Obi’s thinking was very modern. He thought the school needed a new way of thinking. The children needed to be taught on how to disregard the “foolish” thinking methods of the primitive generation and mock them. This is proven when he mentions that the purpose of the school that he is running is “is to eradicate just such beliefs as that. Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is just fantastic. Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas.” This statement clearly displays how disrespectful Obi is towards others ideas and thinking which leads as to think that his actions were a result of “misguided zeal”.
Another reason that points out that Obi’s “misguided zeal” leads to his actions is that he is more educated than the other teacher’s at the school, which makes him think that he knows more and has a more intelligent thinking anyone else present at the school. One can safely say that Obi is too overconfident about his ideas and does not care about anyone else’s thoughts or ides. When enthusiastically he mentions to his that all his other colleagues are young and unmarried, and this is a good thing because they will be able to devote more time and effort to their job as a teacher at the school. This is very hypocritical of Obi, as he himself is married, and this in any way hinder his job as a headmaster at the school? His thinking that everything he thinks is the only rite way, and rest everything is nonsense, proves his misguided zeal. When he decides to completely ignore the plea of the priest to re-open the “Dead Men’s Path”, he mocks the reasoning of the priest and disregards the tradition that had present there for generations even before him or his father was born. This lead to the destruction of the school compound and a bad repot for the school and Obi from the white supervisor. It was the anger of the people of his own village, which was caused by him because of his arrogant beliefs he held.
Obi should have never forgotten that humility is the best way to become a best leader. His leadership skills lacked the most important thing, which was understanding the people you are trying to lead, and understand their ideas and way of thinking and then present them with your ideas, not just believe that what you are doing is the only rite way and other are just mere fools.