LEADERS AS CATALYST FOR DEVELOPMENT

LEADERS AS CATALYST FOR DEVELOPMENT

*(Modest Thoughts with Ayuba Yilgak'ha, April 26, 2022)*

Development has to do with procedural and structural transformation of a community, state or nation state through the application of human capabilities, especially, in Leadership. It is the quantitative and qualitative increase in the welfare of a state and its people. 

In the 21st Century, the agenda of development as conceptualised and operationalised by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) lay emphasis on issues of rapidity, sustainability, inclusion and equity. In other words, any process of development that does not reflect these key elements is not timely and has deviated or fallen short of a postmodern development agenda.

In order to attain development trajectory that reflects the quartet elements of rapidity, sustainability, inclusiveness and equity, one of the critical conditions is to have leadership structure that is intellectually dynamics, socially progressive and technologically innovative and committed to pragmatic recreation and cultivation of new value systems which guarantee value reorientation and structural transformation. Since leadership has increasingly recognised as rallying point for generic (holistic) transformation, it is important to extensively understand leadership matrix, the length and breadth of what constitutes or makes a functional leader. 

A leader is someone whom responsibility has beckoned on to mobilise, co'ordinate (organise) and lead a people. It is the responsibility of being a moral compass, light bearer, ambassador, confidant and pillar upon which the hope of people derive. Leaders are therefore standard bearers or status symbols upon which a people are measured and defined. 

Leaders are mirrors through which a society is rated. In other words, a people get a leader they deserve. This is because leaders do not emerged from the moon but are samples drawn from a population they belonged. A sample is a representation of the major characteristics of the total population from where it is drawn. So, anything to the contrary is an abnormality.

In an ideal society, every member is expected to exhibit high degree of morality and character that is accepted within the framework of its ethics and laws. Therefore, leaders are expected to demonstrate these cherished codes of conduct so as to inspire and motivate their subjects, the people they lead to follow suit. For leaders to deliver on their mandate, there are certain basic attributes they need to exhibit which include but not limited to influence, integrity, courage, emotional stability, selflessness, contentment, vision, pragmatism, verse knowledge and power of speech, wide contact, etc.

A Leader is required to have the charisma to influence the direction a society should go to achieve greatness. This implies that someone who does not have the stamina to influence the direction a society takes cannot be a good leader but a bad influence on the people.

A leader is surposed to be a person of integrity. Integrity is the status of being consistent all the time. A consistent person is a one-faced person who is a constant in secret and in public. He is that individual that keeps to his promise(s) and could sacrifice his personal comfort to honour his words no matter how expensive. Integrity, is all about saying what you mean and meaning what has been said to such a level that when errors are made in speech, apologies are promptly tendered without any delay.

Courage is another character trait to look for in a leader. Courage is all about developing strong will and power to forge ahead in the face of discouragement and daunting challenges. It is positive mindset that keeps a leader going and never giving up in every giving circumstance, knowing that once he did, the people will be discouraged too and the damage might cause will be unimaginable. It is the capacity to still say 'we can' in the face of difficulties while effort are sustained in pursuit of fresh strategies to overcome outstanding problem facing the system where the leader is in charged. A leader should have the courage to promptly rebuke wrong doings without fear or favour but doing so in firm love.

A leader is someone who is emotionally stable. He is one who does not act on impulse but learned to be calmed even in the face of intense provocation. Leadership is the ability to maintain calmed nerves because anything to the contrary might set the society on fire. A leader could show sympathy and empathy but must not demonstrate that by crying in the public space. The tears of the leader could make people to lose hope in a situation.

A leader must not be selfish but seeks to promote the good of his subjects even at the risk of losing personal gain(s). Seflessness is a recipe for trust building and moral support from the people. A leader who is selfless endears himself to the people and does not need to be ashamed because his people will also sacrifice their personal comfort to encourage and support such leader.

Leaders have to be contented to enable them avoid the temptation of being corrupt. A leader should be grateful for the office he occupies and seek to create values that will make it work for the common good. Contentment is learning to live within one's means with the hope that things could go fine through the appropriation of the innate capacity of the people to labour and make the system prosper for all to benefit from.

Leadership is about the capacity of leaders to develop the capacity to curve a vision of a better tomorrow and encourage the people to work towards it. The people must be kept abraced with the contents and reality of the vision before they key into it. A vision curved for the people must be sharp and realistic. 

A leader must understand the times and learned to make necessary adjustments when circumstances changed in manner that what he does reflect or meet contemporary needs. That is pragmatism. Pragmatism is all about not being dogmatic but flexible in a most positive and beneficial way. It is yielding to what works without necessarily compromising standards.

A leader has to be vast in knowledge and have the ability to communicate in clear terms all that his subjects need to know and must have to make progress. Oratory is a leadership weapon that is necessary to inspire action as at when due. For a leader to be 10 steps ahead of his people, vast knowledge and power of speech is necessary.

A leader is expected to have have wide contacts or the potentials to do so. The presence of a leader in the presence of other publics should attract attention and goodwill for his people. The leader does not have all the answers but knows the resources to mobilise or what responsibility to delegate or outsourced and to the appropriate experts to achieve results. 

Leaders are ambassadors and must rise above local meddlings. They must build capacity to represent their people with distinction so that when the news got home, it will trigger high sense of pride and satisfaction in the subjects.

Geniune leaders are those that could gallantly take the bullet if that sacrifice will bring roses to their subject. Leaders are statesmen whose concerns are transgenerational, that is, striving to solve today's problems without compromising the benefits of future generation. Therefore, a true leader plans for the future by way of putting in place structures that will serve future needs even if he might not be alive to benefit from the fruits of those investments.

From the attributes discussed above, it could be seen clearly that leadership is a catalyst for social stability and development. The interplay of the character traits discussed above make leadership a critical determinants of community progress. How far a nation or state goes, therefore, rest squarely on quality of leadership. This means that leadership recruitment is one exercise that must not be taken for granted. The people must be sure the people they chose to lead them are men with requisite character to lead them or else they stand the risk of rocking the boat without remedy.

The development history of all developed and emerging economies of the world is tight to the leadership index or quotient of those countries. It takes the transgenerational leadership prowess of legends like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, JF Kennedy, etc. to change the fortune of United States of America (USA), it takes a Lee Kuan Yu to revolutionarise Singapore; Deng Xiaoping to transform China, Nelson Mandela made the needed sacrifice to end Apathied in South Africa, etc. Somebody, a legendary leader has to inspire action in people by personal, practical example to turn things around.

These are seasons of electioneering campaigns in Nigeria. Therefore, those aspiring to lead at national, states and local levels of the federal republic should as a matter of necessity cultivate those critical leadership qualities discussed if, at all, they are to effectively and efficiently confront myriad of problems facing the country, especially, complex issues of insecurity, economic downturn, structural imbalances, institutional corruption, ethnic prejudices, gender disparity, etc. Mere wishes have not and cannot help in solving deep seated problems but deliberate effort sustained by the leadership will to change the status quo.

Leadership models abound but any of such models that does not ultimately result in rapid, holistic (inclusive) and sustainable development of the community, state or nation-state is mere academic rhetoric which should be discarded with the wave of a hand. It is practical leadership or leaders whose actions that result in positive change in the physical structures and welfare of the people that matters. No more, no less.