NIGERIA’S LEADERSHIP QUESTION: WHERE DID WE GET IT WRONG?
When Leadership Becomes a Prize Instead of a Responsibility
By Shae Bebeyi @ Curiously Yours Arena
Every election cycle, Nigerians return to the ballot box with familiar hopes: better roads, reliable electricity, safer communities, stronger schools, affordable healthcare and an economy that gives ordinary people a fair chance.
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We vote. We wait. We hope.
Then reality returns.
The cost of living rises. Businesses struggle. Young people search for opportunities. Insecurity disrupts communities. Public trust weakens. And the familiar question comes back: Where did we get it wrong?
Perhaps Nigeria’s problem is deeper than one government, one political party or one election. It is a problem of political culture.
We have too often treated leadership as a prize to be won rather than a responsibility to be carried. Political victory is celebrated more than public service. Leaders are defended because they are “our people”, while competence and performance sometimes become secondary.
A nation does not become prosperous merely by changing leaders; it becomes prosperous when leadership changes the way power is used.
Nigeria’s diversity is a strength, but identity must not become a substitute for competence. Before asking where a candidate comes from, we should ask what the candidate can deliver. Before defending a political party, we should examine its record.
A democracy cannot mature if citizens judge leaders primarily by ethnic, religious or partisan loyalty.
The economy provides the clearest test of leadership. Macroeconomic reforms may improve national indicators, but Nigerians ultimately experience the economy through food prices, transport costs, electricity bills, jobs, wages and business survival.
A recovery that cannot yet be felt in the household is an incomplete recovery.
This is why economic reform must eventually translate into affordable living, productive jobs and wider opportunity.
Nigeria’s constitutional standard is also clear. Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.
That should be our leadership scorecard.
Are citizens safer?
Are schools improving?
Are hospitals functioning?
Are businesses growing?
Are young people finding opportunities?
Are public resources producing public value?
These questions matter more than political propaganda.
Public office is borrowed power; the tragedy begins when the borrower starts behaving like the owner.
But the responsibility does not belong to politicians alone.
Citizens also shape the political system. When votes are sold, when incompetence is defended because “it is our turn”, and when politicians are celebrated for personal gifts instead of functioning institutions, we help reproduce the system we complain about.
Bad leadership survives where bad leadership is tolerated.
Nigeria therefore does not simply need another change of political occupants. It needs a change in political culture.
We need institutions that work, parties that offer ideas, elections that reward competence, citizens who examine records rather than speeches, and leaders who understand that power is temporary but its consequences can last for generations.
“The greatness of government is not measured by how loudly it announces its achievements, but by how quietly ordinary people begin to live better.
So, where did we get it wrong?
Perhaps when winning became more important than governing. When loyalty became more valuable than competence. When political identity became stronger than national interest. When government became something to capture rather than something to serve.
But the greater question is not where we failed.
It is whether we are prepared to learn.
Nigeria still has the resources, talent, enterprise and human capacity to succeed. What it needs is leadership worthy of that potential—and citizens courageous enough to demand it.
The next election should therefore not merely be a search for another winner.
It should be a search for competence, character, accountability and purpose.
Because the future of Nigeria cannot belong only to those who seek power.
It must also belong to those who insist that power serves the people.
Can we really get it right as a Nation?
(DEMOCRACY NEWSLINE NEWSPAPER 16TH AUGUST, 2026)
