I want to do a thread on leadership lessons from 2 Nigerian leaders in the 19th century and how they echo today but you guys are in Christmas mode so unlikely to be interested
Ok ok, I just wanted your attention. Now I have it. Want to expand a bit on these 2 leaders. Remember that, as Abraham Lincoln said, “to do a history thread on twitter, you have to flatten the story and leave out a lot of stuff”
First Sultan Bello. The first Caliph of Sokoto. The most remarkable thing about him (for me) was his intellectual honesty. Much of what we know about the Sokoto Jihad is from Bello’s series of blog posts he wrote - Infaq’l-Maysuur (apologies for the dodgy Arabic)
Normally, we should not place too much reliance on history by a leading player in events written long after the event has happened. Because when people do that, they remember very selectively and with a view to burnishing their own legacy
But Bello was different. With a frankness that is quite amazing, he documented the mistakes they made. Not just their victories but their failures and where they missed the road on their ideals
To use one good example. When the Jihad began, the jihadis did not have any territory so they were moving from place to place fighting and running. This triggered a famine in the north. Bello documented all this and blamed his own side for it.
He even gave us data - food got so scarce that a lizard was selling for 50 cowries and a vulture for 500 cowries.
You almost don’t need to read anyone else if you’re looking for what to criticise the jihad about. Bello himself gives all the tea you need
You almost don’t need to read anyone else if you’re looking for what to criticise the jihad about. Bello himself gives all the tea you need
2nd thing about Bello was his intellectual curiosity. When he met Clapperton in 1825 (they met 13 times), their discussions were very interesting covering a broad range of subjects. And why? Because even though Bello had never met a European before then, he was very well read
Now Modibo Adama. As his name suggests (Modibo = ‘learned one’), he was also well read and intellectually curious. But the more important lesson from his is the next one and is the most relevant for modern day Nigeria
Modibo conquered the surrounding areas in Adamawa for about 7yrs. Then he did a remarkable thing. Unlike many other leaders (like Masaba) who were addicted to conquering for conquering sake, Modibo stopped and got down to governance
He sat down to govern his people and even lived among them. I’ve talked a lot about how Aso Rock is cut off from people and the president cannot look out of any window and see ordinary Nigerians going about their business like the US president can do from the White House
One of my heuristics for judging any historical Nigerian leader where there’s no data is to ask a simple question - how far away did he live from the people he governed? The further away the worse the leader. 99% confidence level
This is important because in those days there was no infrastructure for transport or communications. If you lived far away from the ruler, you were in your own. Out of sight, out of mind. The only time he will hear of you is when you rebel and he has to send soldiers to crush you
So Modibo stopped conquering and got down to governance. But just as important was *where* he chose to govern from. There are many leaders (too numerous to mention) where the first thing they did after assuming power was to move their capital to some place far from their subjects
If we replace ‘conquering’ with ‘politics’, we have a clear lesson for today. Politics must stop and governance must stop. No matter how you obtain your power, this rule must apply to you and we have various yardsticks by which to judge different types of government
Did you come to power as a military dictator? We can measure you with General Park. Are you an elected civilian leader? We can use Bob Hawke for you. Are you an elected civilian dictator? Ok that’s fine, we have LKY and Seretse Khama for you
The biggest mistake we can make is to accept Purposeless Politics where politics is a roundabout with no exits. The output of politics is simply more politics and we give someone a pass just because they fought someone sometime ago. Never ever
Imagine falling into that trap with someone like the monumentally useless Bola Tinubu. You will never ever win. He is the king of Purposeless Politics. 12yrs, a light rail cannot be completed for Lagos. But blow the whistle on elections today and he will absolutely come alive
This is why we must ALWAYS drag the argument towards economic development. That’s the only battleground on which you can win. Imagine David saw Goliath and just rushed him to start hand to hand combat? Completely different story today
1. Intellectual honesty
2. Intellectual curiosity
3. Politics with Purpose
My archetype of a Nigerian leader. Not that they did not make mistakes (they did). But if we train ourselves to focus on these things, Nigeria will do a lot better.
Merry Christmas 😉
2. Intellectual curiosity
3. Politics with Purpose
My archetype of a Nigerian leader. Not that they did not make mistakes (they did). But if we train ourselves to focus on these things, Nigeria will do a lot better.
Merry Christmas 😉
