By Musa Hassan Bility
The pain of weighing loyalty against principle is like carrying two stones, both heavy, but one bound to your heart. The loyal are often the ones who have walked with us through fire, who have stayed when others fled. To hurt them is a wound we feel in our own chest. Yet, when principle calls, it demands a higher price.
There is also the harsher truth: sometimes the person we protect, the one we choose not to offend, is the very one who would discard us without thought. That awareness burns. It tests whether our courage is strong enough to dare to uphold the standard we set for ourselves, even when it means wounding someone who has stood faithfully by us.
This is not an easy road. It is a moment of reckoning, where personal bonds clash with the demand of conscience. But yet, we dared to. We dared to walk the line of principle, because leadership is not about comfort. It is not about appeasing those closest to us or shielding ourselves from pain. It is about proving, even in silence, that we will not abandon the path of truth, even when it hurts us the most.
From Saclepea, this thought lingers: that the true test of leadership is not how loudly we shout our values, but how deeply we live them, even when our heart breaks in the process.
