OPINION > Plein Tok When A Leader Is Dishonest? Posted by on Nov 7, 2008, 18:35

Leadership in the belief and conviction of some nations and individuals comes from God. It is something destined by the Supreme Being for certain individuals to clinch during their life time on planet earth. An extension to this belief is that if leadership comes from God, endorsement is from the people who are the subjects of the leader.

The characteristics of a good leader are honesty, firmness, dedication and lately political analysts have included patriotism to the long line of good qualities. In the biblical time leaders take their people to wars after being in consultations with men of God, such as Seer and prophets.

The predictions of these people are treated with respect, because of the feelings that God speaks through them. Samuel in the Old Testament was a renowned Seer and had always communicated with God for directions and instructions. Samuel is just one out of many appointed and anointed Seers, Prophets and leaders of God. The sincerity demonstrated by these individuals to the Supreme Being and their subjects as recorded in the Bible made them become God’s special people.  When leaders are truthful to their leaders and their subjects, know their problems and find solutions to these problem, the endorsement made by them is not regretted.

In the words of political thinkers like John Locke, Aristotle and others there is a contract between the leaders and their subjects which is extended to the state. The subjects surrender their mandate to rule and not be abused or treated like underdogs, but most time what they receive as dividend is far beyond their imaginations and expectations. Because of that they always opt for the alternative, which is a change of the leadership.

In Sierra Leone, using it as a case study to exploit the concept may not be a good one, but for the purpose of this piece can be cited. A friend sometime ago told me that when God created the world, he unevenly distributed the natural resources and allocated large and unimaginable quantum to Sierra Leone to the annoyance of other states and leaders of the world.

The issue of uneven distribution of the resources was raise and God said to the other leaders, don’t worry about what I have given to Sierra Leone, just wait and see the leaders I will give to them. Since independence to date good and selfless leadership has been the major problem affecting the administration of this country. Siaka Stevens came and gone with little reforms and development undertaken compared with what is available in the country. He was succeeded by the late Joseph Saidu Momoh.

As an ex-military officer, the expectation of the people was high with hopes that a u-turn that would transform the small nation-state even to a mini paradise of a population about five million people would benefit from his both military and administrative backgrounds. The sad chapter is nothing good to recall. Then came in the military boys headed by the late ex-captain Valentine Strasser. Again, the expectation of the people was dashed when they started plundering both the natural and financial resources.

Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was democratically elected by the people in 1996. Promises of hope, deliverance and transformation were inclusive in the big package handed down to the people. Something astonishing took place during the Tejan Kabbah administration, which reinforced the notion that truly a leader has come to rescue the people of this land. Kabbah was not going to receive salary, because of an unexplained reason which up to time is a mystery. What is not a mystery is the huge amount of money he wanted to tap as pension, gratuity and end-of –service benefits from this deprived nation-state called Sierra Leone.

In all of these, what is evident is the fact that these leaders are dishonest to the state and its people. Coming back to my friend’s explanation about the type of leadership provided to us by God, it is gradually coming home that despite the abundant natural resources provided by the Supreme Being to benefit the people the leaders are only interested on how they can enrich themselves at the expense of the people and the state. One would want to ask, why is ex-president Kabbah making all these unreasonable demands when he is quite aufait with the scare resources of the state? One begins to realize the fact that when a leader is dishonest the people suffer