I was recently invited to contribute my perspective on a conversation between two brilliant submissions on the primacy and priority of leadership or followership in Nigeria. I have not come across a more comprehensive and fulsome debate on this topic hence my decision to lay it before the Nigerian audience. After presenting the two opinions, I will then offer my own paradigm. Here we go:
The leadership perspective
“Everything else, citizenship, innovation, resilience, multiplies or diminishes based on that one variable, Leadership
“Let me illustrate”.
“Take the Abia power project. The foundation was laid as far back as 2004 by Barth Nnaji and commissioned in 2014. Yet for nearly a decade, it remained dormant. It was not until 2024, when Alex Otti assumed office, that decisive leadership engaged regulators, secured gas supply, and unlocked the project within months. The contrast is stark: eight years of inertia under previous Governor Ikpeazu followed by eight months of execution under Alex Otti. The variable that changed was not the people; it was leadership. The same pattern played out in Lagos under Babatunde Fashola. Governance improved, systems worked, and citizens responded positively, even voluntarily complying with taxation because they could see results. Nigerians are not allergic to responsibility; they are responsive to results”.
