SEMINAR PAPER PRESENTED AT A WORK SHOP ORGANIZED FOR YOUTHS ON CITIZENSHIP RIGHT, AT GRACE PALACE ARINA ENUGU ON THE . 20th DAY OF AUGUST 2026
Title: HIJACKING LEADERSHIP IS THE WORST FORM OF LEADERSHIP STYLE: NIGERIA IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD VIA 2027 GENERAL ELECTIONS
ABSTRACT
Leadership is ideally a social contract based on trust, service and legitimacy. However, when leadership is hijacked , seized, manipulated, and retained through illegitimate means rather than earned through popular will and competence , it becomes the most destructive form of leadership.
This paper examines hijacking leadership as a leadership pathology, its manifestations in the Nigerian political system, and its implications as Nigeria approaches the 2027 general elections. It argues that the world is watching Nigeria not just as Africa’s largest democracy, but as a test case for whether democratic consolidation can survive elite capture. The paper concludes with recommendations for reclaiming legitimate leadership.
Keywords: Hijacking Leadership, Legitimacy, Democracy, 2027 Elections, Nigeria, Governance
INTRODUCTION
Every nation gets the leadership it tolerates. In Nigeria, since 1999, we have practiced democracy without fully enjoying its dividends. Why? Because the process of leadership recruitment has been consistently hijacked.
Hijacking leadership is not just about rigging elections on election day. It is the total capture of the leadership process , from party primaries to the ballot, from the courts to the governance itself.
As we move toward 2027, Nigeria has an estimated population of over 230 million people, with over 60% youth. The international community ,ECOWAS, AU, EU, UN, and global investors ,is watching whether Nigeria will deepen democracy or deepen state capture.
The central thesis of this paper is: Of all leadership styles autocratic, laissez-faire, democratic, transformational ,hijacked leadership is the worst because it destroys both the leader and the led, and mortgages the future.
CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION
a) What is Leadership?
Leadership is the ability to influence, inspire, and direct people towards a common goal with legitimacy.
b) What is Hijacking Leadership?
Hijacking leadership is defined in this paper as:
The acquisition, retention, and exercise of political power through illegitimate, manipulative, and anti-people mechanisms, without genuine consent of the governed and without the requisite vision to govern.
Characteristics of Hijacking Leadership:
1. Illegitimate Acquisition: Power is gotten through vote buying, voter intimidation, falsification of results, imposition of candidates, and abuse of state institutions. 2. Lack of Vision: It has no developmental blueprint. Its primary goal is capture, not service. 3. Exclusion: It excludes the best brains and includes only loyalists. 4. Weaponization of Poverty: It keeps the people poor so they can be easily bought during elections. 5. Fear of Free and Fair Contest: It avoids transparent internal democracy.
FORMS OF LEADERSHIP HIJACKING IN NIGERIA
1. Godfatherism and Imposition: Where one individual decides who becomes governor, senator, chairman. 2. Party Primaries Hijack: Where delegates are bought, and popular candidates are substituted with unpopular ones. 3. Electoral Hijack: Vote buying, ballot box snatching, manipulation of BVAS/IReV, and collation fraud. 4. Judicial Hijack: Using the courts to legitimize illegitimacy, where mandates are decided by technicalities, not by the people. 5. Institutional Hijack: Capture of INEC, security agencies, and anti-corruption agencies for partisan use. 6. Governance Hijack: After assuming office, state resources are diverted to private pockets, turning public office into private enterprise.
WHY HIJACKING LEADERSHIP IS THE WORST STYLE
Compared to other poor leadership styles, it is worse because:
i. It Destroys Legitimacy: An autocratic leader may be harsh but may be legitimate within his system. A hijacker has no legitimacy from day one.
ii. It Breeds Mediocrity: When leadership is not earned, competence is not required. This explains our underdevelopment.
iii. It Institutionalizes Corruption: Since huge money is spent to hijack power, huge money must be stolen to recover investment.
iv. It Promotes Political Apathy: When citizens believe their votes don’t count, they disengage. This is dangerous for 2027.
v. It Leads to Bad Governance and Insecurity: A hijacked leader does not feel accountable to the people, but to the few who installed him.
NIGERIA IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD: THE 2027 LENS
The 2027 General Elections are not just another election cycle. The world is watching for three reasons:
a) The Democracy Test: After the controversies of the 2023 elections, the world wants to see if Nigeria will reform its electoral process , especially INEC’s independence, electronic transmission of results, and electoral justice.
b) The Economic Test: Global investors, the World Bank, and IMF are watching. No serious investor puts money in a country where leadership is unpredictable and hijacked. Hijacked leadership equals policy instability.
c) The Youth Test: With the #EndSARS generation now fully in the voting age, and with Nigerians in diaspora becoming more vocal, 2027 will be a youth-driven referendum on the old style of hijacking.
International observers in 2023 cited irregularities. In 2027, the tolerance for excuses will be lower. The world is watching through technology , through social media, through real-time election reporting, through diaspora observers.
CONSEQUENCES IF HIJACKING CONTINUES IN 2027
1. Further erosion of national unity and trust. 2. Increased Japa syndrome and brain drain. 3. Deepening economic hardship and capital flight. 4. Nigeria risks becoming a pariah democracy democratic in name, authoritarian in practice. 5. Possible post-election crisis and legitimacy vacuum.
RECOMMENDATIONS – RECLAIMING LEADERSHIP
1. Electoral Reforms with Teeth: Full legal backing for mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results from polling units, and severe punishment for any official who attempts to alter results. 2. Party Reforms: INEC must enforce strict internal democracy. No party that does not conduct credible primaries should be allowed on the ballot. 3. Citizen Responsibility: Nigerians must reject vote buying. A 5,000 naira inducement cannot pay for 4 years of suffering. 4. Judicial Integrity: The judiciary must return to being the last hope of the common man, not the last hope of the highest bidder. 5. Active Youth and Civil Society Participation: From voter registration to election observation, from town hall to governance tracking. 6. Leadership Education: Leadership should be taught as service, not as investment.
CONCLUSION.
Autocracy can be reformed, democracy can be improved, but hijacked leadership must be totally rejected. It is a leadership that steals the future to pay for the present.
Nigeria cannot afford another cycle of hijacked leadership in 2027. The world is watching, but more importantly, history is watching. The 2027 elections provide a golden opportunity for Nigeria to prove that power truly belongs to the people as enshrined in Section 14(2)(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The worst form of leadership is not the one that fails to lead, but the one that never had the right to lead in the first place.
Thank you and God bless you.
Nigeria we hail thee,our own dear native land!!!!!!!
REV CAN FRANCIS UZOCHUKWU AGU.
A priest and Humanitarian.
Director : Directorate For Civic and Political Affairs, church of Nigeria Global Anglican communion Diocese of Oji River Enugu State 🖋️
