Taking Up Leadership Positions

Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge uprightly among men? No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth. Psalm 58 verses 1 and 2.

The Nigerian example - how not to do it
Being Nigerian, I am so often bemused by our political leaders. They criminally amass Nigeria’s wealth for themselves and families and yet, when they need medical treatment, must fly to Europe or America because we have few hospitals to call hospitals in our own country.

The roads they drive their luxury cars on are death traps. They give speeches to the world, marketing Nigeria as an investment climate but plough their own investments into foreign lands and foreign bank accounts. They dig boreholes in their homes and have the power generator switched on 24hrs a day because the power holding company leaks power instead of generating it - and the national water authority, well, has no authority. Completely un-intelligible.

We set up the Nigerian Harvard Law Students Alumni Association but do very little to address or confront pressing law and development challenges in our country. It is always and everywhere a status thing, and never a leadership and social responsibility issue.

I have a dream: the long walk to freedom
We all admire the likes of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa – but why? They were driven by their convictions. They acted in response to social and political ills that they could not accept as individuals - and in turn discovered that many others felt the very same way but had not had the stomach to make a difference.

Jesus irrefutably made a difference. St Paul made a difference. Doctor of Jewish law: the schooled Saul. And yet he totally and completely let his conversion and convictions drive him. Mary Magdalene – and no, I am not hesitating to use her as an example. She was the woman with the alabaster box – poured a perfume worth a year’s salary on her Lord. Her purpose was to unreservedly honour Him Who had giving her life true meaning – no matter what it would cost her financially.

Lessons from a Cricketer and the Makings of a Social Justice Politician
I watched a programme on CNN the other week on the Pakistani cricketer now turned politician, Imran Khan.

Privileged background, Oxford University, international playboy et al, Khan embarked on an international cricketing career and then married the heiress Jemima Goldsmith. Back in Pakistan, dismayed by the social and political injustice he saw all around him, he became a philanthropist (partly driven by the passing of his mother from cancer – there was no hospital in Pakistan to treat cancer) and built a world class hospital to treat the poor and underprivileged for cancer.

He then embarked on a political career, setting up his own political party, Movement for Justice, and became an MP. The movement's main focus is to bring justice to the people of Pakistan, largely via an independent judiciary. I’ll mention how his marriage broke down as a result of this later.

Stirring up the Pakistani Orange Revolution
It is not insignificant that the current political crisis in Pakistan, fuelled by the President’s questionable sacking of the Chief Justice, has highlighted the plight of legal inequity and non-independence of the Judiciary in Pakistan - and of course you know that the legal inequity always and everywhere favours the rich against the poor, right? Now his party has gained renewed prominence, and I hope will gain grounds in the coming elections.

Khan took up social and political leadership and responded to the cry to judge uprightly among men. The word on the street is that the Movement for Justice was inspired partly by Khan's renewed commitment to Islam.

Food for thought, Christian soldiers.

Well, Miss Ruka, what are you doing then?
Well, I don’t have plans to set up my own political party, but I do hold leadership positions on a number of outreach initiatives here on the African continent - where I volunteer my professional knowledge and experience in an advisory capacity for initiatives to benefit the under privileged. It can be that simple.

Can two walk together unless they agree?
The point about Imran Khan’s marriage breakdown is this. Whilst he was busy finding and executing purpose, his wife, quite rightly, wanted to enjoy the fullest of conjugal bliss - with her spouse’s time. But with the purpose driven Imran I assume devoting insufficient quality time (note, not quantity) to his spouse and family, a divorce came knocking on their marital door.

What I found insightful about Imran Khan’s response to the break up is this: he echoed words to the effect that his marriage presented him with the happiest moments of his life, but once the marriage was over, he just moved on and pursued his purpose all the more.

The point is, such people, mad with purpose, will just go on doing what they feel they need to do. It’s almost as though the purpose, the dream, is their elixir.

Who were those deranged script writers and film producers who said Jesus was married when He was here on earth? Yeah, right.

Lessons from St Paul
When St Paul said it is better not to marry I think I now understand what he meant. I don’t think he was not saying that we should not marry at all – what I think he was saying was that some of us will be so driven by purpose that it could almost consume us – to the chagrin of our spouse and family.

‘Do not be unequally yoked.’ It’s time to give this Biblical instruction wider scope. Might we therefore be obliged to carefully consider and ensure that we can and are prepared to bear the yoke of our spouse's commission? Me thinks so.

Me also thinks we must in tandem pursue our own God-given purpose – and not wait for that purpose to be defined by our spouse or partner. And oh no, I am not suggesting that our own purpose should conflict with that of our partner’s. In fact it must not, for then two will not walk together for they will not agree. If our two purposes can actually be complementary – then we are in business.

Leadership Responsibilities and Domestic Management
A possibel remedy? Making quality time available for the domestic front - for these also are a part of our God-given commissions and our leadership responsibilities. A friend and colleague who is as equally purpose driven and busy with a capital b as her husband tells me this: ‘‘life is too short to whinge. Make and take every opportunity to enjoy quality time – not whinge time.”

Something to offer to this world
Our leadership and social responsibilities may not be as celebrated as those of Mandela or Imran Khan, but we all have a responsibility to be true to our convictions, redeem the time, take hold of every opportunity and rise up to the leadership and social responsibility challenges which come forth as a result.

Our experiences, knowledge and contributions are far greater and wider than we suppose, and many around us need to learn, grow and benefit from our experience and knowledge much more that we suppose. Let's reach out whilst managing our domestic world.

No one is going to change the world for us but ourselves.