The Book Nigerian Leaders Must Read -Part 3

By Frank Ofili

After a few weeks hiatus, we return to examining John Maxwell’s epic book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”. In this part, we shall examine Laws 6 – 10 and, as with previous reviews, we shall compare them with our Nigerian leadership experience, and where possible, give specific examples. As much as possible, we shall present the facts as we know them with the intent to drive home the point of what is supposed to be the ideals Maxwell promoted.

Law 6: The Law of Solid Ground
Maxwell’s Law 6 is about integrity, credibility, moral authority, and consistency of character. He opines that a leader loses the right to lead when trust is eroded. According to him, trust is the foundation of leadership. People will only follow a leader they trust. When a leader’s integrity is intact, credibility grows; when integrity is broken, influence collapses.

Dr. Akunyili (1954–2014) was a renowned Nigerian pharmacist, public health advocate best known for her groundbreaking work as Director-General (DG) of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). As head of NAFDAC, Dora Akunyili built massive trust by relentlessly fighting counterfeit drugs despite threats. Her personal integrity increased public confidence in NAFDAC and strengthened her leadership influence. Deploying courage and integrity, she transformed NAFDAC and led an aggressive national campaign against counterfeit and substandard drugs in Nigeria (a widespread problem that caused countless deaths at the time), even as she faced strong resistance, including multiple assassination attempts. Akunyili was popular for her courage, integrity, zeal, and commitment to eliminating counterfeit drugs in Nigeria.

In contrast, the case of Tafa Balogun, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) was a bad contradiction to Maxwell’s 6. Tafa Balogun was charged, tried and convicted for corruption and abuse of office. He was later forced to resign as Inspector General of Police. His case was seen as embodying systemic failures in police leadership and integrity, illustrating the exact opposite of Maxwell’s Law 6. The scandal deeply damaged public confidence not only in the Nigeria Police, but also in the office of the IGP, and the credibility of law-enforcement leadership. His misconduct also demonstrated misuse of power, lack of ethical grounding, failure to uphold the values he was supposed to protect. It further reinforced distrust of the police as an institution, lowered morale within the force and highlighted systemic problems in leadership culture

Law 7: The Law of Respect

The summary of this law is that people naturally follow leaders who are stronger—ethically, intellectually, or skill-wise—than themselves. Respect is earned through moral strength, competence, courage, consistency and ethical conduct.

These were demonstrated in Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala whose track record at the World Bank and Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance earned her wide respect. Many Nigerians supported her reform initiatives because they respected her competence and international credibility.

However, the Police Leadership Failure and the #EndSARS Protests of 2020 in Nigeria was one of the strongest real-world examples where a leadership failure clearly contradicted Maxwell’s Law 7.

SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) was set up by the Nigeria Police authorities to combat violent crime. However, over time, the outfit got involved in nefarious activities including extortion, illegal arrest and detention, blackmail and even kidnap. It also went after those who committed offenses that were clearly outside their job remit. (e.g. internet fraud popularly known as 419 or Yahoo Yahoo). These resulted in widespread protests and calls for the disbandment of the squad. Eventually, it was disbanded but only after much damage had been done to life and property both to Police leadership credibility

During the SARS era, the leadership of the Nigeria was widely seen as lacking moral authority. The public no longer believed the police were protecting them. Reports of extortion, brutality, unlawful detention, and killings destroyed public confidence. Statements from police leadership denying abuses further eroded respect.

The result was millions of Nigerians openly rejected police leadership. Young people organized themselves without waiting for police or government direction. The hashtag #EndSARS became a national movement precisely because leadership had lost respect. According to Maxwell, loss of respect is “fatal to leadership influence.”

Law 8: The Law of Intuition

It is the opinion of Maxwell that leaders do not evaluate situations with facts alone. They also use instincts, shaped by experience, awareness, and insight. They “see” things others might miss. According to him, good leaders are intuitive.

One cannot say with certainty if this holds true in the Nigerian political space, given what we know of our country where there is more politics than faithful policy articulation and execution. For instance, despite repeated seasonal patterns, many state governments along the coastal regions of Nigeria consistently underestimate flood risks, failing to anticipate displaced populations or infrastructural damage. Because of this, they often fail to plan or provide remedial measures against flooding. The result? Lives, livelihoods and properties worth billions of Naira lost year in, year out, thus, leaving the people with low threshold for confidence in their leaders. Of course, a lack of intuitive foresight weakens public confidence.

But it is a bit of good news in the private sector – the tech ecosystem, for instance, where leaders are leveraging fintech opportunities. The founders of Paystack and Flutterwave (Olugbenga Agboola, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Adeleke Adekoya) used intuitive understanding of Nigeria’s payment challenges to build solutions before the market fully matured.

Ditto Moniepoint. Co-founded by Oluwatosin “Tosin” Michael Eniolorunda and Felix Ike in 2015, Moniepoint was originally named TeamApt before rebranding to its current name. Paystack, Flutterwave and Moniepoint are the foremost fintech companies in Nigeria, and they have performed fairly creditably. The intuitive leadership of their founders drew investors and talent early. Little wonder they are smiling to the banks today as fortune favours them.

Law 9: The Law of Magnetism

The summary of this law lies in the saying that “who you are is who you attract”. Maxwell opines that leaders attract people similar to them in values, mindset, and energy. Strong leaders attract strong people; chaotic leaders attract confusion. In leadership terms, people do not follow the leader’s wishes or affirmations, rather they respond to the leader’s values, character, competence, consistency and track record.

