LEADERSHIP ON THE FRONT BURNER (1)

It’s not easy to have five former heads of state sit together at one forum; have them sit patiently through about four hours of speeches, and thereafter, with their best smiles in place still, pose for photographs. No, not in these climes, unless you are Kenechukwu Nnamani. No, not unless you are that freshman legislator, who became Senate President after only two years in the upper chamber of Nigeria’s National Assembly, and presided with dignity and integrity, over the death of one the most devious, most devilish enslavement tools dressed in legislative garb, anyone ever conceived. They called it the constitutional amendment bill of 2006, but you and I remember it as the third term project.

Yes, the public presentation of the Ken Nnamani Centre for Leadership and Development proved one thing that’s most heart-warming. It confirms what I have always known; that Nigeria is a nation in search of true heroes, and that Nigerians will rally round them wherever and whenever they manifest. That explains why Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Second Republic President; war-time leader, General Yakubu Gowon; military president, General Ibrahim Babangida; his successor, Abubakar Abdulsalam and erstwhile Ghanaian Head of State, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings led the cheer at that Tuesday May 6, 2008 event. That explains the overall quality of the audience.

And so, the International Conference Centre venue of the Official Launching of the Centre and fund raising for its N3.5 billion Resource Centre Facility turned out to be a coronation ground of sorts for this politician of a different hue, an endorsement of the man and his vision.

The vision! Sitting in the audience with Rev Gabriel Ifeanyichukwu Irokwe, a member of the organising committee of “The Great Company Luncheon”, an event we are working on, I couldn’t but wonder about the vision. Couched in the pay-off line, “creating transformative leadership, improving lives”, the vision is simply saying we have identified the dearth of leadership materials in our land and we are set to do something about it. And I found myself wondering: what have we been thinking all these while! Why did it take this long before we realized the need to deliberately groom leaders…outside of the military, that is?

For a while, I lapsed into a reverie. In my mind’s eye, I could see one of those dinner settings in the late eighties or thereabout, where the likes of Dr Mike Omolayole, the management expert and top corporate player, used to regale select audiences with thought-provoking after-dinner speeches. I could virtually hear him render an anecdote that went somewhat like this: Representatives of several nation-states bordering Nigeria were said to have led a delegation to God to discuss a matter of urgent regional importance. Face-to-face with the Creator, they were said to have complained about the inequity of the distribution of natural, mineral and human resources in the region. You have given Nigeria much more than all of us put together, they were reported to have complained. "A huge population, vast arable land, variety of agricultural produces, access to the ocean and now even oil and gas" they protested. "But look at us; puny by comparison. Why, God, why?" As the story goes, the Creator was said to have looked at the delegates, a glint of amusement in his eyes and said: “yes, you are right; I gave them all of that; but have noticed the kind of leaders I gave them?!” I could see the audience burst into laughter, as they live out the words of the title of that satire by Peter Pan, “you gotta laugh to cry.”

Nudged back to the present by Pastor Gab who wanted me to join him as he acknowledged a smiling and waving General Gowon, as he came in to chair the day’s event, I wondered: if the leadership challenge had always been there, why had it not been addressed until now?

Finding solace in the saying, ’it’s better late than never’, I settled down to enjoy the privilege of being there to witness history in the making, and to benefit from a variety of insights I anticipated was going to be available. I was not disappointed. From the opening prayers to the very last word, there was something to glean, something to ponder. Venerable Okagbue, who led the Christian prayer, for instance, prayed God to "deliver our nation from cynicism and distractions". Make what you will of that. A former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Na’aba, who led the Moslem prayer, didn’t need any decoding. He acknowledged Dr Nnamani as the man God used to "save Nigerians from slavery".

Intellectual sparks soon began to fly. The host set the tone with a roundly applauded welcome address during which he gave the rationale for the establishment of the Centre of his vision as “leaders make the difference.” He recalled his experience as president of the senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 2005 to 2007, during the period which he described as memorable and daunting, he said he “longed for organised support and structured resources to help me cope with the burdens of leadership of the legislative branch of business, I did not find much institutional support outside the senate….” This experience, he said convinced him of the “extreme urgency and importance of a vibrant centre for leadership.”

