By Kolawole Olanrewaju (Team-lead, KLA)

 

Africans do not require a unique talent before we can recognize the need for genuine leaders in our many fields of human development. 

 

Not to mention the men and women who have lived through periods of responsible leadership in the past, a ten-year-old child can name at least 10 flaws in the current system that dominates most African nations. I want you to know that this is not exaggerated at all. 

 

Some of us yearn to return to the era of this continent's great leaders—virtuous men and women. Leaders who were prepared to risk all to confront the unknowable and spark transformation in Africa

 

They understood that the price for a decent life for the upcoming generation is everything and they were ready not to withhold anything.

 

People like Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria, and Nelson Mandella of South Africa, Kofi Annan of Ghana to mention a few had laid good foundations which to the greatest disappointment have little or nothing built on them but rather are being destroyed by the current band of selfish leaders.

 

We were left wondering how we got here rather than taking advantage of the chances the continent had set for us. What's going on with us? How are we going to escape this? Can anything improve once more? etc 

 

When things were going well, it was good leadership; now when things aren't going well, it seems sense that bad leadership is to blame. 

 

Is it not pitiful that going backwards now makes more sense than moving forward?

 

The qualities that create genuine leaders are somehow gathering dust after being neglected for so long. Only a revival that forces every African to dust off these values and don them like a garment in all of our endeavors can bring about our salvation.

 

It's time we roll away the stone with our hands. It's with our own hands that we'll make our lives and the lives of our children better.

 

So help us, God

By Kolawole Olanrewaju