
Undoubtedly, there are many sides to the character displayed by leaders in different capacities of endeavors, and whichever disposition they may tend to be upon, there can be said, to it, that much confidence is placed on the reasoning that the people (electorate) who paved way for such leaders majorly have to do with such leadership dispositions. This is to say that the leadership style and manners are reflective of the type of persons being led and thus, creating a mirror image of both the leader and the led.
The direction of movement of the administration or government of a group reflects the nature of the constituent people who make up such group entity, because for each tenure of leadership comes an intention/motive – from the people – that drives their interest in the preferred direction they want to be navigated upon. Some groups though, among the total group of people that decides the emergence of a leader, may have differed in their choice of leader, but such is usually of few sum, as compared to the major count of people whose pool of interest and effort brought the emerging leader to light.
The kind of driving principles behind the modus operandi of a leadership gives a clue to how its followership reasons, and the inference as per sync between the followers and leader, in that regard, won’t be far-fetched. In various matters that will affect the group, both the favoring and non-favoring strategies that will be adopted, to tackle the matters, by such administration/government will be, within a great confident level, linked to the type of followers who were responsible for the existence of the government, as like minds will come almost equal in thoughts.
In the event of bad/displeasing phase of leadership policies and stands, it is more accurate to say that the people are similar to the resulting policies, even though in every bad situation, there will always be good people whose voices have been impeded by the overwhelming force of the bad ones. In like manner, for the good policies of government too, it can be said that the positive forces from the good people are major shareholders in the upholding of such pleasant principles, which will in turn benefit everyone. This proves that the nature of a ruler is a ripple effect of the choice/interest of the people who have brought him in, as what they churned out, in the hope for a return on their investment, is what they will be served with, in the long or short run of the governing party.
“And We made from among them leaders guiding by Our command when they were patient and [when] they were certain of Our signs.” Qur’an 32:24. This is a clear indication that leaders, in any capacity – be it large or small – will treat justly their people, if they were chosen with purest of intentions and not on the basis of underlaid corrupt thoughts, which, in either way, will have their respective consequences.
May we not partake in our own destruction through negative leadership and may Allah make us reflective of leaders that will be merciful upon us, with no nature of tyranny, Aameen
Ismail Abogunde, Editor-in-Chief at The Muslim Voice, Nigeria. Contact: abogundedarey@gmail.com