Who should we blame for the chaos, the people or the leaders?

People obsess over who to blame for all the lawlessness in our society. The whole affair has been turned into a chicken and egg problem. Which comes first? Revolutionary leaders or reformed followers.  A faction argues that it doesn’t matter what the leaders do, if the people don’t get their acts together, we are going […]

People obsess over who to blame for all the lawlessness in our society. The whole affair has been turned into a chicken and egg problem. Which comes first? Revolutionary leaders or reformed followers. 

A faction argues that it doesn’t matter what the leaders do, if the people don’t get their acts together, we are going nowhere. 

They argue that leaders are chosen among the people. So if the people are arrogantly disobedient, so would the leaders. 

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This school of thought gives examples such as the fact that the people themselves can’t obey simple traffic laws. 

They also said that leaders can’t be everywhere so citizens must do their bit to have a decent society. 

The advocates of this idea also use the scriptures to make their point quoting “God does not change the situation of a people until they change [it] themselves.”

In other words, if people want favourable outcomes, they must invest positive inputs. 

Those who argue from this perspective are sometimes (but not always) supporters of the government in power. 

On the other hand, the opposition thinks that the foregoing argument is hollow. They say, for example, that it’s the government which enforces laws, not the people.

 If the people were going to behave like angels and uphold their responsibilities, there wouldn’t be the need for laws. 

More importantly, these enforcement agencies are headed by officials with delegated mandates. And the people who assigned those delegates are the leaders who have the power to fire and hire and not the people. 

For example, the masses do not appoint the Inspector General or the military chiefs, the Commander-in-Chief does. 

So if the people don’t follow the laws and the police can’t enforce compliance and the President can’t make the IG do it, then what’s the point of being in those exalted positions? Or are they also going to complain like the masses who have no powers?

Those who hold this view make the case that democracy and other forms of government exist on the basis that it’s the leadership’s responsibility to reform societies. That’s why when things go bad, people are advised to change their leaders through the ballots. No one has ever recommended that the people are the ones who need changing. Because that is a notion that will take forever to fulfil. 

I think the two positions are overcooked, and therefore, I disagree with both. 

Both the followers and leaders have responsibilities; both have failed in their mandates in this country. 

But more blame should go to leaders. Because while the people have the power to vote for leaders every four years, the leaders have the powers and the institutions to do something every day. 

Also, the argument that leaders are like their followers isn’t completely accurate. That’s why the best people are selected to be leaders, not the worse or the average; and they go through a rigorous recruitment process. Indeed, during the campaigns, those leaders try to distinguish themselves and make promises that they would do better than an average citizen. 

They don’t campaign on the platform of being or leading like any run-of-the-mill citizen. 

Finally, even God when he wants to reform a people, He doesn’t do it from the bottom up, instead, He sends a leader, a reformer to lead. So He did with Prophet Noah (AS), Prophet Moses(AS),  Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and many others. May the peace and the blessings of Allah be upon all our prophets. 

And most of those messengers succeeded in reforming corrupt nations. Prophets Moses and Muhammad (peace be upon them) succeeded in producing responsible citizens out of corrupt, barbaric and murderous brutes. 

This is not to say that reforming a nation is an easy thing to do. But it’s a basic function of leadership to persevere and look for creative ways to find a way. 

When Yunus (Jonah) gave up too soon, he was divinely reprimanded by being swallowed up by a fish. 

It’s only when the people are absolutely irredeemable that God saved their leaders from their mischief by destroying them – examples being the people of Lot (AS) and Noah (AS). But we’re not there yet in Nigeria. Or are we?

So it isn’t the confusing case of the chicken and egg. It’s the certain order of the cow and the calf. The cow comes first.