What does effective leadership look like? How does it work? How do leaders know whether their followers are being effectively led? The concept of reciprocal leadership helps us to focus on the relationship between follower and leader rather than on certain traits a leader might possess. We can also identify “four Cs”— four factors present in situations where effective leadership is taking place.

1. Character in the leader (which generates trust on the part of followers).
2. Conviction in the leader (which helps the followers discern the purpose and vision of the leader).
3. Competencies in the leader (which help his followers function as a healthy system—i.e., deal with the normal anxieties and conflicts of communal life in healthy and productive ways).
4. Confluence of leader, followers, time, place, opportunities, and spiritual resources that enables a leader and followers to work joyfully together in realizing group goals and purposes.

What character of leaders do we currently have in running our systems in Nigeria? Are they competent, do followers have conviction on their leaders’ ability, do leaders have the adequate knowledge, people skills and do the leaders have the right attitudes?

I want to add quickly at this point that there is nothing seriously wrong with Nigeria. Someone made the following comments on social media, and its becoming viral…

I am proud to be a Nigerian…

1. Are you aware that all over the world Nigerians are setting the pace and becoming the standard by which others measure themselves? Do you know??
2. In the US, Nigerians are the most educated immigrant community. Type it into Google and you’ll see it. Not one of the most educated, the most educated.
3. 60% of Nigerians in the US have college degrees. This is far above the American national average of 30%.
4. Nigerians in US are one of the highest earners, typically earning 25% more than the median US income of $53k.
5. In Ivy League schools in Europe and America, Nigerians routinely outperform their peers from other nations.
6. A Nigerian family, The Imafidon family, have officially been named the smartest family in the UK.
7. The designer of the famous car, Chevrolet Volt, Jelani Aliyu, is a super talented Nigerian from Sokoto State.
8. The World’s fastest supercomputer was designed by a world renowned inventor and scientist, Philip Emeagwali, a full-blown Nigerian whose patency was awarded in 2015. This means Nigeria has the patency to the world’s fastest computer: a Nigerian.
9. The wealthiest Black man and woman on earth are Nigerians, Aliko Dangote and Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija. Both have no trace of criminal record of any kind.
10. South Africa couldn’t have ended apartheid & achieved Black rule if not for the leadership role Nigeria played.
11. Of the 3 South African Presidents who ruled after apartheid, two of them once lived in Nigeria under asylum. Both Nelson Mandela (60s) and Thabo Mbeki (70s) lived in Nigeria before becoming President of South Africa.

We gave financial support, human support, boycotted an Olympics and our politicians, musicians and activists campaigned relentlessly.

12. Nigeria spent over $3 Billion and lost hundreds of soldiers to end the wars in both Liberia and Sierra Leone which the world ignored because they have no oil.
13. When there was a coup in São Tomé and Príncipe in 2003, Nigeria restored the elected President back to power.
14. Before there were street lights in European cities, ancient Benin kingdom had street lights fueled by palm oil.
15. 500 years ago, Benin casted metal alloys to create magnificent art including the world famous Queen Ida Mask.
16. Amina was a warrior queen who ruled Zaria Emirate in Kaduna state, Northwestern Nigeria 400 years ago in 1610. Google and see what she means to Africa.
17. We gave monetary gifts to Ireland during our oil boom and built a statue for France free of charge. We are not poor blacks. Nigeria is rich and don’t be lied to.
18. The first television station in Africa was NTA Ibadan (1960) long before Ireland has their RTE station………

Wherever you look in this great country, Nigeria, heroes abound both now and in our recent and ancient past. If all you do is listen to mainstream Western media, you’ll not get the full & true picture of your Nigerian heritage. Do not listen to any leader who says Nigerians are criminals, or that the youths are lazy, no matter who he is, or his height and position.

We’re not a nation of scammers, drug pushers and corruption-ridden, but a people with a verifiable track record of greatness.

Here is what CNN, BBC, Aljezeera and western media will not tell you about Nigerians:

19. On the 7th of May, 2016 at Howard University in Washington D.C history was made. Out of 96 graduating Doctor of Pharmacy candidates, 43 of them were Nigerians and out of 27 awards given, 16 went to Nigerians. The entire world still envies our uniqueness as a NATION, living together despite our ethnic diversity. One single country with over 400 languages. They will only tell you how Nigerians are scammers and cheats, how Nigerians are into drugs overseas. If you don’t blow your trumpet, no one will blow it for you.
20. There are over 180,000,000 Nigerians world over and only about 250,000 of this figure have traceable criminal records. This is about 0.14% of our entire national population in the last 20 years: nothing close to 1%.

