Every country gets the leaders it deserves

In the same way we are all a product of our environment, leaders are a direct reflection of the society that produces them. Even though this title might seem harsh, it is painfully true. Bad leaders do not sprout out of thin air, they are enabled, tolerated, promoted and sometimes celebrated by the very people who suffer under them. Let's talk about why this happens, how do bad leaders emerge in different societies and rise to power.

If you’ve spent any amount of time on social media, you’ll have noticed that it's not just the good things which are promoted or popularized but also the very vile and evil things. For one reason or the other, people tend to resonate with all sorts of ideas, even those which are against their core values and challenge their very existence. You have people these days singing the praises of the mustache man of all people, a person who literally wanted to dominate the world, leaving a pile of bodies on his way. There are so many examples, but I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. In essence, what you can’t deny is that society tends to promote evil ideas, and we can clearly see that on social media these days.

Leaders are a product of society

Leaders do not appear out of thin air, they emerge from the same environment as the people who elect or tolerate them. When a society values honesty, competence, accountability etc, it will produce leaders who reflect those ideals. Conversely, when a society values corruption, tribalism and short term wins, the same quality will define their leaders.

We often get lost because we don’t want to acknowledge what we value as a society, we fool ourselves thinking that we value all these great things while in reality we value so many negative things. If not individually, then collectively. To have an idea of the values of a society, you just have to take a look at the trending news topics emerging from that society. What you’ll see are precisely the values of that society. In one where honesty is key, you’ll see most often positive feedback and transparency, but in one which values corruption and tribalism, you’ll often see people being prosecuted and discussions over tribal divisions. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then when leaders emerge from this environment promoting these ideals.

A lot of people will vote for a leader who talks about fighting corruption instead of being honest, fighting tribalism instead of promoting unity, solving current problems instead of planning prosperity. When you listen to their speech it's clear their objective isn’t to fix the problem but just to resonate with what people feel is the problem. How do you expect to be a dishonest person and yet fight corruption ? yet, people will vote for a dishonest person who tells them he’ll fight corruption.

Corrupt systems reward corrupt leaders

Everything can’t be blamed on society alone, sometimes you have individuals who ruin society to the extent where evil prevails and becomes promoted. In many cases, it's not society, but rather political systems which ensure that bad leaders remain in power. Institutions are weakened, accountability is neglected, the law is undermined and this all helps bad leaders thrive.

Take your pick of any bad leader and what you’ll see is a political system behind such a person helping him thrive, no be accountable and avoid the law.

Short term thinking

Society as a whole often prioritizes short term thinking over long term prosperity. Normally it is up to that leader to think in the long term but often times this might spell danger for his career if he does not prioritize what the population wants. He might be considered a bad leader if he focuses only on the long term and ignores the short term suffering. As a society we tend to lack vision, we tend to give all of our attention to our current situation even when the current situation is not bad instead of thinking ahead. This makes it in such a way that when a leader with a great long term vision of prosperity emerges, he tends to be ignored in favor of the one who promises to solve the current crisis.

A leader who promises to make your country a developed one isn’t as appealing as one who promises to bring down the price of fuel. Our short term thinking always leads us in to the hands of bad leaders who will do and say anything to get into power. For some people, this thinking doesn’t even go very far, any leader who can guarantee them a beer or a bag of rice is good enough to get their vote. In many African countries that's a campaign strategy, distributing food, patching roads and handouts to voters.

Apathy or Indifference

Whether it's voter apathy or individual apathy, many are not willing to take on the task of fixing these problems. Being a leader is no easy task at all and the process to get there is even more difficult, so many conveniently choose to just sit and complain. Voter turn out is always very low, the candidate pool is always very low, and there is always so much apathy across the board. Many citizens complain about bad leadership but fail to participate in the political process to bring change.

Being a leader is a unique role where you don’t have to take an exam to prove your competence, often times it just comes down to your communication skills. The general population aren’t persuaded by complicated technical speeches, that actually turns them off, but they are rather enticed to vote for a leader who demonstrates he understands and is willing to help them. Yet despite these low barriers to entry, not many are willing to do something about it. In the end it's only the bad leaders who have a vested interest who end up fighting the hardest and winning, their goal isn’t to fix the problems but rather to take advantage of them for their personal interests.

Can countries get better leaders?

We often tend to ignore our illness until it gets to the point where not only can it no longer be ignored but its visibly impeding us from working. As long as society is able to function to a certain extent, it tends to tolerate bad leaders. It is only when people are impeded physically or financially that they tend to react and seek to solve the evil that is eating them away. This is to say that yes, we can have good leaders but at the current state of things, that will only happen when society has deteriorated to a horrible level.

There are good leaders at every cycle, persons full of integrity and honesty who will do an amazing job, but unfortunately they tend to be ignored early on and crushed by the corrupt system which prevents them from getting ahead. You know the saying

“Lies travel faster than the truth”

and in terms of leadership, communication is key. When a bad leader is able to lie to you enough times, before the truth makes its way to you, you’ve already fallen victim to the lie.

Conclusion

If we want better leaders, we must create the conditions for better leaders to emerge, you can’t live in a corrupt society, promote the corruption and yet expect better leaders to emerge from this. The things you watch on TV, the life you live, the information you share, ask yourself how they are shaping society. Until we change as a society, we are going to continue getting bad leaders because that’s just what we deserve. You can’t expect a flower to bloom in the middle of the ocean.

Thanks for reading ??