Obi, Fayemi, Badeh and Change
Edifying Elucidations By Okey Ikechukwu.
Contact him via email, okey.ikechukwu@thisdaylive.com
An aggrieved citizen who once played host to Governor Peter Obi of
Anambra State erupted thus: “Your Excellency, I am sorry to say that you
have no right to do this to me. I have already said that you are
welcome, so you cannot say that I am not happy to see you. But it is my
duty to be honest with you as a friend. If others are afraid of you I
am not. Mr. Governor, you are spoiling the office of governor in this
our Anambra State. Others have held the position before you, so there
are people who can give you ‘expo’ if you don't know how to be a ‘real’
governor. I consider it an act of wickedness that you should allow me to
diligently tell all my friends that you are visiting me today, only for
you to sneak in here like a houseboy who came to pick charcoal from the
fireplace of a kind neighbour. No sirens, no frightened chickens
desperately scrambling out of the way as evidence that a governor is
passing with his convoy? Nothing! Mr. Governor what have I done to you
to deserve this humiliation and how will they know that you came here if
the life of the entire community is not disrupted by you and your
entourage? I must tell you, hoo-haa, that you have no right to do this
to some of us, Mr. Peter Obi.”
In the case of Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, his people watched him
for a few weeks and then took time to plan properly and send a
delegation to him. They needed to understand from him, their son, what
they had done wrong. They had seen governors come and go, so they know
‘how it works’. They prayed for decades that one of their own should one
day become governor. If and when that happened, the other towns and
villages would know that it was then their turn. But what have they got?
A well-bred son of theirs who does not know how to be ordinary
governor, like many others before him? They were scandalised because
they now had nothing to brag about to the surrounding towns and
villages. The latter do not hear the blare of sirens. They do not see
the signs of ‘power’ and the general pandemonium they expected from
their son in power. (It is quite possible that some may have even
rehearsed how they would happily flee into the bushes on such occasions.
But Fayemi to fail them!) The people sent a delegation because,
according to traditional wisdom, it is sometimes useful to consult with
someone whose actions look like outright insanity; just in case he wants
to pretend that he knows what he is doing. Besides, you will not be
blamed if questions arise in future about whether anyone tried to call
him to his senses.
The story of these two governors, like that of many other people who
set out resolutely to improve the value and octave of governance in
different spheres, captures the dilemma of many political office holders
in Nigeria today. That is why public office could become a death trap
for people who lack the strength of character to stand forth and affirm
that leadership has the responsibility to insist on doing the right
thing. The world leadership graveyard is littered with the cenotaph of
many failed leaders who went into public office with only good
intentions. They were then confronted with the predatory orientation of
their would-be co-travellers, whom they simply could not recognise
anymore.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal A.S. Badeh, is another interesting
personage for our consideration, in speaking of people who set out to
introduce new paradigms, based on their commitment to doing the right
thing. Badeh is approaching institutional and values change from the
angle of strengthening the core functions of the Nigerian Air Force
(NAF) and promoting the most civilized standards of officer conduct,
comportment and professional effectiveness. His thesis is that the
service is part of a cocktail of institutions that make up our modern
society and that it has a duty to fit into society with the right level
of etiquette and professional efficiency. The goal is to avoid
everything that could undermine its image, or draw negative attention
and comments from the civil populace. His officers are to consistently
showcase NAF as a modern institution that can hold its own against any
other such institution in the world.
Not quite content with just saying so, NAF put together a most
revealing workshop designed to help NAF’s image making officers and
commands deploy the best global standards of military/civil society
synergy to transform NAF into an institution whose image and integrity
derives from the pedigree and conduct of its personnel. His general
ambience at the event held late last year was saying something like: “It
is not empty swagger that makes the respected officer, so let’s
contribute to the transformation of values in the society by conducting
ourselves with propriety, social decency, dignity and grace.” His
personal vision for NAF targets operational effectiveness,
result-oriented research and development, fleet and infrastructural
enhancement, personnel motivation for excellent performance and an
effective force structure. The NAF’s investment in human capital
development could be seen from the pedigree of officers at the event.
