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Governance was created out from the word govern, which means; to rule a country, to control or direct the public affair of a city, control, influence something or somebody and to determine something. Governance is the activity or manner of governing.
On the other hand, leadership was also created out from the word leader, which means, someone who shows people or something, the way to follow, especially by going in the front, to hold and guiding someone or a group of people to a particular direction.
Having taking cognizance of the both words, it is obvious that they are pointing at the same thing, and that is direction and leading. This means that, in leadership and governance, the followers look up to the leader, hold him high esteem, trust him because he is the eyes with which they see.
Now, a good leader or governor will not disappoint his followers, he must have the interest of his people at heart, he must be passionate, feel the pains of the poor, hear the cry of the helpless and come for help, create job opportunities for jobless people. A good leader must be able to render selfless service and desist from selfishness, he must make provision for training and empowering his people and encourage self employment, he must be serious with issues that concerns the youths as they are the future leaders and should not look down on the adults.
At all costs, good governance and leadership promotes education, agriculture, ensure stability of power, construct good roads for safe and easy transportation and make the cost of transportation affordable especially for people in rural areas, provide good water, good security system, and make the cost of living affordable for the masses. Ensure peace, unity and maintain transparency.
May I say that most leadership and governance in Africa has disappointed us and betrayed our trust because of what I call the “it doesn’t matter” attitude. This attitude is an attitude of selfishness, power and a drive for money. It doesn’t matter if I sacrifice with human blood, it doesn’t matter if I lobby, and it doesn’t matter if I kill my opposition.
When aspiring for the position, they will make so many promises to the masses, come to their local communities, dine and wine with them, compel them to give maximum support, promise the masses good road, stable flow of water, job creation, free education and all that. But when they become leaders, they will surround themselves with security men, go on cars with tinted glasses blowing siren, forget the masses that gave them support, live their promises unfulfilled, scare people away with security men, send tugs to kill any person who they discover is against their governance.
In this kind of governance and leadership, money laundering and embezzlement is always rampant, no job is creation as promised, no light, no water, no good road and youths are not empowered.
This is when young people run away from their country and go to another country looking for greener pastures, workers don’t get paid when due and some are owed three to six months salaries, if not more. It is also in this kind of governance and leadership that the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer, violence is everywhere, there is always limited or no proper medical facilities and therefore people die as the result of lack of proper medication.
In the history of governance and leadership in Africa, only few people broke the jinx of good governance and leadership. People of great determination, who said: I must make an indelible land mark so that when I cease to live and become immortal, my name shall live and still better people’s life. Here, I am talking about people like Martin Luther King Junior, who broke the bond of segregation between the white and the blacks and made a positive change of unity, equal right and opportunity justice, after many years of struggle, during which he was jailed 20 times. He was ready to die for this positive change.
Here we are today enjoying unity, equal opportunity, right and justice. Worthy of mentioning in the history of good governance and leadership is, the great legend Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who fought with passion for the freedom of his country, and was even jailed for 26years.I cannot forget to mention, the great professor Gerry Rolence of the republic of Ghana- who with wisdom, silenced all other voices in Ghana and brought Ghana to were it is today- and Coffi Anan former secretary of the UN.
What more will I say about Professor Wole Shoyinka, whom I call “an epitome of leadership”. I will not fail to mention one man, a youth who has affected my life positively, the vision bearer, initiator and the director of Young Stars Foundation for Youth Empowerment and Development, to mention but few.
Very important in the qualities of governance and leadership is passion. Passion is the bearing of good governance and leadership, and without it, leadership is baseless because a good leader must see him or herself as a servant, be always close to his or her followers, feel their pains, put himself or herself in the shoes of his followers, give solution to their problems and always guild them well.
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PRINCE C.J. BENJAMIN
Prince C.J. Benjamin is a 25 year old man from Abia state in Nigeria. He is into eradicating poverty and extreme hunger and combating cybercrime. He is the founder of the COALITION FOR ERADICATION OF POVERTY, an NGO.
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Comments
nice one nova | Jul 6th, 2010
thanks for providing info
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