By Yusufu Senessie – Expo Intern

Any vocation that seeks to regulate the affairs of men for better ought to be a noble one, but nobility can only come from a noble person. The problem, or progress, of any vocation 100% lies on the shoulder of its leadership.  We the people of Sierra Leone form the ranks of the Nobelist of this nation therefore we must not allow filth to take control and cripple our national estate. This of course is a cooperate social responsibility of every citizen to uphold the tenet of the culture of his/her country, but there are trusted public servants who are charged with certain key responsibilities and are answerable to the electorates. These public servants are the main set of leadership that captures the focus of this article.

Over the past years as a country, we have been grappling with this critical space, just as how many other countries do, as to how we can have the right leadership to fill this vacuum and help our beloved nation to rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. Since the chapter of the civil war ended in Sierra Leone in 2002, the nation had gone through four consecutive presidential elections in the effort to find the holy grail of leadership, but it seems as if the right desire by many is yet to be achieved. As a result of this reason that constantly brings disappointment to the lads, many have decided to disenfranchise their rights, never to take part in any general or local elections in the country.

Does this reason, by these many, amount to the right solution in dealing with this problem of leadership in Sierra Leone?  But if you may ask me about my own take on the side of these frustrated set of citizens in this country, I shall quickly retort back with this question: “How possible would it be for their dreams to be realized if they push far away from the ballot box which constitutional gives them the right to assert authority over their wish, rather allowing a small narrow-minded people who are necked-bent in promoting their selfish interests. This opinion of mine toward this frustrated set of people described above, is not by any way downplaying on their experiences because I believe this concept that says, never belittle another man’s experience, he had it. In another words, only he and God know the depth of that experience. However, the point I want to restate on this unwavering confidence of mine is, before we stopped groping in darkness, it took Thomas Edison quite a number of attempts before he finally invented the electric bulb. Finding practicable solution to an impracticable problem demands real patience, therefore, patient is the right therapy for this illness. But peradventure we allow the mind goes running on pell-mell from one feverish attitude to the other it becomes feverish and the result is that state that bothers on petulance. So, our wish to God is to grant us a calm philosophy to exhibit patience, till our desire goal be granted.

Leadership is fundamental. The English Dictionary defines Leadership as the capacity of someone to lead others. Marc, in his definition of leadership, he uses basic vocabularies with a simple sentence. Marc, (2014) says, leadership is to make things better. Leadership is an important key factor of national development. Unless we have leaders with the ability, integrity, commitment, vision and above all the fear of God, our nation will continue to wallow in needs, remain within the confines of abject poverty and sideline among its peers.

Our country is in great need of leaders who have a vision to lead it better than they met it, leaders who are not only loved in words but in deeds and in truth, leaders who feel that everyone matters and leaders whom by their fruits we shall uphold them. It is interesting to know that there are misconceptions held by a good number of our leaders who are charged with the state leadership. When our leaders are greeted with the opportunity to serve in the corridor of power, they quickly run in to a state of forgetfulness. They veer off from the call to serve and ironically twisted the concept from servers to lords/ leaders’ servants.

Paradoxically, servant leaders focus on the well-being of the led. Ideally, a leader does not seek happiness for himself his happiness is the happiness of the people. It’s therefore of vital interest for a leader to develop a servant’s heart. If there must be any virtue a leader should embrace is humility. The greatness of a leader’s power is in the measure of his surrender to the will of his people. He therefore needs to put on the apron of humility to be a follower of an informed direction of his people.

Let me point out that the enemies of Sierra Leone are not the many challenges that are destroying our land, but leaders and certain institutional mechanisms that support and enable these challenges to persist. When nations are able to manage their political and social dispute peacefully without lapsing into conflict or sustain economic growth without creating huge inequalities critically depends on the quantity of their relevant national institutions. We should not just establish institutions and set rules, but we must place the right people who have the expertise and moral competence to understand and implement the objectives of these institutions, and ensure that these institutions inspire public confidence by being fair and transparent through employing people by merits and not by credits!

As mentioned above, as one of the factors that give rise to a faulty leadership. One can be tempted to ask a question that with all the approaches made by researchers in the effort to find the holy grail of leadership, and even some of these celebrated theories which have already served as toolkits to leaders, are ineffective in practice or are not even working? The simple reason is not that those approaches have weakness or are not suitable for effectiveness, but it is more or less about the inappropriate use of these approaches or poor implementation. The attribute to develop and communicate strong vision is key to a successful leadership. By this approach, you can engage your subjects or people with the spirit of inclusivity to promote transparency for an achievable and sustainable goals. Mark, (N.D.) leadership does not have to be complex. It is really about tapping into people’s discretionary effort and therefore at its most fundamental it is about helping people deal with ambiguity and uncertainty. With these approaches, it stimulates growth.

The definition by Mark, “Leadership is to make things better” projects the idea that you, reading this article you are a leader of this our country and in your own little way, you can make things better in that office, in that school, at home, at your business centre and in whatever environments you find yourself you are the leader there, and you can do things to be better there. You see, the idea of doing things better does not have to imply a broad reach or an expensive impact. It could be local and personal, but it all has to start with our willingness. Every institution is a lengthy shadow of one man. As you read this article, you will start making things better for SALON. Our experiences of the past have been very much disappointing but we have every reason to believe that the future will be better if we collectively agree to address these challenges that have served as thorn in our flesh.