September 13, 2025
In an era where nations, organisations, and communities grapple with crises of leadership, a new book is offering a refreshing and practical model rooted in both history and spirituality.
The Playbook of A Leader Who Really Cares, released on 12 September 2025, is Babatunde Oladele’s latest work that mines the story of Nehemiah, the 5th-century BCE Jewish governor, to draw out timeless lessons for modern leadership.
The book presents 44 distinct principles that Nehemiah demonstrated while leading his people through adversity.
These principles cover a broad spectrum of leadership essentials, from burden for people, mission clarity, foresight, mobilisation, and organisation, to resilience in the face of adversaries, insistence on justice, governance ethics, and building a lasting legacy.
“Nehemiah wasn’t just rebuilding walls, he was rebuilding hope, dignity, and justice,” Oladele writes in one of the book’s striking excerpts.
“His story embodies the principles of value-based leadership long before they became modern buzzwords like advocacy, alignment, data collection, needs assessment, participatory governance, and urban planning.”
Unlike conventional leadership manuals heavy on abstract theory, Oladele’s work stands out for blending academic depth with accessible storytelling.
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Drawing from his own research background, he carefully links biblical accounts with historical events and contemporary realities, showing how ancient wisdom can guide business executives, public servants, community organisers, and spiritual leaders today.
Key highlights from the book:
Vision to Legacy: Leadership principles arranged in a linear framework, beginning with clarity of vision and culminating in legacy building.
Practical Guidance: Real-world tools for handling adversaries, confronting false prophets, countering haters, silencing rabblerousers, and defeating scaremongers.
Contemporary Relevance: Bridges ancient wisdom with today’s pressing challenges in governance, corporate strategy, social reform, and community mobilisation.
Universal Appeal: A resource for public servants, business executives, faith leaders, and civic organisers seeking resilient and ethical leadership.
The book is also rich in contemporary parallels. It relates Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem’s ruined walls to today’s leaders struggling with fractured institutions, economic collapse, or polarised societies.
Just as Nehemiah mobilised communities, built consensus, and fought injustice, Oladele argues, today’s leaders can apply the same principles to navigate corruption, disunity, or public distrust.
Babatunde Oladele brings both scholarship and lived experience to the work. He holds master’s degrees in Communications (University of Ibadan, Nigeria) and Public Service (Clinton School of Public Service, USA) and is currently a PhD candidate in Leadership at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, USA.
Beyond academia, he is a serial entrepreneur and publisher, having founded ventures and platforms that promote literacy, leadership, and social impact.
He is the Executive Director of the Literary Renaissance Foundation, which advocates mass literacy and educational access in Nigeria.
He is also the founder of The Ready Writers Consult, regarded as sub-Saharan Africa’s foremost writing and editorial firm, as well as TRW Consult, a multinational communications agency with footprints in Nigeria, the US, and the UK.
His publishing portfolio is vast, covering titles such as Agric News, Feminine Digest, Masculine Digest, NewsBreakers, STEM Trends, Stati News, Techie Digest, and Travel Digest.
He also curates the Daily Dew Quartet, a set of devotionals, inspirational notes, spotlights, and testimonies, widely read by audiences across continents.
Oladele’s public-facing engagements are equally diverse. He runs the TRW Internship Programme to build capacity among young people, manages Naijaspora to connect Nigerians abroad with opportunities at home, and hosts ThriVe! with Babs, a monthly global Zoom session where he shares insights on purpose, productivity, and performance with an international audience.
The Playbook of A Leader Who Really Cares is now available globally through leading online platforms:
Amazon (Kindle, Paperback & Hardback)
For Oladele, the lessons of Nehemiah are not bound to the ancient world. They are blueprints for rebuilding broken systems, restoring trust, and leading with vision and compassion.
As he puts it, Nehemiah’s story reminds us that authentic leadership is never just about erecting physical structures, but about lifting people, reforming societies, and leaving behind legacies that endure.
