The Way Forward

NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION – THE WAY FORWARD

(The keynote address delivered by Prof. Chinedu Nebo, OON, Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti and former Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, at the GSSA Convention in Houston, Texas, USA on Saturday, August 13, 2011)

It gives me great joy and pleasure to be reunited with this wonderful family – a family that was the incubator for my determination to tow the path of faithful service marked out for me by God. GSSA, more than any other institution, has impacted on my life most significantly. It was the quintessential nurturing ground for my intellect and life dreams. I count myself most fortunate to have attended Government Secondary School Afikpo when I did. From the benefit of hindsight, I can say without equivocation that I attended the best secondary school in Nigeria at that time. This became even clearer to me when I had the privilege of attending our sister school, Government College Umuahia for Higher School. Although I went there on scholarship also, I left the place in less than two terms when it became obvious to me that Afikpo was not just a secondary school like any other, but an institution for the moulding of character and inculcating of lifelong virtues in young people. The humility and unassuming nature of the generality of Afikpo students were lacking at Umuahia and I decided not to continue there. As a result, I am an Mgbomian in and out and I am very proud to be one.

The commitment of most of you towards the revamping of our alma mater is quite commendable and a testimony to the impact of the mother school on our lives and careers. Your determination to make GSSA recapture her old glory speaks eloquently of the mutual gratitude we all share in our appreciation for what God has made of our lives through the nurture we received during those impressionable years of our lives. I have read with much gladness the efforts of our members here in the USA to raise resources for the rehabilitation and healing of our alma mater. The role many of you have played is deeply appreciated and we are grateful for the zeal that drives you to continue with the good work until we reach the goal line. Our formidable team in Nigeria has also been contributing sacrificially to ensure that our collective goals are met as regards our alma mater. May God bless you all super-abundantly and return to you a good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over.

In sharing the success story of our efforts so far at the rehabilitation work at GSSA, we need to expend some energy in the direction of human resources development. It is important to ensure that good teachers are sourced and retained at GSSA without unnecessary interference by the State Government. In addition, GSSAOBA and GSSAAA should start a program of rewarding the best teachers and students in such a visible way that would motivate others towards excellence. In addition, we need to establish a robust ICT system at GSSA to allow the students access to the global information superhighway. Our efforts so far are laudable and should be sustained, but the State Government has to assure us that whatever we do would be allowed to stand and that they are willing to compliment our efforts with concomitant development projects and quality enhancement measures that would synergize our efforts. Most State Governments in Nigeria are shirking their responsibilities brazenly and should not be allowed to get away with such gross negligence of their schools.

When our job at Afikpo is accomplished, we need to take a global look at the entire Nigerian society and determine areas that we can make an impact. One such area is the creation of an enabling environment for our young school leavers to acquire entrepreneurship skills for wealth creation and liberation from poverty. As an alumni association, we could make a mark in that regard by partnering with existing institutional networks geared towards that direction. Another way might still be to weave entrepreneurship studies into the curricula of GSSA in situ. Such an effort is actually in synch with the national vision of Nigeria and should be a veritable contribution to Nigeria’s growth. This is a suggestion for future endeavours and not a distraction from the present concerted efforts at revamping the school.

OUR NATIONAL DILEMMA

It would be unfair for me to add to the voices of so many of our compatriots who continually bemoan the shame of our country on our internet forum. The lamentations are based on real issues on the ground, issues that have bedevilled and continue to bedevil Nigeria till date. Those of us who live at home among our people know that these lamentations are not an exaggeration. I highlighted a good deal of these challenges in my Ahiajoku Lecture for 2010 and the issues addressed therein remain outstanding. Issues discussed then remain recurrent matters arising. Nigeria has not altered her recursive development strides, and governance remains as far from the ideal as we have always experienced and remains immune to the heart cries of the general populace.

