HOW DO WE LEARN TO LEAD MORE JUSTLY WHEN WE HAVE BEEN CONDITIONED BY SO MANY EXAMPLES OF UNPRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP?

Warning:
Way too deep for a travel blog, I know. Way too long an entry for a blog- what can I say? "I'm verbose." :)

The participants in the program (about 80 individuals, mostly men, ages 18-35 and from all the senatorial districts of Rivers State) experienced a simulation exercise that revealed just how difficult it is to demonstrate creative, community-oriented, empowering leadership. In the simulation, each cluster group was assigned a different identity (i.e. governor, family of high-ranking officer, militants, minister of finance, heads of NGOs, heads of civil societies, young people, etc.). They were also given tasks or issues to resolve: ameliorate the traffic situation, improve education; plan a birthday party for the high-ranking official’s daughter; respond to the HIV epidemic, etc.

They were all in their cluster groups in various corners of the large assembly hall, and then, in the middle of the simulation, there was a KIDNAPPING OF THE HIGH-RANKING OFFICIAL’S DAUGHTER. (Of course the conference facilitators had planned the kidnapping with just the group assigned to be the militant citizens, but none of the other participants knew.)



It was the scariest thing to witness. Out of nowhere, these big masked guys ran in, set upon the girl who was in a circle with her group, grabbed her (there was a struggle, but the big guys managed to wrestle her away), threw her into a van that had suddenly pulled up with the sliding doors open and sped away. Just like that. There was so much commotion, running, scurrying, screaming; it was unbelievable. I knew it was going to happen and it still shook me. You not only saw and heard the pandemonium, but you could feel the fear. They all thought it was real. It seemed so real that in the debrief the following day, the young woman who was abducted admitted that she was frightened even though she had been informed ahead of time. It made me sad to know that this is a part of some people's reality as Nigerians (and of course it goes in many other countries too). The kidnapped girl told the group that she now has some idea of how painful the experience must be for real victims and their families.


After the kidnapping, every group had to deal with this new crisis according to their roles. The governor was angry and was pacing loudly back and forth, folks were yelling on cell phones, meetings with ministers, citizens groups, etc. were franticly arranged and conducted all with lots of arguing and blaming. The kidnappers made their demands, negotiated with the Governor and the Governor was able to satisfy the demands. (They wanted resources to improve their living conditions rather than cash) After several hours, the girl was released.



The next day there was a great discussion about the exercise. The question that got the biggest reaction from the youth (Rivers State’s definition of “youth” is 18-35 years) and resonated with me was, “If today, in real life, you were in the role you were assigned, would you have acted any differently than you did in the simulation?” A guy got up and explain angrily, "This is no simulation, these are real issues and this is what happens in our real lives and we reacted just like our present leaders do, the ones that we criticize." Another guy remarked just as passionately , that he realized that he has been so shaped and conditioned by the old ways of leading people and resolving conflict, that he felt like he needed to undergo some extensive reconditioning, reshaping, reeducating, in order to be able to act differently in such a stressful situation.

It really made me think- how do we break out of the cycle that keeps leading us to injustice and the oppression of human beings, even when, on some level, many of us know better? What would each of us do in positions of leadership; what have we done? I think about how we had so much hope for Barack and how difficult it has been for him to create the slightest bit of bi-partisanship, even when it comes to crucial issues that affect us all; how easily the system co-ops folks; how exhausting and dispiriting it is to even try. Since the election, I have heard so many of my fellow democratic and progressive friends make comments like, "What's wrong with him?; We have (well had) the votes, why doesn't (didn't) he ram it through without them? We don't need them; they wouldn't try to include us if they were in the majority, why should we?" Then I would say something like, "Yeah, but he said that he was going to try to change the way we govern and do things differently. To which they would answer, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we heard him say all that bi-partisan stuff, but we never believed it or thought it was possible."

Anyway, it was an unbelievably fruitful exercise. (I wonder if I could pull off something like this in my workshops- there are some folks who should definitely be dragged away- just kidding, of course.) After discussing all these intellectual concepts of good leadership all week, the students learned how hard it is to lead differently and create breakthroughs that lead to real change.



I shared with the group about the importance of EMPATHY for any effective leader (understanding what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes- the kidnapped, the family of the kidnapped, the civil servant with no budget, the governor with so many interests to balance, the radicals (or militants, or hoodlums, or freedom fighters –what you call them is often a matter of perspective). I also talked about the corrupting influence of POWER and the only way to check power and to respond to difficult situations justly is to be a VALUED-CENTERED leader.

I think the reeducation is about clarifying, committing to and acting on our core values, and being faithful until things change. “We must be the change we want to see in the world.” Right?

Long-winded and a little on the soap box tonight,
Sorry,
V,