WHEN LEADERSHIP BECOMES A FAG

In the different leadership series I have written so far, I have always taken time to stress the significance of having a great leader and most especially, I highlighted their high points. Thus, in this writing I will be highlighting some of their nadir of frustration and those times when leadership fails to make any sense to both the leader and his followers. Below are such cases.

WHEN HIS TEAM FAILS

People are quick to accuse the leader of a team every time his team has a crack or when results produced are garbage whether or not he (the leader) is the cause. At times like this, critics will jump at the leader calling him all sorts of names; mocking and ridiculing him at the slightest opportunity. During these times, who likes to bag the blames? Who likes to be called the leader? No, not one! Though Hip Hop star Akon realizing the unjust criticism he was attracting after an ill-fated incident did a song titled ‘Sorry, blame it on me’, I still believe it wasn’t his earnest desire because even Jamie Foxx another popular Hip Hop doyen requested you rather ‘blame it on the alcohol’. Come to think of it, Arsene Wenger has never been pardoned for Arsenal’s loss, Goodluck Jonathan has never been distanced from Nigeria’s misfortunes and Muammar Gaddafi has never being ignored for Libya’s problems so you see, leaders are scapegoats for team failure.

POWER WITHOUT HONORS

September 21st was internationally recognized as Peace One Day. As a matter of fact, my friend and colleague Sara Palacio-Vanegas so moved at the spate of killings globally opted to share the link of Peace One Day on her page using Social Media. Her post reads “September 21st is the Internationally Recognized Peace One Day. Peace One Day is calling for and working towards a day of ceasefire and non-violence observed by all sectors of society globally, from governments to the individual. Support the Global Truce 2012 now and help us see the largest reduction in global violence in recorded history”. Ofcourse I still remember it was for this same cause that AIESEC (www.aiesec.org) - the largest youth run organization in the world was founded and so, I have been committed to this cause working with AIESEC in the last 4years.

After reading through her wall, I had to connect with Peace One Day and take a good look at their cause since I already knew that of AIESEC while also imagining a world void of violence; it would be terrific. Having said that, let me point out here that this piece is neither about Peace One Day & AIESEC nor my colleague’s emotions rather, it is directed towards the way people flex their muscles in their baseless quest for superiority. Using Lagos – Nigeria’s commercial capital as a reference, it’s is absolutely impossible for you to go around with your daily activities without coming across people either fighting or raining abuses on each other with the option of fighting for no just cause.

NIGERIA – MY NIGERIA

Nigeria, a blessed country located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. A country whose name originates from the River Niger which runs through it, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the most populous country in the world in which the majority of the population is black.

Over the years a lot of things have been said about this Pride of Africa some of which are constructive while a lot of others, just baseless. For instance in time past, Nigeria use to have so many teething problems in her election processes and militancy pressure in her Niger Delta region however all these has been duly tackled and grinded to a halt. Thus, the recently concluded national election emerged as the freest and fairest in the history of the country and the militancy pressure had since been successfully put to rest. Presently, the on-going over flocked terrorism attack by the Boko Haram group in the north is gradually phasing out and peace is being restored to distressed zones thereby reaffirming the mandate of the federal government to curb all vices. Fascinatingly, despite the challenges that were on then, Nigeria never seized to host visitors who constantly came in from far and near to explore great opportunities all over the country because they understood the Nigerian spirit which guarantees continual development.

A PROFESSION CALLED BEGGING

A constant struggle for survival, severe hardship everywhere, poor infrastructures, limited good health care facilities, crashed educational sector, stark unemployment, chronic poverty enabled, evenly distributed accursed political leaders nationwide, epileptic power supply, gross insecurity activated, zero self-esteem highlighted and the list of farce goes on and on. What the heck is wrong with our government? Who the heck is responsible for fixing this shit? What the heck do they do with the money looted from our national treasury? These and many more have been the questions born out of our national quandary with no one available to provide the answer or better-still lead the way.

Unfortunately, that isn't what I intend to address in this piece though I know its day is going to come soon where I will have to dissect and lambast the government while questioning their sickle-cell style of leadership. But while we wait for that day, let me introduce you to the latest business which is making headway in Nigeria especially in her commercial capital Lagos; it's called Begging.

MINDSET OF A LEADER

While listening to a medical doctor friend talk at the Chinua Achebe Arts Theatre in Calabar recently, this subject popped up in my mind and so I decided to give it a follow up. I took my time to go through the lives of different leaders and tried to check for similarities in their ways of reasoning and decision making. After a thorough research, I came out with these findings:

LEADERS ARE POSITIVE THINKERS

Often I wonder how leaders always succeed in convincing their team members to dare even when obstacles are crystal clear. They would go ahead encouraging, motivating and challenging them (team members) to make the obvious (failure) become a mirage. So many times, I am tempted to believe that their motivations are just empty statements used to give failure nice clothing but it doesn't ever seem so because, the supposed failure always ends up as a success. Think of Thomas Edison who was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked him if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up now on his quest to invent the electric light bulb. Perplexed, Edison replied, “Young man, why should I feel like a failure? And why should I ever give up? I now know definitely over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.” And shortly after that and over 10,000 attempts, Thomas Edison finally invented the electric light bulb. Amazing!

