Koxie's Diaries

I have a question that's been heavy on my mind lately: Who is a leader? What does it take to be a true leader? In Nigeria today, we have several seminars, trainings, lectures on this ambiguous word ''LEADERSHIP'' and yet I'm beginning to wonder if these trainings are having any impact on the so-called leaders of our corporate society? For the past couple of days I have been opportuned to talk with people who are experiencing serious torture, harassment, and threats in their various workplaces. They happen to be working with bosses who are either egocentric, power hungry, slave drivers and/or devil incarnates and this is greatly affecting their output at work, their morale, their mental and even their physical health. The common trend now is for young managers who have suddenly tasted power to begin to Lord this power over everyone around them. Question is why do you feel that you have to be bitchy and shrewd to prove a point or to get people to follow you?

Guess what? Something interesting happened to me yesterday...Something I never thought was possible... I went to the cinemas with my hubby to watch a movie. When we got to the counter to pay, we had three options of movies to watch. There were two foreign movies and one made in Nigerian. Naturally, the made in Nigeria movie was not an option for me so it was a choice between the other two foreign movies. However, my hubby (who by the way detests Nigerian movies) had seen the preview of this particular Nigerian film and thought it might be interesting. Anyway, after much argument back and forth trying to convince me (who hates Nigerian films even more); we decided to watch the Nigerian movie! Hmmm...I was so so sceptical about the movie; I kept telling my hubby that we'll be the only ones in the theatre. On getting into the theatre however, I first of all was shocked to see the place almost full. Ok, we settled down to watch the movie and all the time, I kept looking out for

Today on my way home from a meeting in church I saw a lady standing along the road beside a broken down car. She had at least 5 kids in the car with her nanny and she looked very worried and upset. Her car had apparently stopped out of the blues and refused to restart despite all attempts. As I passed her car, a scene suddenly flashed in front of me – I imagined myself standing there with a broken down car full of kids, stuck on the express... Immediately, all the places I was rushing to...all the things I urgently needed to do before the end of the day suddenly seemed so unimportant to me and so I did something most Nigerians won’t dare to do...I stopped to help!! I got down, walked over to the lady and smiled sweetly, asked what the problem was etc. She lived in Isheri and was on her way to Lekki for a function. I knew I’d probably not know what to do to help with the car but I was hoping to help at least take the kids to a safe place while she sorted out her car or at the very leas