“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked,
“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he
was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him….
… When
Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he
gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two
years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi…”
Matthew 2: 1-3;16
Something happened
and King Herod became troubled; he heard things that agitated him. He was the
King of Israel. Yet, here were these ambassadors from another country talking about
another King of Israel. Was he going to lose his Kingdom? Notice that when he
became troubled, all Israel as symbolised by the capital – Jerusalem – became troubled.
Who were all Israel that got troubled with him? Certainly, it could not have
been all Israel in the literal sense. They were his deputies, counselors,
advisers and other high officials – call them the leadership. Because the leadership
was troubled, violence was visited on a people.
Does the foregoing
not mirror what is happening all over Africa? You bet! The leadership is mostly
troubled and as a result, virtually all African nations are mired in one conflict
or the other. This is the root cause of the crises in Nigeria - whether you call it Boko Haram, Cattle rustling, Fulani herdsmen, oil bunkering etc. The scale of the troubles invariably determines the extent of
societal impact. Please note: although the above quote was taken from the Christian bible, the principle holds true whether you are a christian or moslem, budhist or even atheist!
Now, let us drill
down further. We can identify two clear categories - intra-leadership troubles
and inter-leadership troubles. In the first category, such as happened in
Israel more than two millenniums ago, the leadership is united against a common
‘enemy’, real or imagined. The scale of violence is usually limited and mostly
they would be able to overcome. However, in inter-leadership troubled
situations, leaders are pitted against each other. There is mistrust among the
leadership which results in leaders undermining leaders and gloating in leaders’
failures. When inter-leadership troubles are allowed to fester, the scale of
destruction is usually far more than possible in intra-leadership troubled
situations.
What troubles our
leaders in Africa? What troubles our leaders in Nigeria? Do you know? How
do we restore peace to these troubled souls so that Africa can move forward? Is
there any role for the citizens? I would like to
hear from you.
Join the discussion in part
2 where we look at what troubles our leaders and the possible ways out…
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