WHEN LEADERSHIP IS CASE SENSITIVE

Almost everyone who has ever existed on the surface of this earth has had a reason to complain about bad leadership at one point or the other of their lives and that has prompted me to write this article. An age long adage goes thus ‘he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches’ and believe me this has become a lasting truth. You would agree with me that just as every spectator makes a very good footballer only from the stands and every audience always puts up a stellar performance only from their seats, so also is every individual a good leader from the crowd.  Take it or leave it, leadership is never an easy task especially when you are considering variations in backgrounds and beliefs of followers.

Unarguably, leadership is a thing of pride. Now, because of the glory, power and fame that goes with leadership positions, so many leaders have taken to hostile life styles and these acts has left their followers asking for a replacement. Among this hostile breed of leaders are those power mongers who would never mind lifetime in power, or people’s heads rolling as ransom for their misdeeds, or those who would even go to war just for a baseless quest for superiority. I often tell my audience whenever I deliver talks that these leaders adopt these pushy attitudes just to hide their inferiority complexes and fears. They all try to fake guts because they have weak biceps!

FAILING FORWARD

The world is full of people with different personality traits and guts which defines its complexity. While some people see failure as a disease to be dreaded, so many others see it as a parameter for measuring success. If truth be told, everyone has failed before though at different levels and with variations in consequences; but failure in its entirety is utterly unavoidable. Realizing this reality, some people use failure as a catalyst for success while others still blindfolded regard it as a barricade to success and as a result, they end up dwelling in their failure while accumulating excuses and seeing everything as being wrong in their lives rather than in their might and mind. Failure is failure and should not be padded to be a cul-de-sac but a passage to success.

History has recorded so many great men who failed a couple of times and yet were able to make it to the zenith of life by dint of hard work. From Abraham Lincoln in politics to Thomas Edison in sciences and even Aliko Dangote in business, failure has always been a constant yet these men prevailed against odds. Failure is not what stops or hinders us in life but our attitude towards it.

Think Categories, Not Brands

While working on my Face Book page some months ago, I can remember posting a comment that generated so many arguable opinions and feedbacks. Now, what was it I posted that my friends and fans were so busy arguing amongst themselves about? It was simple, “It is easier and better to be the first than it is to be better” and later I’ll explain what I meant. So many people were vexed and opposed my assertion while so many others appreciated my out-of-the-box line of thought. Astonishingly, about a week after the post I read a book titled ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing’ by Al Ries & Jack Trout and guess what; we all belonged to the same school of thought.

Believe me it is easier to be the first than it is to be the best because, the former is a pacesetter and his name automatically becomes a generic for that category whereas the latter would have to compete with many others using up a lot of resources in other to be the best, which in many cases they rarely achieve their quest. Surprisingly, findings have shown that despite the regular spending spree of these latter contestants, they still suffer from people unconsciously identifying their products by the formers name. For instance, think of how many times you have gone to buy a detergent and mentioned the name of the first in that category whereas that wasn’t what you probably needed or, think of how many things has happened to you for the first time that you remember but have forgotten the rest occurrences in the same category. The truth is that the mind is a magnet that places priority on ‘the first’ other than ‘the rest’.

TEACHING-LEARNING STANDARDS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR: THE STUDENTS PERSPECTIVE

The growth of any nation no doubt is tied to the quality of its citizenry, many in which case have to be literate so as to be able to position the country in such a way that it can compete favourably in this trendy Boomerang Age of ours, thus the need for a healthy teaching-learning standard. Pai Obanya once said, “Universities worldwide have always striven to belong to a unique ‘universe’, that special space, operational modalities, appropriate facilities, global outreach and collegiate atmosphere that is most conducive for the pursuit of its triple mandate of: Knowledge generation (or research), Knowledge transmission (or teaching) and Knowledge application (or society engagement)” because of their foreseen relevance in nation building.

Interestingly, good standards and structures have become a pivotal paradigm in the discourse of university education. The advent of the Knowledge Economy has brought about ‘global competitiveness’ which has in turn impelled universities to desire being the best amongst equals, since there became an external social and competitive push for people to seek education in the most driven institutions, for a chance in this cut-throat world of ours. Now, the University of Calabar built over three decades ago has no doubt contributed in one way or the other towards meeting this cumbersome feat. Sadly though, she hasn’t gotten any favourable national or international rating. This piece is geared towards diagnosing the hiccups and proffering realistic resolutions to the challenges posed by this new generation on our school, the University of Calabar which will be addressed as Unical all through this write-up.