Nnamani went on to defend the thesis contained in his one-sentence raison d’etre of his effort, namely that “leaders make the difference.” His words: “…How does leadership make a difference? What matters most, the leaders or the followers? What makes the real difference in human history: the great man of history, congenial moment or environment? There are so many questions on leadership begging for answers. But it is incontrovertible that leadership makes the difference whether in the public or private sector. The quality of leadership sets countries and institutions apart. Some of the countries that model innovation and prosperity in the modern world are young nations founded and nurtured by great leaders.” He went on to cite the examples of Sir Seretse Khama in Botswana, Lee Kuan Yew in the tiny city-state of Singapore, and Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in next door Ghana.

He drew from the experiences of the so-called Asian Tigers and Dragons; examined variables other than leadership identified by some as contributory to the prosperity of those nations but was unshaken in his stand. Buttressing his position with references to the works of a number of scholars, he concluded with finality: “Without great and persuasive leaders, the citizens of these prosperous countries would not have accepted those bitter pills that go with economic reforms. Without good leadership, good policies may not avail much. We need great leaders to lead positive changes.”

Three others had speaking roles at the event: General (Dr) Yakubu Gowon, chairman; Mr Howard Jeter, a former United States Ambassador to Nigeria who considers Nigeria as his home, Guest Speaker, and Flight Lieutenant J.J. Rawlings who delivered the Keynote Address. And all agreed almost completely with the “leadership matters” thesis; all except Rawlings who had a thing or two to say about the role of followers in the shaping of leadership. I shall return to this later.

General Gowon, in his Chairman’s Remarks lent his weight to the thesis. He attributed “the growing discontent by our citizens at the harrowing state of affairs in almost all the countries on the continent” to the fact that “…our leaders continue to engage themselves in endless, yet futile battles for supremacy in greed and destruction.” In his opinion ”at the heart of Africa’s problem lies the key issue of leadership and governance. The leadership question, particularly the lack of committed and selfless political leaders on the African continent, is largely responsible for ther slow pace of development and growth.”

General Gowon, conceded that 30 years of military dictatorship “did not deliver the much needed development and transformation of our continent”, but lamented that “vestiges of our authoritarian past still loom large on the continent. While Africa embraced democracy as a form of government, it is sad that African leaders have been les than democratic in their commitment to their citizens…Our citizens often have become hostages to a class of sit-tight, crafty/foxy pseudo-democrats with proclivity for looting, greed, corruption and maladministration."

He admitted that sustainable, all round growth and development requires the right atmosphere, one “devoid of tension and acrimony”. But he was quick to point out that only the right leadership can bring about this atmosphere. Such leadership, according to him, has to be “God-fearing, honest, visionary, transparent, accountable to the people…” (Continues next week)

FOR THE REAL MAN, REVELATION IS IT

When Deacon Gamaliel Onosode told me, minutes after he arrived at the Ikeja GRA venue of this meeting, “I am always teaching”, I should have taken the hint. I didn’t. So, I failed to prepare myself for what was about to happen. He had arrived two minutes before the scheduled time of noon and met the organisers still scampering around to put things in place. He sat patiently and prayerfully for what must have seemed like an eternity, for the programme to begin and took his place behind the podium. Then he began to teach…

Date was Saturday, April 26 and the meeting was The Real Men Luncheon of Christian Men’s Network Nigeria, which styles itself as “a ministry to men by men proclaiming the eternal truth that ‘manhood and Christlikeness are synonymous.’” It was the third in a quarterly series that had featured two other great Nigerians, Elder Felix Ohiwerei and Dr Christopher Kolade. Onosode had been requested to speak on the theme, “The Real Man.”

And so Onosode took the podium and began to teach. Not that I am a stranger to teachers and teachings. Far from it! The late founder of Christian Men’s Network, Dr Edwin Louis Cole used to describe himself as “teacher of men in how to be men,” and my senior pastor, Dr Chris Tunde Joda, who is also president of CMN Nigeria is, nothing, if not, a great teacher of the word of faith. But somehow, this corporate icon, this highly cultivated man took us all aback by the teaching loaded, first, in his preliminary observations and then in his presentation.

He began, innocuously enough, by thanking “one of the men who spoke earlier.” He was a gentleman, he noted, who remembered to apologise that the programme was starting late. Then he delivered what you might call the coup de grace in these words: Decent as it is to apologise for starting late, it is better never to start late. Time is a non-renewable resource. Real men must respect the movement of the sun.” He suggested that the organisers might consider stating the time of future events in terms like ’12 noon for 12:30pm’ to indicate that gates will open at noon, but the event won’t start until thirty minutes later.

