IN a bid to end the United Nation’s Security Council stranglehold over the selection of the Secretary-General in 2016/2017, the battle cry by a group of prominent reformists at that juncture was non-other than “more of a General, less of Secretary”.
Such is the parochial and deep-seated connotation relating to the nomenclature, “Secretary” – a vocation that is deemed to be administrative and clerical in nature. A “General” is conversely regarded as a position in which there is strong command and leadership with the responsibility of managing power dynamics.