HOW TO PRODUCE GOOD LEADERS IN OGBAHU TO GUARANTEE A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF NDI OGBAHU.

Daalunu, ndibeanyi, I salute your courage and resilience ochiagha ogbahu, our able coordinator. 

All protocols observed,  nke onye chili ya zelu.

We are here today to look at how we can produce good leaders that can guarantee a bright future for the next generation of ndi ogbahu.

In this paper will be looking at 

1. What is leadership

2. Who is a leader

3. What are the qualities of a good leader?

4. How can we produce good leaders for the next generation?

One of the experts on leadership in the person of John C Maxwell said that everything rises and falls on leadership. Leadership is the act of organizing, managing and instructing people around us, whether it is official or unofficial, so that there will be peace, order and prosperity for all.

Leadership is found on every facet of life. From the home front to the village level, from the town union to the local government level, from the state level to the national and international level. We should also understand that leadership is the reason for the stability of the private businesses in the world. The results we are seeing today in the various institutions that influences the lives of men and women today is hinged on leadership. The decadence and the chaos we are witnessing in this nation today is as a result of bad leadership.

Therefore leadership is one of the most important aspect of our society. The day we get our leadership right, then we are ready to enjoy our lives. 

Who then is leader?

A leader is that man or woman, that boy or girl who is ready to take responsibility and is ready to serve his or her people with the singleness of heart. 

True leaders should be clothed in humility in order that they may realize that true leadership is truly service to men and sacrifice of time, resources and even comfort. Though they may be as wise as a sage, he or she should be  humble and thus yield to others. This Will help the intelligent folks to offer their counsel, the brave to serve  with all their strength. 

No leader therefore knows it all. He needs the right followers to succeed and make necessary changes.

A lot of leaders are waisting away because some don't know that they are one, some others cannot fit into the leadership life style because they are not trained to do so. This brings us to the point that we must understand the qualities of a leader so that some people that are leaders by calling can see themselves In a mirror and some others can also see where to focus in their quest of becoming a leader.

Like I mentioned earlier on, that leadership is encompassing, which makes it a critical issue in building the society. So as I outline the qualities of a leader, I am doing it to cover all areas that has to with leadership in our lives, which includes the parents in our home front, the community leaders, the captains of industries, the spiritual leaders and political leaders.

The qualities of a leader can be seen from the works of some philosophers and political thinkers in defending and opposing the social contract theory. People like Thomas Hobbes, John Lock, Jeane Jacques Rousseau, Niccolo Machiavelli etc.

The main lesson of the social contract theories is that morality and political society came into existence together and they are inseparable from each other. Thus morality is inseparable from politics and leadership.

In the state of nature the lives of men were solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. This was what brought about the theory of social contract.

Professor Joseph Omoregbe observed that Thomas Hobbes in his work Leviathan told us that in the state of nature, when there was neither politics nor morality, men lived in a state of chaos, conflict, strife, war against all and insecurity. There was no politics, no law, no morality, no sense of justice or injustice, good or evil. Might is right. The only preoccupation of men was how to satisfy their appetites, and the only means of doing so was by brute force... Men now realized that they could not continue indefinitely to live in this state of affairs and they decided to come together and form a political society on the basis of a social contract. They agreed on themselves to voluntarily renounce their right to do whatever they could, restrict their freedom and empower a sovereign to enforce morality, law and order.

Unfortunately, the reverse is the case today in our nation. We have drifted back to that same state of nature because some of our political leaders choose to implement the interpretation of the fifteen century Italian political thinker, Niccolo Machiavelli. In his book the prince, he made every effort to separate morality and politics which is the act of organizing, managing and taking decisions on behalf of the people.

Professor Omoregbe observed that Nicvolo Machiavelli tried to seperate morality from politics and advised rulers to ignore morality if they want to be successful politicians or rulers. He said that the essential thing in politics is to grab power by all means fair or foul, and having been able to grab it must use the same means to retain it. In doing this the ruler should simply ignore morality and use immoral means provided that the ruler succeeds in the end. Thus the idea of Niccolo Machiavelli is that grabbing political power is the ultimate goal, once it is achieved, any means used is justified. He went ahead to propose that the ruler seeking for political power should be shrewd, prudent, practical and Swift. He could be violent and brutal but must be shrewd in achieving his aim. 

