Don’t elect childish leadership

-Senate warned

The Chaplain General of the Liberian Senate, Rev. Michael Z. Holder, has warned that leadership in the senate shouldn’t be childish.

Delivering a sermon before the election for the Senate President Pro-tempore seat last Thursday at the Capitol, Rev. Holder cautioned the Senate to elect a leader that would not be childish at heart and in attitude.

Speaking on the theme, “Leadership Determines Destiny” with text from the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes 10:16-19, he reminded that the destiny of a land or nation, is determined by its leadership, stressing that the senate President Pro-tempore must not be a self-centered leader.

“Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child or a servant and when your officials feast in the morning! Happy are you, O land, when your king is a free man and of a noble birth and character, and when your officials feast at the proper time for strength and not for drunkenness!” Rev. Holder read.

He said the heavy responsibility of leadership does not fit a person, who is childish at heart and in attitude, adding that a man, who must beer the leadership garments, should not be a novice, whose mind is unmade.

Members of the senate on Thursday, 12 February elected Gbarpolu County Senator, Armah Jallah, as President Pro-Tempore, defeating two rival candidates – Senators Joseph Nagbe of Sinoe County and Oscar Cooper of Margibi County to take the lucratively powerful seat in the upper House of the Liberian Legislature.

His election followed the defeat of Grand Bassa County’s ex-senator, Milton Gbehzongar Findley in the December 20, 2014 special senatorial election.

“Many people in leadership positions are still babies in every sense of the word; they appear grown in muscles, but undeveloped in their hearts. A land is in trouble when such are the men and women at the helm of power,” Rev. Holder said.

He also told the senate that leadership is God’s channel of reaching out to people and if wrong person sits on the throne, heaven is blocked towards the people.

The senate chaplain continued that the destiny of a land or nation is determined by the leadership just as the destiny of a family is determined by the head of the family, saying that similarly, the destiny of the children in the family is determined by who the father is.

“God’s greatest problem”, he said, “as to do with the future of any nation is not with the people, but with the leaders. In Biblical terms, it is not with the sheep, but with the shepherd. When Jesus saw the multitudes harassed and molested, his remark was, these are sheep without shepherds,” Rev. Holder explained.

By Ben P. Wesee