Listening To The People: The Missing Discipline In Nigeria’s Political Leadership.

By Comrade Danladi Boyis Hassan, FIICA

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA: Listening gives government its legitimacy. Indeed, the current trajectories about democratic renewal in Nigeria is increasingly emphasise accountability, citizen participation, transparency and responsive act of governance.

A responsible political leader must therefore listen beyond the voices of praise-singers, sycophants and political loyalists. Leadership becomes dangerous when those in authority surround themselves only with people who tell them what they want to hear. When criticism is interpreted as hatred, dissent as betrayal, and accountability as opposition, governance gradually loses its moral compass.

Kaduna, like Nigeria, requires leaders who can distinguish between political loyalty and blind loyalty; constructive criticism and destructive opposition; truth and propaganda; genuine public interest and private political ambition. The people should not have to shout themselves hoarse before their leaders recognise their concerns.

Listening gives a leader better perspective. It teaches the humility to understand that government is not a personal possession and political power is not an inheritance. Every mandate is a temporary trust, and every public office carries an obligation to account to the people.

This is particularly important as Nigeria moves toward the 2027 political cycle. The weakening of opposition structures, political defections and concerns about electoral reforms have intensified the debate about the health of Nigeria’s democratic competition.

In such an environment, citizens must become more discerning. They must listen carefully to political promises, examine the records behind the rhetoric, and judge leaders not merely by what they say but by what they have actually delivered.

The lesson is simple: a leader who refuses to listen eventually becomes disconnected from the people, and a political structure that becomes disconnected from the people eventually becomes vulnerable at the ballot box.

Listening also creates discernment. It enables society to differentiate between light and darkness, good and evil, truth and falsehood, competence and mediocrity, service and self-interest. These distinctions are indispensable in a democracy where political language can easily be used to disguise political intentions.

Instructions, counsel and correction are not necessarily restrictions. Sometimes they are safeguards. They are intended to guide, equip, discipline and position an individual or institution for growth, wisdom and honour. The same principle applies to political leadership: a government that listens to criticism can correct its course before its mistakes become crises.

Nigeria does not need leaders who merely hear applause. Nigeria needs leaders who can hear the cries of the vulnerable, the frustrations of young people, the anxieties of workers, the concerns of farmers, the fears of communities affected by insecurity and the expectations of citizens demanding justice and accountable government.

And Kaduna does not need politics built solely around personalities, patronage and political calculations. It needs a political culture in which citizens are respected as stakeholders, institutions are strengthened, opposing views are tolerated, and public resources are treated as a sacred trust.

The political lesson for our time is therefore profound:
Listen before you speak. Understand before you judge. Reflect before you act. And govern with the knowledge that the people may be silent today, but they are never permanently voiceless.

A government may control the machinery of power, but it cannot permanently control the conscience of the people.
Ultimately, the strength of democracy is not measured by how loudly those in power speak, but by how sincerely they listen.

Those who refuse to listen to the people may enjoy the comfort of power today, but history, and eventually the ballot box,has a way of making leaders listen.

…..Comrade Danladi Boyis Hassan, FIICA
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