The task before government and business in Nigeria

That in turn can have a real impact on the forgotten millions. It is worth remembering that half of Nigeria’s people live in extreme poverty, some in close proximity to the rich across the creeks in Lagos. One in 5 children die before the age of five while eight million kids never get to primary […]

That in turn can have a real impact on the forgotten millions. It is worth remembering that half of Nigeria’s people live in extreme poverty, some in close proximity to the rich across the creeks in Lagos. One in 5 children die before the age of five while eight million kids never get to primary school. These youngsters need a better life, they need jobs.

The importance of our partnership between a modern Britain and a modern Nigeria has never been clearer, moreover.

I’ll go back to the beginning and say what I think makes for good and respected leadership. I do so without apologies because each individual has to know what he or she believes personally. Firstly, working with a clear set of values such as honesty, openness, integrity, fair play, diversity, equality and non-discrimination; secondly working with a clear vision, sense of purpose and direction for what one believes is right; thirdly consistently pursuing those goals, aiming to set an inspiring and motivating example; fourthly, building trust; fifthly developing people and teams who are professional and appreciated; sixthly encouraging and supporting staff; and finally liberating staff to realize their own potentials and take their own decisions.

You will all have your own view of what is leadership. And your own view of what ‘good’ leadership actually means. But I’ll pick three things out from the above list and call them common themes that fit good leadership based on good governance, which is actually what I think should be the goal.   Firstly, ethics and values. Every business and government needs these. Someone once said ‘divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics is reduced to technique’.

Secondly, liberating the potentials of others and building great teams, where talent is catalysed and everyone believes in the values of the organization and lives them. The result is far greater than the sum of the parts. Isaac Newton said, ‘if I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants’.

By the way, in the context of talking about teams and leadership, I am looking forward to watching the World Cup final- will it be between England and Nigeria? How will our teams perform, will they be inspired, great teams? I hope they will.

Thirdly taking tough decisions and managing in crisis. It is in a crisis that everyone looks for particular leadership qualities. Being the safe ship in stormy seas is a good outcome. And a good leader is someone who does not tell you what you want to hear but what you need to hear. It’s also saying ‘no’ sometimes, taking the difficult decisions but the ones the leader thinks are right and sticking to them. ‘The price of greatness is responsibility’ said Winston Churchill. Leadership does bring responsibilities. And he led in time of crisis and did so with responsibility. He faced extraordinary pressures, confronting a tyrant, ‘tyrant’ being  a description perhaps for the antithesis of good leadership, personifying someone who perverts power rather than uses it well, someone who stirs up war and injustice to make people think they need a so-called leader- but who is actually just a tyrant.

What are the values and standards of good governance needed for good leadership in business and government? Well, the recent global downturn and banking and regulatory crisis; issues such as connected lending linked to stock acquisition; public pressures including over behaviours in legislatures and public sectors; are all live issues that show just how timely and relevant this discussion is. Every society has to debate openly and fairly what is indeed acceptable leadership behaviour in the eyes of the ordinary person within that particular society- the ordinary person being the share holder or citizen to whom leaders are ultimately accountable.

So I would stress the following:

Firstly for government. Public leadership should be inclusive and principled, a fair and level playing field for all citizens, with the aim of serving the public interest above all. Abiding by the constitution and rule of law, abiding by democratic principles and good governance; reducing poverty, delivering services and infrastructure; working for equitable wealth creation; doing all that with good policy and with integrity adds up to serving the public interest. Public money should be used for public benefit and not for private purposes. Taking public money for oneself is stealing- in other words, corruption or money laundering. There should be legal action to tackle anyone, however powerful, involved in corruption, without worrying who the person is or who he or she is connected to.

If the justice and security authorities act impartially in that way, such action can dent the culture of impunity, it can build the rule of law, trust and democracy. That trust between the state and the citizen can be built or rebuilt. Transparency and accountability are all-important for democracy to flourish. There should be fiscal discipline and transparent public accounting so that citizens know what their money is being spent on and can hold the executive accountable. There should be fairness and equity. Corruption or violence or acting only in favour of one group- in other words, not giving fair and inclusive leadership to all one’s citizens- is poor leadership.  

Secondly for business, although I speak with due humility never having myself worked as a business leader. But there are common principles. There must again be zero tolerance for bribery. There should be codes of conduct, good regulations, ethics and values. Those values should include integrity, honesty, social and environmental responsibility. All of those things, especially integrity, must be imbedded into their teams by the leaders. And such standards are actually win-win, leading to high performance in businesses. There must be transparency and accountability. There must be a fire-wall between personal interest and company interest. The two must not be confused. There should be norms of behaviour when it comes to gifts and salaries and bonuses. No commercial or government organization can be isolated from the society in which it works and on whom it depends for its reputation. One’s reputation is everything, as Shakespeare said. And turning John Donne’s poem around a bit, no institution can be an island.

Dewar is the British High Commissioner in Nigeria. He delivered this speech at the Institute of Directors Breakfast recently