GOV. GOJE: THE NORTHERN NIGERIA HATSHEPSUT (II)

[Nuruddeen]

GOV. GOJE: THE NORTHERN NIGERIA HATSHEPSUT (II)
By
Jibo Nura
West African Research Association (WARA)
E-mail: jibonura@yahoo.com

As Abu Bakr noted in his "Pharaonic Egypt" that is, "the two peaceful decades of Pharaoh Hatshepsut's reign were prosperous ones for Egypt". She concentrated her attention upon the country's internal affairs and upon great building enterprises. She was a great leader that led her people to success based on Aristotle's three leadership doctrines: ethos, pathos, and logos. The ethos in her is the moral character and the source of her ability to convince subordinates. The pathos is her ability to touch feelings and move people emotionally; whereas the logos is her ability to give solid reasons for her particular actions that moved her own people intellectually.
Her own model of leadership by definition was similar to that of Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. These people were great leaders, because they have set examples for their people through the exercise of certain virtues. They have made their mark by carefully distancing themselves from rulership, which saved them from demagoguery and dictatorship. And somehow, this is what also distinguished them from the false prophecy and self-serving manipulation of conquerors such as Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte and Hitler. And if not for the evolution of leaders such as Danjuma Goje, Adamu Muazu, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Profs Mahmud Jega and Abdullahi Mahdi, Sule Lamido in Jigawa and formerly Katsina state under Umaru Musa, what is taking place in the modern day Northern Nigeria is really a shame that tempts one to ask the cardinal question: what created the current absence of great leaders?
But one factor is behind it: the dissociation of leadership from genuine authority that is vested and deeply rooted in truth. Hannah Arendt while describing how the old genuine authority was lost in the modern world, she attributed it to the loss of the groundwork of the world. Ever since she has been writing, she concluded that our leaders have begun to shift, changing their values with ever increasing rapidity from one shape into another. She went further to say that "everything at any moment became almost anything else". Again, as De Marco Donald asserted elsewhere in his "The virtue of leadership" that is, "we are today uprooted from genuine change and has separated us from anything stable and enduring, including a basis of authority from which a great leader could emerge". Therefore, what we have today in the North are charades of men who parade themselves as leaders, parents and elders by doing business unusual. The sights of multitudes of under aged children begging, peddling pure water and others selling akara and groundnut go further to challenge the basis of our social existence as a people. That is why Novelist John Updike expressed this same predicament in more poetic and arresting terms by saying that "we now live in one of those dark ages that visits mankind between millennia, between the death and rebirth of life that we deliberately misconstrued its meaning to mean deception and insincerity". Today, both our inspiration and charismatic appeal derive more from desperation and corruption than from a source that is solid, authoritative and realistic.
We failed to understand that the continuation of power without action in the same individual has frequently led to the demise of democratic governments. We also failed to simply acknowledge that genuine change in leadership is essential in popular systems, because nothing is so dangerous as to leave inactive power in the hands of a single citizen over long periods of time. The danger in this is : people grow accustomed to obeying him, and he grows accustomed to ruling them, whence come usurpation and tyranny.
However, despite these disturbing reflections in the North, I feel infused with joy over the enormous strides that the people I mentioned inter alia have taken at the outset of their noble destiny. Because most of them did what is useful and some of them are today inspired by what is just, and are aspiring to perfection.  And somehow, one is getting convinced that we must one day reform. In fact, it is this consideration that moves one to take the initiative in a matter of the greatest seriousness and to commit the audacity of offering advice to all leaders and people in the North by taking Gombe as the first port of call.  Because what one saw there is a true leadership even though true leadership rarely emerges from political, economic or cultural forces. It is mostly the consequences, for the most part, of religious and spiritual potentialities. Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi, AbrahamLincoln, Usman Fodiyo, Alhaji Umar Tall(Futi)and even Barack Hussein Obama were and are of course, great leaders who emerged from extremely humble backgrounds. But none of them were or are undernourished spiritually.
Therefore, Governor Goje should continue inspiring his people to achieve a good feat in history. At the same time, he must be common enough like Hatshepsut so that the common people of Gombe state can emulate him. As it is, the people of Gombe and by extension Nigeria are truly seeing him as someone that is leading them to some fulfilling destiny.
My sampling of opinion(s) about his style and mode of leadership from different people was indeed encouraging. Rasheed Onisabi, an Abuja based public commentator is one of those people that sees Goje as one of those that can fulfill the Nigerian dream. Hear him: I am highly impressed by the performance of Governor Goje against the background of rot in the system. I have always believed that the problem with Nigerian project is not the dearth of resources-human and material-to take the country to greater heights. What is lacking is honest, dedicated and selfless leaders who will harness the abundant resources for the benefit of the people. May Allah bless Nigeria and its people with more Danjuma Gojes".
To be continued.
Jibo Nura, member, West African Research Association writes from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. E-mail: jibonura@yahoo.com