Also, if this column has added some towering and rare value to you, your business and leadership, I request that you tell at least a friend about this column. Let them also join this growing community of leaders who know their onions. My burning vision is to cover the whole of Africa with the sterling leadership principles I do churn out every week. You and I can get this done. So today, tell someone about this column. Will you do that for me? I do know that I do have your back. I cannot thank you enough for this. Now let us move to the business for today.
In recent times, I have been teaching some profound truths on the subject of leadership as it affects every sphere of life. This week, I am touching on another aspect of leadership that is going help you. Over the years, I have observed that in Africa, leaders have access to what their followers do not have access to. Some years ago, my friend and I went to make use of a library for a research in a country in Africa. He showed me an extremely large facility that a leader, who leads a band of poor folks, had. This is very common on this continent.
In Africa, leaders are living very far away from poverty while those who they claim to be leading are neck deep in poverty. African leaders, especially Nigerian leaders, are living very far away from power-outage while their followers daily walk side by side with the ugly lady of darkness. It is worthy of note that there is a community in Ogun State that has not had electric power supply in the last five years. And our leaders do not care, because it doesn’t touch either them or their family members.
Let me move away from the scourge of power outage and touch on the issue of insecurity. In my beautiful country, Nigeria, a leader can have access to 20 police men while the citizens are moving about their daily businesses in fear. Citizens are daily being kidnapped because the leaders are heavily protected while the followers are praying unto God to protect them. This is what the African man falls back on each time the government of his country fails him. The African man ignorantly prays on to God for good roads, good hospitals, good drinking water, stable electric power supply, etc. The African man ignorantly prays for what sane governments provide for their people.
This is where I am going today. The greatest leader who has ever walked the dusty streets of this world, Jesus, displayed a very rare leadership class and eminence that you and I will need to walk out in shoe leather. When they came to arrest him after he was betrayed by one of his core circle of followers, he told those who came to pick him that they should not touch his followers. They wanted to take him and his followers, but he said no. This is what great leaders do. It is a boo-boo and slip-up in leadership for followers to be in captivity while the leaders are walking freely.
Let me take the issue I am writing on today a little further: great leaders stick with the vision they have for their followers, even when it is not convenient for them. A few years ago, the leadership of Russia did not go on holiday during a Christmas break, because they were trying to provide a durable and long-term solution to the economy that was biting hard on their citizens. This is what first world country leaders do. They suffer for their followers to enjoy. But third world country leaders, especially our leaders in Nigeria, are living large while the followers are groaning daily under the burden of poverty and privation.
In Nigeria, there are many states that cannot pay their workers, but the truth is, those who are leading those states are living large. It is an “evil under the sun” for leaders to have access to the comfort of life that their followers are dying to touch. The difference between Nigeria and, take for instance America, is leadership. There is leadership in America, but there is none here. Are there people occupying leadership positions here? Yes. But occupying a leadership position and being a leader are not one and the same. For the umpteenth time, Nigeria is not going to make any meaningful progress and advancement until true leaders begin to emerge.
Jesus, the most accurate model of leadership, said and I quote: “let these ones go their way…” Why did he say that? He said that because it was his vision not to lose any of his followers. What is your vision for your followers? Do you have any vision for them or you are just using them to realize your own self-centric vision? There are many leaders that people are ignorantly following, who do not have any vision for them. They are just being used. And when they are done with them, they would throw them away.
As I coast home today, it is important I let you know that it is a disaster for you to follow a leader—who does not have a vision for you. If you do, you will be in ‘chains’ while he walks freely. You will be poor while he is rich. True visionary leaders transform the lives of their followers. Have you been devotedly following a leader for many years and his or her life keeps changing while your own life has remained the same? If yes, you are probably following the wrong man or woman. True leadership protects and transforms!
Lastly, visionary leaders are very scarce today in Africa. Most of our political and religious leaders are using the citizenry to advance their selfish dreams. Remember, Africa will not change for the better until those in leadership begin to put their lives on the line for their followers.
See you where great leaders are found!
and then