It is a shame that what rents the airwaves and media now, only two months after the inauguration of new governments – governments that still have four years to complete their tenure – is who becomes President or Governor in 2015. It is clear that the Nigerian political class has no agenda whatsoever to serve their people; they are in politics mostly to plunder, pillage and loot the national treasury. The salaries and allowances they pay themselves in the face of so much poverty and misery is self evident. It is now abundantly clear to us that our colonial masters were saints in comparison to our own national and political leaders. No colonial agents would ever have had the guts and impunity to ravage and rape our land the way our own politicians and public servants are doing.

In pain and agony, we lament for Nigeria and bemoan what our own leaders are doing to us by design and default. But lamentation alone cannot save or cure Nigeria. It is now time for us to take our own salvation into our own hands by becoming instruments for change and transformation in our own little corners, hoping that the cumulative effect would lead to our national emancipation. Nigeria is too young to die and we her children must not let her die. We must engage ourselves in strategic thinking and planning. Waiting for the government to salvage the country would be an exercise in futility. We need to understand that we are under a siege by powerful forces that have more or less enslaved us. To expect the same forces that are holding us hostage to liberate us would amount to suicidal wishful thinking. Salvation will one day come from God; but God needs a critical mass of patriotic, proactive citizens to save our country. We have the choice of either locating ourselves within that critical mass or remaining on the fence as inactive lamentators. We can join this growing bandwagon of patriotic Nigerians through service to our fatherland and conscientious efforts to actually make a difference. What we are doing as GSSA alumni to revamp our alma mater is a step in the right direction, but we are looking for quantum leaps and leapfrogging to get us to the promised-land, before the next generation rises to brand ours as the greatest curse of the age.

WHAT WE NEED TO DO

The time is now for each one of us to take an introspective inventory of our lives and determine whether or not we are living fulfilling lives – lives that impact upon our fellow mortals positively. If we all live for our own pleasure, we will never be instruments of transformation in our country. We must rise above ourselves and the slavery of self and primordial orientation and reach out to those who are most vulnerable to the aftermath of bad governance in Nigeria. Our governments are also hostage to the obscenely powerful, dark-skinned slave drivers whose only interest in government is defined by how much they can steal. They have refused to amend the laws that would hand down a seven-year jail sentence to a man who steals a loaf of bread, but give a two-year jail sentence to one who steals over ten billion naira! To depend on the anti-corruption agencies alone to track down these murderous criminals would lead to frustration. No matter how hard these agencies work, the law still ends up protecting the criminals who loot our commonwealth. We must now look beyond the government and her institutions for the liberation of our country. We must look inwards, cleanse ourselves, learn to hold ourselves accountable and then we would have the moral rectitude to demand accountability of those who are vested with public trust. This calls for a personal transformation of our mindset, psyche and worldview. It may be viewed as a unit revolution which should then lead to corporate revolution.

How can we move in the positive direction of national transformation through personal reorientation? One way, the most potent and enduring way, is through divine intervention. God alone has the power to transform us in an ultimate fashion and assist us to live by the highest ideals and principles. We also need to learn and apply such enduring principles that have been the hallmarks of those who have made strong positive impact on their society. I daresay that such principles are also divinely endowed and can be learned and applied for our common good. I would plead to crave your indulgence to outline some of those time tested principles in what I would like to refer to as the “A to Z of Transformational Leadership Attributes.”

