John Edmund Haggai, a Leadership guru, and founder of the Haggai Institute for Advanced Leadership Training has defined leadership as: “the discipline of deliberately exerting special influence within a group to move it toward goals of beneficial permanence that fulfill the group’s real needs.”

The Bible says that where there is no vision the people do perish. (Prov 29:18). Yet not everyone in a group is endowed with the gift of vision. What distinguishes a leader and sets him/her apart from others in the group is his or her vision, his or her commitment to act upon the vision – the courage to dare that is also known as sense of mission, and his or her readiness to pay the price.

The leader must not only be knowledgeable, wise and understanding, but also he or she must in his or her person encapsulate the collective aspiration and corporate dreams of the people. He or she envisions the long-for future of justice, peace, prosperity, and well-being of the people, and possesses what it takes for the people to get to that longed-for future. A leader is necessarily an energetic person, with a rare drive and an all-consuming passion for the common good.  He or she has an immense courage to dare, unusual staying power, and an abundant spirit of self-sacrifice.

A leader is one who is able to manage effectively the differences tensions and conflicts in the group, and indeed transform them to positive ends for the beneficial permanence of the people. Thus the leader we need for Nigeria is one who is able to see the multiple crises of our land today as “a dangerous opportunity” that can be harnessed for the good of this country.

Nigeria has for 46 years remained a potential force. With our 120 million people, with our abundant natural resources, with the variety of ideas in our complex polity, and the time in our hands, we remain nevertheless a potential force. We need a leader who is able to turn these elements – people, ideas, resources and time into an active force for the regeneration of our land, for the transformation of our country….

The leader we need is a person of ideas, a person of character, a person of principles, a person of discipline, a person of humility, a person of truth and honesty, a humble person, a charismatic person, etc.