Leading Leaders: Abubakar Bukola Saraki

It was Aristotle that once said, 'excellence is not an act but a habit,' and that 'we are what we repeatedly do.' Ralph Waldo Emerson also was credited to have said that the world is awash with gates of opportunities, and that we are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. People have come to agree that if you do not hope, you will not and what is beyond your hope, since you hope for nothing, hence we have come to agree with Arthur Clarke's position that the only way to and the limits of the possible is by going beyond the possible into the impossible. This position was corroborated by Ralph Emerson who claimed to have heard a counsel once given to a young person to “always do what you are afraid to do.”

The thoughts of the fifty-five (55) wise leaders considered in the preface of this book all played out in the process that led to the emergence of the President of the Eight Senate of the National Assembly of Nigeria in 2015. Taking calculated risks, which entrepreneurs are known for, is quite different from being rash, according to George Patton. In the words of Samuel Johnson, “nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome,” and just in line with Robert Frost's popular saying that 'the best way out is always through,' because nothing ventured, nothing gained. Thus, following William Spague's thought that successful leaders do not wait until the iron is hot before they strike, but make the iron hot by striking, the election of Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki was therefore unprecedentedly over, sooner than expected, as the events played out. Watching this historical scenario unfold, we cannot but agree with Publius Terence that 'fortune favours the brave,' and the strategy adopted is ‘beyond competing’ as expressed by Kim and Mauborgne’s in their new book, Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing.