In pharmaceutical microbiology we studied Hansen’s Disease, popularly known as Leprosy. It is a disease state caused by Mycobacterium leprae, a bacterium that attacks the nerves especially of the fingers and toes and causes them to become numb. Burns and cuts on numb parts may go unnoticed, which may lead to infection and permanent damage. This implies that HD is a disease of insensitivity.
Leprosy could develop over a period of two to ten years and is curable but with multi drug therapy over a period of about one year or more. Bottom line, it is a big deal. You could set the extremities of a leper on fire and he has no idea what is burning. They have numbness in the hands, feet, legs, and arms, a phenomenon known as “glove and stocking anesthesia”. Two main classifications of leprosy are identified as tuberculoid (mild, benign) and lepromatous (widespread, severe). About 80% of the worlds 5.5 million leprous population is found in India, Brazil, Indonesia, Myanmar and Nigeria. Little wonder!
Leadership Leprosy applies to leaders who avoid (or can’t appreciate) “pain sensation”, reflecting their lack of ability to drive growth/development, change/make changes and or make a difference. It describes leaders who are insensitive to the plight and ordeals of the people. These leaders are so engrossed in themselves and their hold on power that they forget the reason for which they are in leadership positions. They surround themselves with people who agree with their agenda and whose job it is to counter any dissenting views in the mainstream media or academia. For them, the people can go to hell so long as he wins the next election by hook or crook. Insensitive leaders think they became successful because they work hard or because they are smart, yet some of them do not even have verifiable high school diploma, neither do they know the difference between simultaneous and quadratic equations.
When money is allocated for road construction under their watch, the money is siphoned into private accounts and the roads are not paved. They would ask for approval to build hospitals but they would embezzle the money and people are dying in their numbers from lack of medical care. Leprous leaders would promise the people heaven and earth during elections only to turn around and do nothing other than rob the people dry for four or eight years.
What is interesting is that there seems to be a correlation between the distribution of leprosy and the presence of leadership leprosy. I am not surprised that Nigeria made the list. Today, we have insecurity problem because our leaders are leprous. It didn’t start today so I will not heap all the blame on the chief from Daura. For my enthusiastic Biafran brothers, I am with you in the struggle for independence because this entity called Nigeria is not working for all Nigerians. But my problem with us is that we have leprous people from among us who are going to be part of the Biafra we talk about. I have a problem with that.
Not long ago when our own GEJ was president, we had names like Dieziani, Okonjo, Nnaji, Nebo, Ezekwesili, Ihedioha, Ekweremadu, and so many other top officials who had all the power and all the position to initiate and implement changes be it on the constitution or just do something to benefit Biafraland. You know their names more than I do, some of them are your family maybe. They had the power to award contracts and to monitor that the contracts were executed as expected and timely too. How well did they do? I let you judge for yourself.
One of them was the petroleum minister. How much did she siphon into private accounts all over the world? Show me one project she sponsored or supported in her constituency. When one individual jets away with money bigger than what my little brain can ever imagine or wrap around, I wonder if we need money from planet earth to be rich in heaven. It amazes me how our people did not ensure hospitals were built, roads paved, electricity provided etc. The second Niger bridge has been on the list of every year’s budget, has it been built yet? All the federal roads in the east are death traps, have you been to Biafraland lately? To make a point, I don’t even know which road my learned erudite professor senate Vice President travels to his village, yet these people have been in governance for years and buying properties all over the world. We are blessed indeed with very leprous leaders.
Just before you nail ‘my folks’ from the east let me ask you our man IBB, of all his power and acquired wealth what did he really do for his people? All the opportunity Abacha had to do something for his people how many universities or factories have his name attached to them today? Even the loot that were recovered on the news have we seen what they did with that? Has the loot not been re-looted? Has anybody been jailed for it? Has anybody been held accountable? Has anybody been banished from his family meetings for stealing and preaching at the same time? Have we not been giving them names and titles that should be reserved for God? Do you need me to tell you some of the names and titles we call our most leprous leaders? Are we not a ridiculous people?
The poor masses also are leprous. When people are suffering and smiling that is one of the attributes of leprosy. I told you a leprous man could have his hands or legs on fire and still be singing and smiling because he has no idea…insensitivity. Our people have become numb to these predicaments and we seem to have accepted abnormalities as norms, absurdities as trends and oppressions as ‘the will of God’. Instead of rise up in one voice and question these leprous power mongering fellows we resort to fasting and prayers.
When they come home for Christmas they give us tokens at church fund raising and the whole church would stand up in unison and pray for them. They get seated at the prominent location next to the General Overseer and receive standing ovations, some of them are even knights and deacons in their respective churches and they talk with their pastors and spiritual fathers on daily basis. Does it mean the spiritual fathers and prophets do not counsel these folks? Are they not communicants and synod delegates? Don’t even get me started on that angle.
What do we prescribe? PLO Lumumba suggests we go back to political hygiene which requires you to pay attention and ask questions, then do something about your political health. We need leadership hygiene. Hygiene requires we brush our teeth daily, take a bath daily, wash our clothes, sweep our house from inside out, clip our nails, wash our hands, and even sanitize places. That is taking personal responsibility to ensure our health is optimal and diseases like Mycobacterium leprae are not given the chance to colonize our members and destroy our body. You get my drift?
Remember, once you have been infected and suffer from leprosy, multi-drug therapy is required over a long period and sometimes drug resistance is a possibility. It requires concerted effort and dedicated attention to get rid of leprosy and what is even worse, after you kill the bacteria, the nerve damage and numbness may be irreversible. I am afraid that we haven’t even started therapy so the cure is not yet in view. Even if we divide Nigeria today without treating her of leadership leprosy we would carry the same disease and probably infect the next generation with a more lepromatous strain. The result will be that our later situation would be worse than the former. Where do we go from here?
Mezie Okolo is a leadership analyst and a voice from diaspora