Society is a contract among the living, the dead and those to be born.
– Edmund Burke
Politics is a mirror held unto the society. The society reappraises itself using the weights and measures of sociopolitical and economic policies, actions, inactions, imprints and tendencies of political gladiators periodically hoisted on us by intermittent conspiracies of man and fate. For every human being, whether poor or rich, have or have-not, in between the time we live, we are called to serve humanity. Therefore, we can’t deny participation in what becomes of the society we live in.
Ndigbo are largely republicans, democrats, egalitarians, capitalists and ultimately consensual, in an uncharacterized but engraved multiplicity of tendencies. Over 3.5 million Nigerians of which about 50% were Igbo were exported as slaves to the other world especially the Americas, Spain and Portugal. No wonder, Ndigbo have become a virtual nation whose home is the global world, while the heartbeat is the old Eastern Nigeria or perhaps more correctly the Southeast Nigeria. It was on this historical standing and the tortuous moulding of Ndigbo that the great Zik of Africa, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the inimitable Dr. Michael Okpara, the eminently brilliant Mbonu Ojike and a few others contrived to conceive a master class of leadership series that preceded the civil war.
The Eastern Nigerian Economic Reconstruction Plan (1954-1964) – drawn by the visionary Zik, and the intuitively creative Mbonu Ojike, the most astute economic minds of that generation of Argonauts, which was later fully implemented by the selfless Michael Okpara, had placed the East on a development route, that by 1964, the Eastern Region was already touted as the fastest growing economy in the world by research reports commissioned by the World Bank and Harvard University. With no crude oil revenue but only limited resources from palm oil, coal and limestone, Dr. Azikiwe and Dr. Okpara transformed almost all areas, instigated the rise of indigenous entrepreneurial initiatives and triggered a post-colonial economic renaissance at a massive scale in Eastern Nigeria. The East had the first industrial development plan in Africa, with all Eastern Nigerian “townships” and cities designed with an industrial zone each.
Some of the economic institutions established in that time through profound leadership ingenuity were: African Continental Bank (ACB), Cooperative Bank of Eastern Nigeria, Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation, University of Nigeria, with campuses at Nsukka and Calabar, Golden Guinea Breweries Umuahia, Obudu Tourism and Entertainment Ranch, Aba Textile Company, Nigercem Nkalagu, Nigersteel Emene, Standard Shoe Factory Owerri, Nigergas Emene, among other industries, factories, hotels and numerous farm settlements. The main structures of the University of Nigeria Nsukka were built using 5million pounds generated by the Eastern Nigeria Marketing Board through the sales of palm produce from local producers and the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation’s pioneer oil mills. These efforts still and will remain a monumental tribute to them in many generations to come.
Leadership in the Southeast should be a movement of conscience dedicated to the socioeconomic and political liberation of Igbo land, and by extension, Nigeria; a country that sometimes appears a hub of mutually hostile ethnic groups, conflicting ideologies and theatre of incongruities. The tale of ruination of the Nigerian polity bears repetition on the faces of average Nigerians. Yet, it remains our collective duty through concerted efforts to make Nigeria work again.
We do not wish to be led by power hungry, half-educated dimwits, primed by primitive instincts to loot our common treasury, yet clinging on to the gullibility of the majority. We cannot be paying leaders for their profligacy with the tax payers’ money, except to aver that the true meaning of elitism is lost in us. Nigerian Federalism remains a subject of divergent jurisprudential analysis. The true meaning is a long walk to freedom. Therefore, we need a restructuring that will avail all Nigerians of equal opportunities to access the resources of this country and guarantee sociopolitical equality in all strata. But even the restructuring alternative sounds utopian and perhaps unachievable in the face of renewed torrents of unbridled suspicion, armed nomadism, banditry, tales of lucrative kidnapping and a new wave of cross regional marginalization conspiracies.
Fortunately, there have been deliberate attempts by some of the past Southeast Governors to exhume positive renaissance reminiscent of Azikiwe/Okpara’s heroics. Mbakwe, Nwobodo, Ngige, Nnamani, Obi, and Chime stand out. My drift is that Ndigbo must now define and mould their fate according to their whims; rising from their beleaguered and chequered history. Intriguingly, history through the past leaders has incredibly set a frightening tone of brilliance, the present leaders are already benchmarked, while posterity has stolen a vantage position from where it shall rain judgments on today’s gladiators of power.
Uninformed citizenry is a yoke in the wheel of leadership probity and accountability. Apathy, aloofness, and despondency in the face of terrible leadership exacerbate administrative recklessness, sharp practices and nonfeasance. Our consolidated democracy can only be fully entrenched in partnership with the people. The magic wand that could accentuate the pending blooming of Ndigbo all over the Nigerian political landscape, is the politics of economic adventurism that begins from home, judicious and pragmatic application of the taxpayers’ money and the complete revamping of the Southeast infrastructural networks through the concerted efforts of the Southeast governors. Southeast must come to the realization that it needs to reclaim its political sobriety via an economic resurgence domiciled at home in other to assert its famed pedigree in the comity of competitive nations christened Nigeria. What truly matters is not which party controls the government but whether our government is controlled by the people. The greatest investors beyond the shores of their homogeneous domain are of Igbo extraction. With the frightening volume of investments and relaxed mentality in other regions, Nigeria needs an Igbo presidency to restore a genuine reintegration.
It is time to rejig and strategize with courage in line with the reinvigorated determination of the Southeast governors to turn things around and make a name for themselves. But courage is different from brawn just like strategy is different from energy. We need to balance the old ways with new imperatives. No more dissipation of energy on unconstructive criticism or unprovoked vituperations on those elected to govern us.
This will appear a refreshing difference from the era of total disconnect, toothless grumbling, unholy venality deployed against the leaders by the opposition just for their parochial interests. Caught in the middle of an intersection between the weight of expectation and paucity of funds, the current Southeast governors are grappling with how to leave indelible imprints on the sands of time and the looming minimum wage demand. It is under these intense circumstances that fate has bestowed on Enugu State Governor, Rt. Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi the responsibility to defend the great Igbo heritage. Staring daringly at the Governor and begging that all frontiers of Ndigbo be stoutly defended and developed are the pictures of the iconic Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and the great Michael Okpara, who had operated with pride from the same Lion Building, Government House Enugu.
Spurred into action by the huge historical heritage and in keeping with section 14 subsection 2 (b) of the 1999 constitution, Governor Ugwuanyi procured and distributed hundreds of vehicles, other security gadgets and approved the acquisition of 18 automated drones to boost the surveillance operations of the state’s security architecture. Most significantly, provision of glowing ambience for all manner of persons lawfully living in Enugu without recourse to ethno-religious prejudices has been the clincher, as tact and diplomacy continue to win by instalments. The import of buying 100 pickup vans and fire trucks from Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company is a clear signal that premium is placed on our local content, and our entrepreneurs encouraged to come home.
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Hope continues to resonate in Enugu as the Managing Director of Enugu State Housing Development Authority, Hon Chukwuemelie Agu was awarded the best CEO of all the Housing Corporations in Nigeria, after blistering and dazzling performances.
Yes, it’s difficult to forget that Rangers International Football Club, a team that symbolizes the indestructibility of the Igbo race won both the coveted League and Cup trophies under Governor Ugwuanyi’s regime after 32 and 34 respective years of inglorious wait. With the speedy execution of the first University of Education in the South East and the establishment of Nsukka campus of Enugu State University of Science Technology (ESUT), there is no doubt that Governor Ugwuanyi is developing giant strides reminiscent of the master plan of our founding fathers.
Oruruo writes from Independence Layout, Enugu
THE SUN, NIGERIA