Be ACCOUNTABLE. Accountability is a sine qua non to good, effective and responsive leadership. It is the hallmark of service, whether rendered horizontally or vertically. The massive or colossal failure of governance in Nigeria is rooted in lack of accountability. It is this winning attribute that also predisposes leaders to ACCESSIBILITY and ADROITNESS. There is an innate human need to require accountability on the part of those who are committed with public trust, no matter how low or lofty their status may be. If then we wish to transform our society and salvage the ruins of the past we must learn to be ACCOUNTABLE.
Be BOLD and C. Be COURAGEOUS. If there are virtues that are in such great demand, but pathetically in such woefully short supply in Nigeria, it is the twin virtues of BOLDNESS and COURAGE. We should never forget that it was the persistent flagrant display of these twin attributes by members of the defunct NADECO in Nigeria that compelled the corrupt, stubborn, rudderless, inept and vicious military junta in Nigeria to succumb to the outcries for democratic governance. Many repressive governments all over the world are currently being boldly and courageously challenged by their people and some are already being overturned through the massive support of the populace for the few who risked their lives, motivated by these twin attributes. Nigeria, more than ever before, is in great need of bold and courageous citizens who would offer constructive criticism of government and proffer well-thought-out solutions to our country’s myriad of problems. These attributes are also generally invaluable in other aspects of life in our society. Bullies, whether in government or in the work place, dread the bold and courageous and eventually respond to their guts by mending their ways.
Be COURAGEOUS. (As discussed above)
Be DISCIPLINED. Discipline is one attribute of successful people that cuts across most walks of life. Whether it is the over-achieving student, or the athlete, or the successful businessman, or the researcher or scientist, or the technocrat, etc., discipline is often a prerequisite for success or triumph. Nigeria’s political class is a colossal failure in the art of governance because of lack of discipline. Nigeria’s military rulers failed because of lack of it. Discipline requires persistence, perseverance and DETERMINATION. We must put on the cloak of discipline if we want to win any wars or battles of life whether such battles are military, economic, social, cultural or political. We must view corruption in Nigeria as a moral equivalent of war which can only be won by those who are DISCIPLINED and DETERMINED.
Be EXCELLENCE-DRIVEN. Very few people stumble upon great success by chance or, if you excuse me, good luck! A passion for excellence, coupled with hard work and sweat are what it takes to become an over-achiever. Although divine favour is a formidable component of factors that lead to success, it never materialises in vacuum. No one who is content with mediocre performance would ever rise to enviable horizons, except, of course, in Nigeria where mighty and powerful godfathers have perfected the art of squeezing square pegs into round holes, destroying both the pegs and holes without qualms. GSSA has produced so many illustrious sons who rose to prominence by dint of hard work and their passion for excellence. No one ever wanted to be counted as one of the then Mr. Akusoba’s nun quams! A passion for excellence is a pre-requisite to professional and sustained success. When a friend and I who attended the same primary school in Port Harcourt passed the entrance exam to GSSA in 1965 and were invited to attend the interview, my friend visited me and we chatted away at the prospects of attending GSSA. When we weighed our chances of making it, I told him that I wasn’t in the least bothered about being successful, but rather being successful enough to win a scholarship. Not knowing that my mother was eavesdropping from the bedroom, I told my friend that although winning a scholarship was my goal, I could settle for just admission since “half bread is better than none.” It was then we heard the strong voice of my mother from the bedroom which blurted out, “ True, sons. But although half bread is better than none, full bread is much better than half!” The lesson was learned and I resolved to keep on going for full bread – the touchdowns of life, rather than punting for the field goals.
Be a FARMER, not a HUNTER. Farmers and hunters have the same ultimate goal – solving the problem of hunger and making a living. They however pursue their goals in different ways and with obviously different philosophical approaches. Whereas the hunter lies in wait to capture the finished product created by someone else, the farmer takes the pain of creating his own food by preparing the soil for cultivation through tilling, harrowing and ridging, selecting and planting good seed, tending the crop painstakingly, weeding and irrigating when necessary, and harvesting the crop at maturity. In addition, the farmer preserves good seed for propagation in the next season, and often keeps small animals. In so doing, the farmer replenishes and multiplies his resources. Not so with the hunter. All he does is to kill and eat what is already available, without replenishing the source. It is clear from this analogy that the Nigerian politician is a hunter by all accounts. He is always talking about sharing and eating the national cake that he never baked. He lies in wait to capture any project or resources meant for his people, and he consumes same with his voracious, insatiable appetite. Corruption is simply a hunter-mentality syndrome. It is the mechanism by which Nigerian hunters in every walk of life take undue advantage of the masses by appropriating to themselves and their interest what belongs to our commonwealth. Nigeria is in dire need of those with farmer-mentality, those with vision, who know that the oil which now oils the wheels of corruption will one day cease flowing. Just as physical hunters have devastated much of our wildlife without replenishing it, moral, political and material hunters are depleting our non-renewable resources with impunity. Being a farmer requires FAITH and is sustained by FAITHFULNESS. We are hereby challenged to acquire and live by the FARMER principle and think and act strategically to create wealth instead of depleting it.
Be GRACIOUS. God has been so kind and gracious to every one of us and expects us to be gracious in our dealings with people. There is more to the Law than the letters of the law. Jesus talked about the weightier matters of the Law, those matters that regulate our vertical relationship with our God and our horizontal relationships with our neighbours. The story of the Good Samaritan is a potent illustration of that.
Be HUMBLE. Humility is a gem of a virtue and is probably the greatest virtue of all. It is this virtue that makes us eager to learn, realizing that, according to one of our GSSA tutors, all our knowledge (not just of chemistry) can be contained in a teaspoon! Humility helps us to realize our finiteness, our inadequacies, our vulnerability and even our susceptibility to error. Humility makes us appreciate the fact that the world neither belongs to us nor owes us anything. It rightly imposes upon us the necessity to look beyond ourselves and recognize that we can never fully grasp the mystery of life or of the God who created us and put us in a tiny planet, tucked away in one out of over one quadrillion galaxies in a Universe populated by over fifty billion trillion stars of which our sun is just one. Humility enables us to calmly accept our lack of capacity to unravel the mechanics of this astronomically mysterious Universe and to agree with God, when He said through the Prophet Isaiah that, “My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8, 9. How much higher are the heavens than the earth? Only God knows. But if we were to travel at the speed of light, it will take less than two seconds to reach the moon and about eight minutes to reach the sun. But it will take sixteen billion years to reach the uttermost part of the Universe! When we factor that distance into our mere four dimensions of operation (three of space and one of time) and compare with the Creator’s boundless dimensions, we would easily identify with the hymn writer who wrote, “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.” Be HUMBLE. We only know in part and our finite four dimensions places upon us a boundary condition too astronomically stiff to overcome.
Be INNOVATIVE. No one who continues to do the same thing hoping to get a different result will ever make progress. God has given us the capacity to achieve virtually everything our mortal mind can conceive. Although technological advancement has progressed to a point that some are talking about possible singularity syndrome, it appears that we are quite far from that yet. Innovation drives technology and even the business world. It keeps the scientific world moving in strides. Many have made untold wealth by being innovative. Be innovative to be relevant. Be innovative to thrive. Be innovative to create and sustain wealth.
