Umaru Musa Yar’Adua: The Servant-Leader – By ADAMU ALIERO
‘The servant-leader is a servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.’ – Robert K. Greenleaf
The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was, by all standards, a democratic leader – a source of reassurance, strength, certainty, order and stability for not only the people he worked with but for the country as a whole. He was honest, trustworthy, reliable, believable, ethical, principled, courageous and decisive. He was also very effective in communicating his agenda for Nigeria.
He led a highly participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive government. He was known to put a high premium on the rule of law and exercised prudence in policy-setting and decision-making. Nothing could make him compromise the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. He was not a regional or ethnic leader. He was not much of a talker but one of the best listeners that I have known. He set the agenda, general goals, and timelines for his government, but gave a free hand to all those who worked with him and allowed them to carry out their responsibilities without any interference. He could not brook any tardiness in the implementation of tasks and the budget in particular. It was unthinkable for any Minister or line executive to compromise a contract. His aversion for corruption was unmistakable. He became President at a very trying time when oil prices were low but managed and piloted the economy prudently.
He had an admirable ability to empathize and connect with the people he worked with and Nigerians. His words were at all times taken seriously and trusted by Nigerians, as his credibility engendered confidence and believability. He was generally viewed as a leader who could be relied on to do the right thing and act for the common good of the country. He respected his critics and was responsive and empathetic. He was, in a word, Nigeria’s dream president and leader whose sense of service earned him the cognomen servant-leader.
Yar’Adua left indelible legacies. He knew that he was elected through a flawed electoral process. He owned up to it and did his best to make up for it through concrete efforts at reforming the electoral process. His determined efforts at assuaging the fears and concerns of minorities produced the all-important and necessary peace in the Niger Delta. Before him, the narrative was that the situation in the Niger Delta would only get worse. Not many could see beyond the aggressive posture of youths in the region to see the region’s cry for equity and fairness. He allowed and encouraged frank deliberations at Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings, and decisions were most times taken on the basis of persuasive and superior reasoning. Yar’Adua’s socialist sixth sense and background as an activist came handy in his handling of the Niger Delta crises. His template for peace and development is there for any leader to pick. A good disciple of the rule of law, Yar’Adua demonstrated the fact that effective governance is not undermined by adherence to the rule of law. His support for his Ministers enabled me to pull through such ambitious projects like the expansion of the Airport and Asokoro-Zubar roads; the Abuja water project; resuscitation of all abandoned projects in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), accelerated development of districts in the FCT and the redefinition of the development of estates in the FCT.
Yar’Adua’s famous seven-point agenda – on Power and Energy, Food Security, Wealth Creation, Transport Sector, Land Reforms, Security and Education – was informed by the necessity of putting the country on the path of sustainable development and growth. There is hardly any way that Nigeria can catch up in development without addressing the sectors covered by the seven-point agenda. Yar’Adua did not want to spread wide and thin. He wanted to concentrate on key sectors that could stimulate others for all-round development. From our present reality, health should have been covered by that agenda. It was Yar’Adua who laid the foundations for the present strides and accomplishments in Agriculture and rail transportation.
One of the rarest qualities of Yar’dua was his pan-Nigerian politics. He understood the dynamics of politics and its influence and reach on the economic and social life of the country. He stove to bring on board the mainstream not just all regions of the country but all shades of political persuasion.
It is unfortunate that during his sickness and after his death, wicked politicians misled the public with all manner of speculative and diversionary narratives that give the impression that those of us who were close to him wanted power for ourselves, when all we were concerned about was how to make an enduring balance between the necessity of power rotation and constitutional imperative of power devolving to the Vice President, whom we all respected and supported absolutely throughout the illness and absence of the President. While we were supporting the Vice President and urging him to give assurance to concerned and anxious northerners that he would be fair and just to them and continue with the seven-point agenda of the Government, others were working out a scheme with nonpoliticians in the villa to sell us out as a cabal who did not want power to naturally devolve to the VP. In the process, even steps and actions taken by President Yar’Adua’s domestic or personal staff were infernally ascribed to us. We bore it all because of our faith in History. We believed in the judgment of time and the value free vindication of nature. As politicians, we believed in the power of the confluence of causations. We were emotionally battered but unshaken spiritually; we were maligned and exposed to all sorts of opprobrium by some people who were fed with well-crafted and choreographed propaganda. The fact that many would believe that there was a scheme to halt the natural devolution of power to the VP in the face of the letter and spirit of our constitutional democracy confounded many us. But in politics, political capital is always effective. Government is, unfortunately, an economic venture for many.
This is why I call on the media, NGOs, activists, religious leaders, intellectuals, the elite and all opinion leaders to be more patriotic and to put out themselves further in their handling and responses to political narratives. I do not think that it requires beyond average or extraordinary efforts to go beyond the facades of political slants. I am not in a position to say that there was a derailment in Yar’Adua’s goals and vision for this country; but I can say that some mistakes could have been avoided and that many more kilometers of the journey to the development and cohesion of this country would have been covered.
From Yar’Adua’s personality, philosophy and legacies, there is a lot for Nigerian leaders to learn. Leadership in any capacity is serious business because the fate of the people is tied to the quality of their leadership. Many intellectuals rightly believe that the problem of Nigeria is its leadership. Nigeria is running out of excuses for lagging behind her contemporaries in development and social cohesion. A look across the continent will see countries like Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Senegal making good and admirable strides in governance and development. We cannot afford to lose ascendancy to countries that are looking up to us for positive and purposeful leadership. It is for that reason that I am pleading with everyone to support this Government’s policies on infrastructure and agriculture. There is every reason to be optimistic that this Government will leave lasting legacies in those sectors.
Yar’Adua was not one to crave for glory and spotlight. He was a consummate and authentic activist. He lived for Nigerians. From his humble beginnings as a teacher to his stint in the corporate world, Yar’Adua was always venturing where the elite were forbidden to foray. His independence-mindedness was demonstrated in his political leanings.
My prayer for Nigeria is for us to surmount the challenges of COVID-19 very quickly and return to the arduous task of building a just, humane, fair and all-inclusive democratic society.
For Yar’Adua, my prayer is for his soul to keep resting in peace and for him to find favour in God. His family, friends, associates and indeed all Nigerians miss his existence very dearly.
Signed
Senator Mhummadu Adamu Aliero
1/5/20
