A Don and political scientist at the Niger Delta University (NDU), Dr Rufus Anthony, has identified leadership failure and inept followership inability to tell truth to power as the reason for African and Nigeria’s underdevelopment.
The don spoke on Tuesday, at the launch of his three books, “Contending Issues In Politics of Development and Underdevelopment In Africa’, ‘Issues In Peace, Conflict And Development Studies’ and ‘Oracle Of Political Theory.
He noted that blaming western powers for the underdevelopment of Africa and Nigeria.was an exercise in futility.
He said African and indeed Nigeria must start looking inward, adding that “we must take the bull by the horn and take responsibilities and then deal with our underdevelopment
According to him: “A followership that cannot tell truth to power. A followership that could not stand for anything sincere, but are into bootlicking.
“They keep praising the leaders. Anybody in power, they praised them and then cover up the issues. So I discussed one of those very disturbing issues in the book”.
He said he was motivated by the academics slogan, that says “Publish or Perish” and the pressing need to add to the pressing issues of underdevelopment in Africa and Nigeria.
“For example, we lack some materials when it comes to issues in peace, conflict and development studies. So I felt it was an opportunity to share my thoughts on it.
“I did research on it and then had to publish a book on peace, conflict and development studies.
“Life is always characterized by conflict and so we must devise means to bring peace to society. So I was really motivated in sharing my thoughts on how to bring peace to society and then development also.
“I have the flair for issues in political theory and so I felt it’s a very dicey area. Many people don’t want to go into it.
“So I decided to do a research in political theory and share my thoughts on it so that students can gain access to materials.There are plenty of misinterpreted thoughts on the oracles Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, Rousseau and the rest of them,” he said.
Anthony while proffering solutions said, the way out of our problem of underdevelopment is that we must put into practice the tenets of democracy.
He said “The tenets of democracy must be put into practice. We are practicing democracy in a particular way that is not consistent, that does not honor the tenets of democracy.
“We must put into practice all of the tenets of democracy and then structure the electoral umpire, INEC, very well, so that the people’s votes are captured.
“We must end vote buying and vote selling. That’s why I said our problem is both leadership and followership. So if the leaders want to buy our vote, we should refuse to sell our vote.
“You know, the leadership we have, the bad leadership we have, is our own product. We produce them. You know, so these are the issues.
“Above all, there is what I captured as decolonization of the mind. You know, Africans are going to begin to think European.
“You know, they want to see themselves more as Europeans than Africans. We must begin to look inwards, you know, to Africa and see how we can develop ourselves,” he said.
The books reviewer Dr Godbless Micah, corroborated the author’s views about leadership deficiency in the country. He posited that the author has done justice to the three books launched.
Also, the chairman of the occasion Dr Michael Amaegberi, the Executive Secretary Bayelsa Education Loan Board represented by Dr Stanley Idusi, a Philosophy Lecturer at the Niger Delta University Amassoma agreed with the author on his position regarding the leadership problem the country is facing.
He commended the author for delving into areas where many scholars are afraid of going into, saying that Anthony is a hard working lecturer in the Niger Delta University.