These were informed and knowledgeable gentlemen, who should probably be
stolen from NAF because they can add value to so much outside the
service. Commodore Anas and all the others were a civilian’s delight;
combining intelligence with professional competence and good grooming.
Someone like AVM Chukwu, for instance, will make an absolutely
unimpeachable university vice-chancellor, or a minister of education.
But for their uniforms, all the officers could very well pass for
decent, polite and well-bred neighbours.
In the above instances of leaders who are working to entrench new
values, we can see that none of them has his head in the clouds. They
are taking concrete and measurable steps towards achieving the goals
they have in view. Nothing is more destructive of society than a leader
who brings only good intentions and unguided idealism to the table.
Change agents must have the right understanding of the operating
environment, or give themselves up as dead. That is why many good and
focused leaders sometimes find themselves the greatest enemies of the
very people they are trying to help. That is also why the leader who
means well could be attacked by the very people who once complained
about bad leadership, but who turn around to make demands that can only
be met by bad leaders.
Many people would have been very happy with Governors Obi and Fayemi if
they had followed the usual style and misapplied their offices. Badeh,
too, may have got more than his fair share of kudos if he projected and
promoted the wrong professional profile of “an officer” in uniform. As
leaders, governors and office holders are role models. They enjoy the
greatest visibility in public consciousness and are often the reference
for many of the young ones. Imagine a future generation bred by leaders
who drive against the traffic, who personify impunity and who drive at
the breakneck speed of 160kmp on a busy road or in crowded
neighbourhoods! The custodian role of the leader, in relation to the
values of sustainable humanity, must make such conduct look silly as a
defining motif for power and leadership. Aspirants to leadership who are
bred on the reprehensible template we see in many places will not see
leadership as service. They will be social predators who treat the rule
of law with contempt, who denigrate the culture of rule keeping; and who
make presumption and impudence the major raw material for public
administration.
Leaving NAF to focus on Anambra and Ekiti, their stories would have
been different today (not really different, but consistent with what
exists in many other states) if the respective governors had toed the
usual lines. They remained unmoved, instead. In both instances, many
‘stakeholders’ publicly expressed genuine concern and misgivings about
the sanity of the governors in question. The very people with whom they
planned how to use power to bring development became the ones they had
to fight and try to remind that power is for service. Some have even
said that Fayemi’s problem is that he takes the entire thing too
seriously, whereas they thought that the joy and pomp of office would
cure him of his love of grammar and activism. Worse still the very
constituency they hoped to swindle, using his tenure, is the one on
whose side he had been all along.
For Obi, many have since given up. He buys his own air ticket and never
charters planes, even though he could personally have bought a private
jet if he wanted one over a decade before he became governor.His state
produced the best candidate in the last NECO and SSCE examinations; and
from a public school. It was hell when he handed over the schools taken
over from religious organisations by government to their original
owners. Everyone cried foul but, today, academic performance and
discipline have improved. The competition is now between the various new
school owners over who would produce the best-behaved students and the
best academic outputs. But that is a matter for another day.
Managing change is not the same thing as mouthing it. Genuine
commitment to a better society is not proven at rallies. It is not to be
found in fiery speeches and crowded lecture rooms, sometimes populated
by never-do-wells who will proceed from the rally to carry out a robbery
operation. The bane of many social activists is that they are too busy
complaining about what is wrong that it rarely occurs to them to design a
template for remedial action. There is also the challenge arising from
the fact that a good number of them cannot be described as among the
best educated or informed, even on the very issues that are supposed to
be their forte. This is all very sad, because unkempt hair, a permanent
state of self-agitation and bad manners cannot replace rationality in
human affairs. The activists who are success stories are always the ones
who work for results – those who understand power.
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