Whoever said that the leadership of any society reflects the moral standing of that society was quite correct. The leadership of any society is just but a sample drawn from the society, such that if a given society has a majority of corrupt members then the same will be reflected on the society's leadership. It was the moral standing of the society during Jesus' time on this world that made the populace to choose Barabbas as opposed to Jesus, condemning a good man to the crucifixion and giving the bad one absolute freedom. In Athens Socrates a moral and social critic, who has been defined as goodness in itself was killed for standing against the moral ineptitude in that society.
I want to submit to us that the leadership of any society is a fruit of the masses, a good tree can never give bad fruits, as Jesus put it in Matthew 12:33, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit". Therefore its either we make the society good and we have a good leadership or we make it bad and we have a bad leadership. How can we, the people elect good leaders when we are evil.
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines corruption as an impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle, and this is a very accurate description of our society as it is. When we claim that we want leaders with integrity, virtue and of sound moral principles, and then go ahead to practice the opposite of this, where do we expect these leaders to come from? When we bribe to get a job, don't we also expect the leaders to bribe to get a bigger position, when we compromise the people under us by
inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (as bribery), do we expect our leaders to be different. When we compromise the standard operating procedures (SOPs) at our work place, do we expect our leaders to be any different and respect the constitutional provisions stipulating what they should do. When we accept kickbacks for us to do that which is our responsibility and actually our job description, do we expect the leaders to be any better and extend governmental and public services to us without demanding bribes from us?
It is sad how we bribe our way to bigger jobs, how we bribe to get our children to better schools, how we bribe to get elected in our saccos, and other groups where we have subscribed membership and yet expect our leaders in the political arena to be any different!!!! It is sad that most of them have been doing what we are doing, failing to pay their bus fare if the conductor forgets to ask it from them, celebrating when the cashier mistakenly refunds more than he should, and very quickly pocketing someone's wallet if it falls on the way by mistake. Once this part of our population ascends to leadership they practice all this at a larger scale!
My friends if we want good leadership, we must practice that which we expect from them. It is hypocritical for us to expect from our leaders what we cannot give. The principle of preaching water and taking the same does not only apply to the leadership but also to us the so called commoners. The principle of doing unto others what you would that they do unto us should apply to all and sundry. The quagmire that our leaders often find themselves in is being expected to do that which they have never done in their lives. In a society where money is everything, where we have glorified material possession and the "respect and honor" that comes with the same, a society where as long as you have money, regardless of how you've acquired it, that alone grants you a right to leadership... with or without moral uprightness.
When it comes to ethnicity, we cry and condemn our leaders for their ethnic jingoism forgetting that we are as well deeply rooted in the same, when we recruit people to jobs based on their ethnic groups, when the first thing that comes to your mind once you meet a stranger is, where does s/he come from... in an effort to label them ethnically! Surely my good friends, our society shall remain in this pathetic state as long as we don't rise above these parochial and sectarian mentalities and perspectives.
It has always been said that every society deserves the leadership they have, yes a society reeking in moral decadence gets a leadership of the same kind and it deserves the same, a morally upright society gets a good leadership responsive to their issues, and yes that is what that society deserves..... so what is the way forward, we need to change at the personal level, and to borrow the words of Mahatma Gandhi, "Be the change you want to see in the world" This, my brothers and sisters, is what will get us untangled from this quagmire we unfortunately find ourselves in!!!