Be JUST. No amount of pontificating or preaching will transform people if they notice that we are unjust and do not practice the principles of justice, equity and fair play. In being just, we must also oppose and try to pull down the structures of injustice in our world and society. This demands character and consistency. We cannot be agents of transformation if we obstruct justice and do not allow its principles to undergird our philosophy.
Be KNOWLEDGEABLE. We now live in a global knowledge economy, where knowledge has overtaken wealth as Capital for business. The ICT system is essentially a knowledge-driven technology that has transformed the world of technology, business, research and development. Knowledge, they say, is power. In the seventies, the Student Government of my alma mater, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, had a slogan to counter the State Government’s plan to introduce some cuts in the funding of their Universities. It was, “Education expensive? Try ignorance.” In today’s world, ignorance cannot be ameliorated with money, no matter how much is expended. Pen has indeed become eloquently mightier than sword. Knowledge is a veritable tool for transformation.
Be a LEADER, not a boss. Bosses are like slave drivers; leaders are true guides and facilitators. Leaders encourage, motivate and inspire their followers. They show the way, like true guides, not just stand there as a signpost. Much more can be achieved by leading rather than “bossing” a group of people. A time-tested, transformational type of leadership is the servant-leadership model which I tried to highlight in my Ahiajoku 2010 Lecture. Servant leaders are true LIFELINES to the society and they are veritable agents of transformation.
Be MODEST. Modesty is actually a subset of humility and an attribute of seasoned people who have seen and encountered the world in both raw and refined forms. Good leaders realise the benefits of modesty in managing people and systems. They also see the need to MENTOR others and be amenable to being mentored by others. Modesty helps the leader to see himself as a coach and, in the words of a famous American coach, remember that, “The Main thing is to keep the Main thing the Main thing.” This precludes “majoring on minors and minoring on majors.”
Be NATURAL. Transformation cannot come through pretenders and hypocrites. One must be natural to be seen as earnest and sincere. An American preacher once said, “Be who you is, ‘cause if you a’int who you is, then you is who you a’int”! I would add that “if you is who you a’int, then you gat nothing to offer!” Once people discover that a leader is phony, his façade vanishes, the masquerade is unmasked, and his legitimacy as a leader disappears. We saw this happen over and over again with successive Nigerian military and civilian governments. They start by telling us that they came as a corrective regime, but often ended up much worse than their predecessors. It is better to be yourself, act yourself, but adjust and synchronize your programs to match the aspirations of the people.
Be OPTIMISTIC. No matter how awry things get, it is healthier to have an optimistic attitude than to wallow in the throes of pessimism. Nigeria has almost made chronic pessimists of all of us. There are, however, some very cheery news of our sons and daughters who have performed brilliantly in various life endeavours and have not betrayed the trust reposed in them. We need to celebrate such successes more than we bemoan the massive failures all around us. We should be grateful to God, even if the few success stories are like outliers in the quagmire which typifies Nigeria’s socio-political and economic terrain. (The One-side pancake story). As we nurture an optimistic outlook, we need to match it with such actions and attributes as are being described here.
Be PROACTIVE. It is evident that our national disgrace has constrained most of us to tilt towards being reactive instead being proactive. Military strategists have always maintained that the best defence (REACTIVITY) is offence (PROACTIVENESS). If we wait for Governments to do things and then react to their overwhelming blunders, we will never get anywhere. We need to think strategically and come up with ideas that can transform our country or society. We also need to take actions within our own reach to make a difference. In Nigeria, Think-Tanks are not lacking, nor are good, well-intentioned plans. What is lacking is executing the plans – going beyond mere rhetoric to actually engaging in executing good ideas. Be PROACTIVE, therefore, and not an armchair footballer.
Be QUALITY-Driven. Quite often, our country sacrifices quality on several questionable altars. The altars include corruption, nepotism, Federal Character, geographical spread, self-interest, quantity, etc. National transformation cannot come from such regressive ideology. Wherever we are, in our own little corners, let us uphold the superiority of quality over mediocrity and allow the fruits of quality to transform our society.
Be RELIABLE. Can we be counted upon to keep our word? Are we dependable? If we want to be agents of transformation, we must be reliable and be so consistently. If we prove to be reliable, more opportunities will come our way in the process of the transformational agenda. If we are unreliable, we foreclose such opportunities and become agents of retrogression instead.
Be SAGACIOUS. Anyone who embraces a transformational agenda must be sagacious. The capacity to weld knowledge, understanding and wisdom together is crucial to transformational leadership. Transactional leadership can progress without sagacity, but this is not so with transformational leadership. Be informed, and be prudent in the utilisation and deployment of knowledge.
Be TRANSPARENT. Transparency and accountability are probably the foremost attributes expected of leadership by followership. Transparency is a veritable tool in communication. Unless a leader is transparent, his followers would find it difficult to trust him or believe that he means well. Transparency often removes the veil of suspicion and the cord of misunderstanding. Followers need to know that they belong and that they are co-owners with their leaders.
Be UPRIGHT. Crooked leaders never become transformational ones. They beget crooks like themselves and propagate a crooked system. Upright leaders often earn the respect of their followers who begin to think like and act like their leader.” Righteousness”, says the Bible, “exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Prov. 14:34). Uprightness leads to altruistic service, the type our country lacks and is in great need of, the type God blesses and uses to bless our people.
Be VIRTUOUS. To bring about transformation, we need to be people of virtue with a clearly defined value system. Our values must go beyond our cultural trappings and primordial inclinations and embrace universally accepted norms of governance. These norms condemn corruption and other vices that have held Nigeria hostage and made her a developmentally lame country.
Be WELL-INFORMED. No matter how much we know, we must never forget that knowledge is dynamic and information modifies knowledge per second per second. It is therefore crucial that a transformational leader must be well informed at all times and must do all that is necessary to acquire up to date information, analyse them and modify his game plan based on prevailing relevant information.
Do not be XENOPHOBIC. This is the only one of this alphabetical discourse that gives a negative imperative. Although it is because I couldn’t find a better X-word to lay hands on, xenophobia is one of Nigeria’s systemic diseases that has kept many of our institutions back home from growing and becoming world class. Because they are suspicious of and, therefore, dislike outsiders, especially their own sons and daughters in Diaspora, they cannot experience more than stunted growth. (My experience in1981). We need to realise that much of the functional knowledge we need to develop is within the public domain and that some of the most knowledgeable people on earth are our own sons and daughters in the Diaspora whose skills are waiting to be harnessed.
Be a YARDSTICK, not a Yeoman. The world is looking for iconic personalities, not just run-of-the-mill leaders. Young people are looking for models, for genuine yardsticks to define and measure their goals and aspirations. At GSSA, we often used the term yeoman to denote those who were not working or performing as creditably as others. As an oin, I decided I would never be a yeoman and that determination helped me a lot. As a public leader I am always aware that the imprints I leave behind will affect the younger generation. I therefore chose to strive to be a yardstick instead of just another moving mass of purposeless protoplasm!
Be ZEALOUS. This embodies being passionate about whatever we do in our service to our people. (The Cathedral builder). Life is pretty ordinary and mundane without zeal and zest. Many commit suicide when they lose all zest for living. We must be zealous in our transformational agenda. For instance, it is not easy to remain untouched, with regards to rebuilding our alma mater, in the presence of the level of zeal and commitment shown by Nwasokwa (please), Eke (please), Ozoemena, Uche, Mkparu, and a host of others we know but cannot mention for want of time. Their zeal is contagious and inspiring and has motivated so many to join the bandwagon. Transformational leadership can never thrive without zeal.

