The concept of leadership is always shrouded with so much misconception, first on the part of those who are led, second on the part of the few who eventually lead the majority.
We cannot believe less with Myles Munroe when he said, “if purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable”. Evidently in Africa, Nigeria especially has no knowledge of what leadership entails. The presumption that leaders are a mere product of position has led the black nations into building their society behind strong persons rather than strong systems or institutions.
Every society in desire for good leadership must first understand the primary purpose of leadership so they can know and appreciate the presence of one and be able to know when a bad one is in position. When people in leadership positions don’t know the purpose they will abuse the privilege that comes with it. We don’t prophets to mirror this from the executive to the legislators and down the ladder of leadership.
The case is not different for the followers. We believe that good followership gives a leader a sense of direction while bad followers leave even a purposeful leader in total confusion in the task of leading them.
Also, it is very important to know that every person in a society has in a position of leadership is the leader they deserve and a reflection of that society’s value system. This is because nobody gets to lead without the permission of the people they are leading. Followership is a choice. And nobody exists without a society.
If we have bad leaders, we chose them, if we are following bad leaders, we chose to. It is from the society that the leaders emerge. The leader who eventually leads well is the one who reflects that that society is good. Let’s do some soul searching.
It is strange to see how we blame our leaders for everything, we believe they are the cause of the problem we are passing through in our communities without releasing that they are the fruits extracted from the very community. We cannot plant mango and harvest apples.
Every society is a product of the family; it is the failure of family values that leads to failure in societal values. If the leaders are bad we should blame the society, if the society is bad we should blame the family and if the family is bad we blame the parents’ inability to be firm in raising disciplined and purposeful children. Our leadership failure is only a function of our societal failure.
The bad leadership we face today is a result of failure on our part as a people. We have failed in our individual communities and families. The way out is back to the foundation. Every parent must reorient themselves from following the trend and begin to decide the trend. If we fail in this, then we must all take the blame for bad leadership in our society.
* Let’s re-examine our ethical, moral, and cultural values as well as integrity which have been eroded.
* Let us play our part by sacrificing for the betterment of this nation we dearly love.
* Let us understand that the only way to succeed in this nation is to work as a community-collectively, not as individuals. It is to instill the values from home and not to adopt the societal values.
* Let us work as a community, with mutual goals and purposes. This is the only guarantee that we will be able to set the goal for our future by ourselves and our leaders will have no choice but to reflect our goals and purposes in their achievement in leadership positions.
The only way our leaders can do the good job we want them to do for us is when they truly understand that we know what we want and would demand it from them.
Article By Frugal Empowerment Foundation, email:info@frugalempowermentfoundation.org