HAVE YOU BEEN SILENT OR HAVE YOU BEEN SILENCED?
“Leadership is cause; everything else is effect.”
There was a row over comments by Meghan Markle when she and her husband, Prince Harry, appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s show. One of the questions that the world-acclaimed, and distinguished talk show host asked Meghan was that “HAVE YOU BEEN SILENT OR HAVE YOU BEEN SILENCED?”
My focus in this piece is to relate that particular and crucial question to the African political scene. The issues I would discuss in this article largely affect the very fabric of the African governance system.
The question people keep on asking is why a lot of African intellectuals and technocrats are doing well abroad but perform abysmally in Africa. We only hear their name when they are the loudest talkers in their political party (especially when in opposition) or in the media where they get to talk about all the ills in the economy, but immediately they are made to man any institution, we hardly hear them talk about issues when they have to. Are they silent or are they silenced?
We all talk about the wrongs of people when they are in that position of trust but when we are given that same position, we keep quiet and succumb to the whims and caprices of the institution. Are our mouths muzzled and gagged because of the money we get?
As Professor PLO Lumumba once intimated, “It’s only in Africa that people who have embezzled public funds are selected to man a public institution as a reward”.
When President Obama came to Ghana in 2009, he said “we should strengthen our institutions”. Not that we didn’t know as a people to strengthen our public institutions. We knew it. President Obama just reminded us again if we have forgotten or just reiterated what other citizens who are poised to fight bribery and corruption say.
Emeritus Professor Stephen Adei, an expert on leadership once said, “Leadership is cause and everything else is effect”. Let me use this analogy to explain this concept. When the driver is not driving well, then the likelihood of an accident is inevitable. So as a driver behind the steering wheel, you need to take charge of the car, and control it to drive in the right lane. Any mishap or veering off the road will be tantamount to an accident. Although the passengers will talk and even insult you, it’s up to you, the driver, to know the right direction to take. Some passengers might yell at you for not driving at a breakneck speed because they are late for work or others may also calmly tell you to drive cautiously. All these are voices that you’d hear but you need to sift and know the best decision to make. That’s the duty and responsibility of a leader.
You’re assessed not based on your character or personality but based on how you were not able to lead your institution. You are the face of the institution and so anything that happens there whether it’s you or not, you’re held accountable for that.
Suffice it to say, corruption has now become part of our way of life to such an extent that the conversation has shifted to the “degree of corruption”. The leaders of our institutions pride themselves in comparing themselves with others to get some comfort in their misdeeds and misdemeanours; some even quote the Holy Book to justify their reason for indulging in corruption — saying anyone who has not sinned before should cast the first stone.
For our continent to sit on the dining table to be diners and not the ones being dined, we need a paradigm shift in our attitude, or else, we would be the ones being negotiated and eaten.
