Leftovers, Leadership, and Legacy.
One of the advantages of living with my late sister-mum was the nostalgia we shared about growing up. We reminisce how Dad and Mum always had leftovers for us from their own food even when we had eaten. Mum or Dad always had leftovers on their plate, not because they couldn’t finish their food but because the Yoruba worldview presupposes that adults must always have leftovers for the younger ones. (Agba ma jeun kun sawo fun omode)
The Judeo-Christian text backs this Yoruba philosophy that a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children’s children (Proverb 13 vs 22). Three generations of wealth or leftovers! Jesus seems to affirm this when he said to them after feeding the five thousand, "Gather the leftovers; let nothing be wasted.". There is a tribe in the Judeo-Christian text called the tribe of Benjamin; we were told they kill in the morning, but they don't finish it. They save it for later. “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”(Genesis 49:27)
There is a kinship of metaphor between leadership, leftover, and legacy. A good leader is not just concerned about the moment; they are concerned about what is left over and the legacy. Good leadership is not about leftovers for those who are present and alive. They think of legacy for the future and those yet unborn.
What have we left over for the next generations? Debt? bitter politics? Male chauvinism and misogyny? There is a crisis of leadership all over the world at all levels of individual, group, and society.
When people defend their oppressor, I ask, what leftover (read as government program) can you say benefited generations? Not that a politician paid for your surgery; I mean a government program (read as legacy or leftover) that transcended them that all people across the divide benefited from.
Continuing in the same direction, I have been peeking in and out of social media the last few days with the furor over the former Nigerian military leader's memoir. It still amazes me that people call him "president" instead of former dictator. All of the legacy and leftover from his Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) still continue to taunt and haunt almost all aspects of society to date.
A few weeks ago was four years since my sister-mum's death, and despite all that has happened since her demise, her legacy of love, kindness, and loyalty cannot be denied either by friends or foes.
Leadership, legacy, and leftovers are not always until you get up there in that high position; it is sometimes about what you do with where you are now. With the people and lives entrusted to you.
I told someone a few days ago that they should remember I have always had leftovers for them. From undergraduate days when I was living on a ridiculous amount of stipend to NYSC days to all my wilderness year (if you know, you know).
Trying to come out from my social media hiatus, I thought to ask, is there any leftover?
