If it walks like a drunk and quacks like a dictator...

 

To settle the Christological issue on some facets of divinity, Roman Emperor Constantine 1 assembled, in 325AD, Christian bishops in the Bithynian city of Nicaea. They were seeking to reach a consensus that would temper an increasingly tense situation.

Amid a raging conflict about the aforementioned uncertainty in Christianity, mostly about the trinity, the emperor decided it would not be very wise to assert his authority over 300 theological stalwarts and thousands of believers behind them. Brute force can win, sometimes. Other times, brawn has to settle and allow the brain to smooth out a path.

The First Council of Nicaea was a huge success.

I have told my uncle Harold, that a leader should never pride in being able to sit on the backs of fellow men and flog them into submission, the Wangu wa Makeri style. When he is inebriated, he sees my point.

Other times, he is inspired by a Kenyan regime that abhors correction, bulldozing through unpopular policies.

Harold, for example, had offered one of Sue’s business competitors a lucrative business deal. Moved his business from the shopping centre and set up inside Harold’s home, near the gate. He would pay less in rents, and his liquor stock would be fast-moving because it would be a short hop from his shop to the brown house.

As an indiscriminate voice of reason, I advised the poor businessman against following Harold’s advice. If he did, he would be bankrupt in no time. Harold was gobsmacked, therefore, when the man turned down his offer.

“How could he?” Harold seethed, pacing up and down.

He swore by the jalopy that sits lifeless in the backyard to force at least one liquor shop to start a business next to the brown house. But that is not how it works, I told him.

A leader worth his salt listens to opinions, even when he could have his way instead. He brings people together into the town hall and tells them, “Do you want us to do the wrong thing?” They might choose to. He may ask to reach a compromise. They could still reject that.