Be A Servant Leader: A Keynote to All Newly Elected Student Leaders!

Whenever the "tick-tock bell" is rang, a multitude of young highly poised pioneers from all walks of life, briskly and assertively troop into the well designed garden of leadership journey. Across the axis of the sky could one see a rainbow of zealousness and burning desire, to augment and leverage the already existing slate of legacy of their predecessors. The magnetic fields of "blood sucking" tunnel condition the minds and souls of many at this time, as a lot of them lose sight of their manifest directional compass, and embrace deadly and foggy domineering lens, which luckily and unfortunately might land them on an unreturnable journey.

An apparel of flattery strategic shield and highly possessed chains of wealth amassment, continues to swallow the bodily orientation of most of the agents in the garden. Some even put in place mechanisms to block the inflow of Godly soothing atmospheric words of wisdom from Heralds and elderly Godly oriented and acquainted people within and across the four directional poles of the country.

Subscriptions are being made for the alter of seduction and manipulation of the minds of the masses for their blood sucking goals and ambitions.

During these periods, the skills and strategies of communication are highly imperative for building strong alliance with the masses and winning their priceless political rights in the long run. A pool of money is being injected and invested in hiring the most competent communicator and marketing manger to develop an airway and luring diffusive "state of an art device", to pinhole the thinking pattern and ideology of every student, in order to redirect and condition their minds and spirits towards their " seductive vineyard".

An endless tail and tale of policies are proclaimed, whose viability and feasibility are mostly as slim as the hole of a needle. But above all, since it's a requirement and a prerequisite of the political game, by serving as a yardstick for student populace to assess their visionary lens and leadership competencies. Interestingly and dramatically, when asked some of these aspirants about how they are going to implement and sustain their claimed engineered policies, then they begin to write their Autobiography and Biography of their predecessors, as if a cloud of unending storm and cold apparel have buried them in silence, and taken away their linguistic capacity.

Lo and behold, the day of voting is declared, and students from all walks of life race briskly to the various vote casting points, to exercise their franchise, for their preferred candidate. This day is prepositioned as "do or die" affair, as busses and special packages are set to purposely lure students and win their political rights, if possible, because they're of the view that the day of voting goes a long way to determine the greater part of the entire election results. Massive amount of marketing broadcasting networks and altruistic endeavors rise abnormally during this short period.

Luckily and unfortunately, only one aspirant emerges as the Victor, while the rest commune or disintegrate in short-term mixed feelings and static dilemma.

Testing of leadership competencies and expectancy of committed servanthood to the electorates and the world at large, emerges immediately after the elections. This is the period to showcase your love, care and respect for humanity and the Supreme Being. Often times, the status quo of student leaders getting incubated in their cubicles some few weeks after elections, and highly distant from the masses is heartbreaking and mind troubling.

However, there must be a sustainable difference in this year's leadership journey. We must always be conscious that, every step we take must have a lasting impact on many generations.

We must precisely acknowledge that every student's life and wellbeing has been fully entrusted in us, therefore, we must do all it takes to make the best out of every resource bestowed on us, and presented at our disposal. We mostly forget that students are the major resource we can ever make effective use of, invest fully in, and raise their lives above the heavenly stars. Maya Angelou once asserted that, " people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel". This is the foundational imperative of leadership. It transcends doing, acting, initiating, mobilizing, sharing, showing, impacting, leading, influencing and connecting. It's best administered when people own the entire process, get actively involved and in the end feel that they did it together, and have fully been educated, impacted, rejuvenated, awakened, and experiencing a burning desire to go the extra mile to establish the best world for the generation yet to come.

Servanthood is not a static personality structure that determines and directs the operational activities of people, but a complete decision of commitment, humility, passion and willingness to serve wholeheartedly; in seasons and out of seasons, for the benefit of all mankind. It eschews actions geared toward fulfilling one's aggrandizement. But pictures a world where equality, equity, justice and empowerment are the key measuring instruments, necessary for the attainment of a well thriving society.

Advisably and imperatively, we must take the best actions to implement and sustain every policy we proclaimed and promised the world. This is very critical because it suggests our level of faithfulness and genuineness to serve humanity, but not just position occupants, who may be blown away soon by a little wind. This is also the time to reframe and redesign our generic policies into feasible and sustainable ones, in order to enable us mobilize and utilize all the resources within and outside our environment to make full realization of our goals and visions. Students must be holistically and actively involved all the time, to hold them answerable for every promise or policy they proclaimed to fulfil. This will always put them on check to strive assiduously and diligently to serve the needs of the students at all times.

More significantly, "the God factor" must always be fountain we must thirst and hunger for. Without it, we're totally lost, and all our dreams will be shattered forever.

Above all, effective blending of servant leadership skills and management strategies creates an excellent room for good governance, transparency and accountability to thrive well.

Author: Theophilus Quaicoe
Email: [email protected]

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