By Andrew Aroloye
Moses was a poor slave boy who out of no alternative was abandoned by his parents but was never forgotten. He was raised up in wealth and he knew what it meant to be poor and what wealth is from his vantage position. He could have opted to remain in his most prestigious position and do just a little or nothing for his poor race from there and be satisfied. He did not. He made up his mind to lead his people and he did. Even though he did not step on the Promised Land, he died a satisfied person. In the Holy Bible, there are several instances of people who were either appointed or by position of birth had leadership entrusted on them; David, Samuel, Peter, James, Paul, Solomon and a host of others had this opportunity. Esther and her mentor, Mordecai despite their closeness to King Xerxes who ruled over 120 provinces stretching from India to Cush and in fame, still loved their people than the luxury one can say they were in.
The history of modern Isreal is one that need be retold. Golder Meir of blessed memory had the honour of winning the greatest battle for Isreal in modern times. She admired Ben Gurion and Levi Eshkol who was Prime Ministers before her and that made her to pursue the goals for which their new nation had set for herself. Golder Meir, a woman of iron heart raised in Klev in Russia and Milwaukee in the United States of America led a team of men through tenacity of purpose and was never disgraced. She was a woman of most simplistic virtues and one with great courage. When things really got tensed up, she would have a cigarette and sip from her pot of black coffee. One can rightly say that she was the one that finally put a seal on the threat of the Egyptians and the Arabs to her state forever. She too, was a leader.
The only Isreali that died in the battle of Entebe was Yonnie (Lt. Col.),He was the elder brother of the present Prime Minister of Isreal-Nathanyahu. Both were sons of an Isreali University Professor of Mathematics who did not have the courage for leadership to stay on in Isreal despite his so called belief in the nation Israel, but his son did. Yonni had faith and kept it to the end. Despite his having got badly wounded once before, an experience that could have discouraged him from taking greater risks, he offered to lead his platoon to Uganda to release the Isrealis held there. He concluded the assignment in less than sixty minutes and saw all his men back to the plane making sure that everyone got on board and remaining behind, he ordered his own men to take his life because he did not want the enemy to capture him alive. He died and was given a heroes burial in Isreal when his body was finally released. He was grater in death than in life. Such is the spirit of good leadership.
We are not asking for the soul of anybody: leadership cannot be forced. One may like it but it is more than mere wishes of the mind. Leadership is endowed with all that it involves in the act and ART of human management for a purpose. On and on, one could continue to list who good leaders are. John Major whose years back worked as a Banking Clerk in Jos-Nigeria was only two years as a junior minister and only seven in parliament when he became the British Prime Minister. Rajiv Ghandi was a pilot who got drawn into leadership by mere accident. He accepted the wishes of his people. He led them well in a difficult time in Indian history. When he passed on, his wife could not accept leadership because she could not cope with the problems of leadership. She was excused. On the other hand, Corason Acquino accepted leadership in the Philippines and survived seven coups against her government in her good days.
In Lutherania in Russia, a woman led her people out of the USSR fold. What she started probably started the ‘KILL’ OF USSR. Ronald Reagan in his valedictory speech said, when he got into the White House, he changed The World! Students of Political history will believe that Reagan actually started the changes in that political era of the world and the changes are still on.
To crown it all, Christ could have escaped or ask his father to send “Heaven army” to protect him. He did not. He knew he has “A WORLD” to lead. He offered himself for the redemption of my sin and your sin. That also is leadership in practice. Leadership has no pupilage, it is probably in-built or in born. With some finesse mixed with craftiness of purpose one could acquire it and build up self to succeed. When on board you can do things your own way and get accepted because you know what you want and how to go about it. A leader cannot be clueless.
One is not saying there may be no opposition from some quarters on one’s belief. But when you know what you want to achieve, you just go on. Dekarke and Goberchev were in this group. These Iron men of South Africa Russia actually brought peace to troubled world. Goberchev being on stage then actually brought the wind of change then known as cold war to an end. The Gulf war would not have ended the way it did had it been fought ten years earlier. It was this leadership in Russia that made it so. While Deklarke ended racial segregation in South Africa.
What it is I have been trying to say all these while? I want to quote extensively from a post sent to me recently believed to have been written by Ambassador Ignatins Olisemeka, a distinguished Nigerian of honour now in retirement at Ibuso, Delta State. He says:“It is not just the question of the number of kilometers of roads you build that elevates a nation. It is not a matter of the megawatts of neither power you generate nor the number of buildings you erect for the populace. Not even the refineries you build or the volume of agricultural products produced and exported. These are important. Any leader surrounded by brilliant experts, excellent technocrats and loyal advisers can achieve those basic and essential needs. Leadership calls for much greater attributes than the performance of those feats. A leader must have a strong, solid, moral and disciplined background, the inspirational ability to galvanize his people to higher, lofty and common purpose”. These are not ordinary attributes available to every man. They are uncommon gifts and talents dispensed and bestowed only to a few. This makes the difference between one man and the other; one woman and the other like Thatcher and May Britain; the difference is there. It is not often we have a Gandhi or a Mandela; an Ataturk, or a Winston Churchill, a Charles de Gaulle, or a Konrad Adenauer, who became one of the most respected Chancellors of Federal Republic of Germany at the ripe age of 81 or the often quoted Obama. Nearer home, with all their imperfections, considering that a prophet is without honour in his own country, we must reckon with Azikwe, the Sardauna, Awolowo, Aminu Kano and J. S. Tarka, the real and genuine founding fathers of our nation.
President Joyce Banda (Former President of the Republic of Malawi) at a lecture on the 5th memorial lecture in honour of Late Dr. Segun Agagu (Former Governor of Ondo State) noted recently that, “leadership is falling in love with the people you lead, and the people you lead, falling in love with the leader. When there is a missing link, it means leadership-failure.The leaders charts the course, while he makes his team follow the tracks deligently with his “two-back-eyes”! He believes no one in the team should miss the road charted.
I rest my case on leadership here.
Andrew Aroloye (a media communicator) writes from andreproductions Lagos.