In the volume 1 of his book, “The Prayer of the Frog”, Anthony de Mello tells a story of a couple of hunters that chartered a plane to fly them into forest territory. “Two weeks later the pilot came to take them back. He took a look at the animals they had shot and said, “This plane wont take more than one wild buffalo. You will have to leave the other behind”. But last year the pilot let us take two in a plane this size” the hunters protested. The pilot was doubtful, but finally he said, “Well, if you did it last year I guess we can do it again”. So the plane took off with the three men and two buffaloes. But it couldnt gain height and crashed into a neighboring hill. The men climbed out and looked around. One hunter said to the other, “Where do you think we are?” The other inspected the surroundings and said, I think we are about two miles to the left of where we crashed last year”. The above is the true reflection of what will happen to us the second time if we fail to make the right choice of who should govern us in 2015 n Imo state. We may crash the same way we crashed in 2011 if the right person with good profile is not considered and favoured by our votes. The present day society is in need of a leader who has the capacity to face the challenges hitherto confronting us. Such leaders are born and not made. Hand-made leaders usually end up becoming slaves to materialism and do not know how to make use of human resources. But those who are born leaders are great souls who are saddled with responsibilities bestowed on them by nature to do good without being reminded. The above is attested to by Theodore Roosevelt thus, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they carry it out.” Yes, a good leader has two important characteristics, one is that he is on a serious voyaged to an important destination; two is the fact that he has the dexterity to persuade other people (followers) to go with him. As he does this, he takes little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit. Having done several courses on leadership principles, I have come to the profound knowledge that a leader must see the vision, state the mission and set the tone. When he (the leader) catches the vision, states the mission and set the tone, he ends up getting others to want to do something he is convinced should be done. In Imo state for instance, what we have today is a boss and not a leader. Yes, Gov. Rochas Okorocha is a boss and not a leader, the disparity between the both is more than the eyes can see. Leaders need to cultivate two things, a righteous heart and a rhinoceros skin. With the righteous heart, he/she leads with love and deep passion as well as the fear of God. Righteous heart makes a leader abhors deceitful smile and makes him accept criticism which in turn enables him to make amend where necessary. Righteous heart makes a leader to opt for character. In the words of General Norman, “Leadership consists of character and strategy; if you can’t have both, opt for character.” Today in Imo state, our governor Chief Rochas Okorocha lacks both character and strategy which informs why things are going the way they are presently. I do know that a man of character and strategy must not be a boss but a leader. On the other hand, rhinoceros skin in leadership however, enables the leader to face every difficulty and surmount them with tough skin like that of rhinoceros. Still on the issue of a leader and a boss, I wish to state here that what we have now in Imo state is a boss and not a leader. The boss according to H. Gordon Selfridge “Drives his men, the leader coaches them, the boss depends on authority, the leader on goodwill. The boss says ‘I’, the leader says ‘we’. The boss fixes the blame for the break down; the leader fixes the break down. The boss knows how it is done, the leader shows how. The boss says ‘go’, the leader says ‘let’s go’!” In the true philosophy of leadership, no one will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it. This is where Gov. Rochas Okorocha becomes the boss. A good leader keeps records and plans to move forward. Today in Imo state and in the forth coming election, we have a good number of bosses that are lined up in the guber race, all posing to be leaders. Are they all leaders? My answer is simple, no, they are not. Following the above, I shall endeavour to be objective hence at this juncture with the hancky pancky game being played by the PDP in nominating a true leader portends great danger for the party and in my views and submission,I think Captian Emmanuel Iheanacho of APGA seems more humane enough,more matured and more respectable and finally more of a captian to lead us all Imolites to the promised land that will be conducive enough to create economic and social freedom for the people party affiliation not withstanding. On this note I submit for your reactions. Eze Ikenga
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 16:31:04 +0000
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