Having exhausted the alphabets in this journey of sharing with us the kind of people we need to be in joining the transformation bandwagon for our country, and any society for that matter, I would crave your indulgence to allow me quote sections of the Inauguration Keynote Address that I delivered during the inauguration of the present Government of Enugu State on May 28^th this year. The address was also geared towards encouraging the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial arms of Government to embrace Transformational Leadership. As we observe the wanton corruption exhibited by many who wield any form of power, with the attendant total negation of accountability, equity, justice and fair play in our land; one thing should never escape us – that every actor on the stage today will one day bow out of the scene, some gloriously, others ignominiously and still others unnoticed. Although Shakespeare succinctly put it that the evil that men do lives after them, we must also remember that the good that men do lives after them too. To live for today without a sense of history is to live most foolishly and precariously. Many, in so living, are currently gathering around them materials with which they would be confined and burned in the garbage bins of history. A few others are however carving or etching their names on the precious stones of history. Real men do not only live for the moment, they live forever. And as we ruminate over the timeless veracity of the phrase, “no condition is permanent”; let us build upon solid rock and not on quick sands.

The Bible tells us in Psalm.119:89 that God’s word is settled in heaven for ever. God’s word is thus permanent, immutable, and life giving. The structures of man will fail, whether those structures are physical, material or philosophical. Such human structures are at best ephemeral and superficial. To be connected to God, The Eternal Spirit, is the only sure way of outliving this brutally transient sphere of existence here on earth.The prophet Micah captured God’s expectation of leaders in the statement he made in Micah.6:8

