HUNGER, insecurity, double digit inflation, endemic corruption, epileptic power supply, rapidly depreciating value of naira, folding and exiting of foreign manufacturing companies that have existed in the country for decades, mass emigration, etc. These are just a few of the gloomy words and phrases that describe Nigeria, our country, today.

The terrorists who have been massacring innocent people in remote communities in the Middle Belt and North-East are now in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, killing, kidnapping citizens, demanding hundreds of millions of naira as ransom, and getting paid!

Some relevant questions to ask are: Why do we have government? Why does the government appear helpless in tackling these problems? One of the answers is that Nigerians have been aloof for a very long time, because they do not trust the leaders. A leader does not actually build the country; it is the people that do. The role of the leader is to inspire and mobilise the people into action.

A single tree, says an African proverb, cannot make a forest. No matter how wealthy or powerful a leader may be, that leader cannot bring any real development or progress to the country without igniting the latent fire within the hearts of the masses, especially in a country like Nigeria impoverished by successive inept and corrupt leaders.

Building a nation or country in sustainable ways requires a zealously inspired populace, and no one but the leader can ignite in the people, that fire needed to both support and do great things for the country and its people. If the masses do not share the leader’s ideas, the ideas are likely to remain what they are – ideas that cannot be translated into concrete actions to bring about progress and development.

Trust is an indispensable value a leader must elicit from the masses before people can buy into his or her ideas. People have been known to die for countries led by leaders they trust. The character of a leader, which is often an open book anyone can read, determines whether the masses will trust the leader or not.

If the masses trust a leader, they will follow him, even to battles, and fight alongside him to the last man. If they do not trust him, usually as a result of character deficit, the leader is on his or her own.

Nigerian leaders tell the masses to make sacrifices and endure the pains the same leaders inflict on the masses, but the leaders do not make any sacrifice. The masses watch the leaders everyday living large, spending billions of naira of tax-payers money on themselves and on all kinds of unnecessary and frivolous things. They watch the stealing of public funds by the leaders going on daily.

These are not how to earn people’s trust. Our leaders need to repent and begin to do things differently and honestly, if they must earn the people’s trust, inspire and mobilise them for national development and progress.