This phenomenon is unfortunately shamelessly over-celebrated in global media. Listen Nigeria, don’t let anybody woo you into believing that you are a criminal just because you are a Nigerian. Nigerians are NOT all criminals. We are NOT criminals. We are top-notch; second to none around the world.

However, a few engage in violence, take advantage of goodly intentioned and divinely provided diversity to gain political advantage; explore ethnic and religious diversity to do ethnic cleansing, and inexplicable vices. The proportion of people (ostensibly leaders) who criminally accumulate wealth and engage in violence is indeed small. Nevertheless, this small minority control so much of the resources as ill-gotten wealth, and shamelessly deploy violence to destroy human lives!

I am proud am created a Nigerian, thank you God. Be proud of Nigeria wherever you go. But, assume a positive posture and effectively join the vanguard for integrity and shun corruption and violence; and do this with the deserved consistency. An African proverb says, whoever stole once, even if he or she is later decked in velvet, it would be regarded as a stolen garment.

At this point, allow me to assert that the Nigerian leadership question is purely an attitudinal thing. Whatever is the mutual perception or misperception of followers versus leaders, attitude is about everything. The leadership issue has in the long past been recognised as an issue for all levels of followership and leadership. After all, everyone is a leader in his or her own milieu.                          

As a nation, we would have addressed the leadership question when we recognise that:

1. Leadership is reciprocal;
2. Family members, church members and mosque congregations, indeed all lower level participants in the leadership hierarchy, are jointly and severally responsible for effective leadership; and
3. The bottom-up approach deserves a closer consideration and adoption.

The United Nations has consistently canvassed all-inclusive development around the world. Leadership that sincerely considers grassroot, sensitive to all situations, and reflects on their locations in the planning and design of development programmes including governance would indeed qualify to be called bottom-up. Has Nigeria been able to do this, and with what results? If not, what are the prospects?

Distinguished Nigerians, we would need to structure our thoughts to assist our understanding of this otherwise vast area which currently cries for empirical studies. I would like to adopt the lens of consumer behaviour to enable us understand the attitude of the Nigerian people to buying and using this concept. This way, the bottom-up approach is like a product taken to the market for sale. We hope to use a set of factors a consumer would consider before buying a product or service. Such factors would include:

1. Knowledge of the existence of the product or service;
2. The advantage that the product has over other competing products;

• Whether the product can be tried out, or returned if it does not satisfy the buyer;

1. Whether the product is compatible with the societal culture of the buyer;
2. Whether the product is easy to understand; as well as
3. The number and influence of people who have already bought the product.

Knowledge of the bottom-up approach to leadership is no longer new all over the world. However, the adoption of this approach is still very low in virtually all aspects of human life and activism in Nigeria. The poor adoption in Nigeria stems from the preference for top-bottom approach which seems to be historically referent and culturally expected in so many parts of Nigeria. The king for example is said to be he whose authority is next only to God. Kaabiyesi…no one has the effrontery to question his actions. The man is the head of the family; the managing director is the chief executioner of the plans of an organisation; the President is the numero uno for a nation. But these trends I must say are changing as evidenced in modern homes, corporate organisations, and nation states that have recorded huge success in recent times.

Followership timidity seems to have worked effectively to diminish the adoption of bottom-up leadership in Nigeria. Over time, the youths seemed to lack self-confidence to influence the elderly who do not feel it was an offence to be dictatorial. Youths have suffered under the weight of tyrannical leaders, and have very weakly shown some ineffective tantrums and impulsive resistance, which dies as soon as some palliatives are offered. Youths have seen how indomitable their totalitarian leaders have been and for some of them, it is ‘if you cannot beat them, then you join them’. Meanwhile to cope with the persistent oppression, some youths have adopted inappropriate mechanisms, such as drugs, gangsterism, cultism, and other forms of lawlessness. These responses have unfortunately aggravated a bad situation, thus creating and growing the volume of the unemployables in society.

This concept addresses the superiority of this approach over and above the other approaches. The contending approach is top-bottom; which is characterised by a paternalistic orientation by leaders. This submits that ‘the father knows the needs of the children’. Hence, without consultation, a leader can always supply whatever is the perceived needs of the followers. This approach is fraught with enormous difficulties; it has proved meaningless in the circumstances of current demographics. The current largest demographic group globally are people known as the generation next and millennial children. These demographic groups are restless, intelligent, value their freedom and rights, and would ask for it.

