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There are keys to leadership.
There are factors, qualities, attributes and indices that make true leaders and true leadership. Without them, what we have are title holders, without them, calling anyone a leader is a mockery of leadership.
Every Afrikan leader need these attributes for effective leadership.
As we envision a Unified Afrika rising from last to first, we must develop a large mass of the Afrikan people to become leaders so we shall have a great mass of leaders leading Afrika to destiny.
Leadership is first internal. There are internal qualities that makes u a leader first before you see yourself leading.
These requirements include Compassion, Vision, Courage, Sacrifice, Character, understanding and Wisdom.
Generally, every leader needs the MENTALITY for leadership, the HEART of leadership and the SKILL for leadership.
Vision, courage, wisdom and understanding are parts of the mentality for leadership;
Compassion, Courage, Sacrifice are part of the heart of leadership;
While Wisdom, understanding and Charisma are parts of the skills of leadership.
Now lets go to the first requirements for leadership
1. COMPASSION
The first requirement for Leadership is COMPASSION:
Every genuine leadership starts with the desire to help people, the desire to change lives, the desire to see the suffering of a people come to an end. It is called COMPASSION.
Compassion is a very strong feeling of desire to help a people out, to better their lot, to lift them up; it is the connection of your heart to the sufferings of the people.
We need Afrikans with compassion: who feel sorrowful that more than 600 million Afrikans live without the basic need of electricity,
Who are sad that thousands of Afrikans die daily in deliberate sectional killings,
Who feel angry that corruption is costing Afrika billions of dollars annually,
Who feel sorrowful that more than 400 million Afrikans are malnourished living below poverty line, that the Afrikan people are living mostly under abuses of too powerful and self serving govts.
That desire, that passion to help is the true motivation and first requirement for true leadership
Without compassion anyone in any leadership office is a destroyer and not a builder of the people
but once a nation has a leader/ leaders that loves them it is very likely there redemption hour has arrived.
Anf let the redemption hour of Afrika begin. Let the cruel rulers on the thrones give way to compassionate leaders sent by the Almighty God to make a positive change for Afrika.
2. VISION
After Passion, next is a VISION
Passion beginning of leadership.
Once passion is developed in the heart, the mind begins to work. It begins to create a better picture for the people it fell in love with, pictures of better days, pictures of golden days, pictures of a tomorrow better than today and far better than yesterday.
Those pictures created in the mind are called Visions.
Vision is the height the leader has set to reach;
The dream he has for the people
A picture of how tomorrow will be after all is said and done
The end of the suffering of today.
When the people see problems, vision sees solutions,
When the people see chains vision sees change
Vision sees perfection, redemption, hope, possibilities and progress in the midst of failure, lack and impossibilities.
Vision transforms the ordinary to a Visionary;
From a man with no honor to a Man on a Mission, a man millions would follow.
The vision of Afrikans political and economically liberated moved Marcus Garvey into leadership;
The vision of an independent Afrika is what Zik of Afrika saw and challenged all colonial forces
The Vision of a United and prosperous Afrika moved Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to champion the cause of Afrikan independence and Unity.
Gadafi was moved by the same Vision of the elevation of the Afrikan people by the formation of United states of Afrika and other components of the Continental Unity of Afrika.
Once you have that picture in your mind, move into action.
Get all the knowledge, get all the training, get all the equipment and take the first bold steps into the dark and at the end of the tunnel the light most shine.
3. COURAGE
When the time comes to move into action, you will find out that everything needed will not be there, the resources will not be all available, the knowledge will not all be available, there will be a thousand reasons not to take action, there will be a million reasons to fear, but have Faith, step into the Vision take hold of courage courage is the key to stepping out into the dark, courage is the difference between acting and inaction
Nothing great can be achieved without great faith: it takes great faith, patience, endurance and persistence to achieve great goals.
The Americans fought the British for 7 solid years for the independence the American people have today?
Did u know Dr. Martin Luther King was threatened daily by white supremacists for championing civil rights for blacks in America, and that his house was bombed, he was arrested several times yet he continued until death?
Mandela invested 27 of his youthful years in a tiny cell with very hard labour to end the evil apartheid system in South Afrika.
Vision is costly.
Vision is expensive.
Only those who want it badly get it.
Only those who have the heart to give all it takes can achieve a vision. That is why another requirement for true leadership is the heart of sacrifice.
4. SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE:
The heart of Sacrifice is the heart that will not hold back whatever needed to achieve the dream.
The heart willing to give it all it takes.
