Leadership, any leadership, anchors itself on integrity. A
big part of what makes up one’s integrity is their ability to stand by what [they
said] they believe in, no matter what. Integrity is what anchors a leader
firmly so they can serve effectively, delivering on their mandate while fighting
back any of the never ending pressures that always come any leader’s way. Take
away integrity and you have no leader. Even a leader of a gang of thieves must
demonstrate integrity by remaining true to the gang’s mission. If his integrity
(as the gang leader) is compromised by good morals, that leader will no longer
be fit to lead that gang and if the gang wants to remain true to its cause and mission,
it must find a new leader. Or better, the now compromised leader steps down and
allows another person who will advance the gang’s mission to take over.
Integrity is about being truthful. A leader must be truthful
first to himself, and then to those he leads or wants to lead. Truthfulness to
self and to the led cannot be separated. Any separation is hypocrisy.
It is not leadership that gives one a vision. One first gets
a vision and then leads himself and others to that vision. Therefore, if a
leader’s vision changes as he leads, then that leader lacks integrity. That leader
has been compromised by leadership.
One of the signs that a leader’s vision has changed is a
change in vision achievement timelines. If a president is appointed/elected to
office because he said he has something to offer a nation in two presidential
terms, he should govern for those two terms and step down. Of course in his
term of office he will not accomplish all or he may accomplish more than he
promised and that’s alright. It is alright because we are human and many times
we do make miscalculations. It is alright because it reveals something about
the leader—how clearly he had perceived his vision for leadership. It is okay
because someone else, someone the leader has groomed, can always take up the
vision and bring it to fruition.
When a leader has failed to deliver on his promises or
there’s a feeling—in him or among the population—that he can still continue delivering
more of what he’s already delivered, and then nation’s constitution is altered
to accommodate the leader for more time, that’s a recipe for disaster for any
nation.
Of course the constitution and the way governments in Rwanda
and Uganda are structured is largely foreign. This wasn’t our ancestral way of
governance and currently neither is it for a number of other nations—some of
which are prospering. But if a nation, if a people, agree to a certain form of
governance, then they must be true to it. Else they must quickly adopt a new
acceptable form of governance that they’ll be true to.
Good or bad leadership, especially under the democratic
system of governance, is not dependant on longevity of reign but on integrity—being
truthful. If a president sees no problem with a constitution before they become
president, sees no problem with the constitution while they are president, but then
suddenly sees a big problem with the clauses that limit their terms of office or
the age they can be president when their term of office is about to expire or
age has caught up with them, then that’s being untruthful. It is lack of
integrity. The lapse in integrity in the leader’s character is greater if the
leader pushing for the constitution amendment actively participated in having
it set up the way it is in the first place.
So what if a president has a constitution amended to
selfishly favour him? How does that affect a nation?
Last year I enrolled for a 40 weeks’ godly character building
course called Build Up at my church.
During the 40 weeks we studied 40 principles on self-government,
management, productivity and leadership. From that course I learnt that we all
can make choices, but none of us—great or small, rich or poor, sick or healthy,
righteous or wicked—can determine the consequences of those choices. Our power,
all of us, ends at making a choice.
Consequence One: The
Team Factor
“No man is an island,” so the saying goes, and leaders are
no exception. Leaders need people to work with. People who will believe in
their [first] vision and commit to working alongside the leader to bring the
vision to life.
When a president amends a nation’s constitution to
accommodate his selfish interests, three things happen within his team.
First, the people who are not ready to be comprised by and with
the leader will break camp with the leader. These are people who were totally
committed to the leader’s vision as he sold it to them in the beginning. These
are usually very courageous people.
Secondly, some people—usually the majority—will stay with
the leader. Among those that stay are people with no convictions but lots of needs
of their own. People with no convictions of their own may seem like a great
addition to a team because they bring minimal opposition to what’s happening
(and every team surely needs such). But these people always require a lot more pushing
through micro-management just to keep them on the same pace with the rest of
the team. With the people who strongly believed in the leader’s vision gone, the
leader, if he wants to keep delivering on his mandate, must extend his micro-management
to cover more people beyond his core leadership team. This of course is
straining on the leader and only the birth pains of the leader’s problems. Problems
will stem from both the dynamics of micro-management and how different people
respond to it and also the fact that the leader is only able to effectively
manage a limited number of people because he is only human.
Thirdly, of course the leader must get (and usually does,
easily) new people to replace those that broke camp with him. This is the ferocious
group. These are people who have been only watching from a distance for years praying
and hoping that they too can get the positions those who formed the president’s
core group held. Now is their chance. These people come supercharged and
determined to impress the president at all costs. Whatever he says, they’ll do.
So, after a constitution amendment a nation will have the
following to lead it to the future: A president without integrity and a team of
individuals working with the president only to impress him—a president who has chosen
a new path and a new philosophy for his nation: the president and his interests
come before the nation.
The president, to his delight, will meet minimal resistance
to his post constitution amendment rule because of three reasons:
- Those with the ability to question his motives in line with what is best for the nation—his original vision—are gone.
- The president will be working with a team that’s out to impress him. Anything he suggests will most likely pass.
- What was above him, that which defined his limitations—the constitution, is now below him.
Consequence Two: Disorder
and Evil
In the Bible, the writer of James tells us in verse 16 of
chapter 3 that, “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will
find disorder and every evil practice.” A nation that has a president who not
only harbours but also fronts his selfish ambitions cannot escape disorder and
every evil practice. Such a leader will bring a nation, any nation, to ruin.
We attract what we are. A leader who promotes his selfish
interests using public resources will end up surrounded by a team whose
individual’s hard work is motivated by a desire to fulfil selfish interests
using government resources. Sadly this many times is unknown to the leader
because everyone around him acts like they are serving only his interests.
I once watched a documentary about the life of a certain
African president. At the height of his self-serving resign, he would simply
instruct the prime minister by word of mouth to get him money from the bank. If
the president instructed the prime minister to get him say one million, the prime
minister would instruct the bank governor to get him 2 million for the
president. In turn, the governor would withdraw 3 million. Nonetheless, the
president got only the one million he had requested for.
All human beings are selfish by nature. But under good
leadership and with God’s help and wisdom, people can be brought to a point
where they look beyond their needs and see those of others. This, even though
only achievable with God’s help and wisdom, always requires a lot from the leader:
uncompromising integrity.
People’s selfishness is like a river and leaders the dams
that hold this selfishness back keeping it from destroying society. A lapse in
integrity of a leader is like a crack on the dam. A president who develops
cracks in his integrity leaks. Slowly but surely, evil and disorder will find their
way through him and in no time characterise whichever nation he leads. This,
like all consequences, is inevitable.
Rwanda, here’s to consequences!
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