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| Dr.Eli Dibia |
Your Excellency Sir,
Change starts
with you...........
Change was your idea not ours.
Change was your manifesto, we do
not have a manifesto
Change was your mantra, not ours
Change was your magic word
Change
starts with you.
We
did not vote us into power...
We
voted you into power because we bought into your Change mantra.
Change you sold.
Change we bought.
And
Change we want.
Change
we can touch, Change we can feel, Change we can relate with, and Change that
has a human face. And we want it from you.
Show
the light, we will find the way.
In
1937, when the Great Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (Owelle Osowanya Onitsha) launched The
West African Pilot newspaper. He chose a very special motto for it.
"Show
the light and the people will find the way".
Zik
knew leadership is everything.
The
very idea that 'Change' starts with the led and not the leadership can be best
described as an abdication of responsibility by the leadership.
That
was the utopia Carl Marx preached, but as he also found out, it took the
intervention of the ruling class in the person of Frederick Engels for his
ideas to be heard.
There
is no known historical precedent where the people led the change paradigm
without the leadership.
I
have ruminated through my books on political and economic history. There is no
known reference.
The
closest was the French Revolution of 1789, and if you take a closer look, it
was not even started by the Proletarian class. Danton and Robespierre were not
''the masses''.
Every
dramatic, and drastic change witnessed from the 19th to 20th century across the
globe has been top down.
Nnamdi
Azikiwe studied it quite well in his Renascent Africa, and came to the
conclusion that "Show the Light, and the people will find the way"...
Chairman
Mao failed woefully in China because he believed change could come from the
people that was why he launched the Cultural Revolution.
But
it took Deng Xiaoping to show that leadership is everything when he manipulated
the ''unseen finger'' that has pulled over 600 million out of poverty in the
last 30 years. That is leadership!
Cuba
withstood the world's blockade, suffered all sorts of indignities, yet gave
their people one of the best education and health care services in the world.
It took the leadership of Fidel Castro....
General
Park knew this quite well when he set out the policies that encouraged the
Chaebols in South Korea. You can describe him as a dictator, but he laid the
foundation for the take-off of a prosperous Korea. Today I am writing this with
a Samsung mobile device thanks to the foresight of General Park, whose daughter
incidentally is the present President of South Korea.
Lee
Kuan Yew is an evident testimony that change can only be effectively and
efficiently launched top down. He enumerated everything succinctly in his well-received
book, From the Third World, to the First World. Singapore today is a living testimony
to that.
Mahathir
Mohammad pointed out that principles can be replicated. He learnt from what
happened in neighbouring Singapore, and helped steer Malaysia in same pathway.
Can
we take a look at what leadership caused in Chile that is today well referenced
as the Chile Miracle? The bringing in of the Chicago Boys who helped drew the
economic blue print that led to the emergence of the first rich society in
South America? This too is a well-documented case study.
What
of Dubai?
Was
it the poor people of Dubai that caused the change or the Sheikh who pursued
his dreams inspite of contrary views from 'knowledgeable folks'....today, the
Dubai experience has been duplicated in Qatar, Oman, Bahrain etc etc...and in
each case, it took leadership.
Brazil
already has an economic growth template initiated by President Cardoso while he
was the Minister of Finance. But it took Lula Da Silva to take Brazil to global
prominence...
Now
let us come home to Africa.
Botswana
has always been described as an oasis in the midst of poor leadership,
mismanagement and chaos. Was it the Batswana people that engineered the change
process or the leadership of Ketumile Masire who followed in the footsteps of
the first President of the country Sir Seretse Khama. He mentored Festus Magae,
reputed as Africa's incorruptible leader. Is Botswana today not regarded as
Africa's most stable country, with the continent's longest continuous
multi-party democracy? It is relatively free of corruption and has a good human
rights record.
Look
at Rwanda....
Just
20 years ago, it was the most destroyed nation in the world. Go there today. It
is a model, walk through the streets of Kigali, it is the neatest city in
Africa. Even Rwandans dont even walk around dressing haggardly. Interact with
them to check out their level of patriotism. Check out their growth rate and
how today they are the most respected African country at international
diplomatic circles.
Look
at Ethiopia, hitherto known for poverty and hunger...today it is the driving
force in the Africa rising story. They are building a massive 8000 km railways cress
crossing the entire country. Their airline is the most profitable state run
airline in the world, and the rate of infrastructure development is second to none
in sub-Sahara Africa. I can go on and on...
I can
also go into Europe and give examples where just one man or woman came up with
an idea, sold it to everyone, and ensured everyone is part of it.
Even
democratic Germany survived the economic crises of the last decade because of
the leadership of Angela Merkel.
In
the United States, and at different times in their history, we have seen the
emergence of someone who took the bull by the horns, and steer the nation from
economic doldrums to prosperity.
It
started with Thomas Jefferson. Then we had Abraham Lincoln.
Then
Franklin Delano Roosevelt whose astute leadership ensured Americans elected him
four times as President even when he was bedridden.
We had John F. Kennedy, whose
dream was to put a man in the Moon.
We
also had Ronald Reagan
Bill
Clinton, and of course Barack Obama...... These leaders stood
out.
In
the UK we had men like Winston Churchill whose words, just words boosted hope
in time of despair, and whose wisdom helped save an entire continent.
In France we had men like Charles
de Gaulle. He was France, France was him.
He was affectionately described by
the French as "Celui qui dit non"
Your Excellency Sir, show the
light, and the people will find the way!
Sir Eli E. Dibia, PhD... (Strategic
Management & Policy Studies).
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