This is exactly what the political leaders in our nation are practising today. They have chosen to play politics the Machiavellian way, separating morality from politics and leadership. We are made to believe that once a person starts playing politics he must ignore morality. Hence we often hear people say that "politics is a dirty game" this simply means that politics involves using immoral means to rule the people. It is therefore not not surprising that most politicians both civilians and military have used such immoral means as murder, assassination, arson, fraudulence rigging, tribalism and nepotism to gain political powers and to retain it.

This is what we in ogbahu professional forum will be eager to change. We will make sure that we educate the younger generation by letting them know that morality and leadership is inseparable, that removing morality from leadership simply means drifting to autocratic system of leadership which will never help our society because leadership presupposes morality, honesty fairness, equity, open mindedness, peace and prosperity of the people.

For the leadership in the home front, it is the kindergarten class for leadership in our society. The children grows up observing what their parents are doing and believes that it the right things to do. Hence people become good or bad when they get to the position of authority based on the moral values that was inculcated into them by their parents in the home front.

For the community leaders and the captain's of industries, they are been controlled by the laws that is made by the political class. As long as you are  under the laws of this nation, they can never do more than they are allowed to do. The truth is that the government is playing politics with the exclusive, concurrent and residual lists. This will never allow them to perform, except some with good morals that can feel what many people are going through. Go check the Nigeria Constitution, you will be amazed what the government has allowed to be in the exclusive list. Things that are suppose to be for the state and the local government, they deliberately put it in the exclusive list. This does not mean that the leaders at the state and local governments level should not do what is right within their own power to make the people comfortable.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us now focus on the essence of this paper, which is how can we produce good leaders for the next generation in ogbahu.

One of the first thing we should do is that we should watch our own characters, what we do and how we do them is so important because this younger generation we are talking about are watching us. Have you thought of why the this younger generation have decided to listen to mazi Nnamdi KANU (Ohamadike). The answer is simple, they have watched our political leaders and have observed what they are doing, this is part of what lead to their choice of believing in Nnamdi.

Secondly, we must encourage healthy competitions that will be rewarded with trophies, medals and cash. This will boast the morals of others to become good leaders.

Quarterly conference and symposium that will enlighten the minds of this younger generation will be encouraged. This will help to decolonize their minds and reprogram their thinking pattern. Making sure that they understand that leadership is not about stealing government funds and living luxurious lifestyle but that leadership is about service to humanity.

To buttress what i mean, i remembered I was invited to a wedding ceremony by someone that the mother is from my home town Atani,  On getting to the reception venue, the brother came to me and pleaded with me to become the chairman of the day, he explained that the man that is suppose to the  chairman of the occasion could not make, So I agreed. But I told him that I might do some things differently. He agreed  with me.

When the reception started, I was introduced as the chairman of the occasion. The first thing I did was to announce to everyone that we will leave the reception hall in less than one hour thirty minutes. Everybody was happy, the second thing was to consult all the members of the high table to let them know that for the fact that they are here on the high table with me means that they are respected and honored, which implies that they have a level of comfort and food will not be a problem to them, in case if the food did not get to them, Everyone agreed.

I then called the caterer to reserve a cooler of rice with meat for some people. She asked me  "who are these people" I asked her to look at the entrance of the reception hall that she will see some people with black nylon bags waiting to park left over foods. I said to her that there is no need for them to be given left over food when we can relinquish our own portions of foods so that they have a proper meal.

This was how those people outside was served and everybody was happy. After the reception everybody on the high table was congratulating me and shaking my hands.

The last on the list of suggestions on how to produce good leaders is for us to make sure that we encourage the community leadership structure that we have, through the age grade system. By picking out their leaders and find a way of interacting with them. The various committee we have on ground can work on these recommendations and raise the terms of reference for their training and interactions. 

Ladies and gentlemen, we will not relent on our efforts to see new leaders emerge in ogbahu. Thank you all, for your time and patience in going through this paper, God bless you all.

Just making an uncommon leadership sense.