By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
I won’t hesitate to write it, today, for the umpteenth time that the only thing that is now preventing the All People’s Congress (APC) from showing majority of Sierra Leoneans that it will, definitely, form the next government after the 2028 General Elections is the issue of leadership. As soon as the APC fixes this issue; 2028 will become a fait accompli.
But the problem with the APC at present, as I see it, is the inability of some of its leaders to lead from the front. Some of those who are now aspiring to lead the party lack character; some lack convictions; some do not even have personal values, and some lack any sense of political purpose. Yet, these so-called leaders expect sober-minded party faithful to open their hands and accept them as their saviours.
This is where I agree with Raymond Albert Kroc, an American businessman, that: “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” Indeed. One cannot set the bar high for others while he lowers it for himself. Charity, they say, must begin in one’s backyard. It will be morally wrong for an alcoholic father to reprimand his sons for drinking alcohol or a prostitute mother scolding her daughters for being promiscuous. Good leaders are expected to lead by example—and from the front!
But it is only in the APC that I now see so-called leaders churning out political concepts without having the guts to go on national television and radio to give further details about those concepts. Any leader who sounds a battle cry and chickens out when the battle is about to be fought by his supporters is not fit for purpose. If a leader believes in what he truly believes in; s/he must be ready to suffer for it, go to jail for it, and even die for such a belief. But it will be hypocritical for a leader to sit in the coziness of his home, in front of a computer with a bottle of whiskey or brandy by his side, and churns out bland tweets—urging his supporters to believe in a concept which he himself has sabotaged in camera!
And world history is replete with instances in which leaders have led by example. Between 10 January 1908 and 9 November 1913, Mahatma Gandhi was arrested and jailed in South Africa six times for his belief. And between 16 April 1917 and 9 August 1942, he was arrested and jailed seven times in India—again for believing in what he believed in. He didn’t sit at home and urge his supporters to take actions on his behalf; he was always in the thick of things on the streets in South Africa and later India!
Martin Luther King Jr., the American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, went to jail 29 times many a time for acts of civil disobedience—a concept he truly believed in and acted upon. He was always ready to be arrested and go to jail for his belief. And he also led from the front, or was amongst the crowds, when organizing marches—one of which was the “March on Washington” on 28 August 1963 where he delivered one of his most memorable speeches: “I Have a Dream”!
In Ghana, “After ‘Positive Action’ was launched by Kwame Nkrumah….[He] was arrested on 21 January 1950, convicted and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. On appeal, the High Court reaffirmed the judgments of the magistrate’s court….” Like most Ghanaian anti-establishment leaders before him; he was neither afraid of going to jail nor of death in pursuit of his political beliefs!
In the famous (or infamous, depending on who is writing) Rivonia Trial, Nelson Mandela’s speech from the dock was an embodiment of a leader who truly believed in what he believed in. He ended that unforgettable speech with the words: “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
But in the APC, we have leaders who love the creature comforts in their homes so much so that it has become unthinkable for them to be invited at CID headquarters let alone spend a day at the Pademba Road Correctional Centre in pursuit of what they profess to believe in. They are so timid that they have never raised a finger in protest against the alleged countless inhumane treatments meted out on APC Comrades by the Bio-led administration. They have never raised their voices against injustice and the maladministration which the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) is now known for. And the APC now has leaders who have allegedly sold-out to the SLPP and are now cunningly doing the bidding of the SLPP government.
Yet, these are some of the leaders who want the APC grassroot-ters to believe that they have their interests at heart when in actual fact they are only loyal to themselves. As Josh Axe, the leadership expert and physician, notes: “You can only lead someone as far as you are willing to go yourself”. But if a leader is unwilling to pursue his own ideals or concept beyond the gates of his home; how then does he want his followers to cross the Moa River for him when he cannot cross the puddle in front of his house?
It seems to me that it has passed the stage for any would-be APC 2028 flagbearer to think that the carrot method will work on the SLPP. What the APC needs now is a leader who is ready to pick up the stick to break the SLPP’s head (figuratively) in 2028. A leader who is ready to police the SLPP street by street, district by district, and man to man. The APC doesn’t need a leader who relies on others to fight his own battle!
It is on that note that I will end today’s One Dropian dropping by quoting Warren Bennis, an American scholar and organizational consultant, who says: “Leadership is the capacity to translate a vision into reality.” So, a leader who sits in the comfort of his home and allows reality to eclipse his vision could easily pass for a clown!
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