Bottomline is that a leader attracts people who are similar in attitude, level, and values. Strong, innovative leaders often attract similarly dynamic, problem-solving teams. Take the example of the founders of Paystack, Flutterwave and Moniepoint we earlier cited in Law 8. They attracted like-minds and talents with matching ambition and creativity to their companies. These like-minds and talents helped to scale their companies, thus, demonstrating leadership magnetism.

Conversely, a leader who normalizes unethical behaviour, for instance, tends to attract subordinates who think similarly, leading to collective underperformance and scandals. In the end, the organization eventually reflects the leader’s weaknesses.

But there is the flip side to this law – a contradiction of sort – created sometimes by the environment and the prevailing culture in which a leader operates. This is as poignantly illustrated in the case of former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun who got involved in a National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) exemption certificate scandal.

Although the former Minister was widely viewed as a disciplined technocrat focused on fiscal responsibility and transparency, her immediate circle, which included aides and verification staff, failed to uphold the same ethical or procedural rigour. This resulted in a scandal bordering on her improperly obtaining NYSC exemption certificate. The scandal highlighted a major gap between the leader’s public values and the integrity standards of those around her. Rather than attracting a team that matched her reputation for procedural strictness and accountability, the environment around her reflected weak compliance, shortcuts, and poor due-diligence, contradicting Maxwell’s idea that leaders attract people similar to their own characteristics.

This was also the case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) leadership under Ibrahim Magu in 2020 when the Directorate of State Security (DSS) accused the agency of corruption.

As acting EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu positioned himself as a symbol of anti-corruption and aggressive integrity enforcement. However, security and administrative officers around him — including some within the EFCC and external oversight bodies — were accused of practices that contradicted the agency’s anti-corruption mandate (e.g., mishandling seized assets, internal corruption allegations, leaked exchanges between DSS and EFCC). A DSS report alleging internal irregularities showed that the internal culture did not mirror the anti-corruption values Magu publicly championed.

As in the case of Kemi Adeosun, the former Finance Minister, the contradiction here is that instead of attracting individuals fully aligned with a clean, ethical anti-corruption ethos, the surrounding environment displayed conflict, distrust, and alleged corruption, thus, contradicting the Law of Magnetism’s claim that leaders attract people like themselves.

But what should a leader do if they find themselves in an environment or culture that contradicts the Law of Magnetism?

Maxwell counsels that you do not surrender the law; instead apply it more  rigorously and intentionally by (a) modelling the values relentlessly, (b) building a micro-culture of excellence, (c) striving to attract the willing – those who buy into your values – not necessarily everyone, (d) protecting your identity, (e) influencing through results, and (f) being patient, believing that the outcome you desire will eventually manifest.

Law 10: The Law of Connection

Maxwell argues that before asking people to follow or commit, a leader needs to connect with them first by way of showing empathy, understanding their concerns, engaging them, building trust, and making them feel heard and valued. Leadership that ignores connection tends to alienate people, even if the leader has authority.

Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago is perhaps the only governor in Nigeria who closely approximates this. His support for farmers in Niger State aligns with the Law of Connection. With his grassroots engagement and support for ordinary people he has initiated policies that directly benefit rural farmers — for example, subsidizing fertilizers by 50% to make farming inputs cheaper for local farmers.

Governor Bago has also provided concrete interventions and not just rhetoric. For instance, his administration has provided tractors, irrigation equipment and water-pumping machines to communities (e.g. in Ibbi Community) to enable mechanized and irrigated farming, thus, reducing farmers’ burden and increasing productivity.

He has also offered incentives for young people to take up agriculture as a livelihood rather than just traditional employment. By positioning agriculture as a viable path to food security, economic opportunity, and community stability — and backing that up with action — he connects with citizens’ concerns (joblessness, food prices, rural underdevelopment) and builds a sense of shared mission.

In Maxwell’s terms, Governor Bago is not just issuing orders — he is also engaging with people on issues that matter to them, showing he understands their realities, and acting to improve their conditions. That emotional cum relational connection tends to foster loyalty and buy-in, beyond formal authority.

However, so far, most evidence is at the level of agricultural support and policy gestures. For the “connection” to fully hold in Maxwell’s sense, the follow-through must be consistent and widespread — benefiting ordinary citizens across socio-economic divides. If some communities are left out (or benefits are uneven), the emotional connection may weaken.

Also, results matter. If support does not yield improved livelihoods, or if bureaucracy or corruption interferes, people may become disillusioned, thus, damaging trust and connection.

That is essentially the problem with fuel subsidy removal by President Tinubu. The removal was greeted with widespread public disapproval as people felt a sense of betrayal. According to a 2025 survey by Afrobarometer, a large majority of Nigerians “disapprove” (33%) or “strongly disapprove” (52%) of the decision to remove fuel subsidy; only 12% approve.

There was the perception that the government did not consult or engage citizens meaningfully. Many Nigerians felt the subsidy removal was sudden, with little warning, public consultation, or “palliative” measures were not put in place, thus, undermining their sense of being heard or considered. This lack of consultation and transparency erodes emotional connection.

This emotional disconnect was further exacerbated by the attendant economic hardship affecting ordinary citizens. The removal caused astronomical fuel‑price hikes, which led to increases in transport fares, cost of goods, and overall cost of living — causing hardship especially among low and middle‑income households.

Because rather than fostering emotional connection, empathy, and trust, the policy move (and more importantly how it was implemented) appears to have alienated many citizens. Instead of asking “how will this affect people?” and preparing them through engagement, the removal was perceived as top‑down, abrupt, and insensitive to people’s economic reality.

Under Law 10, such a disconnect undermines leadership legitimacy because people do not feel connected, understood, or valued — and so compliance or support becomes far weaker, even if the policy might have economic sense.