Between the people and leadership - Enjoy this Awesome Report

Between the people and leadership

IN the past few days, I have been involved in a running debate with some of my Warri brothers in the Alder’s league forum; very lovely, exciting and intellectually stimulating group. The debate has been on leadership: should the initiative come from our leaders or the people? Let me rephrase the question: who takes responsibility for the outcome of governance, the people or our leaders in government? Some have postulated that a society gets the type of leadership that it deserves. If the leadership is autocratic or dictatorial, it is what the people deserve and if it is a real democracy, it is the people’s wish. Therefore, people should stop apportioning blames to those in government. This position appears utopian to some of us, but in real life situations, in developed countries in the United Kingdom, the European Union and other places like Singapore, it is a reality; you do not take the people’s wish for granted. This is so because everything that can impugn the integrity of the selection process has been properly taken care of by established institutions; and this has weathered the storm over decades and centuries. There are differences and divisions naturally, as you will expect from any society, but you will never hear that the head of state has taken certain decisions because he belongs to certain religious or ethnic group. In fact, under such situations, every interest group must have been figured out and summed up into the whole; so you will find little cause for agitations. We must also not forget the fact that this level of people-induced leadership did not just emerge, it was built over decades and centuries, and in most cases with bloodshed. From traditional authorities to religious authorities, then to dictatorships of the strong over the weak, and then the rebellion of the people. So, the establishment of people leadership did not take place without a fight; in most cases, there were rebellions like that by Martin Luther; there were revolutions, as in the case of the Soviet Union. People have fought, people have died and people have made sacrifices in the quest  for a people’s democracy that we see today in Europe and other advanced countries.

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Tyranny of God

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