Dr. Louis Brown Ogbeifun

Accredited Mediator | Certified Professional Manager and Trainer in Workplace Conflicts

Politics

Reflections on Power: Humility, Legacy, and the True Measure of Success

What position is anybody occupying today that nobody has attained before, which would make people behave as if they do not eat or empty their bowels?

What do we really have that was not divinely aided by God using living beings to actualize? As an entrepreneur, you use workers or technology people create to achieve your organizational objectives. So, why carry on as if you no longer need people?

To integrate properly into society after office, I appeal to those in positions of authority or successful business people to draw some moral lessons from what happened to those in office a few months ago. Still, I am now on the other side of power.

Which seer would have told Emefiele, the erstwhile CBN Governor, and Bawa the former EFCC Chairman, two years ago that they would be incarcerated for weeks or months without the threat of an arrest?

So, when anybody’s position is making for a drift towards the puffing-up-cliff, please think of some of the Ministers who just left office in May 2023, are now out of circulation, and cannot be heard from now till death do us part, or else they would be invited as guests of the EFCC or correctional centers.

When your position wants to make you think less of God, remember that there was once a military head of state in Nigeria who loomed larger than life but, in death, was humbled and taken to his final resting place in the cargo hold of a plane.

Besides, don’t forget that once upon a time, there was one mighty person in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet as Chief Of Staff, who passed on but didn’t have his powers buried with him. Not long after, the office that exuded that power was immediately occupied by another person.

We could still remember the Governor who once declared, “I am the authority.” When he died, he was not adorned with the apparel of a man in authority. He left the authority behind; people are now the authority bearers while he sleeps on. May God continue to grant them eternal peace.

So, do not let your position define you when in a position of authority. In contrast, define the position and how you want it to help you lift people up and treat others with decency, making you remain indelible in their hearts.

Grace and peace!!!