Proverbs 29:2 (NKJV)

2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.

It’s always good to start with “the good” and I truly believe we have a good government today especially when compared with the past and as made famous by John Maxwell; “Everything rises and falls with leadership” and in that area we have unique leadership especially with the president and his vice. I know you will be asking if it’s that good why are we still groaning! Well that’s what this is about.

The bad as I indicated in my blog tilted ‘Don’t Leave Nigeria’s Leadership Alone!’ Is the problems we have created and inherited as well as from decades of neglect and our current reliance on old methodology, technology and ideology. Innovation and creativity inspired by righteous inspiration and thinking as opposed to motivated by greed and selfishness. Human ideas create technology and innovation. It is ideas–not technology–that are the fundamental force creating wealth. – Paul Zane a Pilzer

The Ugly for me is the breakdown of communication by the government as well as a failure in carrying the nation with it and involving us especially this young generation whose lives have been influenced by the technological revolution that has made this a global village. It was the tools of communication that helped this government win, but today there Is deafening silence from our government to its people. 

Almost every government in recent times have ignored and failed to talk with its people, in the midst of fuel shortages, dwindling exchange rates and even the horrible deaths at the hand of Boko Haram terrorism. The gap between those in authority and us in ever widening yet a simple or regular update or well calculated responses and addresses to the people even when the “king” does not yet have the solution is a source of blessing and peace.

Ecclesiastes 8:4 (NKJV)

4 Where the word of a king is, there is power; And who may say to him, “What are you doing?” This is where the power lies even from company heads to their staff or from corporations to its customers, how much more a government to its people, one word can alleviate fear and bring confidence. We must talk and take people with us in this journey of life!

Part of leadership is telling a story about where we are going – Barack Obama said on Oprah during his first term. For the rest of his term, President Obama says he hopes to better communicate his vision for the country with the citizens. “I think that in the first two years we were so busy just trying to solve problems that sometimes I forgot that part of leadership is being able to tell a story about where we’re going and what we’re doing,” he says.

“We did that very well during the campaign. We projected a vision of where America needs to go, and then we got into the governance of it. … Sometimes we forgot to be in a conversation with the American people where we said, ‘You know, this is why we’re doing it. This is where we need to go.'” 

This is where we need to go too, as a nation and with this government in particular it seems to me we are at an hour of visitation and we are not aware of of this unique opportunity to pray and fight for the salvation of the people and the soul of this nation lost in unprecedented corruption and evil in the hearts of man. 

Luke 19:41-44 (NIV)

“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation””

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer and veteran TV correspondent and reporter Tavis Smiley captures my heart for this country and this government when he said: 

“Great presidents are not born they are made, no abraham lincoln without his opponent pushing him to greatness and taking risks  The bottom line is, to answer your question, great presidents aren’t born. Great presidents are made. They have to be pushed into their greatness. There is no Abraham Lincoln without Frederick Douglas pushing him. There is no FDR without A. Philip Randolph pushing him. There is no LBJ without MLK pushing him.”

Great presidents are or become great because they’re ushered into, they’re pushed into their greatness. I don’t want Barack Obama to be just another garden variety politician. This can’t be just about symbolism and not substance. And at the end of the day he can’t start this Clinton triangulation now that he has a divided Congress. 

I want him to be — black America wants him to be a great president. That happens when you lovingly and respectfully help push them into their greatness. Here’s the bottom line. We have to — quoting my friend Cornell West (phd), we have to respect the president, we have to protect the president against birther vulgar, vicious attacks, you’ve got to respect him, you’ve got to protect him, but out of love, you have to also correct him. 

That’s our job with this president and for that matter any other president”

What say you today?
Francis E. Madojemu