Leadership potential has become a vital component that equips emerging leaders with the critical analytical thinking tools to lead to the highest level.
Every profession or vocation needs people with such potentials.They are not just high performers.They are also heroes.This is because their actions and decisions define the moment.In politics,such politicians define politics and its direction and give hope in a clime where politicians are driven more by self-interest than anything else.
But, politics can be used for good or evil.
It all depends on what a politician wants to do with the power at his disposal.While some view politics as a platform to render service,many see it as means to perpetuate themselves in power.This has become commonplace in our country.As a result,sometimes there is a bait to rush to conclusion whether there are some forces that some Nigerian politicians cannot resist,no matter how bad such action might be.
The thoughts of leaving office is some can’t contemplate.For some governors they will feel like fish out of water. As 2015 approaches,the time has come to weigh some governors on a scale and how they measure up in leadership credentials.
So far,two men,former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi and the governor of Cross River State,Liyel Imoke have given much to cheer about.Long before he left office in March this year,Obi made it clear that after eight years in office,he has no plans for future elective office. He remains commitment to that promise.He has also rejected all entreaties to change party from the one that brought him to office.
As many governors elected on the same party platform,the Peoples Democractic Party (PDP) have indicated their intentions to run for the senate after their tenures expire next year,Gov Imoke is not one of those afflicted by this disease.Speaking recently at a public lecture organised by Destiny Group to mark his 53rd birthday in Calabar,Imoke gave us an insight into why some government are reluctant to leave office.
According to him,only leaders who feel insecure and looking for where to hide after leaving office would think of the next elective office while they are still in their current position.His words,”As the end of my term as governor countinues to count, I look forward to it with joy and satisfaction”. He said a lot of people keep asking him,” Oga, are you not going to contest for an election when you leave as governor?”I tell them that I will leave office with so much peace and satisfaction that I will not contemplate running for another office”.
This is a down-to-earth,from the heart comment that brings so much sunshine to our troubled politics where such ambition of some sitting governors is ruffling so much feathers in Akwa Ibom,Benue, Enugu and Ebonyi States, to mention but a few States.
As Imoke rightly said,such vaulty ambition will not allow the emergence of new generation of leaders in Nigeria.Again,to quote Imoke,”I strongly believe that as leaders, if there’s one thing we must do as a matter of deliberate policy,it is to build a new generation of leaders”.His worry, which is also our worry,is that “if we keep moving from or running in one office,to the other without creating opportunities for the younger generation,then society will never evolve and there will be no purposeful leadership”.That’s how other nations were able to build generational leaders and sustain their democracies.
Why then is ours different?We have deceitful leaders,men with no calling for politics,only selfish interest.Such men run aground in the position they find themselves,always afraid to leave office,forgetting that there will always be life after politics.To Imoke,Obi and others of like-minds but not yet courageous to take such decision,history will be kind to you.
By Dan Onwuke
