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This piece is the finishing school of when the chips are down, that was served two Mondays ago. In politics Nigeriana, one year can be one month or one decade, depending on one or two variables. If you are leaving office and you find that you have still so much you would want to achieve, one year can be one quarter; in fact, one month. On the other hand, if you are considered a bad leader your people would be frustrated that the year left of your tenure is too forever-ish.
Both ways, there are no permanent winners nor losers. One year is long enough to turn things around enough to earn a standing ovation on the last day. Alas, one year can be so short you throw your hands in the air and make matters worse. What this means, therefore, is that as those with one year to go make their bed so they lie in it.
By the way, there’s some sense tucked in the statement that trails off the opening; at which you need to take a second more critical look. The point is not that you are a bad leader; it is that your people think you so, in spite of and despite all the great stuff you believe you have done. In life, especially in politics and in relationships, perception might kill and bury you before reality shows up with vindication and praise. In life, reality can -in the presence of perception- become medicine after death.
Most good leaders are pooh-poohed as bad leaders -until too late- most times because such leaders ignore or are too arrogant to play what I call the small cards of leadership. One year to the finish line is the most opportune time to pay attention to those seemingly insignificant finer points. For instance, how accessible are you and have you been?
How available and people-centric are you and have you been not only to be seen by the people but also for you to listen to and consult with and hear and carry them along?
How many of the people you say you lead do you know and how many lives have you touched and affected and changed personally, directly and indirectly? How many promises have you fulfilled and those you couldn’t or haven’t yet, have you been humble enough to explain things? What about the kindergarten mistakes -of judgement, of leadership, of reward- which you made and continue to. What do you do the moment you realise you had gone south?
You don’t need to provide anyone other than yourself these answers. They are your answers. They belong to your God and you. But, one year before you eternally lose both the position and the concomitant opportunity, your conscience and you can flip back the pages of your time in office with a view to righting the redeemable wrongs.
Unfortunately, some wrongs cannot be righted. For instance, if you killed, you cannot make alive again. Unfortunately, sadly, regrettably. So, be careful, you who hold public office or soon shall.
Back to winning ways, one year is long enough to restrategise; to restart; to recharge; to reset the clock; to prepare to finish strong. No matter what happened the last three or seven or 11 or 15 or whatever years, this last one is the year to look back; the year to forgive; the year to apologise; the year to make peace and above all, the year to clean up all the cobwebs and drop all the extra baggage. Your final year in public office is not the time to graduate with double honours in proving to your enemies that they have been wrong about you all along. Rather, it is the auspicious moment for you to fall over backwards to see and correct why they didn’t acknowledge your monstrosity and dexterity all those years.
To be sure, there exist those who would never like you, even if you were the alternative source of oxygen. Realise that it is not about them. Do what you should and leave the rest to the final judge. At the end, it won’t be about how they hated you; it shall be about how you loved them.
One year to go: focus on tidying up all unfinished business. Look more at human beings and human relations because without them even your infrastructure excellence is nonsense. Develop more and more people -more and more and more. And, in the name of God or in the name of anything you believe in, don’t be selective; don’t be parochial; don’t be clannish; don’t be nepotic; don’t be selfish.
The stone you think shall be chief may on the day of reckoning be nowhere to be found having been swept away by existential or circumstantial flood. Throw the bread and the seed and the water everywhere. The One who owns the prerogative power to accord increase and reward neither sleeps nor forgets. This highly intelligible or easily decodable parable comes from the Lord.
Furthermore, this remaining year, develop those you ignored hitherto; those you consider(ed) or perceive(d) as enemies. They may end up being your best human investment when entitlement makes friends on whom you focused throughout to turn against you for not having done enough for them. Finally, while you go all out the way a losing team in a football match does during injury time, pray without ceasing that posterity never forgets the good you recorded and hardly remembers your missteps. This is the only way you can live a sweet post-office life.
God bless Nigeria!
Let’s talk about the belittler
When the habit of insulting people comes easily to you, I’m afraid you are only a little mind, a bitter person, envious, dirty, satanic. You reek of hate. Even among lowlifes, your place is at the back.
Facebook and sundry social media platforms are your hideout because, being timid and ashamed of your lacklustre, colourless lifestyle, you can only operate anonymously or indirectly or virtually. Be careful because, if you are young, you may grow up to suffer untold insults all the few years of your life. Of course, this is not a prayer, this is only a reminder-cum-warning.
Stay away from insulting even your juniors or so-called enemies let alone your elders, seniors and leaders. Insulting people adds nothing whatsoever to you. In fact, it minuses all from you; it leaves you empty, bland, blank.
I don’t have friends who insult people, do you? Preach to them today that God wants them to change. About time we became intentional in all of these things.
Belittlers have no place in our society. If we condemn rapists and racists as vociferously as we do, we also must belittlers who are character assassins and psychological rapists. Moving against peddlers of insults is one sure way to begin ridding our world of hate that’s almost choking us!
