A Leader’s Vision and the People’s Desires

by Damilola Daramola

In our weekly discussion at the Bokamoso Leadership Forum, we'll be looking at the documentary Pandora’s Box: Black Power which focuses on the building of the Volta Dam in Ghana during Kwame Nkrumah’s time. This documentary is available on YouTube in 5 parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.

In Oumar’s article last week, he talked about leaders feeling the need to leave a legacy that lives on after they are gone. Sometimes as in the case of the Senegalese president he examined, this legacy can be more of a sign of megalomania. In Kwame Nkrumah’s case however, one can directly see how the building of a dam can directly improve the citizens through the provision of electricity. Yet, Nkrumah was vilified for this project due to the immense debt into which it plunged the young nation of Ghana at the time.

As such we have these two scenarios: one leader erects a statue and the other builds a dam. Both of these projects are legacies of these leaders and both felt that their visions needed to be carried to the very end. Yet, even though one would provide a tangible result (dam = electricity), the other is not as tangible (statue = renaissance/pride).

As people who aspire to improve the present conditions of our home countries and the African continent, we have thought and talked about the different ways to make an impact. I have heard people say fresh and young blood is needed in the government. Others believe that perhaps dictatorship isn’t so bad after all especially if placed in the hands of the balanced leader. I have also heard people who stand by democracy as the way in which the African continent can go forward.

Consider though that none of the aforementioned ideas are necessarily wrapped up in success. The youth still need to be trained by the older generation in order to avoid their pitfalls, dictators have absolute power which ends up corrupting them no matter how good they start off and “democracy” in a lot of African countries is controlled by the party with the most financial backing.

What if we imagine the glass to be half-full and dream, for a moment, that the best of circumstances present themselves? The gift of hindsight shows that no matter how great an impact you think an idea has, the people you are leading and more importantly serving will not necessarily fall in line with that vision. Going past Kwame Nkrumah’s dam, there was a discussion in one of the Forum meetings where it was mentioned that some believed Nelson Mandela’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace prize with De Klerk was a farce. While this might come as a surprise to some, it made sense to those who opposed it because they felt it would present a picture that apartheid was over when it had really been replaced by insidious racism.

What then happens when the vision that you have as a leader doesn’t align with the wants of the people that have placed you in charge? Is the test of leadership in the ability to project the vision in such a way that it becomes acceptable to a majority of the people? Is it possible that the only way a legacy is established is when it has stood the test of time despite the praise or curses it might incur at the moment of inception?