AkintokunboA Adejumo
akinadejum@aol.com
Proverbs. 3:27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it
is in your power to act.
Iam neither a psychologist nor an anthropologist, but my over sixty years
ofliving with my people, studying them and researching them have led me to
manyconclusions about them. Of course, I may be wrong in my assumptions
andhypotheses, since they are not backed by scientific facts and data,
butnevertheless, these are my conclusions, based on objective observations
andanalyses. They are by no means cast instone nor do I claim to have a
monopoly of knowledge or righteousness.
Ata rudimentary level, leaders need power. They need the power to
influence, todevelop, and to enable and impact people, the society and the
environment. Theseare fundamental to making things happen, and therefore
to the ability to do thejob of a leader. However, this isn’t the same as
having authority and rank.Indeed, some of the most powerful leadership can
arise when these things aredeliberately surrendered. The leader’s power
should always be a means to anend, with the ‘end’ being the achievement of
worthwhile outcomes for thegreater good in and of the larger society. In
politics and in a democracy, theleader’s power always come from the people
who voted him/her in. He/she must beaccountable and responsible to the
people.
Ingovernment, the term authority is often used interchangeably with
power.However, their meanings differ: while power is defined as “the
ability to influencesomebody to do something that he/she would not have
done”,authority refers to a claim of legitimacy, the justification and
right toexercise that power (Wikipedia)
Theproblem is that in Africa, we have, intentionally or unwittingly,
confusedpower with authority, and those who wield power do not know the
reason theyhave the power, and what they should do with it. In a way, I
have some pity forthem, for they do not know what they do or are doing
(paraphrasing Our LordJesus Christ). Our rulers and so-called leaders
therefore misuse, abuse andmisinterpret both power and authority, because
of their ignorance of what thesemean and represent. It is the story of our
lives as Africans and Nigerians. Itis a cultural problem.
Iconsider myself to be a respectful African, Nigerian and Yoruba; always
respectmy elders, as our culture and ethics demand. I also love my
culture, and I amproud of it. I engage and prosper in my African-ness and
its culturalattachments.
Butwe have too much respect for, and defer too much to, our elders, but a
lot ofthose elders have become degenerate and decadent and do not
reciprocate. Respectgoes both ways, as I have come to learn. Our elders
think they are the wisest,smartest, have monopoly of knowledge, and they
are the only ones that can runanything. And unfortunately, we let them
think so, let them run things, andthereby let them ruin things, including
our lives, our environment, and ourvery survival as a people. We never
challenge them or resist them. Hence, theyare always there riding
roughshod over us, never letting go, and reminding usat any sign of
insubordination, that that they are older, and hence wiser, thanus. That’s
number One.
Numbertwo is that Africans love and worship power so much that we never
want to leaveit, or feel insecure to leave it. To voluntarily relinquish
power is anathemato our culture, I suppose, and this is exemplified in our
politics andgovernment. The bulk of Dictators who have stay very long as
Presidents is inAfrica. (Please don’t think I am saying other cultures do
not; they do, butwhat they do with it, we can all see). We enjoy it; we
use it to perpetrate allkinds of evil on our fellow Africans, and use
power to acquire wealth,position, status, etc. We use it for personal
aggrandisement, personalacquisition of wealth and property, or to benefit
our immediate family andcircle of friends only. Who’d want to leave that?
We prefer and want to die inpower because we are afraid of being forgotten
despite the fact we never leaveany legacy. It’s a cultural thing.
Thirdly,Africans will do anything to acquire or get to power; a power that
he/shedoesn’t even understand. He/she will kill for it, but will not die
for it. Thenwhen he/she gets the power, he/she doesn’t know what to do
with it, exceptoppress his fellow Africans; except abuse power and
authority; except stealmoney; etc. They forget easily their previous
humble background and thementality is that “I have suffered enough; it is
now my turn to enjoy”. Theyturn their back on their childhood friends,
family and the society. They buildprison walls around themselves and
become pompous, selfish, greedier, andinsensitive.
Fourth,the African in power thinks he’s a god; a mini-god. Some even think
they areimmortal and untouchable by death and the vagaries of earthly
existence. Theynever think that death can come anytime, despite their
ill-gotten wealth andtheir sins against humanity and their people, and
that somehow, they must payfor their crimes and Nemesis must catch up with
them. Give an African a uniform(soldier, police, civil defence, customs,
immigration, prisons, traffic warden,Man o’War, and even Boys Scout), and
he becomes a scourge of his people,strutting on the street with his/her
starched uniform, and when you givehim/her a gun in addition, then he/she
becomes the giver of life or death – he/she becomes obstinate and
tyrannical,oppresses them, and uses his/her position to acquire wealth and
properties andother luxuries of life with the macabre belief that he/she
is now immune frompoverty, diseases, mortality and the sufferings of the
world. Our daily livesand society are replete with examples.
Finally,it is very rare that Africans use their wealth and power, as well
as knowledge,education, skills, etc. for the benefit and welfare of the
general society,instead we use all these to ensure our fellow people do
not rise to be at thesame level with us or above us, and therefore despite
many rich Africans in andout of the continent, you will find very few
philanthropists of Africandescent. In fact, the educated African is very
dangerous to the health andwelfare of his fellow, less educated Africans.
Education, especially Western,is used to subjugate the people; to dupe
them, to fool them and to steal fromthem. For Islamic education, it is the
same, and has created feudalism in manyparts of Africa; only the Islamic
scholars can interpret the Koran and theyknow how to use it to blindfold
their followers.
Theyouths talking today will become elders tomorrow, and see how/what they
willturn out to be. We are already seeing them reverting to type. It is a
culturalthing; a cultural malaise. You need examples? Again, the society
and the polity are replete with them.
Theintent of leadership holding certain power, coupled with authority, is
todeliver worthwhile outcomes for the greater good, and in the pursuit of
avision of a better tomorrow. The application of power should be
supportive tothat intent. It isn’t about winning, or scoring points, or
pulling rank, orgaining personal benefit. As with all aspects of
contemporary leadership, it’snot about you (the leader), but about
everybody else, from customers, tocolleagues, to followers, to the public
and to the society.
Aleader’s power should always be used for good. And that is not what we
arehaving in many parts of the African continent. The good is not always
being theaim of our leaders.
Theburden lies in the people and the society also, attributable to our
culture andtraditional ways of doing things, of revering anybody that
rears their head asa leader or ruler; probably poverty of materials and
the mind, and maybe a doseof the effect of colonialism and the slave
trade, and added ignorance,illiteracy and primordiality.
Tellingthe Truth always!!!
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
MSc, Dip Mngt, CIHM, MCMI, FITP, MIH
Food Safety & Hygiene Trainer and Consultant
www.affinitylibra.com.ng
http://babaatoks.blogspot.co.
https://babatoks56.wordpress.
www.championsfornigeria.com
“The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.”- Prof. Wole
Soyinka