Leadership: What Has Age Got To Do with It?

Youth is about The Freshness of Ideas” – Anonymous.

I love the argument for youthful leadership every political season. That it is seasonal brings to question the altruism of its proponents. And this is where I differ with those who seek to reduce political leadership to such pedestrian level of consideration. 

Leadership is about our everyday activity, while youthfulness is a phase of biological development. You do not need to be a youth to advance the course of every day life. This is why examples abound on both ends, for and against. 

We have had great Leaders. Whether as youths or late adults, and have also had bad leaders in like manner. Citing examples may amount to “name dropping” or something around the vicinity of libel. But, critical observers would agree with me that it takes more than Age to make a good leader.

This is why when I see young people mouthing “Youthfulness” as the only resource that qualifies them for leadership, I grind in disgust. Chronological discrimination as a precondition for aspiring to leadership is almost as stale as the times have proven.  

In 2017, we talked about the need for a “Youth Governor”. Fortunately, I was on that train. However, beyond the youth thingy and pockets of illogical reasons, there was really nothing spectacular about our campaign then. We saw it during the debates. While there was a balance in comportment, the blandness of certain ideas espoused by some youth candidates left little for discerning Ndi Anambra to desire. 

The same clamour has resurged in 2020 along the same empty tracks that leaves us more confused than we were. Beyond the singsong for a “Youth Governor”, our brothers leading this chorus are yet to provide us with the essentials of their youth Governors. We do not even know their leadership credentials let alone understand the drive behind their faceless ambition.

If the mass of Anambra people must agree to this call for a youth governor, then it has to be premised on ideas. Fortunately, great ideas are not the exclusive preserve of the “youths”. 

Therefore, if we must choose a Governor based on merit, we must look out for the freshness of ideas together with the proven capacity to execute these ideas. 

This is the desire of Ndi Anambra. Not some impressionable fellows with an unusual sense of entitlement.

– Mazi Ejimofor OparaWrites from Awka, Anambra State.