subdued and felled unlike those who were kept alive and standing because they relied on the powers of the Almighty.
Evidently, real leaders deserve all our prayers and good wishes because some of them are victims of deceit, pretence and misled into their doom by aides and followers whose loyalty is another name for lip service that a true leader does not fancy or subscribe to.
Umar can be contacted at 07033873327
