Africa’s leaders do not lack knowledge, or money, or technology, or the people with the right skills. What they lack is even the smallest compassion and love for their people. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel to build our nations and continent. We’re not trying to do the impossible; many nations have done it before. Our forebears did it many millennia ago. What is missing is the love that compels us to do the right thing, not just the expedient, selfish thing.
All the money, all the knowledge, and all the technology in the world will not build Africa. People will. People who care, and leaders who love their people will do in a short time, what we haven’t seemed to be able to do for decades. And we must start by building the people, for humans are the most crucial building block in our societies.
If you are not building people, you are not building anything!
Any edifice built on anything less than on people, will crumble. Humans are the most enduring materials in existence. Invest in a human, and you’ve made the most profitable and sensible investment possible. People are your safest bet. But fools discard and destroy people, only to eventually bankrupt themselves, their organizations, and nations in the long run. Love comes first. Love is first and last. Love will not just build, it will nurture and sustain. Love is what is going to make any edifice last, whether it’s a marriage, a family, an institution, or a nation. Knowledge and skill are commendable and invaluable. But love is above them all, for where love is, we can build and craft something workable, even with the rudimentary skills we have. But where love and care are absent, nothing good grows, nothing worthwhile is created, regardless of how smart, talented, knowledgeable, or even how wise the people are.
Give me love and I’ll give you the world!
Love lends us courage to face the giant on behalf of the people. Love is the caring shepherd that protects the sheep from the wolves. Love is the slave mother who will dare face the king than let anything happen to her precious child. Love will make the pauper braver than the five-star general who has no love for his battalion.
This article is not a feel-good piece that we can forget as soon as we are done reading it. No. It is meant to be a hard-hitting piece, comparable to any such piece you’ve ever read. I know, I didn’t include any fancy graphs or impressive statistics from the foremost educational institutions or experts du jour. What I have is the truth, and any heart that is tired of being lied to and misled, a soul that is truly hungry for the saving truth, will recognize the value of this article. Any worthwhile thing that we do in this life starts from the heart; if we don’t care enough, we won’t lift a finger, no matter how large or small the problem is, or how great or small our resources are. Other resources can run out or become obsolete. Love never runs out, and love will always remain a vital and inestimable currency. Whatever country or era you live in, love is always going to be needed. And this is true for man or beast.
If we are truly tired of talking about the issues and want to change things for the better, we must start selecting leaders who truly care, not the flashy ones who tell us what we want to hear, and then leave us worse off than we were before our encounter with them. This is true for individuals in a relationship, or for an electorate seeking to elect a new leader. If love doesn’t lead us, we’re all lost. Love is the way, the only way. Love lends us courage and enables us to do things that our normal selfish human nature would hinder us from doing. When we love, we operate in the best mental and spiritual state. We are at our best when we walk in love, for when we love, we are being godlike, for God is love. And we can build everything anew- our marriages, friendships, careers, communities, and even nations- when we love and care for each other.
Love will unleash the best in all of us, for the betterment of all of us. Love is our saving grace. Love ennobles us.
Love makes us immortal, for immortality lives in the hearts and souls of men. Therefore, with love, let us build one another.