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| Erich Honecker. |
Leadership greatness
is not an easy road to travel. It’s a path paved with pains, afflictions,
tribulations, persecutions and untold trials. This is not to make anyone
despair who aspire to leadership greatness, but to warn and prepare them ahead
of time. Nobody is going to be spared the examinations of what it takes to
achieve leadership greatness. Your charisma is not going to cut you any slack,
but your character will make you stand out. Your eloquence will not give you a
free pass, but your precise erudition in speaking from the integrity of your
heart will not let you down. Your beauty is great, but it is unreliable. Get all
the education you can master. It is needed.
When it comes to your
promotion on the path of leadership greatness, it’s not another man that
orchestrates the game, but your Maker.
Leadership greatness
is not only desirable, but is sorely needed. Though tough to achieve, it is not
impossible.
When
the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth
rule, the people mourn. (see Proverbs 29:2)
Still if we hope to
master leadership greatness, we must put away our reluctance to unravel what
actually transpired in Garden of Eden, incidence that remains shrouded in
mystery so far. But we cannot continue to shy away even if it means having to
destroy many false concepts that many hold concerning the story of Adam.
Before we go any further, let me quickly say
Jesus Christ is the one who modelled for entire humanity what it takes to
achieve leadership greatness, though I’m not here to propagate any religion.
Whether you call yourself a Christian, Muslim, Taoist, Jewish, Africanist Traditionalist
or whatever means nothing to me. My passion in attempting to draw your
attention comes from my deep-seated conviction that if you could grasp the
principles in this post, you are just the man or woman your community, firm,
society or nation is eagerly waiting for to provide leadership greatness.
At a certain time in
ancient Israel, the elders hankered after a king that would judge, lead and
fight their battles. Prophet Samuel, displeased, however prayed unto God for
direction. God replied: “They have rejected me that I should not reign over
them. So hearken to their voice and make them a king. Yet protest solemnly unto
them, showing them what manner of the king that shall reign over them.” The earthly king appointed to replace God
would oppress, afflict, enslave, disenfranchise and impoverish them. The earthly king would allocate to himself a
disproportionate part of the wealth and riches of the land. Having an undue sense of entitlement, his
appetite to lustfully acquire things for his self-aggrandizement would be
insatiable. And the people would keep misery for a company because of the earthly king they had chosen. They would
cry out for help eventually, but the Lord God would refuse to hear them.
If
they had cancer tearing through their guts, God would turn a deaf ear to their
anguished prayer; if they become anxious and hypertensive, tormented by
unrelenting BP, God would turn a neglectful ear to their cry; if they are
overthrown by asthma and death hovered like an easy escape route from their
breathlessness, their tearful prayers would hit a stone-wall...
They would be
abandoned to the fate they had adopted. Samuel’s narrative that sounded like a
tale of gloom and doom made absolutely no dent in their resolve to get an earthly king. (see 1 Samuel 8:5-22)
Now wait for this:
The inexorable purpose of government is for the Maker Himself – rather than an earthly king, emperor, president or
governor – to exercise authority directly over His own people. Isaiah 9:6 says:
“ Unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. This
is the path to leadership greatness. You can pretend to be ignorant that it is
not so; that unfortunately will not make you to escape the repercussion of your
ignorance. One thing is sure. If your concept of leadership greatness is
nebulous or ignorant, you will be victimized, unable to understand what is
going on around you.
Before the fall of
Communist East Germany on November 9, 1989, Erich Honecker had exhorted the
people for many years to live painfully in austerity and poverty, making
sacrifices to usher in an ever-elusive communist paradise. But when he was
deposed, he was discovered to be a very wealthy man who owned 32 homes, living
large and lavishly. Another personality that was trapped in the revulsion of
hypocrisy was Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu. He was an oppressive dictator who
killed thousands of his subjects that dared to oppose his decrees. By the time
he was summarily executed along with his wife on Christmas Day 1989, he was
also found to be a man of obscene wealth. While his people languished in
poverty and lack, he had built for himself a palace more magnificent than the
one in Versailles, France whose splendour staggered the imagination.
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| Nicolae Ceausescu |
In Nigeria, President
Muhammadu Buhari who campaigned to be elected on the mantra of change, meant to
curb waste, and fast-track national development, still managed to retain 10
aircrafts in the presidential private fleet, instead of selling them off. The
padded, stolen, missing, resurfaced, repackaged
2016 budget reeked of bloated corruption. The amount allocated to
maintain the presidential clinic in Aso Villa is greater than what is given to
all the national hospitals in the entire country. The government is paranoid
and divisive. They failed promises without remorse. Nepotism is flaunting
itself openly without restraint and shame in high circles. Without argument,
Nigeria’s deficit is leadership greatness.
Now let’s crack the
whip a little tighter. It is interesting that before Adam could be perfected, prepared
for leadership greatness, he was scheduled to perish in the Garden of Eden. Yet
he was also warned that he would die should he eat the forbidden tree. Of
course, with that warning, the fear of death was already introduced in Eden.
But if Adam would not misbehave or malfunction with authority vested on him, he
had to perish and put away the earthly component that he carried. Why? The
earth, to Adam, represents darkness, cluelessness, shame, weakness, delays and
disappointments of the seasons and times, premature death. The earthly
component of Adam could only go into extinction or paralysis if the man,
despite temptation, held on tenaciously to the sacrosanct command of God, without asking questions. Isaiah 53:7 says: “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” (To Be Continued.)
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