Open Letter To President Buhari On Leadership, By Oby Ezekwesili

I once asked a Leader: How are you friends with all sorts of people?

He answered: Because I must be Leader of the Good, the Bad & the Ugly.

The Leader of a Country cannot be friends only of those he/she likes. No. That is not leadership. The Leader builds up groups. Not divide.

You cannot lead only those that worship and swear by you. You are the leader! You must carry the burden even of those that detest you.

It is the lowliest form of Churlishness that is unbecoming of a leader to send signals that you dislike anyone of the groups you lead.

A leader is a winner. When a winner acts like a loser, things go wrong in their Kingdom. Real leaders build a bond with all their people.

Worst is when a leader makes enemies of most because he abhors the action of one or a few. That is not leadership! That is Ethnic Prejudice.

A real leader does not suffer from the destructive disease of ethnic prejudice. It endangers his/her people and real leaders cannot bear such.

Whoever handles the President’s Twitter handle should please kindly help give my thread on real leadership to our President, Buhari.

It is tragic that you, our President have deliberated or inadvertently alienated a segment of the people you lead. It is TRAGIC.

None of you can claim greater Nigerianness than some of us. I am Nigerian and will always be. Leadership must be for all…at all times.

There are ways that a leader ascends the moral high ground and leads a conversation on unity. Done well, the mischievous lose their hold.

President Buhari, it is not yet too late for you to ascend that moral high ground and bond with all your people – East, West, North, South.

At a time when the words spoken and written across the East-West-North-South of our country are hardening, you, leader Buhari must arise.