Trust adds value to leadership role

I WILL tell a story on the power of trust in the context of leader and leadership.
Whenever there was a tribal fight in Hela or Southern Highlands, the late Anderson Agiru would command the warriors to stop fighting through telephone calls or through his key men on the ground.
For Agiru to set foot in the province with a helicopter was more than enough to command a stop-fight.
In Hela, the warring tribesmen would lay down their weapons upon hearing that Agiru is boarding a flight to Tari at Jackson airport, Port Moresby.
When he sets foot at Tari airport, the fighting tribesmen would have retired from the battlefields and prepare for Agiru’s arrival at their designated central squares.
Agiru sets foot at their turf, the mourning womenfolk would roll in the muds and the men would sleep facedown for their leader to walk on their backs, a respect for their home-coming hero.
Agiru would call the name of the tribal leader and ask him why he has taken his tribesmen to the battle field.
He would visit the opposing group and put an end to the fight in less than a day.
The tribesmen would literally weep for wasting Agiru’s time to come see them in Hela. They would apologise to him and bid him farewell back to Port Moresby or Mendi.
If Agiru was overseas, he would command his key contacts in Hela to go to the battlefield and deliver the message from him.
The contacts on the ground in Hela were powerful as Agiru himself so the fighting would stop.
I stayed glued to Agiru since 1997 when he won the SHP regional seat and consecutive elections throughout the years.
He held the leadership post through until his untimely death.
The people obeyed and respected Agiru, all for one thing – trust.
Nothing more nothing less.

Yapi Akore,
Kundiawa