IT IS A LEADERSHIP ISSUE

IT IS A LEADERSHIP ISSUE

The state of affairs in one’s environment may oftentimes be frustrating. It could be the state of the road network, the security in the area, the poorly performing economy, road driving gone nasty and reckless, badly prepared food in the school or even anarchy in the nation.  We all have faced some disappointing situations in our lives and at the back of our minds, we have known that this situation could have been averted or something better could have been produced or done.

A lot of theories have been raised regarding why these things happen in one’s environment and not in another’s.  Sometimes they happen in one’s nation and not in another. Theories related to unemployment, colonialism, imperialism, slave trade, mis-education, lack of education, poverty et-cetera have been postulated to explain these scenarios.

To be fair, there have also been good things happening – be it winning a trophy for a prized competition, excelling in an examination, winning over a loved one, making a discovery, reaching the peak of a mountain, finding well maintained road networks, a working telephone system, good internet access when you need it the most, well groomed fields, a well managed farm, a company that is running and succeeding over and above its expected outcomes, etc.

The same question as to why these  good things happen is often raised – good genes, belonging to the right tribe or nationality, having access to money and resources, careful planning and execution, living in a nation that  is gifted by nature, favouritism, nepotism, corruption, name it.  

While all these reasons may have a part to play in whether things are going right or wrong, there is always a limitation to these arguments; For example, corruption does exist in varying degrees all over the world and therefore it cannot be solely to blame for whether things go right or wrong; the assumption that one might belong to a better social group or ethnicity might have a part it plays in the way one might succeed, but not all those in a hitherto well perceived social class succeed – for example, women in the United Kingdom only got to earn degrees as late as May 1869.  

In one of the richest nations of the world – Saudi Arabia- women were only allowed to drive on the 26^th of September 2017!  The Civil Rights Act of USA which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin was only passed in 1964.  Before it, and indeed after it, there was continued “unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools, employment and public accommodations.”[1]  So, much as America (USA) is famed as the land of opportunity and the fulfilments of dreams, it is still on the journey to “Uhuru.”[2]  

There is no dispute that slave trade must have been a horrendous experience, but why have some nations started making leaps and bounds in development and reconciliation, while others have not? Imperialism and colonialism were terrible, but why do the mainly African francophone states (that were formerly colonies of France) continue to use the West African CFA franc and Central African CFA franc as ‘pegged to the Euro’[3] and guaranteed by the French treasury?[4] still using the  states continue to I can reiterate meant of these scenarios that explain the gap in the different excuses with regards to why things happen.

While I must reiterate that all these theories might not be totally wrong, I have grown to believe, that the bottom line is leadership. Like John Maxwell says, everything rises and falls on leadership. We shall discuss this further in my subsequent blogs.

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[1] See Civil Rights Act of 1964 available at Wikipedia.org

[2] Swahili for total independence

[3] See Francophone Africa’s CFA franc is under fire, 27^th January 2018

[4] See Lamine Konkobo., ‘ African protests over the CFA ‘colonial currency’BBC Africa