What does the lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Followers of Jesus Christ are obligated to walk in mercy and compassion like our Master. We must give heed to God’s demand and expectations as we serve him while serving his people. God can never be fooled by our pretences and hypocrisies. No one can ever deceive God, who knows every man’s heart, motives and ways. Is God impressed with our egocentric, ethnocentric or even anthropocentric world view? Does God demand mere flippant allegiance from us, as opposed to rugged commitment to justice, equity and fair play? Can God be bribed with our wealth? (especially our ill-gotten wealth?) Would God be appeased with our sacrifices, no matter what form they take? Is God pleased with our lifestyle of nominalism in the practice of our faith and walk with him? What really does the LORD require of you? The prophet adumbrated God’s requirement in a nut shell, to wit: TO ACT JUSTLY AND LOVE MERCY AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD”. To do these things would not only please God but would also ensure that our names are enshrined in Gold in the annals of history. God requires of us not just to legislate justice but also to practice justice in every ramification of the word. He also insists that we love mercy – i.e. be filled with bowels of mercy. Mercy and compassion epitomized the earthly existence of God’s Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. True Christians are merciful and compassionate. God also demands that we WALK HUMBLY, not haughtily, not proudly, not imperialistically, not power drunkenly and not obliviously of our temporariness in this sphere of existence.

