Greetings!
One thing we were best known for in my primary school back in those days is singing songs on the assembly ground, but there's this song that used to turn our head on whenever we sang it back then and this because of the word “LEADER “ inhibited in the song. The song goes thus:
“Parents listen to your children, we are the leaders of tomorrow, try to pay our school fee and give us a sound education. “
This was the song we used to sing as a marching song to our various classrooms in those days and I still believe the song still exists today, but that's not actually where I'm going in this discussion. Though, the song is a piece that would be useful in the discussion later on.
Now, as regards to the song, we are made to believe that, we are destined to be the leaders of tomorrow which to some certain extent is true, if not for our leaders that are not being truthful to handing over to the younger ones, but that aside, we are also made to believe that having sound education would make us a good leader, this is also true to some certain extent as well.
But in my own opinion, having sound education is not the only criterion to making us a good leader and attending the four corners of the school is not the only way to becoming a good leader for the younger ones, there's many ways through which we can become a good leader. These other ways are in the better society and in the hands of our parents.
Having said that, I would like to differentiate between being a leader and being a good leader. Being a leader is easy, but being a good leader has to do with making a difference when it comes to taking a leadership role and in governance.
Now, being a good leader would not come easy, it's to come with having good morals and proper upbringing and this will lead me to talk about family which is the smallest but the most impactful unit of the society. Now, for a nation to have good leader or let me say to guide the young one to becoming a good leader in the nearest future, it takes the concerted effort of the parents and guardians to make such happened and this can only happen when the upbringing of a child is built with moral and moral alone. When talking about morals here, children need to be brought up with the right attitude to life as this will help them to know the right from the wrong and the bad from the good.
Also, bringing children up with good morals will help them to know what transparency means and even allow them to shun corruption when it comes their way, though this might be somehow difficult in the current dispensation, but I bet you, it's possible to achieve. The holy scripture says, “train you child the way he should.” What this means is that we should train our children with good morals as this will go a long way in shaping them to becoming a good leader tomorrow.
For someone like me, I was brought up with good morals. My parents really taught us how to behave in the society, they taught us not to take what does not belong to us and also, we were told that lying is a sin and a taboo in our family and with these moral lessons being taught to us by our parents, we were able to maintain the standard up till now even when they were no more and this was not only limited to us but to the general public as we have always replicated the same fit to the general public.
So, the roles of the parents and the society in making the children the good leaders of tomorrow is as simple as ABC, it's simple because it's all about instilling in them good morals which has in it, all that's needed to be a good leader. What are those things needed? They are good characters, incorruptible characters, humility, fear of God, love, contentment, exemplary character,honesty, right attitude to governance, servanthood characters just to mention but a few. All these are the needed qualities of becoming a good leader.
But today, the reverse is the case as the parents and even the society at large are not disciplined enough to guide and tutor the children to become the future leaders of our society and nation. Though the blame is more on the family as they are the society.
Thanks for reading.
Pictures are mine.