The quite excellent article by Amara Nwankpa contained an action for readers to click on a link and have their say on what attributes the next Nigerian President should have. That got me thinking on what an attribute is.
In philosophy, an attribute is an abstraction of a characteristic of an entity or substance. Or perhaps even of a being. Dictionary.com defines it as a ‘quality, character, characteristic or property’
With this mind, I have thought long and hard about what qualities I would want to see in the next Chief Executive Office of Nigeria Incorporated. These qualities would be intrinsic and be sort of a base level of attributes regardless of your ideology, political, tribal and/or ethnic affiliation.
A lot of the ideas for the attributes I want in a President below have been influenced in some measure by two things. The first are the conversations I have had with my friend Kenechukwu Umeasiegbu. A consummate intellectual and knowledge-seeker for the sake of knowledge-seeking, Kene is also one of the most single-minded and driven individuals I know.
From his days in student politics at the University of Nigeria Nsukka where he graduated with a 2-1 in Geology (hons), to when he contested for a position on the National committee of the International organizations for students AIESEC, Kene has always been driven by the force of ideas. My conversations with him are always refreshing, highly anticipated, catalysts to more thinking on my part and always over far too soon.
The second is an article by a Professor of the University of Ibadan (I forget his name right now) writing for the Comet newspapers of Nigeria. The article in question must have been published more than 10 years ago but I remember being powerfully moved by it and considered listing the attributes outlined in it back then and plotting how to acquire each and every one of those attributes. And yes… I (once) harbour(ed) dreams of becoming President of Nigeria. We are all allowed to dream.
The rest of the ideas I have put down here are a result of my travel and experiences in Europe and New Zealand; of living in societies where the rule of law reigns supreme and society has inbuilt characteristics that enable it to continually renew and improve itself. Based on these and so much more, the following, in no particular order of importance are the attributes I want in the next Nigerian President.
Ideas-driven. The next Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria must have ideas; Ideas that drive him towards a vision. A vision that he has put a lot of thought into and that he believes in. A belief and commitment to his vision is of course vital. It should be a vision that he has articulated and laid bare for the whole world to see. He will have ideas flying out from his head and these ideas will be the drivers to his vision. A widely-read individual, he will devour information and have a pulse on global trends and an active involvement in local ones. He will know the value of an education (either formal or informal) and be comfortable in the presence of members of the intelligentsia.
The president must be a sweet talker. Charismatic to the point of being a cult-personality, the President must be able to pull attention to himself and using this quality force disparate groups of people, interests and motivations to listen to and buy into his vision. The force of his ideas and vision (mixed in with his personal charisma) will stay with people long after they are no longer in his presence and engender a loyalty not to his person but to the ideas he proposes. He will inspire people beyond their immediate needs and make them feel like their actions need not be for their personal gain alone but for the greater good.
He must be a ruthless bastard. The President will encounter stiff opposition from groups as equally committed to maintaining the status-quo as he will be to changing it. He will have the mental aptitude to recognize these groups quickly and will not hesitate to either under-cut their authority as to render them insignificant in the larger scheme of things or completely eliminate their resistance. He will not play to the old stereotypes of nepotism and mediocrity but will deal with allies and foes alike with a firm yet fair hand. He will be a man of his word, saying and doing exactly what he means. He will be an extremely hard worker, one who can function at high levels for most of the day and who firmly believes in the value of a good’s day work.
The CEO of Nigeria Plc. will be incorruptible. He will completely disprove the old saying of ‘Power corrupts…’ In order to do this, he will have a well grounded connection to reality with relationships that serve to remind him every single day why he does what he does. This relationship could be with his children or grandchildren or with someone who embodies the phrase, ‘future generations’. He will lead by example and have zero tolerance for members of his team or inner caucus who deviate from the path of righteousness. He will have character of spirit that transcends the physical and allows him to wield great power and yet remain aloof to the allure of misuse.
The leader of the most populous black nation on the planet will be a compassionate individual. He will have a genuine empathy for people and be sensitive to their needs. There will be times when he has to take action that results in collateral damage either politically, militarily or economically. And although his ruthless streak will allow him to take the right decision for the greater good, he will feel the consequences of his actions within his very being which will stand him in good stead for future difficult decisions. He will wear this cap of responsibility stoically and without complaint. He acknowledges that the buck stops at his table and has enough character of spirit to cope with these kinds of decisions without buckling under the pressure and be unable to take future decisions. He will have a common touch and be seen as such by the masses. In deed and word, he will be able to connect with and speak to the dreams and aspirations of a wide range of society. He will place value on hard work and have belief in a system that rewards a certain input with a commensurate output
The Commander-in-Chief will be able to spot potential from miles off. In people, situations or circumstances, the President will have the ability to recognize talent in people and use them; read a situation very quickly and react appropriately and; analyze prevailing circumstances and plan for them. He will actively seek to encourage the people around him to reach for stretch targets and in the process develop their talents and enriching their experiences. He will not be afraid or threatened by people smarter than he is but actively court them either as allies or even as political opponents. This is because he recognizes that open and constructive debate and challenges to your ideas can only make them better.
The President will be a strategic and pragmatic individual. Without compromising on his ideals or betraying his vision for the country, he will be practical enough to recognize when things will work and when they will not. He will be willing to completely change his tactical plan if it will consequently benefit his overall strategy. He will not be afraid to admit when something has not worked and he will take the learning from each failure and use it to build on his subsequent successes. He will have the mind of a chess grandmaster able to see the overall strategy but possess enough tactical nous to adjust his game plan. His ruthlessness will let him sacrifice a pawn (or two) in order that he might capture the King but his compassion will ensure he does not do this lightly and only when the alternative would lead to an even worse outcome.
A reflective nature. In the high pressure atmosphere of statehood, the President will have the ability to practice self-reflection and meta-cognition. He will have the ability and schedule the time to take a step back away from it all from time to time to evaluate and come to objective conclusions about the progress (or otherwise) being made.
The President will have a belief in and readiness to sacrifice for the greater good. Although a supremely confident individual who knows his limitations very well and his strengths even better, the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will have an unshakeable belief in the rule of law and the fact that no one individual or institution is above the law. He would be willing to make personal sacrifices in order to achieve the goals he has set out and when he invariably asks sacrifices of the citizenry, there will be a clear perception that it is no sacrifice he is not willing to take or has taken himself.
These then are the attributes I believe the next President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should possess. For the ease of writing, I have used the pronoun ‘he’ throughout this write-up but of course these attributes are not gender-specific.
So… DO you know someone (or two) with all the qualities above? If you do, ask them if they are interested in applying for the job. If they are, they will of course then have to convince a few million voters HOW they intend to use the attributes above to do the job!
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