In Nigeria today, this is hardly the case. Politicians now wield absolute powers, sometime even defying God. Many brag about their invincibility, their amassed wealth, their wisdom, their connections, and their power. The just concluded elections showed many politicians that God still reigns, not them. God also has a word regarding this wanton haughtiness of our rulers, be they in the executive, legislative or judicial arm of a government, or just in positions of leadership. Jeremiah prophesied in Jer.9:23, 24 saying :

v This is what the LORD says- “let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this – that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who exercises kindness justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the LORD”

So, what does the LORD require of us who have been so blessed and, as a result, more fortunate than most of our compatriots? What does he delight in? First, that we act justly, in every ramification of the world, doing so selflessly.

Second, that we love mercy, kindness and righteousness.Third, that we walk humbly before our God and if we have anything to brag about, let it be that we understand and know God and are walking with him.

Consider these words by some eminent personalities – “It is not enough that you understand applied science in order that your work may increase man’s blessings. Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavours, concern for the great unsolved problems of the organisation of labour and the distribution of goods – in order that the creations of our minds shall be a blessing, not a curse to mankind. Never forget these in the midst of your diagrams and equations” -Albert Einstein.

“The superior man stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises lifting others.” – Robert Ingersoll.

“No man has ever risen to real stature of spiritual manhood until he has found that it is finer to serve somebody else than to serve himself.” – Woodrow Wilson

“To be of service is a solid foundation for contentment in this world.” – Charles W. Elliot.

To have courage without pugnacity
To have conviction without glory,
To have charity without condescension,
To have faith without credulity,
To have love of humanity without mere sentimentality,
To have meekness with power,
And emotion with sanity – that is brotherhood – Charles Evan Hughes.

Do all the good you can,
By all you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the time you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as you can. – Anonymous

It is abundantly clear that the implications of the foregoing words stress the importance of service and caring for our neighbours and humanity above self. Service is the only true way we can measure real love for our neighbours. It is transformational leadership at its best. The reasons are not far-fetched.

Service is loving, loving is living, living is learning.
· Love propelled service is always relevant in an age of indeterminate and shifting relevance
·        Service gives and brings joy, happiness, fulfillment, and life. It builds, encourages, strengthens and motivates.
·        Service is a veritable antidote to stress and depression and to crippling egocentrism. In terms of psychological vocabulary I dare say that service superimposes a sanctified superego upon the id and the ego.
·        Service is true self-actualization. The self is essentially indeterminate in isolation and alienation, except in relation to others and the environment. Service is therefore a sure fire way of fulfillment and self-actualization.
·        Those who serve remain in evergreen memory. Those who exploit others die to themselves.
·        Highest service is service to God, devoid of egotistic motives.
·        If selfishness and self-centeredness are the marks of childishness and immaturity, then selfless service is the mark of maturity – of approaching the image of Christ.

As we serve God and mankind, may we apply the “A to Z” principles outlined in this address to ensure effectiveness in our humble contributions to the society and MAY GOD GRANT US THE WHEREWITHAL TO BECOME TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERS, IN JESUS’ NAME. AMEN.