Against this backdrop, it would be trite for any society to ignore the bottom-up approach to leadership. It promotes a sense of ownership and implementation of jointly made decisions. It is expected that in the Nigerian situation, as more and more leaders understand the implications of the current demographic trends, and the superiority of this approach over its rivals, autocratic leadership approaches will become less popular.

Could this approach be experimented to assess its suitability? The answer would be in the affirmative.  Resistance to change is inevitable in almost all cases of innovations that are likely to alter the existing order of things. Moreso, if the current situation offers certain benefits to some people who are drawing advantages arising from the chaos, the resistance tends to be heightened. However, if the change process is characterised by trials typical of pilot or test cases, then all queries and uncertainties expressed by those on the fence of doubts can be easily resolved. Testability has not been a popular choice especially at the government circles. Applied to the case for bottom-up leadership, it could be expected that this approach would gain increased adoption if leaders would include a policy impact assessment prior to its deployment.

. What is brought to the fore here is the extent to which bottom-up approach is supported by the social architecture of religion, economy and culture. Out of these 3, culture seems to be the most serious offender. The existing cultural discontinuities and deficits adversely affect women, the almajiris, the unemployed, and the physically challenged in the workplace and society. Most unemployed job seekers would be happy to get any job, even without democratic ethos, or even indecent or even illegal in the first place, asking for a decent job with employees’ voice may just be an unrealistic mirage, an easily given up right. In the case of the several millions almajiris who are happy enough to live and subsist under the roof of a feudal personality, all they care about is Sai Baba. Whatever the big man instructs is law that must be carried out with military precision. The most vulnerable group in Nigeria is the physically challenged; many of whom are blessed with exceptional intelligence. In all of these case studies, the view of the followership is immaterial.

In 2002, the Miss World Beauty pageant was being hosted in Abuja. Most surprisingly, as if it was not considered an objection issue at the point of planning, some Nigerians suddenly reasoned that a Miss World event was incompatible with the environment of Kaduna and Abuja. The most critical objection was that it promoted nudity; and there were religious riots in Kaduna. The event had to relocate to another country. What happened next shocked most neutral observers all over the world. The event was continued at Alexandra Palace, London in the UK and it was won by Azra Akin, the candidate from Turkey, a country that is noted for its pro-Islamic stance.

Feared incompatibility would most likely constrain the adoption of bottom-up leadership approach in Nigeria. The national assembly needs to emphasise the cultural diversity and religious secularity of this nation if progressive approaches in governance, such as inclusive leadership would be encouraged and sustained.

is the bottom-up approach easy to understand? Yes! Its simplicity should endear this approach to doubting Thomases. During the Babangidda administration, I was privileged to take a peep into the prescribed and planned structure and processes to ease the work of law makers. Each assemblyman was to be given up to 5 graduate researchers whose main duty was to elicit relevant information from the grassroot / constituency to enable the law maker create credible empirical presentations and debates on the floor of the assembly. This would have served the law making process so well. Unfortunately, the law makers preferred to directly employ their cronies and have their emoluments paid alongside their personal salaries and allowances. It was also an attempt to ameliorate graduate unemployment, but this never materialised. A simple process was made complex, and unhelpful for bottom-up leadership.

Number and influence of current adopters: there are a no empirical information yet on current adopters among our leaders. Bottom-up leadership is currently found in the tertiary education system, in some church organisations, in some isolated township communities, and in some family settings in Nigeria. It is expected that once the big institutions such as the executive and judiciary adopt this approach, lesser institutions would be influenced and encouraged to follow suit, thus expanding the scope of the adopters of this approach.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Nigeria can do better than we have done with the adoption of bottom-up leadership approach. The prospects are quite high for the future, against the backdrop of a new generation of youths (millennials) who desire and insist on change, from the oppressive autocratic methods to a more humane democratic ones.  The bottom-up approach is compatible with international standards of rights for all groups. It promotes decent work and social protection. It creates healthy political systems, and it facilitates effective assessment of performance of public office holders. It encourages self-discipline and accountability by office holders.

Distinguished Nigerians, I believe these strands of thoughts, for which I am wholly responsible are somehow co-terminous with those of the author of ‘my thoughts’, the book we are assembled here to launch on this occasion. Once again, I congratulate the author / celebrant, his family, well-wishers and indeed all Nigerians for being witnesses of this auspicious occasion.

I wish us happy celebrations and I thank you all for your attention.                         

Professor Sola FAJANA