Lesson Number One over, Onosode went on to address aspects of his biography mentioned by the secretary of the Ikeja chapter of CMN Nigeria, Dennis Onwuegbu who, in inviting him to the high table, recalled that he was one-time Presidential Adviser on Budget and a former presidential candidate.

He placed on record that he served as President Shehu Shagari’s adviser for only 75 days. This was during the president’s second term which began in October, but was terminated in December 1983, by the military in a coup d’tat.

On his attempt to run for office as President under the auspices of the All Peoples Party (APP) which later became All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), he recalled that his involvement in party politics at the time was received in three ways. There were those like Dennis who, by his own admission, shouted ‘hallelujah, a Daniel has come to justice.’ A second group saw him as ‘a fallen angel’ for daring to go into the dirty arena of politics. There was also the ‘wait and see’ group. So there were three groups: the hallelujah group; the fallen angel group and the agnostic group. Without delivering a judgement on which group was right, he declared his conviction that politics has an over-arcing influence on other areas of life wondering if it should be abandoned for the so-called dirty ones. He however recalled a number of incidents soon after that attempt failed at the party level. First, he attended a Christian gathering at which he had elected to seat somewhere in the audience.. But he was soon recognised, first relocated somewhere upfront and later relocated again and asked to lead one of the prayers. So much for ‘a fallen angel’ who had ‘tasted the forbidden fruit of politics,’ you’ll say. He also recalled that a prominent Church leader also soon publicly declared that he was in error in discouraging Christians from participating in politics.

Space constrains me from continuing on the many nuggets contained in even the preliminary observations of this man of God, so let’s go into the main message itself.

Onosode, who said he preached his first sermon in Ogbomosho, Oyo state, Nigeria in 1953 and had been a deacon for 42 years took his first bible text from chapter three of the book of Daniel (verses 12-30). He recalled how the three Hebrew boys, Meshack, Shadrack and Abednego took a firm stand against the evil of idolatory, even at the risk of burning in the burning fiery furnace of King Nebuchadnezzar.

He drew particular attention to verses 15-18 which reads in the King James Version like this: “Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

Onosode noted that the position taken by these young Hebrews was that there were no conditions under which they would bow to anyone but God. In other words, there was no compromise. This was the same courage and non-compromise Apostles Peter and John demonstrated early in their ministry. They had performed the miracle of healing the lame man at Gate Beautiful. For their success, they got a night behind bars and a trial before a council of Jewish elders. But their judges found it expedient to free them and perhaps as a compromise, delivered a kind of ‘go and sin no more’ verdict. The apostles thought differently and said so.

The bible passage quoted by Deacon Onosode (Acts 4:18-20), records it like this: “And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

He also recalled the courage of Daniel, the compatriot, friend and peer of the three Hebrew boys, who had to keep the company of lions for a night, because he wouldn’t fail to worship his God even for one day, nor worship Him in secret to please anyone
(See Daniel 6:10-28).

Onosode listed a number of other qualities the real man must possess. He must live a life of love. He must, like Paul, “take pleasure” in weakness because, “what you may be tempted to see as weakness gives God the opportunity to manifest his strength.” The real man must not allow threats of suffering or hardship to bend him because as Peter said, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps (1 Peter 2:21). Therefore, the real man will not succumb to the threats to his pocket or his health.

Ye are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, he reminded his listeners quoting from Matthew 5: 13-14. and admonished : when the light becomes a mere mirror there is a problem. God wants us to be special wherever we are. We should do nothing to make us less. We must at all times live up to our status as light and salt. Therefore, the commandment in Exodus 23:2 that “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil…” must be taken to heart. So is the injunction to “fret not…” repeated again and again in Psalm 37.

Possibly the climax of Deacon Onosode’s ministration came during the interactive session. In answer to a question about how to resist corruption, he said the truth of Scripture that ”When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him (Proverbs 16:7) plays out every time he came face-to-face with the enemy. He cited many personal experiences, how God gave him the words to speak and the opponent is disarmed. My conclusion here is this: whatever else he has, the real man needs revelation too.