What Nigerian leaders should learn from Mandela

Nigerians have been asked to emulate the virtues of sacrifice, selfless service and principle of late Nelson Mandela.

The call was made by Nigerians in separate interviews following the death on Thursday, of the former President of South Africa.

A Human Rights Lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, said that Mandela’s life struggle, principles, values, politics, leadership and even passage were full of lessons.

He said that Nigerian political leaders could learn from his exemplary life of commitment to the cause of liberating his people from racial subjugation; his life of service to South Africa and Africa in general.

He said, “He did not exploit his idolisation and the love of his people to build a financial empire for himself, he didn’t privatise public enterprises and sell them to himself; he didn’t rig elections; he didn’t attempt to amend the constitution in order to have a third term. He didn’t use his public life for private gains.

“But surely, Nigerian leaders will not imbibe the Mandela example. They would rather follow Robert Mugabe and Mobutu Sese Seko.”

The Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Credit Administration, Dr. Chris Onalo, said Nigerian leaders should model their lives after Mandela, who he described as a hero.

“Our leaders should draw inspiration from his life of service and his mistakes. He chose to be a man of the people. That has bought him the honour that wealth cannot acquire. The question to our leaders is ‘What would they want to be remembered for?’ Mandela was a gift from God,” he said.

The President, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Chief Lugard Aimiuwu, said that Nigerian leaders should learn selflessness and true value from the life of Mandela.

He asked them not to only be heroes abroad and villains at home. He said that Mandela was a hero at home and abroad.

“See the encomiums being showered on him by all world leaders as an icon regardless of his colour and nationality. Nigerian leaders should learn from him to create distinctive values and never forget where they are from. They should also learn true forgiveness and love, never to be vindictive. Mandela was a hero at home and abroad,” he said.

The President, Campaign for Democracy, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, described Mandela as the greatest soul in modern Africa. She said Nigerian leaders should learn from the “rarest example of courage, a foremost apostle of freedom and a worthy elder to all humanity.”

She said that Nigerian leaders should learn his depth of sacrifice the power of his exemplary life and the sheer force of his character stand him out eternally in the affairs of humanity.

She said his contributions were the reason “the appreciative nation would not allow him to quickly depart even when it was clear that he had reached the end of his journey. They prayed, fasted and kept vigil for Madiba not  to leave them.

“This is a lesson for leaders in our country whose countrymen and women rejoice when evil befalls them. They must enroll at the Madiba School of leadership to learn what leaders do to make their people to pray that they don’t die.”

Meanwhile, a former Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Alhaji Maitama Sule, has told Nigerian leaders to borrow a leaf from Mandela, by shunning the urge to perpetuate themselves in office.

Sule paid glowing tribute to Mandela shortly after meeting behind closed-doors with Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He condemned a situation where anybody that finds himself in office wants to perpetuate his stay “until death do us part like church marriage.”

Sule said, “Mandela became president and one would expect him as it is happening in many parts of Africa today, to perpetuate his stay in office for as many years as he spent in prison, but he decided after one term to step down and give other people a chance. A good example.

“He was a ruler who believed in serving his people, in giving them and not taking from them. He left when the ovation was loudest. His love for his country, his honesty, integrity, fearlessness, sense of justice and fair play, are things to emulate. He was a complete gentleman. Indeed Mandela was a greatest son of Africa.”