Islamic position on good governance (I)

All thanks and praises are due to Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad (SAW).  What is good governance? Good governance could be defined as the effective management of resources and policy-making by means of exercising authority. This involves the application of principles such as participation, rule of law, transparency in […]

All thanks and praises are due to Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad (SAW). 

What is good governance? Good governance could be defined as the effective management of resources and policy-making by means of exercising authority. This involves the application of principles such as participation, rule of law, transparency in decision making process, openness, accountability, coherence and efficiency in managing state resources. 

There is a direct relationship between governance and leadership. This is because the one who governs essentially has to lead in order to show the way; to provide good governance you must provide good leadership. Governance is the establishment of policies and continuous monitoring of their proper implementation by the members of the governing body of an organisation.

Gregory Francesco Maassen in his book: ‘An international Comparison of Corporate Governance Models’ (1999) traced the origin of the word governance to the Latin word: ‘gubernare’ meaning to rule or to steer. This position strikes at the comparison between governance and leadership. 

According to Warren Bennis, a professor of social science, leadership could be defined as a complex process in which a person influences others to accomplish a mission, task or objective. In addition, Wess Roberts, a managerial consultant describes governance/leadership as ‘the privilege to have the responsibility to direct the actions of others in carrying out the purposes of the organisation at varying levels of authority and with accountability for both successful and failed endeavours. Looking at these definitions it could be understood that good governance involves accepting to lead the nation to desired goals by believing in the people and making the people to believe in themselves. 

The qualities of a good leader 

The tasks before a leader are daunting and enormous. If anyone finds himself as the leader of a people he has a duty to see it as an Amanah. As such he must bring to bear all the essential qualities both innate and acquired for him to succeed. It is for this reason that the Prophet (SAW) said: ‘Human beings are like treasure trove.’ Let us consider some of these qualities:

  a.  Intellect: Intellect could be defined as somebody’s ability to think reason and understand issues deeply. It would be difficult for a leader who is bereft of intellectual capacity to be able to decide what to do in challenging situations. Apart from being intelligent, intellect embraces clarity of thought, originality and initiative. A certain great leader was reported to have said: ‘If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering into and undertaking a task, I have meditated for long and have foreseen what may occur. Thus, intellectual capacity is a very important requirement for one to be a good leader.

 b.  Trust. Trust is the ability of a leader to instil confidence in the citizenry which would make them to have trust in his good qualities. It is important for a leader to make the people to willingly follow him even without an utterance. The companions of the Prophet (SAW) followed every bit of his life (Sunnah) because of their trust in him. Therefore, successful leaders must elicit voluntary followership due to the trust they have in his character, in his integrity and in his honesty. This could be done when the leader is humble, when he treats every community, every religion or tribe as being important, and when in his public conduct makes them know that he values them.

c. Vision.    Vision is important for good leadership. It is something that every leader needs in order to have impact. Vision allows the leader to focus on the future and be proactive rather than reactive. With vision, a leader can foresee, set goals, plan well and set his priorities right. It was vision that made Abubakar to nominate Umar bn Al Khattab as his successor, also it was vision that made the master of Prophet Yusuf to adopt him as a son rather than take him as a slave. With vision, a leader is able to produce change in order to acquire specific targets. This is because with vision, a leader is able to see the things happening around him, the people living with him and the environment where he lives not the way they are but the way they would be in time to come. The Prophet (SAW) envisioned the Muslims dominating the world landscape and conquering the superpowers of his time namely: the Roman, Persian and Byzantium empires, even at the time when they were negligible and weak. Not only did he say this but was able to enthuse them to achieve their goals even after his demise. Thus, a leader without vision is a blind leader and so it does not worth it follow him. 

d. Courage and Resolve.  A leader must be courageous and resolute. Resolve makes him to be undaunted by apparent setbacks and hardship. Physical courage is one of the greatest characteristics of a good leader. The Prophet exemplified uncommon courage despite the setback in the battle of Uhud. With this rare courage, successful tactical withdrawal was made to save the lives of the Muslims. Thus, courage, robustness and determination are needed by every leader to pursue any selected course of action to a logical conclusion. Undeterred by appearances, Abubakar (RA) confronted the problems which emerged soon after the demise of the Prophet (SAW). With that, he rendered an invaluable service to the Ummah. As the nation goes through the process of healing the wounds created by corruption, brazen impunity and insecurity, the leadership needs a lot of courage to unearth the rots of the past and bring the perpetrators to account. The idea of let bye gone be bye gone will do the nation no good. The Prophet (SAW) said: ‘The leader who allows evil to go on under him without confronting it will not smell the paradise’. 

e. Empathy. Empathy could be defined as the ability to understand and identify someone else’s situation and difficulties. With it a good leader identifies with the situation of his followers and he readily places himself in a position of trust. Umar bn Al Khattaab was a man of the people, he used to secretly go out in the night in order to know how they are faring well. It is only empathy that could have made the current leadership of our nation, with all the resources of the state available at its disposal, to   have embarked on a journey of not less than 5 hours by road with a view to seeing directly what an average Nigerian goes through in the numerous road blocks that have more or less become toll gates on the highways. Empathy makes the leadership to share in the sufferings of his people, partake in their deprivations, and witness power outage as most Nigerians are currently experiencing. The lack of empathy on the part of the leadership results into wickedness and pretence. It is only this kind of leadership that would be somewhere dancing when bomb blasts are renting the whole nation. Such a leadership would fly out of the country for a conference and get drunk while his nation is in hunger and deprivation.

Imam Gidado, the Director of Islamic Affairs, Nigerian Navy/Chief Imam of the Nigerian Navy, delivered this paper at the Muslim Media Practitioners annual lecture in Abuja recently.