sorry but no.
scenario: two nearly equal strong ninjas (like madara and first) one lightning one fire. fire: giant meteor. lighning: cut through the meteor with kirin and attack the enemy. fire user can't destroy kirin -> finished. You may complain that he could dodge or something like that but on long sight the lightning user will win.
@ negative knight I'd love to answer you but I have not enough posts (well now I have I think) but I totally disagree with you in your opinion about water. water is still a formable element and an attack with it isn't just a wave. simple front attacks from earth, wind and fire can be cut through by forming the water into a blade like I wrote some posts above. Lightning would still be a hard one ( I ranked it first because of that) but against other elements water has a very good chance because of his already mentioned flexibility.
I find lightning more versatile. Great long range attacks like Black lightning or Kirin, great short range attacks(Raikiri which can cut even better than wind element since it can even cut lightning itself), can paralyse the ennemy