PAST TURNED INSIDE OUT

Gone are the days when young people applauded the aged ones for making life changing decisions for them and annoying are such times when the youngsters are told they are the leaders of tomorrow by fading leader of eon. Frankly, the youths are the leaders of today and as such should be encouraged to feature in decision making forums. Yes, the strength of any nation lies in its human resources many in which most often the youths constitute the majority; unfortunately for long, this fact has been treated with Kid Gloves. The youths have been trampled upon, neglected, forsaken and  bitter as they get, they see it as a game at which two can play thereby taking to different vices with the most recent being kidnappings and bomb blasting which we have never been known for; a consequence of sheer disdain.

For how long should we continue reprimanding or censuring them? Is that going to ever be the way out or is this a cul-de-sac? Why are these youths suddenly on the offensive? Who broke the edge? All these questions and many more keep repeating themselves in our minds and symposiums yet we haven’t gotten any forthright response. Sadly, it is thorny but also candid to say all this ensue because there is a dearth in youth leaders. Consequently, this dearth has caused so many lives to be ruined beyond reformation and is about to set so many others on the path of shambles which is an instance of res ipsa loquitur from our leaders. God forbids. If we have to appraise our relevance as a nation based on the quality of a couple of our past leaders, then we might have to bow our heads in shame but that is a different kettle of fish and I would not want to treat that here.

THE TRANSFORMATIO

When I was a child I thought like one
I played randomly like a car without a horn
Messing up my cloths daily with oil
Yet shining the next morning like foil

After a long time in the field
Mumsi would come calling me to feed
I would try to negotiate with her for free
Claiming though I hadn't eaten yet I was filled

But when I became an adult
I saw everything wrong as my fault
From absence of food to money
and even to lack of respect, it was never funny

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM FOOTBALL

Today, we will be taking some lessons from the leadership styles of three famous and influential coaches who have been able to carve a niche for themselves in the game of football. But before I proceed any further, I have to be quick to mention here that this is neither a write-up analyzing teams nor another publication patronizing the game rather, all we want to do here is learn their leadership lessons and forget the details.

Now the coaches, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Sir, Alex Ferguson are going to be our models for this lesson.

First, Arsene Wenger, he is the most successful manager in the history of Arsenal in terms of trophies and is also the club's longest-serving manager. In 2004, he became the only manager in FA Premier League history to go through the entire season undefeated. He is unarguably a great leader and this fact is evident in the number of leaders he has built who later became assets to the game. Over the years, he has successfully made profits for his team by trading his high profile players with a steady confidence of building a replacement and guess what, he always does.

CORPERS ON THE MOVE AGAIN

Youth service is a compulsory service of every fresh graduate. No doubt, the motives behind the creation of this scheme have logical balance and so should be encouraged however, times have changed and so should the policies in the NYSC compendium regarding this scheme.

On 5^thJuly, 2011 another bulk of about 95,000 fresh graduates were mobilized by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and sent to their various places of primary assignment without stepping back to review the scheme and the effects the last national post-election had on the scheme. Indeed, prior to this time the scheme had been suffering from teething problems however, the high death rate recorded during the last election goes a long way to underline and re-emphasize the need for a reformation or abolition of the said scheme.

In Bauchi for instance, corpers were killed as an expressions of dissatisfaction with the results released by INEC under the supervision of Prof. Attahiru Jega. I can still remember very well a dumb statement made by the Gov. of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda when asked about his efforts in securing his youthful visitors against the post election attack, he replied “…they were destined to die that way and nobody can run away from destiny”. The question everywhere then was, whose destiny is it to die a painful death, not to even talk of a painful death after graduating from the university? Sincerely, Mr. Isa Yuguda’s comments really made me see him as a ‘jack ass’ and went on to show us that he was still a ‘weak link’ just as he was some years back when he left PDP for ANPP to run for governorship election and got elected based on sympathy due to the way he was treated by the PDP while he was Minister of Aviation under the then President Olusegun Obasanjo second coming as a civilian leader only for him to decamp again to PDP due to his romance with Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua ‘s daughter after getting into office under the platform of ANPP; a typical example of a dog going back to its excreta and an ingrate telling people that you don’t give what belongs to gods to swans.

Building Your CV (Competence+Values)

How do you make yourself competitive? That is the question.
Recruitment agencies have repeatedly stressed the need for every employee to build himself in order to meet up with the high demand for expertise from employers. They even go all the way to accentuate the fact that your Curriculum Vitae is your true identity in the professional world where employers have to go through over a thousand job applications in most cases just to hire only one person who they believe is the best.
In one of my posts titled ‘Get Competitive with AIESEC Nigeria SWAP’ which can be read on http://www.aiesecnigeria.org/, I mentioned that the definition of ‘the best’ has been redefined in this cutthroat world of ours and truly it has.

So, the question I usually pose to my colleagues whenever we pore over this scenario is: What major ingredients do employers or HR experts look out for in a prospective employee? Unfortunately, the answer has constantly varied from one colleague to another. Astonishingly, one predominant component every employer I have ever met with subscribes to is the fact that, what interests them most about an employee is a strong blend of the employee’s competences with outstanding values and I agree with them.
True. More government leaders have failed due to poor values than poor policies and more business leaders have sabotaged their careers from lack of values than lack of cash flow.