Our leadership and President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 (1)

The office of the President all over the world is highly exalted. It is an honor for any individual to attain such a position in a lifetime. It is a special blessing to be in such a position to influence the destiny of other men through policies and governance. Such men are a rare breed, and for me I consider it as one of the ultimate blessings.

Men who found themselves in such position should aspire to be selfless if I must say. What else can one possibly wish or ask for? Unfortunately, Leadership across Africa has been a major challenge which always hampers its growth. It is a common denominator holding the shift in economic and political growth in the continent.

It is gratifying though to note that some countries in Africa have taken significant strides in applying a fairly decent leadership framework thereby influencing positive changes in the continent.

Well articulated and structured leadership is an elaborate process of change; it is a decision of a man of unique intellects or wisdom which makes a lifetime impact in the lives of his people. It goes to tell you that a statement from the man in authority is more impactful to human lives than the scaple of a surgeon. A man in authority holds the head and body; he performs the “ODONTOID PROCESS”. His utterances, policies, well or not well thought out impacts positively or negatively on the populace.

Significantly, there are two types of leadership that can be observed in the world that have been effectively influencing what we see today. The wide gulf between the developed and the third world countries is a reflection of the leadership structure. Suffice to say such framework also affects the well being of the citizens.

Leaders are born to understudy the temperament of their people, their environment to create a robust frame work and process to bring about positive change. Sometimes, the changes take time but a committed leader is constantly in touch with his people. His humility, poise, panache and drive keep him in touch, to read and understand the chemistry of NO or YES and to take a decisive action for the interest of the masses…

Some are born to lead; some acquire leadership skills while some have leadership bestowed on them. Whichever one finds himself, it’s a great privilege and the leader should make thorough appeal to the mind and use such a rare gift to the glory of man and God. The two common types of leadership are Transactional and transformational. Within the African region, the first type of leadership is commonly seen. It is in Africa we see leaders who enrich themselves, their cronies, wives, sisters and brothers to the detriment of the people. These are leaders who leave the system same or worse than they met it. Transactional leaders follow the trend of the few, their political parties, god fathers and sycophants; they want to be in the good books of a few to guarantee their continued stay in power.

They allow and create political jobbers, encourage theft and shy away from prosecuting corrupt individuals who are usually their cronies. Leaders of this type are commonly focused on acquiring wealth at the detriment of their citizens. They over inflate contracts, appropriate businesses and easily set up special purpose vehicles or proxies to monitor and enrich themselves.

If they manage to fix a particular pressing need in the system, they run to the media and blow their trumpets of the changes they have accomplished. Every minor achievement recorded seems a huge plus in their political manifestos. They often pay deaf ears to the cries of the people. They change their psyche and pay less attention to the yearnings of the masses. They negotiate at every point to a winning position and hardly make sacrifice for the masses to move forward. Such leaders are holding the shift to a positive change in Africa. It wouldn’t make any difference mentioning specific countries in order not to derail the discourse or raise up unnecessary dust. The point one is trying to buttress is the need to change our leadership structure for us Africans to move forward and catch up with the rest of the world. We have been on the sideline for too long.

Accepted it might not be an easy task for us to catch up with the developed world in five, ten or even twenty years but the framework of our leadership, if well laid can guarantee our future.

Take a simple example: a visitor can easily get to his destination in Europe or America by simply using GPS which gives some sort of confidence to a “JJC” to move around knowing that the gadget will get him there. This is what good leadership structure does, it gives some hope and the belief that you are on the way to your destination.

I was privileged to have some discussion with a surgeon who lives in America and a physicist who also stays in America. We were discussing the power situation in Nigeria and the surgeon was of the opinion that the present power situation in Nigeria should have been sorted out long time ago. No modern country today even talks about power stability because science has gone beyond that. The physicist was of the same opinion that science has started or now near generating power through citrus. Transactional leaders are easily multiplied but also quick to disappear, the reason being that they hardly leave any legacies behind.

IKEM UME-EZEOKE