LEADERSHIP, POLITICIANS AND POLITICS.

LEADERSHIP, POLITICIANS AND POLITICS.

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          Leadership is a very important concept in modern society.I has impacted on society and it's development.Therefore the nature and quality of leadership helps in understanding what has happened, what is happening and what will happen.  

            Leadership is built around classes in society. We have the Politician class, the Intellectual/Elite class, the class structure of society, the military, the bureaucracy,The traditional rulers,the business class, the religious leaders, the students and youths classes to mention a few. They are all built around Leadership.

          Our focus will be on the Politician Class as a leadership structure, or to use a term other professions are proud of, as a professional group.

          The Politician is the class of leaders that form the normative basis of the leadership structure mainly because the politicians are required to manage political developments. They are responsible for the conduct of the structures, building those structures to achieve societal goals, fostering new forms of techniques, social relations,and the over all quality of life.

          In doing these they take the rewards and the sanctions as well. They are therefore "POLITICAL ENTREPRENEURS " They are because they are persons who organise risky activities of any kind and act substantially in a manner of a business entrepreneur. They are compelled to focus on ends instrumental to development.

        They serve as brokers between the forces of modernity and the forces of tradition. Change require politicians as brokers.

            As a class, their functions include goal specification, fostering institutional coherence and central control of the state system. They also serve the function of interest aggregation and interest articulation.

               It is necessary to put this in the correct perspective because when I spoke of " politicians" being  "professionals", I was misunderstood and even laughed at. This write- up offers a further explanation. In the Nigerian context I can understand this misunderstanding ( or ignorance, of you may excuse my use of words. )  People do get appointed or elected to political offices from different professions and they dispute or disdain being put under the umbrella term of " professional politician" although they meet the standard definition.Such people forget that they have been appointed or elected through political acts and therefore must learn(if they never knew),what they must do as politicians  On stepping into the shoes of politicians.

             We can see that politics,( and arising from it) the political profession is the noblest of all professions, because once you step into it, you are expected to know the functions of a politician and thus a professional politician. One who does not know the functions and yet ccupies a political office is a Quack. He is a Quack because he is practising a profession of which he has no prior knowledge and competence.

                 Politicians practise their profession woven around political parties in a democratic system.

          Occasionally political parties are used to promote the interests of interest- groups.

          Parties are given financial and other forms of support in return for which the party would pursue the interests of the group--  when voted into power.

              A  political party is an organised group with clearly defined policy whose main aim is to win or retain political power. Ideally political parties are manifestations of differences in the social structure of the society.

             Parties serve the tripartite functions of educating the people, recruiting candidates to various political offices and co-ordinatimg the House business on the floor of the House.

               Inspite of the lofty ideals of politics which is a game played by professional politicians, politics is often seen as a bad thing whose stock-in-trade are blackmail,manipulations,double-dealing, violence, and assassinations. This is certainly a mistaken view of politics. Politics is an activity involved in by other groups and other professionals in the social system. It also involves religious, economic and other social groups. How then is politics bad? 

                We can understand the meaning of politics by looking at the actual life experiences  in the family, the village, the community,or country where it is the responsibility of the family or village or community head to take decisions on behalf of the members.

            In every human organisation there is need for decisions to be taken by a few on behalf of the rest of the members.The decision-making is what we usually refer to as politics.

             The political function is a necessary function for all organised groups.Consewuently, this function is to be found in groups like the family, the village, the state, etc. Politics therefore does not concern politicians alone but everybody in the society as it affects all.

            There is no one acceptable definition of politics. Aristotle saw man as a political animal. Lennin defined politics as"who does what, to whom". Other people also define politics as  " the allocation of power and responsibility", while yet some say, " it is the making of authoritative decisions". Others say it is ,     " it is the authoritative allocation of values".

          Therefore the common denominator in the various definitions of politics is "DECISION-MAKING." Other concepts used interchangeably with "decision-making" are: - "settlement of disputes",  " reconciliation of interests", and "allocation of values." 

              Therefore, in summary, politics is the process of reconciling interests in organised groups. However, Harold Laswel would say that it is" the process of deciding who gets what, when, and how ".

            Differences exist in society as no society is homogenous.Therefore this gives rise to conflict of interests or disagreement.

            Therefore, there is need for politics to reconcile these differences and interests. Politics is an activity of those charged with the responsibility of making decisions. Political life was developed by human beings to avoid " the state of nature", so said Thomas Hobbes in the 17th Century.

              Human beings need peace to co-exist. Peace is therefore possible where there is politics. Where there is no Peace, there will be no politics and instead, there will be war. But some Scholars argue that "war is a continuation of politics by other means ". But to me that is taking the situation too far. War is an extreme situation of conflict. Once war happens it may lead to annihilation of society and this negates peace.

               Inspite of this, politics does not aim at the total elimination of conflicts, however it defines its limits and thereby control them. Conflict exists because of the FREEDOM enjoyed by the individual. We shall discuss this concept of freedom another time.

J. A.

(Event.manger,Politician and student of politics).

Lagos. ©2020 May.