BEFORE YOU VOTE FOR THAT CANDIDATE, CONSIDER THESE! (PART THREE)

FAMILY

Every individual is a product of a family. That is the first agent of socialization. The family environment shapes the perspective of a child until there is contact with other agents of socialization such as school, media, and religious bodies. A properly constituted family which is between a man and a woman is expected to inculcate into their children values and beliefs which serves as guide in their day to day ways of life.

Some will argue that does it mean that people who haven’t had a good family background can’t be great leaders? Ofcourse they can be! What is being said here is that one has an idea of his root so as to understand what his value system had been like from foundation. We could seek to know what the family holds in high esteem. Do they value a prestigious name above money? Does the family believe in hardwork, honesty, justice, fairness, respect for others as guiding principles?

The first mentor a male child ever has is his father. One should seek to know what kind of father our candidate had? Was he a father worth emulating? Some teachers have taught before the chronicle of leadership is complete, this process is highly valuable. They include; it begins with a child, then he becomes a son, from son to a husband, from a husband to a father, from a father to public leader. I have not relegated the female folks to a background; all I have espoused here is responsibility! Sonship connotes responsibility in this article; so in the context of this article a female candidate is considered a son!

We have spoken about the family background of the candidate, let us then consider the other family angle, which is his own nuclear family which he found or she co-found. The first proof of leadership can be found in the family. To what extent has he been able to influence his family positively? Has he been able to produce first class citizens from his own primary constituency? Has he been a good father to his children? This goes beyond giving his wards a quality education or taking them abroad for summer holidays, it focuses on the legacy he imprints in their lives. What are the guiding principles he has taught them to live by?

Any candidate must be a successful husband to his wife and a great father to his children. His wife must see him as leader whom she is grateful to because of the positive impact he has had on her life! His children should see in him a hero and the first mentor they will ever know. He should be seen as a model first as a family man.

During my days as a master’s degree student, my lecturer, Dr Fadakinte and other students in class engaged in an intellectual discourse, seeking to know what really could be the primary cause of chaos and anarchy in the world and systems In the world, we arrived at a conclusion that the failure of the family has led to a lot of anomalies we have come to witness. We considered institutions such as schools, government, religious institutions, etc. In conclusion, our candidate must be a family man who we can trust with the future of our own families too!