By Hans Ngala
This October, Cameroon as a country will be at a crossroads. Cameroonians will be heading to the polls to vote for a new leader. While there is voter apathy in some quarters, especially among Anglophone Cameroonians, many are still of the opinion that change can only come through the ballot, not the bullet.
Observers are gravely concerned about the deteriorating situation of conflict in the Anglophone NW and SW regions of the country and are wondering how effective voter turnout will be in these embattled regions.
In the midst of all these, there’s a bigger question: What is the profile of a good leader?
Cameroonians have become accustomed to one man’s leadership for more than 40 years. President Biya’s supporters believe that he checks all the boxes of a “good leader”. But let’s take a quick look at some key characteristics of a good leader. These are in no particular order, nor is this supposed to be some kind of comprehensive litmus test of leadership. Rather, it is just a highlight of the essential characteristics that the average person thinks of when they think of a good leader.
1) Selflessness
Any good leader in the world has always been one who was selfless. Selflessness is the opposite of selfishness. The former puts the interests of the country or organization first, while the latter puts their interests first. A selfless leader knows what is good for their people or organization and does it. Sometimes, this means telling the people the uncomfortable truths or taking stringent actions that will steer the organization in the right direction, even if this means hurting a few people who tend to benefit from the weaknesses in the system. Jesus is by far the greatest example of selfless leadership the world has ever known. He was God in human form but chose to dwell among men in a lowly fashion instead of residing in palaces, dining and wining with kings and princes. He chose instead to live among the ordinary masses, the forgotten, the sick, and the poor.
2) Vision
Perhaps worse than corruption is leadership that is not visionary. A leader who has no idea what he is doing, where he wants to be in five years or ten years, will not lead anything effectively. A good leader thinks ahead. He thinks of the future. For example, Cameroon’s Anglophone Conflict is something that historians and sociologists had warned about for years. The symptoms were there for many decades, building up to the explosive strikes and now, the conflict in the NW and SW regions. Cameroonian leaders from both Ahidjo to the current regime failed to plan and mitigate these. Now, the country is suffering because of this lack of vision or willingness to address these issues.
A second issue with vision is being able to cohesively lead diverse people or organizations. Certainly, leading a country with nearly 30 million people who have diverse cultures, languages, and different historical and colonial backgrounds is no easy feat. In a globalized economy where new emergences like artificial intelligence (AI), terrorism and climate change are affecting Global South countries and especially Equatorial African countries like Cameroon and thereby contributing to massive waves of migration, leadership must be visionary, addressing these challenges head-on and ensuring that the most skilled Cameroonians are not leaving the country to collapse at the hands of incompetent leaders. Rather, good leadership will be visionary enough to find solutions to these problems from a Cameroon-centric perspective. China was able to turn its economy around in our lifetimes, thanks to such visionary leadership.
3) Fearlessness
Fearless leadership doesn’t mean a leader never gets scared. It simply means they take decisive decisions that are well calculated. A good leader doesn’t fear to offend, hurt, or disrupt the status quo. A good leader will, by nature, irritate the “bad apples” in any corrupt system. That is why leadership under people like Thomas Sankara and now, Ibrahim Traore in Burkina Faso, has been very effective. Both men knew that you cannot achieve anything by being fearful. While the West sees them as “tyrants”, the people of Burkina Faso hail them as heroes. The best way to judge their leadership would be by the fruits they have produced, rather than by the rhetoric coming from Western capitals and media outlets.
4) Prefers a good Name over riches
There is a Bible verse in Proverbs that says, “A good name is better than riches”. This is because a good leader thinks of their legacy. Like all things under the sun, leadership has a beginning and an end. When a leader is gone, what he did (or failed to do), will be his legacy, which can either cement his name in the collective memory of his people for good or for worse. Because of this, Cameroon needs a leader who doesn’t only think of enriching themselves, but has the interests of Cameroonians at heart. A leader who is very determined to fight corruption, to create jobs, to empower young Cameroonians, and who puts the country first. A leader who is focused on solving problems and not taking trips abroad for himself or his family, disappearing for months only to reappear during certain periods and then disappear again for months. Such an aloof or lackadaisical leader will not convince any Cameroonian that they are capable of delivering on any promises.
Cameroonians have gone past the stage of getting lectures and need results. As Cameroonians go to the polls this October, these are some of the qualities that they will be looking for in the candidates who are running for the country’s top job. Who will be the best candidate for the job? One has been tried for decades and has not been satisfactory for Cameroonians.
