Leadership and Career

 By
 Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba KSC

 Presented at the FRACON

 Theme: Called to be Different
 November 3, 2018, St. Peter’s Anglican Church
Umuariam Obowo
 Appreciation

 Our Bishop, Rt. Rev. DOC Onuoha

 Engr. Austin Ama
 Others
 Two Broad Understanding
of these theme

 1. Spiritual wellbeing of man

 2. Physical well being of man

 These two are interrelated in many ways

 However we shall focus more on the physical wellbeing
of man
 Leadership and career

 Leadership (vs followership)

 Leadership (management, control, guidance, headship,
direction, governance)

 Career (vocation, job, calling, occupation, business,

line of business, employment, profession); Career (life-
long; livelihood)
 Leadership

 Who is your favorite leader by spheres (Political, social,

financial, intellectual, religious, traditional/cultural,
…)?
 Why is that person your favorite leaders/What qualities?

 Why is leadership important?

 - A group without a leader is a mob
 - A group of sheep led by a lion vs aa group of lions led
by a sheep
 - What lessons do we learn from these two?
 Youth and Leadership

 1. Biblical Examples
 - David, Nehemiah

 2. Nigeria examples (Aged 30+ or less)

 - Azikiwe, Awolowo, Bello, et al.
 Some attributes of leadership

 Visionary (far-sighted, idealistic, principled. fervent, ardent,

committed, perceptive, insightful, discerning, judicious,
intuitive, instinctive, etc.)
 Focused (attentive, motivated, dedicated, etc.)
 Targeted (directed, engaged, concentrating, thinking, rational,
discerning, intelligent, rapt, engrossed, etc.)
 Courage (Valor, boldness, heroism, audacity, bravely, daring,
etc.)
 Public-hearted/general or common-good
 Non-discriminatory
 Accommodating (long-suffering, willing, accepting, etc.)
 Etc.
 Problems/Challenges
of Leadership

 Lessons from Nehemiah

 - Which problems/challenges?

 Lessons from David

 - Which problems/challenges?
 What are the problems/
challenges in Nigeria today
requiring leadership?
 Reflect on these by sectors/areas with specific suggestions on how to
address them
 - Education
 - Health
 - Insecurity
 - (Youth) Unemployment
 - In families
 - In Communities
 - In the Church
 - Etc.
 Career
(and Youth Unemployment)

 What kind of career

 Why should you have a career? (A rolling stone gathers no moose;
anaghi eji ukwu abuo ene ogwe)
 When do you decide on a career? (If you do not know where you
are headed, every way is a road)
 What informed your choice of career? (I want to be like this
person; do you have the same attributes/qualities; kpam isi a
kpara Agnes, Isi gi odi ka nke Agnes?)

 Lesson:
 - Do something, equip your self for the future, go to school, learn
a trade/skills acquisition, start buying-and selling
 Some (Unpopular) Courses
and Opportunities

 Music
 Fine and Applied Arts
 Theatres Arts
 Languages (Igbo, French, etc.)
 Single Honours courses (Mathematics, Chemistry,
Physics, etc,).

 Most of these have great Entrepreneurial opportunities

in Nigeria, yet to be explored
 Prepare for your future
But who knows the future?
 One thing certain about the future is that there will be
changes.
 Another certain thing is that no one knows what the future
will be.
 Some other things certain about the future includes:
 - People must eat food, cloth, live in shelters, get sick, seek
happiness.
 Lesson
 - For the risk-minimizer focus your education, skill
acquisition, buying-and-selling on these sectors
 - For the risk-taker, imagine a world without paper, of Nano
technologies and robots
 Nigeria: her past, present,
and future?

 Recall how our society was 30 years ago, today, and

imagine the next 30 years.
 - What are your expectations?

 What areas/sectors where important 30 years ago, and

that are no longer the case?; then imagine the next 30
years?
 - What changes do you expect?
 - How should you begin to prepare for then?
 Some possible variables with
implications for Nigeria’s
future
 Rising population growth
 Further accelerating urbanization
 New family patterns, high divorce rates, family instability,
 Continued mass unemployment
 Increasing poverty and other anti-social problems
 Poor quality public governance
 Poor quality school leavers at all levels without adequate
knowledge nor character (Literacy, numeracy, and logic)
 Poor quality teachers, Doctors, lawyers, Engineers, pharmacists,
no mechatronics (not mechanics) to repair our vehicles etc.
 More fake pastors, and false religion/pseudo-Christianity. Etc.
 Its about attitude,
knowledge and competence

 I recently learnt these from a recent trip.

 Commonly missing among many young persons/and
adults
 - People want wealth without work
 Certificates without education, etc.
 Faulty reward system
 Wealth requires the right attitude,
knowledge and competence and is
endorsed by God (Weber’s puzzle: Why is Nigeria so religious, yet so poor? by Olu Fasan,
August 6, 2018)

 The idea of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of

Capitalism
 - Max Weber, the German philosopher and political
economist
 - the “spirit of capitalism” can engender prosperity and
that the “spirit” is strongly correlated with religion,
particularly Protestantism
 Max Weber and
Benjamin Franklin

 Weber drew on the work of Benjamin Franklin, one of

America’s founding fathers, who set out key principles,
such as:
 “Time is money” and
 “Credit is money “as well as
 the virtues of industry, frugality and honesty.
 Thus, the spirit of capitalism combines two elements
 (1) the impulse to accumulate wealth and
 (2) a frugal life-style.
 The former requires a disciplined labour force and a
regularised investment of capital;
 the latter requires thrift and “this-worldly asceticism”.
 The idea is that wealth should be accumulated not for
conspicuous or spontaneous consumption but for the
betterment of society
 These values, found in the Bible,
include:
 diligence, hard work, self-control, thrift and honesty. The
overarching ideas of “duty” and “calling” are common to both
capitalism and Christianity.

 For instance, Ecclesiastes 9:10 says “Whatever your hand finds

to do, do it with your might”

 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10 puts it more bluntly: “If any would not
work, neither should he eat”

 The Bible abhors laziness and idleness, as well as profligacy and

waste. It sets out the injunctions to save, invest and act with
honesty, prudence and discretion in business.
We Thank God for this
opportunity to serve (A-M
170; Psalm 19:1)
 THE spacious firmament on high,
 With all the blue ethereal sky,
 And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
 Their great Original proclaim.
 Th' unwearied Sun from day to day 5
 Does his Creator's power display;
 And publishes to every land
 The work of an Almighty hand.
 Soon as the evening shades prevail,
 The Moon takes up the wondrous tale; 10
 And nightly to the listening Earth
 Repeats the story of her birth:
 Whilst all the stars that round her burn,
 And all the planets in their turn,
 Confirm the tidings as they roll, 15
 And spread the truth from pole to pole.
 What though in solemn silence all
 Move round the dark terrestrial ball;
 What though nor real voice nor sound
 Amidst their radiant orbs be found? 20
 In Reason's ear they all rejoice,
 And utter forth a glorious voice;
 For ever singing as they shine,
 'The Hand that made us is divine.'
 Thank you