By Milton Babajide Macaulay
Most
people have the wrong perception of what service and leadership are. You would
hear a so-called “leader” say to his dissatisfied followers,” Stop treating me
like your servant. I am your leader!” and this has caused an unimaginable gap between
stewardship and leadership. Many see both words as two separate entities where
the former indicates” slavery” and the latter indicates “headship”. Everybody
wants to be the head, part of the ruling class, sitting at the top of the food
chain and ordering subordinates to run helter skelter in order to carry out a
task, which ordinarily should have been carried out by the leader himself.
The
moral decadence and character degradation happening all around the world should
not surprise or frighten us, for it is natural for such
corrupt/reprobate/perverse occurrences to take place in societies where there
is no living example or role-model for leadership and service. This is why
those of us who are still sane character-wise, must continue to preach the linkage
that exists between stewardship and leadership. Even our dear politicians have
a wrong mindset, for they vie for public offices with the intention to
lead/rule/govern, but never with the responsibility to serve, whereas, the
objectives of a true leader can only be achieved through service.
Under
normal circumstances, people should naturally be reluctant to take up
leadership roles if they deeply understand
the sacrificial service attached to it, but opposite is the case in our
world today, where lazy set of beings consider themselves fit for public
offices and end up growing fatter and more robust than they were before they
took up the office. Wolfgang Von Goethe said,” Leadership is action and not
position” Therefore, leadership entails movement, dynamism, activity, running
around, making enquiries, allocating duties only when necessary, apportioning
blames only to himself for he is responsible for the actions of his followers,
and solving problems proactively.
The
truth is continents around the world, most especially Africa, are yet to have
worthy examples that are capable of being called true leaders! The only example
worthy of note is the Late South African anti-apatheid leader and first native
president, Nelson R. Mandela. No wonder today, South Africa has the best
economy in the Africa which made her the only African country to earn a seat in
the current G-20. Also, according to the 2013 world universities ranking, South
Africa has the best African university – the University of Cape Town (which
ranks 145th in the world). How many Nelson Mandelas do we still have
in Africa? None or a negligible few? Exactly, your guess is as good as mine! This
is why the continent is still the poorest so far, for the current sets of
African leaders have no problem-solving potential, and of course, lack stewardship
attributes which makes a leader complete!
Even the bible espouses this view by
saying,” He who will lead you must first serve you, and he who will be your
head must first be the least” The servant-leadership style of managing people
and resources solves a lot of problems before they occur, such as: anarchy, resistance/rebellion, youth
restiveness, national insecurity,
recurring industrial actions, unimproved standard of living, over bloated
labour market, nepotism and undue ethnic/religious sentiments, overdependence
on one source of revenue, lack of workable national development programs,
dignitaries becoming more powerful than the law, destabilized economy,
incessant importation of locally produced materials, full exploitation without
conservation in view, dilapidating infrastructures, poor maintenance habit,
fire brigade approach to crucial matters, dehumanizing treatments from expatriate
firms to indigent workers, and a host of others.
A
leader, who is service-driven and does not mind taking a trip to the bottom of
the food chain in search of what the masses need, in order to change the
standard of living of the downtrodden, will become a transformational leader
capable of creating a monumental change to be celebrated by generations yet
unborn. Only if our dedicated youths (who are the next leaders in embryo) can
understand this principle deeply, will the future of the continent be well
secured.
AFRICAN
YOUTHS COME ALIVE TO THE RESCUE OF AFRICA!!!
