By Emmanuel A. C. Orji, a pioneer technocrat during the colonial and post-colonial administration of Owerri, is a prolific author and analyst of current and historical matters.
Since I was born in Nigeria, I have continued to witness poor performance at all levels of governance in Africa. For context, I celebrated my 91st birthday on November 9, 2020. In some countries of Africa (i) security is so bad that people live in fear; (ii) people are killed by those paid to protect them; (iii) people die of hunger; (iv) people regret being natives of their fatherland.
Upcoming elections in these countries should provide them opportunities to bring sanity to their country through the election of a Lee Kuan Yew (not a partisan) as President/Prime Minister/Governor/Local Government Chairman, as the case may be, in each African country. And this raises the question, who was Lee Kuan Yew?
Lee Kuan Yew was the man who, within 10 years, transformed Singapore from a third to a first world country.
In order to appreciate Lee Kuan Yew readily, let us find out how the people of Singapore reacted when his death was reported. When Lee Kuan Yew died a couple of years ago, it was very sad in Singapore. You could see it on the faces of colleagues, friends and people you encountered every day and everywhere, like taxi or bus drivers. You could hear it on the radio, see it on the TV, and feel it on the streets. As one travels around the country, one readily realises that what Singapore became was the vision and implementation of one man, Lee Kuan Yew. Mr. Yew passed away on a Monday and his state funeral was a week later. During those last days, people had been queuing for up to eight hours or more to pay respect to him, whether at his beloved Community Centers or at the Parliament House, where he lay in state.Everyone in Singapore knew Mr. Yew’s story. During the course of the week, in conversations, if you asked people “what did Mr. Yew mean to you?” , although it was a very personal question, the person would answer that he cried for hours, because of what Mr Yew meant to him not only personally but also to his parents and family. Their responses weren’t ideological, they were facts about how one man had changed a nation – really created a nation – and built it with his mission, vision and strategy for the possibility of what it could be.
Mr. Yew was a great fan of athletics and competition
As prime minister for its first three decades, Lee Kuan Yew raised a poor port known for its mudflats from the bottom rungs of the third world to the first world in a single generation. As it prepared to mark its 50th anniversary as a nation, Singapore was seen as an ultra-modern metropolis of almost six million people with higher per capita GDP than the United States. It is one of the cleanest, greenest, safest city-states in the world; a magnet for multinational corporations where multiculturalism and equality are the norm and where racism or ethnic or gender prejudice is just not permitted. Singapore’s remarkable performance has less to do with miraculous conditions or luck than with Mr. Yew’s model of disciplined, visionary leadership based on five lessons/planks namely (i) That Governance was First and Foremost About Results; (ii) Superior Performance Requires Superior Moral Leadership; (iii) Equal Opportunity For All; (iv) Discipline and Democracy; (v) Leadership Admiration and Emulation. May we now examine these five planks one by one.
(i)“Lee Insisted that Governance was First and Foremost About Results”
For Lee, leadership replaced governance and produced what provided services to the people. Accordingly, hope was not a strategy. What mattered was the generation of measurable results that benefitted the people. A company’s goals are just that, goals. An executable plan that takes into account an organization’s strengths, its place in the market, the trends around them that are creating opportunities or challenges, is what will generate the measurable results in line with its goals.
In the same way that companies are measured on quarterly performance, share prices and market caps are determined by the future worth. In other words, yes, we have to make our numbers for this quarter and the year, but we also have to be placing big bets – with conviction and investment – for the future five to ten years ahead.
To paraphrase his words, “the acid test of any company is not the greatness or the grandeur of its ideal concepts, but whether, in fact, it is able to produce long-term results”.
(ii)SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE REQUIRES SUPERIOR MORAL LEADERSHIP.
On the above principle, Lee Kuan Yew demanded of leaders both intellectual and moral superiority. In his pursuit of the above principle, Lee Kuan Yew focused on the elimination of corruption in government. At every turn he insisted that civil servants be well paid, guided by the shell company example to attract the best among the best to the public service.
(iii) EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
Few things offended Lee Kuan Yew more than denying people of opportunities on the basis of caste ( as in India ) or class ( as in Europe ), or race ( as was the case in USA ). In short Lee Kuan Yew believed in meritocracy – that each person be given the opportunity to move up or around in the public service based on what he does in line with goals and values of the system. Lee Kuan Yew believed that the leaders objective should be to “build a society in which people will be rewarded not according to the amount of property they own, but according to their contribution to society in physical and mental labour” Put simple, Lee Kuan Yew’s objective was to “build up a society in which people will be rewarded not according to the amount of property they own, but according to their active contribution to society in physicsl and mental labour”
(iv) “ DISCIPLINE AND DEMOCRACY”
Lee Kuan Yew believe that what people want is better life, a just society where people enjoy human rights as of right.
(v) LEADERSHIP ADMIRATION AND EMULATION
Lee Kuan Yew was driven by the admiration of world acknowledged leadership. Three world leaders appealed to him most, namely,
(i) Charles de Gaulle of France, because of his tremendous guts,
(ii) Deng Xiaoping of China, because he changed China from a broken-backed state, which could implode like the Soviet Union, into what it is today.
(iii) Winston Churchill, because he never gave up under any circumstance.
(iv) Xi Jinping, new president of China, impressed him for his enormous emotional stability because he does not allow his personal misfortunes or sufferings to affect his judgment and remains always impressive.
From the example of Singapore, the acid test of leadership is legacy. Will the people of your country mourn your leaving office and celebrate the mark you made while you were in office or will they thank God for your departure ?
As the people of Singapore said a formal goodbye to Lee Kuan Yew, they continued to celebrate the mark he made on Singapore, its people and region. “His legacy is that the country continued on without missing a beat, focused on success and the greater good of the people and that future leaders will carry on his vision. What will save Africa is for the people of each African country to locate and identify their own Lee Kuan Yew, elect him to lead their country and their country will be transformed to the joy of all, like Singapore. May God grant the people of Africa the wisdom to save themselves. So help them, God.
