Why leadership is key in times of trouble

Demonstrators protesting the killings of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer and Vonderrit Myers Jr by an off-duty St. Louis police officer are confronted by police wearing riot gear on October 12, 2014 in St Louis, Missouri. SCOTT OLSON | GETTY IMAGES | AFP

What you need to know:

  • It is such voices from leaders that lack even in our northern Kenya, where the Garre and Degodia clans are busy slaughtering one another.
  • There must be efforts to build inclusivity when we are not under crisis to the extent that when differences emerge, we have some moderates who can bring sanity.
  • As China moves up the manufacturing ladder to more high-tech products, we must, through our leadership, begin to woo the Western world into using Africa as their production site.

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

- Nelson Mandela

Bitterness rent the air in the US city of St. Louis, Missouri, after another black teenager, Vonderrit Myers, was shot dead on Thursday by an off-duty white police officer.

This happened one day before the two-month anniversary of the death of the unarmed black teen Michael Brown, who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, barely 12 miles away.

People no longer have faith in the police as street protests continue. Many think it is racial profiling. But what is glaringly lacking to calm the irate people is leadership.

The governor, senators and representatives have not spoken. A black state senator carries the bullhorn and is among the protesters. What is striking on nearly all television stations is the position professionals are taking.

Most white legal experts have taken the position of the white policemen and all black legal experts have leaned towards the deceased victims. There are multiple stories emerging and no one is asking for investigations to find the truth of the matter.

Demonstrators protesting the killings of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer and Vonderrit Myers Jr by an off-duty St. Louis police officer are confronted by police wearing riot gear on October 12, 2014 in St Louis, Missouri. SCOTT OLSON | GETTY IMAGES | AFP

It is akin to tribal hatred in Africa, where the search for truth is often blurred by those who speak the loudest.

Politicians fear they might take a wrong stand in explosive issues like these killings, but it is what makes a leader in the long run. Great leaders are those who can stand firm against the majority of their followers.

The smooth transition of South Africa from white minority rule to majority rule was largely due to the firm leadership of Nelson Mandela. He was the symbol of the struggle against racial oppression and embodied the ability to forgive and reconcile. He went against the wishes of the majority in South Africa and lived to see his resolve bear fruit.

Martin Luther King Jr’s leadership advanced civil rights in America using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence in 1964.

Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India, employed nonviolent civil disobedience that led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

SILENCE FROM LEADERS

Malala Yousafzai has fought hatred in her home country of Pakistan and led a nonviolent movement for rights to education and for women, especially in the Swat Valley, where the local Taliban have banned girls from attending school. At a tender age of 17, she becomes the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner.

What do we learn from these thoughtful global leaders? Their nonviolent approach changed the world and we have every reason to emulate them.

Biographies of Malala Yousafzai are displayed at a bookstore in Islamabad on October 10, 2014. Malala was hailed as the "pride of Pakistan" by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, as a former fellow pupil said the award was a victory for every girl in the country. AFP PHOTO | AAMIR QURESHI

Perhaps it would have made sense for leaders in Missouri to come out and calm the people, while seeking to get to the bottom of the matter. It wouldn’t have mattered whether they were white or black, but their voice and message would have changed the situation.

It is such voices from leaders that lack even in our northern Kenya, where the Garre and Degodia clans are busy slaughtering one another. The leaders from the area rarely say much about the conflict.

It is rumoured that they are behind the killings and it is only through the leaders that the hatred between the two clans can be brought to a halt. It takes strong leadership to see beyond hatred and that is what we demand of our leaders.

In 2008, we savagely killed fellow countrymen and women simply because they spoke different languages from the one we knew. Very strong leadership is now required for us to go beyond hatred.

POLITICIANS RECRUIT YOUTH

What must dominate our tribal discourse is how we can avoid what happened from happening again. It cannot be that we always deal with issues when they happen.

There must be efforts to build inclusivity when we are not under crisis to the extent that when differences emerge, we have some moderates who can bring sanity. But more important, our leaders must constantly lead the discourse.

With a sustained threat of terrorism, peace continue to be elusive as hatred expands. From the emerging Islamic State terror group to Al-Shabaab, the world is not safe anymore. We must re-examine the individual contributions each one of us must make towards the future of peace.

I say that we each have something to contribute because many of our unemployed youth are being recruited by terror groups and radicalised to take up arms against their own.

It is not just terror groups that recruit vulnerable youths. The politicians also recruit youth for their own selfish ends.

The "use and dump" of the youth by leaders is the basis of many problems we face today. We fail to see opportunity that lurks around us for expediency.

WHY NOT EXPORT TUNA?

In the same fashion we recruit youths for specific assignments, we can recruit them into meaningful activities that are more sustainable. It's time we realized that idle youths, be they in America or Africa, are a problem that needs a concerted effort to deal with.

Africa, more than any other part of the world, has a better shot at dealing with the youth more meaningfully. This is because Africa is perhaps the only continent that has least exploited her resources.

African countries on the Indian Ocean have never engaged in commercial fishing, yet between January and July, tuna fish come to the warm waters off Eastern Africa to spawn. Asian countries pay peanuts to fish commercially in our waters.

A fishmonger cuts up chunks of tuna at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo on July 12, 2013. Tsukiji market is the world's largest fish market, dealing with over 2,000 tons of marine products daily for fish dealers, supermarket and restaurants. AFP PHOTO / YOSHIKAZU TSUNO

Fish exports from these countries that fish commercially in our waters run into billions of dollars. Why should we be seeking AGOA extensions when we don’t export even one tuna fish to the US?

WE MUST WOO THE WEST

Global population dynamics give Africa an advantage. This means that in terms of manufacturing we can give China a run for its money, but due to lack of discipline and a bit of creativity we keep on hoping that things come on a silver platter.

Many American and European products, like the iPhone, are manufactured in China. What, for example, Apple have are the brand and the technology.

We must understand global trends around innovation and manufacturing and focus our energies on a more promising future.

As China moves up the manufacturing ladder to more high-tech products, we must, through our leadership, begin to woo the Western world into using Africa as their production site.

The research production in the West still leads the world. We cannot hope to build industries by ignoring research production sites.

NEITHER POLICE NOR PROTESTERS

I stand to be corrected when I say that the youth crisis is more serious than we can admit. The teenagers killed in the US were idle with no employment in sight, and I have a feeling that the problem is neither the police nor the protesters. This is what leadership will seek to solve.

The problem is rampant unemployment that precipitates crime or the perception of criminal behaviour.

We have done well in educating our youth. In their thinking, they have done what is expected of them. It now requires great leadership to get us out of trouble.

Anything else is tantamount to burying our head in the sand. Resentments or bitterness does not kill the enemy. It kills the host.

Bitange Ndemo is a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi's School of Business, Lower Kabete campus. He is a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication. Twitter: @bantigito