By Emmanuel Okwii
Embracing good or moral leadership entails a deep understanding of what leadership is and what it means by being a good leader. Although many scholars and individuals have had different perceptions of leadership, I would like my readers to view leadership as the ability to steer individuals under one’s control with the intention of creating results that could not be arrived at before the coming in of such a leader. For this reason, a moral leader should have a sense of self direction, self awareness, social awareness, ability to motivate and extraordinary vision if he is to create and achieve results. With poverty and corruption eating the nerves and arteries of societies in the world, it is almost impossible to come by moral leaders. Whereas moral leaders ideally wouldn’t be elected, many political and other leadership candidates in the world vie for leadership positions claiming that they are moral enough. When they start making decision and implementing policies, they ignore the people that put them to such positions and work only to fatten their pockets, build their political strongholds and ignore the voice of the masses.
To me, the moral leadership style is one that puts at forefront the usefulness of dialogue, values and attitudes in social deliberations, public rallies, offices, positions and in the decision making and policy implementation process. In this case, political, cultural, social or administrative heads are required not only to use values and attitudes to govern their decision making but to be obliged to do the right thing and not just what is right. It is a leadership style devoid of lies, self-centredness and selfishness. This kind of leadership is a very challenging one especially where dictatorship is to be employed in implementing government or administrative policies. However, it should be noted that moral leadership does not sometimes spring from the personality of the leader himself but from the social fabric. When a leader is compelled to share judgements with others, then he will be moral in his actions. A moral leader speaks and his voice is heard, they advise and speak about morality in the society and if what comes out of their mouths is sensible enough to be followed; then they will be given the title of moral leader.
Moral leadership is and will continue to be a challenge in many modern institutions, governments and societies across the world. Many leaders still do not want to be criticized and worse so, do not want to learn from criticism. Several of world leaders still lack focus and more so, do not want to maintain a focus on the future of their leadership styles; they are poor listeners who do not want feedback on their leadership and this consequently affects the spirit of teamwork in leadership. Rarely do you hear of today’s leaders conceding a mistake or step back so others can step up but they instead lack humility and do not want to accept constructive dissent. In the words of Jim Rohn,…. the challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly……..
As already noted, the concept of being a moral leader in Today’s modern society is not always more woven to elections or appointments to public offices than it is to an individual. Moral leaders assume their positions and work to advise on public morality. Their voices are strong enough and they speak to the moral sense of the society. A vivid example of such leadership was seen in the person of Martin Luther King who spoke to the moral sense of the Americans and he is honoured for that today.
In Uganda, the role played by Mrs. Betty Bigombe to ensure peace and reconciliation in the war-torn northern Uganda in the 90’s cannot be ignored. She trod the paths that many appointed peace mediators between Joseph Kony’s LRA rebels and the Ugandan Government had trodden on but with a lot of failures. Her self determination and life-risking quest for peace brought her face-to-face with one of the most merciless rebel leaders the world has ever seen. Through her, sustainable peace was realized although she was accused of cooling president Museveni’s ego and chastising the profiteering Uganda People’s Defense Force’s [UPDF] generals. Her morality, moral power and moral authority was able to coax Joseph Kony into a peace deal with the Ugandan government.
On the same line is Dr. Kizza Besigye, leader of Uganda’s FDC party who broke away from the current government in 1999 because of irregularities in governance. Though a bush war comrade of president Museveni during the 1982 to 1986 guerrilla war that toppled President Apollo Milton Obote, the growing levels of corruption in the Museveni regime was not to his taste. Besigye openly accused the regime that he had been serving under as corrupt, undemocratic, opportunistic, sectarian and dishonest. He then went ahead to stand against his former leader thrice between 2001 to 2011 without success. He consistently attributes his lack of success in the elections to massive rigging, intrigue and bribery. Although always oppressed, arrested and detained for his activism; he has continuously held demonstrations over the purchase of military hardware, rising militarization of governance in Uganda and the extensive corruption in the Uganda Public service. He opposed the purchase of 2012 Sukhoi combat jets and the extension of budgetary allocations for Uganda state house yet teachers are not being paid.
Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid was one of the biggest examples of moral leadership. A society in which racial and skin colour distinctions wouldn’t be made was his vision. Not only was this his view, but a notion that existed amongst the many African and Boer communities in South Africa by then. He didn’t rule for more than four years because he knew that morally the voice of the people wouldn’t be with him. This is a sharp contrast to leadership in Africa where leaders literally become fossils in power. A clear example is that of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the leadership crisis in Africa stem from the inexistence of moral leaders. For instance, the expulsion of Julius Malema from the South African ANC is a battle between vision and dealing with change. The South African government has failed to maintain morality in leadership and when change agents sprout; they are crushed as in the case of Malema.
Worthy of notice too is Liberia’s Johnson Sirleaf who started her activism while still in government serving under President William Tubman. While in the treasury department as a junior minister, she had the moral courage to stand against the president, not just once, but several times. She strongly opposed the then government’s oversized expenditure and consequently resigned. African governments spend at leisure and most of the resources are wired into administration as opposed to public development. Nowhere in Africa have we seen cabinet ministers opposing their heads while still in office.
In a nutshell therefore, since many leaders today see no gain in becoming the voice of a society without any pecuniary settlement; they contest for leadership positions. Many of them seek to use their positions to accumulate wealth, win sexual favours, undermine rivals and advance their selfish whims. Leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa like President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda are not concerned with giving service to their community. They work to advance their careers, privileges and their own ideas. The level of morality in leadership has greatly diminished due to poverty and great suffering that the people are undergoing. It is only until leaders bend to social opinions, desist from selfishness, listen to the masses and champion the fight against corruption and all forms of injustices that we will have a fertile ground for the cultivation of moral leadership. Communal and individual responsibility to leadership must be emphasized and leaders must know that there is shared origin and destination in moral leadership.
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