Irresponsible leadership

Let’s talk, very briefly, about how the irresponsibility of the business leadership in Nigeria has enabled bad behaviour.

In October 2017 as we were preparing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Asaba Massacre, an event in which my Mum’s father and some of her brothers were killed by the Nigerian Army, I was invited to talk about the event on Nigeria Info in Lagos. The host of the show, Nelly Kalu, felt, quite rightly, that it was important to shine a light on this important part of our history.

Knowing how sensitive the topic was, I kept to the facts. You can watch the show here and judge for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZAQmy03go4

But that was not good enough, and in addition to chasing me out of the studio, the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission fined the station ₦500,000 ($1404 in 2017 naira). Now, this is where the irresponsibility of the station came in. They threw Nelly under the bus. Not only was she forced to pay the fine out of pocket, but her superiors made working quite unbearable for her after the incident, that she was forced to resign not long after.

Today, the NBC fined Arise TV and two others ₦3 million each ($6550 in today’s naira), for covering the End SARS protests. For covering a major news item that affects all of us. What was their reason? Because the coverage embarrassed the government. What the fuck?

If media owners don’t stand up to the NBC this will never stop. Someone has to drag them to court and keep at it.

And this applies to the rest of our so-called captains of industry. Last year at the NESG, I sat in the audience and listened to President Buhari essentially tell gathered heads of Nigeria’s business community that they were all corrupt and that he was going to destroy their businesses. The only person who spoke up to the President that day was Doyin Salami. The others applauded like lame ducks. Buhari’s economic policies have more or less destroyed these people’s primary markets, and they are just looking.

Access Bank has killed its brand in the eyes of a lot of the young generation because the MD was not bold enough to tell the CBN where to take their order that they should freeze the accounts of protesters.

If our so-called captains of industry are this lily-livered, no wonder older generation Nigerian businesses have been unable to scale. They rely on government patronage and can’t think of anything else. That is the only way all of this makes sense.

It is the same inability to think outside the box that made some idiot somewhere order soldiers to shoot protesters in Lekki a week ago. Now our elites are running helter-skelter because it is becoming increasingly clear that the Lekki Massacre is not going away. It may not be immediate, but any smart person should be able to smell the coffee. The old way of doing things is over.

I said this would be brief, so let me keep it brief.