SOLO DISASTER: How One Man’s Error Results In National Havoc

Leaders can be imported, and leaders can be exported; but for any entity to experience phenomenal change it must nurture leaders. Help does not come from abroad; it begins within. Nations of Africa must stop looking abroad for national development and social change; instead we should look within and nurture our own leaders. Each time we abdicate our leadership responsibilities to imported “leadership commodities”, we deny ourselves the opportunity to experience deep-seated, exponential and spot-on change. Take a cue from Japan that shut her doors and borders on the rest of the world for twenty years only to look within for all the help, ideas, wisdom, strategies and answers that transformed her into a first world nation after the horrible effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It was a time of hardness, denial and great discomfort for the Japanese citizens because nothing was imported and nothing was exported all those years. Whatever they enjoyed or lacked was their own doing, failure to do or refusal to d. they were the architects of their own experience. The results of Japan’s closed door policy: astronomical advancement in technology and manufacturing transforming Japan into a world power and one of the top twenty countries in the world.

Think also of England’s Winston Churchill who stood to rebuff Adolf Hitler and his Nazi militia on their communist agenda. As the Nazis swept across Europe, European nations surrendered leadership and government to the communists. This irresponsible and cowardly act of European national leaders led to what can be arguably seen as a “National Betrayal Epidemic.” Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in prison rooms, in torture cells and in inhumane conditions to live in. More, still, lost their homes: their children, their spouses, their family heritage. Majority lost their right to self; the right to make personal choices without the spying eyes of the secret police and their agents. Worst of all, many lost their faith – the very essence of man’s soul. Without faith, man is lost on earth. Vast hordes of European adults, teenagers and children lost their right to choose what their faith was. It was a mental massacre all over Europe; but England chose a different course. And it was Churchill who was at the vantage.  England’s stand to defend her national identity and the future of her citizens was upheld and promoted by Churchill who went to war against Hitler even when the odds were against him. With military support coming later from America and Africa, England was victorious; but it all happened because a leader stood as a watchman over his nation and discharged his duties patriotically.

Reading this, you may not be a Prime Minister or a President of a nation but if you are the leader of a corporation, head over a family, dean of a faculty or facilitator of a non-profit or humanitarian cause, a lot relies on you. Your decision, indecision or wrong decision could writhe havoc that ravages everyone under your influence. Ezekiel Buzi on March 17, 585BC wrote,

“When an army comes against a country, the people of that land choose one of their own to be a watchman. When the watchman sees the enemy coming, he sounds the alarm to warn the people. Then if those who hear the alarm refuse to take action, it is their own fault if they die. They heard the alarm but ignored it, so the responsibility is theirs. If they had listened to the warning, they could have saved their lives. But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn't sound the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their captivity. They will die in their sins, but I will hold the watchman responsible for their deaths.”

This is the heart of the matter: for his error, the people bear the havoc. Avoid the solo disaster syndrome.

To your effectiveness,

Adeleke David Adekunle

(Mr. Effectiveness)