The currencies of life and the leadership question

• Published date: 22 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

In one of his New Year sermons, Pastor Adeniyi Ajayi of the Gospel Promotion Outreach, Ori Oke Baba Abiye, Ede in Osun State numerated 'The Currencies of Life' as 'time, money, knowledge and relationship.' According to the cleric, while 'time is money and should not be wasted, wisdom entails the correct application of knowledge.' Also, while 'time and knowledge bring money, time and money yield knowledge. On the whole, 'money and knowledge create and, ultimately, save time.'

'Relationship can get something for a man without having to spend a dime! The evil ones can waste one's time; thus wasting one's life.' Taken together, 'whatever happens to one's time happens to one's life.' Therefore, knowing how to 'organize one's time as well as manage one's money is important in a race of life.'

Without being immodest, I also share Pastor Ajayi's views! Take for instance, when the people talk about leadership in Nigeria, they sometimes forget that 'the wrong we see are symptoms of a deeper root cause of an ailment' and that it is not just the leadership but also the prototype of our leadership that is fraught with flaws. And when a prototype is designed to fail, shifting the responsibility of that failure to the leadership can be likened to abandoning the object for the shadow. Again, it is as if we are no longer taking cognizance of the fact that this 'mere geographical expression' is a peculiar country, inhabited by peculiar people and that it is from the pool of this population that we draw the willing and available individuals who eventually rule the mass of the people. Without doubt, ours is a country which looks like a ship in a vast ocean without a rudder. And, as we are aware, a rudderless ship is bound to surrender its destiny to the dictate of the waves.

'Idalu n'iselu, bi a ti n se nile yii, eewo ibomiran ni' (The constitution for administering any place must be indigenous to its cultural foundation). If we have agreed that 'whosoever desires the office of a Bishop … must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach …', then, whosoever wants to be, say, a governor in Nigeria must not be a criminal, must be kind to all without exception, and must not be self-centred or nepotistic. Once these requirements are there, we ought not to be complaining about leadership in Nigeria. After all, no leader comes to power without knowing what he or she signed for!

Remember the British system of government...