By Bayo Ogunmupe
> is a book in two volumes by Philip Ejiofor. Published just
> this year by The Exclusive Edge magazine, Ogudu, Lagos.
> Leading Right explores the challenges and solutions of
> leadership and governance in Nigeria. The book is
> autobiographical, being the collation of Ejiofor's thirty
> years experience i Nigeria's corporate governance; reaching
> into government, business, teaching and as an observer of
> the debilitating socio-economic condition of the Nigerian
> people.
> Leading Right is a
> compelling review of Nigeria's vision and delusion in the
> past 56 years of our independence. It contains thought
> provoking nuggets of leadership principles and practices.
> Written in simple and clear language, the book explains what
> it takes to make leadership an interesting skill to be
> embraced by aspiring Nigerians. The book shows why our
> people are dying needlessly within Nigeria as a result of
> the poor handling of our armaments. It blamed insecurity on
> the embezzlement of military budgets by the top echelons of
> the military and the politicians.
> Accordingly, Ejiofor
> resonates the Tel Aviv District judge in Israel, Justice
> David Rozen who said: "Bribery by its nature, does not limit
> itself, but spread out, erodes and causes the collapse of
> public institutions and the rule of law." Based on this
> premise, Ejiofor argues that the idea of giving corrupt
> public officials a soft landing on accountability was
> tantamount to encouraging corruption in the country. The
> combined pagination of the two volumes of Leading Right is
> 906 pages, they have 26 chapters; 49 pages of appendix, 26
> pages of references and 18 pages of index.
> The author dedicated the
> book to groups of people among them Nigerians at home and
> those in the Diaspora who have suffered from
> corruption and poor leadership, the twin evils that have
> bedeviled Nigeria since 1960. Another cluster Ejiofor
> mentioned are the disgruntled Nigerians who continued to die
> without realizing their dreams. He also hailed those who
> have died from poorly conceived infrastructure owing to
> ineptitude and lack of foresight by the leaders.
> The last group that
> earned Ejiofor's dedication are the men and women who failed
> to emerge from subsistence economy because the elite has
> stolen or appropriated to itself the socio-economic good of
> the country. However, the author remembered the politicians,
> the public officials and entrepreneurs who have acted in
> good faith but whose services were sabotaged by political
> jobbers at the corridors of power.
> This book is modeled
> after the Nigerian Constitution. The first five chapters
> discussed the vision and the ideals of the nation. It
> covered service delivery, leadership principles, political
> party ideologies and federalism. Chapter six was devoted to
> explaining the executive arm of his dreams. But in Nigeria
> the executive power remains nebulous and poorly defined. In
> the United States executive authority is laid bare by the
> Executive Powers Act. There the executive is immutable in
> moments of crisis or war.
> Chapter seven covered
> the legislature. Except otherwise omitted, every
> appointment, policy option and military adventure must be
> approved by the senate, which epitomizes the equality of the
> federating states of the union. In the Nigerian
> Constitution, the legislature comes first, which signifies
> it as first among the three arms of government. As usual the
> judiciary is treated last. He chronicled the vicissitudes of
> the judiciary with citizens habitually having to buy
> judgments detailing other character deficiencies of the
> Nigerian elite.
> Surprisingly,
> Ejiofor treats the civil service ahead of the media: the
> Fourth Estate of the Realm. Here, with her poor leadership
> competencies, Nigeria is viewed as lost in the storm of
> global competitiveness where nations slug it out in the
> interest of their citizens. He characterizes Nigeria's
> greatest drawback as the inability of our leaders to escape
> from primordial attachments hinged on ethnic and religious
> bigotry. The Fulani through Ahmadu Bello having plans to
> dominate by dipping the Quran to the sea of Atlantic Ocean.
> On the hand, the Igbo, through Nnamdi Azikiwe avowed the
> domination of the lazy tribes of the Sahel.
> Accordingly, where some
> leaders would have succeeded, they faltered because
> sycophants within their social milieu hoodwinked them into
> taking parochial decisions. In the opinion of Ejiofor, one
> of several reasons Nigeria has been stuck in this political
> quagmire is because, aware of their own injustice, past
> Nigerian leaders archived history as a course of study in
> school,preventing new generation of Nigerians from knowing
> the challenges of their nation.
> This lack of historical
> knowledge prevented citizens from discerning the quality of
> political leaders put forward by political leaders. The
> author amplified his exegesis by quoting John Maxwell in his
> book: Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones for Success;
> thus:"Mistakes (history) are messages that give us feedback
> about life. Interruptions that should cause us to reflect
> and think; signposts that direct us to the right path; keys
> that we can use to unlock the next door of opportunity;
> explorations that let us journey where we have never been
> before."
> Those are the advantages
> of the study of history which previous leaders denied us.
> Leading Right closed the conversation with his analysis of
> non-governmental organizations. Just like the judiciary
> citizens and non governmental organizations were made to
> undermine the enthronement of a great Nigerian nation.
> Ikechukwu Philip Ejiofor had his first degree in History and
> Political Science from the Onafemi Awolowo University. He
> gained his master's in Public Administration from the
> University of Lagos while he is now pursuing his doctorate
> in public policy Walden University, Minnesota in the United
> States. I commend the book onto your perusal for knowledge
> and wisdom. It is a must read for all.
>
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