The past few days have been rather eventful, many of
those interested in offering themselves for leadership positions at my School
have been up and about, helter-skelter if you like, making their declarations,
official or unofficial I know less of the difference. But true to the fact,
many are telling us of what we already know but of course others are just
announcing themselves to the political stage. Not so long from today we shall
gladly (or otherwise) sit back and watch them play out as protagonists in their
own plot, with majority acting as supporting cast and like every show we shall
have victors and villains.
The declarations that have been filtering through
got me trudging back down memory lane about the far we have come, the number of
past declarations I have heard and of course the countless manifestos that have
been recycled to fit the purpose. The most visible change through the years is
the timing for start of campaigns. Those who have walked the journey with me
will remember that in our year one, it wasn't until the positions were
advertised that majority of us got to know of those standing. It has changed
over the years and today before even the first Christmas gift has arrived, half
of those offering themselves have already given express notice to the entire
world about their intentions. The remaining half, either having given
constructive notice of their aspirations or hoping to do so before we have our
end of year prayers. It speaks to many things, perhaps it is the level of
competition that we ought to appreciate.
Or just maybe the Equity and Trusts classes are being given a more
practical approach these days. Maxims in our days were just another lecture but
for many today their application especially the long held equity maxim that
'for two competing equities, the first in time prevails' is being effectively
applied. Whatever reason it is, I know that a time shall come when campaigns
will be opened at the Finalists Dinner.
As the declarations of individuals kept flocking in,
I noticed one of my colleague's status that stopped anyone from bothering him
with manifestos after all he had lost faith in young leaders and would not be
voting in our forthcoming Society elections. It intrigued me because this was
an opinion of someone I held in high regard and it caused me to reflect on the
nature of leadership those who have served us before have offered. Had they
served to our satisfaction, did they do their best in the positions they held,
what more would they have done, were the pledges fulfilled? All these questions
came flooding in a torrent. He told me that with the exception of a few, many
of those who had taken up leadership positions before had been a huge joke. I understand
why he gave a few exceptions particularly because he has served in his position
for three years now and for every year his mandate has been renewed with
unanimous approval. But on a personal basis I feel at school level we don’t speak
of as much disappointment as compared with university level. My own conviction
is that service to others is the rent you pay for your room on earth and many
of our leaders have done their best.
However why many
may disagree with me and why my colleague above disagrees is that politics is
not attracting as many good people as it should be. That is not to say that
those in the fray are bad people but many choose to stay away majorly because
of the rigours that come with running a campaign. It shouldn’t be an excuse
that it is more difficult to convince intending lawyers but it should bother us
if they demand for perks and perquisites. A retired local politician once asked
me as between a university student that gets sweets and an elder in the village
that gets soap and sugar for votes, who is the greedier one? My answer was that
both were greedy but he insisted and said the one who gets a sweet is the one
most greedy and this was his reason. He claimed that on the test of ‘necessity and
luxury’, the sweets were something that one could easily do away with as
opposed to the sugar and salt. But I feel we can create an environment that
begins to attract the leaders that we want around.
I wish all the
candidates the best political environment there is, to make their voices heard.
There are races I will certainly keep my eyes glued on and two of such races is
the race for the English Premier League title and the race for the top four.
Good luck!
