Leadership is a great burden. This is the view of some management experts who insist that leadership becomes a burden when the society expects too much from a leader. For this reason, a leader is always the target of every eye. He is expected to be always proactive, decisive, empathic, and also a role model who leads by examples. Above all, he is expected to be preemptive as well as be a problem solver. Where a leader cannot solve a problem, he is expected to lead the way towards a collective effort to solve it. This is what Nigerians expect from President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s leadership. Such high expectation has now become a great burden on his shoulders.

As a popularly elected president, Jonathan is Nigeria’s number one leader. Therefore, his burden is by far greater than that of the Senate president or the speaker, House of Representatives, who are also political leaders. But unlike the Senate president or the House speaker, whose mandate is localised, that of the president is national because the entire country is his constituency.  Therefore, Nigerians who voted across party lines to give him that national mandate believe in him and expect very much from his political leadership. The very high expectation of the people is not misplaced. It is based on the hopes he raised with the many promises he made during his presidential campaign tour of the country. One of such promises is his transformation of Nigeria through unprecedented development projects within four years.

But as it stands now, the president’s transformation promise may end up as a mere political campaign rhetoric unless something drastic is done to reduce the ever-increasing cost of governance in the country. At present, less than 5,000 political office holders, out of Nigeria’s 150 million people, consume more than 70 percent of the country’s annual budgetary allocation. The expenses come in the form of salaries, allowances, sundry claims and perquisites of office. Worse, the 469 members of the National Assembly are said to be responsible for the consumption of 25 percent of the national budget every year. If an allowance of 10 to 15 percent of the  annual budget is made to cover the salaries and allowances of civil and public servants, corruption and wastes in government, then what is left for capital projects in the year is less than 20 percent of the annual budget. What this means is that less than 20 percent of the country’s annual budget is just not enough to finance capital projects that can really transform Nigeria in the next four years.

This frightening scenario dominated national discourse in both the print and electronic media in recent weeks. A greater number of those who spoke on the issue directed their anger mostly at members of the Sixth National Assembly whose financial recklessness raised the cost of governance and created a lot of development problems for Nigeria. Elias Mbam, chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, inflamed public anger the more when he distanced the commission from the jumbo pay package of the legislators insisting  that RMAFC was not aware of the fat allowances the National Assembly members declared for themselves. The disclaimer has raised some pertinent issues. Can the National Assembly members initiate and approve their allowances without the knowledge of the RMAFC? If such action is against Section 84(1) of the 1999 constitution and the Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (salaries and allowances) Amendment Act 2008, should the legislators be allowed to enjoy the rewards of an illegal act? Shouldn’t they be made to refund the public fund paid out illegally? These are issues Nigerians expect Jonathan to tackle as the overall leader of Nigeria.

As public anger continues to boil, David Mark, who presided over the discredited Sixth Senate, has offered what he believes could be a soothing balm. In his inaugural speech on June 6, Mark gave a pledge that the Seventh Senate, over which he also presides, would reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria in the next four years. Even though he failed to elaborate on how the Senate would do it, at least, he had identified with the prevailing mood of the nation. Like Mark, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, speaker, House of Representatives, has also felt the national mood and decided to move with the tide. He said June 27, while unveiling a four-year legislative agenda, that the House under his leadership would separate members’ salaries and allowances from funds allocated for committees’ duties. This arrangement, he explained, would bring down the pay of members by 40 percent. But this new House policy has failed to excite Nigerians because they are not told what that would translate into in terms of Naira and Kobo

Surprisingly, President Jonathan has failed to identify with the mood of the nation. He is hell-bent on having a bloated cabinet of at least 36 ministers and 20 special advisers. If section 147(3) of the constitution makes it mandatory for the President to appoint at least one minister from each of the 36 states, why does he need as many as 20 special advisers again? What programme is he putting in place to reduce the number of political offices and their  holders? In February 2009, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, directed the RMAFC to work out a reduction in the salaries of public office holders as well as those of judges following dwindling earnings from crude oil as a result of the global economic meltdown which started in 2008. The directive hit the rock because it was said to have offended sections 84(3) and 124(3) of the Constitution. Investigations have so far revealed that  the drain on the national treasury is not so much caused by the salaries political office holders earn but by the crazy allowances they draw as well as the wastes linked with the perks of office. These are not protected by sections 84 and 124 of the constitution. What are the president’s plans to cut them? Nigerians expect Jonathan to show leadership now by coming up with his programme of action on how he intends to reduce cost of governance, as well as fight corruption and wastes in government. If need be, he should convene an all-party conference to discuss the issues. Whatever decisions are reached at the conference should be binding on all elected and political office holders at all levels of government. Unless Jonathan acts now, his transformation agenda will remain a mere pipe dream.

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