Behind every successful leader is a great, enduring ideology

Many African presidents have held on to power beyond the term stipulated by their country’s constitution, arguing there was no suitable candidate to take over.

We have had some presidents who did some remarkable things and the logical conclusion would be for them to continue and finish the good work they started.

There are some today who are applauded globally but also, people are concerned about what will happen when they leave office (if they do).

Last month, Kenya bid farewell to the longest serving president in the history of the country, Daniel arap Moi. Numerous speeches were made by people of all walks of life. One interesting observation is that even though today there are different political groupings that tend to be quite hostile towards each other from time to time, under the Moi umbrella, they were one.

When Moi was about to leave office the problem was not that there was no one to succeed him. The problem was that there were too many and that a vast majority of all the politicians in the country today schooled at the feet of Moi.

You may not agree with the Moi politics or with a lot of things about him, but as one of the speakers at the funeral pointed out, they were all children of the same father.

The current president was a student of Moi. So was the current deputy president, governors, ministers, senior civil servants and diplomats, who were proud to say that they were students and products of Moi. This cannot be said of everyone that occupies the position of the president of a nation.

In other words, it was Moi who paved the way for most of today’s actors to have a voice in the first place.

It is one thing to be an appointee of a president but a totally different thing to be a student. To be a student means the teacher has a philosophy that guides their leadership and decision-making.

We have a whole block in Nigeria—the South West, which has been so influenced by the philosophy of a man called Chief Obafemi Awolowo. His philosophies were so strong that even though he died in 1987, his disciples are still called Awoists and win polls by claiming they are students of his philosophies.

Strong philosophical/ideological leadership is one of the things that the Africa of today lacks. We have politicians who cross the floor at will. We have politicians whose membership of a political party is not based on ideology but on the party will give them a ticket to run.
It takes courage to be ready to stand out and think in a manner that is different from the generally acceptable way of thinking and then position your beliefs in such a way that people literally give their lives for it.

Sociologists largely agree that one source of power is ideology. This is why religion is so powerful. Once an ideological position creates followers, they will do anything to preserve the position.

If you have no one learning at your altar and no one ready to subscribe to your ideological and philosophical persuasions, then perhaps your leadership journey is not where it ought to be. The greatest mark of leadership is disciples.

Wale Akinyemi is the chief transformation officer at PowerTalks.