22 July 2008
Lagos — A one day seminar on the concept of servant-leadership in the country was held recently in Minna, the Niger State capital. Attended by top government functionaries, including former President Shehu Shagari and Niger State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, the seminar addressed the issue of responsible service to the people as Aisha Wakaso reports
Niger State Governor, Dr Babangida Aliyu is trying to introduce new lexicon into the governance vocabulary. At every opportunity, he emphasises the fact that those elected into positions of authority were elected or appointed to serve, and so are supposed to be at the beck and call of the electorate, not the other way round. That probably explains why the National Orientation Agency (NOA), saw no better place to hold its Concept of Leadership seminar other than Niger State, where the governor prefers to be addressed as the chief servant of the electorate, surrounded by other servants and that his wife, instead of being addressed as the First Lady, should be addressed as "Madam Chief Servant."
Participants at the seminar included former president Shehu Shagari and NOA's Director-General, Alhaji Idi Farouk who gave the welcome address. Aliyu also delivered a speech at the event..
In his welcome address Farouk said, "it is important to note here that people seek positions of leadership for various reasons. Some for power and its paraphernalia, some for personal aggrandisement and others to seek revenge or settle scores with real or perceived enemies.
"The Servant-leadership culture entails that the leader may not be liked by everyone, particularly because of the reluctance to continue with business as usual. However, what is of utmost importance is the need to take good decisions and actions, no matter how slow they may be. He must also motivate people towards a vision that will require significant change," Farouk said.
Aliyu, in his speech, wondered why people who went about begging to be elected into office later turn round to become the "lord of the manor" over those who elected them.
He said, "it is unfortunate to note that majority of us political actors in this country have misunderstood the concept of leadership and have arrogated to ourselves powers that should have resided with the people who gave us the mandate to lead them, that is, the electorates. Rather than render services to the electorates, some of us are busy with appellations and titles that neither bore relevance to the job we are doing, nor added any value to the lives of the people we are serving.
"Permit me to salute President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, for the wisdom and humility in adopting the servant-leadership model. I strongly share his convictions about the servant-leader role. In my view, servant-leadership should fundamentally be about delivering services to the people in a most transparent, accountable and respectful manner, and the servant-leader should consider as good, not what pleases himself, but what pleases his followers."
He said the servant leader, "unlike the traditional leader and his high officials, could not lord it over or exercise superior authority over his followers, instead, he should follow the commandment of Jesus Christ to his disciples that whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. To be effective servant-leaders, we need to ensure that the highest priorities and needs of our followers are served; we need to dignify the people by making them partners in solving their own problems; we need to give them a stake in the success of solutions to their problems; we need to give them a sense of responsibility for ownership and maintaining the solutions they have arrived at. Importantly, we need to imbibe the principles of listening, consultation, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, foresight, conceptualisation, stewardship, commitment to growth of others and building community," Aliyu said.
According to him, unlike the top-down leadership approach, as servant-leaders, we should emphasise teamwork, participation, involvement, collaboration, partnership, trust and the ethical use of power for societal growth and development. The servant-leader, as the 'steward and slave,' must be very obedient and loyal to his master, that is the electorates; must not be rude; must inform the master of everything he needs to know, must report back periodically about progress made and challenges being faced in the execution of the mandate; must not steal the resources of the master; must not enrich himself at the expense of his master; and above all, must be very humble.
He then asked "what constitutes the test of effective servant-leadership?" for which he said, "the best test but often difficult to administer is in answering these questions: Are the people being served to grow as dignified human beings? Do they grow while being served or is the reverse the case? Do they become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous and more prosperous as desired? Are they likely themselves to become inspired or to become servant-leaders? Do the servant-leaders forget themselves and attend to the development of others? Do the servant-leaders support excellent workers and sanction the indolent, or do they reward idleness thuggery or brigandage?
"For us in Niger State, our administration believes that as the stewards and 'slaves,' political office holders cannot be superior in any way to the electorates who freely gave us their mandate to lead them after our exhausted persuasion, pleas and campaign pledges. We are constantly reminded of our job and role. Therefore, when people address us as 'servants,' with the Governor and his deputy being the Chief and Deputy Chief Servants, and my wife being 'Madam Chief Servant rather than First Lady. There can only be one 'First Lady' in Nigeria at a time. All other public office holders are in various capacities assisting the Chief Servant in solving problems and meeting the needs of the people.
"As a participatory approach, we are constantly informing the people through various means about what we found on the ground, what we intend to do to realise our collective aspirations; what we expect from them (their contributions and responsibilities) and what the end results would be. We also involve them in the governance and decision-making process through our Jama, a forum, where we meet them in their domains to take their input on what we need to do to address their real needs, We believe our vision 3-2020 would be realised much earlier if we succeed with our model of servant-leadership and effective followership.
"I have no doubt that Nigeria will attain greatness if our leaders, past and serving, -emulate the highest sense of responsibility and humility exhibited by real nationalists and statesmen like former president Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, who does not see any assignment as too small to devote his time and energy to, or too big to accomplish. Leaders who promote unity among their people, rather than primordial sentiments for their selfish reasons; leaders, who are a blessing to their people, leaders who are truly exemplary in all ramifications.
"Till today, some of us are amazed and inspired by the fact that Shagarl went back to Sokoto State to take up appointment as a Local Government Councillor and later Chairman of Sokoto Urban Development Authority, long after serving as cabinet Minister in the administration of late Sir Tafawa Balewa. Another example of humility in leadership nearer home is that of Professor Shehu Bida, who after retiring as professor of veterinary medicine from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and after being a commissioner in Niger State in 1976, offered to serve and was elected as the chairman of Bida Local Government in 1986. I am of the strong opinion that Nigerians still need to understand that leadership is purely about serving the people in the most dignifying, transparent and accountable manner and should only go to those considered by majority of the people as capable of rendering such services.
"Indeed, that is the position of Islam on the choice of leaders that leaders should be chosen not from among those who aspire to become, but from among those who are seen by majority as possessing the qualities of leadership. Another area of concern is how we can hold everybody accountable for their deeds, whether inside or outside of government," the Chief-Servant said.
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