Leaders occupy position of power and/or influence and what they say may carry a lot of weight. A leader, unlike an ordinary person, cannot just utter any word in public but would have to weigh any public statement to be uttered against its consequences.
A statement by a person in authority uttered carelessly or recklessly may be regarded as a policy statement of that authority or an entire government by public opinion and can have far reaching consequences.
...
AllAfrica Subscription Content
You must be an allAfrica.com subscriber for full access to certain content.
You have selected an article from the AllAfrica archive, which requires a subscription. You can subscribe by visiting our subscription page. Or for more information about becoming a subscriber, you can read our subscription and contribution overview.
For information about our premium subscription services:
You can also freely access - without a subscription - hundreds of today's top Africa stories and thousands of recent news articles from our home page »
Already a subscriber? Sign in for full access to article