Vision requires sacrificing all personal plans;
sacrificing your comfort for the comfort of others;
giving up all you deserve;
Putting yourself last and others first
Putting even your life at risk
Enduring the shame, the criticism and failures
You must go through experiences, trainings, apprenticeships, which are not sweet
you must humble yourself, you pass through shameful experiences, face oppositions, pass through hungry days,
Only the sacrificial heart can endure all these
Only the courageous can have the faith to sacrifice what they have to achieve a dream.
Sacrifice is an act of selflessness, Vision and courage put together; a rare combination that gives a rare result.
We must be sacrificial in the pursuit of the Afrikan Vision and we shall have our dream fulfilled.
5. CHARACTER
Another cornerstone for true leadership is Character.
Leadership is not all about gifts, it takes the unity of character and skills to fulfil vision.
Character is the scarcest factor in Afrikan leadership today.
We have a lot of godless and immoral people in power today, people with no principles, people with no atom of integrity, hypocrites, liars and thieves all over the leadership offices in Afrika and that is a real problem.
We need honest leaders to put the resources of Afrika to work, but we have dishonest rulers who enrich themselves and make the people poor.
We need those who will make sacrifices for the community to progress, but rather we see those willing to sacrifice the whole nation just for personal prosperity
We need leaders to lead us out of colonisation but we have been having rulers selling us back to Europe, to America and now to China.
We need Afrikan leaders with great character;
We need Afrikan leaders with great integrity;
We need Afrikan leaders with discipline, fidelity, honesty, and moral courage.
We need leaders who can stand on their words, deliver the promises they made while campaigning, stay away from public funds, not use power to favour their immediate relatives or tribe alone but to favour all Afrikans under his or her responsibility.
The keys to character in leadership are Love (compassion), Vision, and the heart of sacrifice.
A leader with compassion will sacrifice all he has, to achieve the Vision for the people he loves.
Without love, without vision, what you have is not a leader but a ruler
We have been groaning under the burden of cruel rulership for generations now but times have changed, the positive hour is here.
Next, you need understanding to lead.
6. UNDERSTANDING.
To you who must become a leader:
You must have knowledge about your GOD, yourself, your mission and your people thereby understanding your role and how to play it very well.
Understanding is the interpretation of knowledge;
Understanding is to know how something works:
Understanding is to know what causes a particular occurrence;
Understanding is To know why this happens all the time or sometimes
You must know why Afrika is poor; why the people are not yet free;
Why independence neither made Afrika free nor rich;
Why Afrika is rich while Afrikans are poor.
You must know how colonisation works;
How colonisation begins and how it continues, even after "independence"
How Afrika is still being colonised;
The effects & burdens of colonisation on Afrikans.
U must understand the important details of what you are going into.
You must get understanding.
Understanding is the key to insight.
The key to solving the mystery;
The key to demystifying the challenges of a people or of any problem thereby paving a way to solution of the problem.
Once u have this class of knowledge you have gotten understanding
Understanding a matter comes first before trying to solve it.
To Develop Understanding
First, seek knowledge
Read wide, attend trainings, study hard, be very observant and get all the information you have
Second, sit down to meditate on the knowledge. Meditation increases understanding and allows inspiration
It helps u receive inspirations from GOD and also builds great resolve.
Get Knowledge, get understanding
7. PROBLEM SOLVING
Finally, you need the wisdom to solve problems.
The most important work you are in leadership for is to solve problems.
We must be solution providers we must be builders, we must know how to bring answers to the challenges of the people, that is what leadership is about.
That ability to solve problems is what we call wisdom.
Wisdom is How to solve any problem: how to win a just fight when you are thoroughly outnumbered, how to achieve unity, how to develop your state, how to make electricity work, how to lead Afrikans from Last to first, how to do that which is called the impossible.
There is no challenge no matter how big that Wisdom would say "this is is impossible".
All things are possible when there is KNOWLEDGE OF HOW to do it.
Wisdom comes from God
Wisdom is the right application of understood wisdom
Wisdom is the rarest gem;
More costly to find than silver, gold, diamonds, pearls and emerald.
The wisdom to solve the problems of Afrika can only come from the wisest, most understanding and most knowledgeable one.
It can only come from God.
Wisdom comes through inspiration from God to solve the problems of a people.
Without inspiration no lasting solution
Without the wisdom of God
We cant Lead Afrika back to the top
But we are the chosen generation to Lead Afrika from last to first
Therefore we are highly favoured and endowed with the wisdom above.
In summary
You must have Passion;
You must have a Vision;
You must be Courageous;
You must be sacrificial;
You must be a person of Character; You must have Understanding;
And you must have Wisdom.
To lead Afrikans to the top again.
Eze Chimere Nwauzo
Leader of OAF
Eze Afrika
