Inherent in the principles of participatory democracy is the ability to hold both the leader and the led accountable. In other words, accountability in government is mutually exclusive for both the elected leaders or those who hold leadership in trust for the people and the governed. For instance, while it is the duty of government to oversee the welfare of the people, provide basic infrastructural facilities, the people on the hand should reciprocate government gestures by protecting the provided infrastructures and engaging in such other extant duties and obligations to ensure that the government in place works for everyone. Again, it is important for the people to engage their leaders in more ways as to draw their attention to their inadvertent misdemeanors while carrying out the functions of their office. Put differently, constructive dialoguing with the elected leaders to explore further means of bettering the society is the in thing rather than engaging in outright confrontation. Government should equally exhibit the highest sense of maturity in handling criticisms in order to maximize the confidence and trust of the people. As a keen watcher of governance approach by past leaders in Enugu State and by extension other states of the federation and the country at large, I have come to the realization that no two governance approach are the same.
At the end of the day, like my colleagues in the image industry will admit, perception is everything. Perception is simply a function of the senses. It deals with how something or someone is regarded, understood or interpreted. While different individuals holds various perceptive intuition towards different individuals or government depending on their understanding of the individual or government, it behoves on such preceptor to be as objectively as possible and lacking in sentiment as to obliterate his or her right judgment. While every individual has the inalienable right to hold opinion, it is also important to underscore the importance of doing such in a manner that engenders understanding of the opponent.
Information is power they say. There is no doubt about that. I recently came across an article titled “ENUGWU” with a rider *the administrations of Chimaraoke Nnamani, Sullivan Chime and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi compared* in which the writer, one Chijioke Ngobili made futile attempt to stand logic on it’s head and at best cause disharmony between the past political leaders and the incumbent. The manner with which the said article circulated virally in the social media platforms, one would conclude that that those circulating the article are running a competitive race that will earn them a great trophy. I also observed that the said article has been severally edited to suit the whims of the circulator. Someone I guessed, must have been irked by the not too complimentary remarks on the administration of Chimaraoke decided to edit out the portion concerning Chimaraoke and continued with the narrative of Barrister Sullivan and Dr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. Even then, one could notice a semblance of hate for the incumbent governor, while his predecessor was rated highly. One of the high points of the writer of the article in praise of Barrister Sullivan was that he achieved great feats while strutting the corridors of power with little or no hype at all. He then watered down Ugwuanyi’s achievements if any by knocking him as a noise maker who have achieved nothing but rather allowed the dilapidation of the infrastructures built by Sullivan under his watch. He capped his article by praying for the fast arrival of year 2023 so that his preferred messianic candidate can come to rule Enugu. Haba!
I’d like to counsel Mr. Ngobili about our proverb which says that a child who cries too hard to his or her mother to beget another child will soon discover that the sole attention will be shifted to the new baby rather than to him or her. OK, let me further remind Mr. Ngobili and his cheerleaders and sponsors that Ugwuanyi remains the reason why freedom of expression is expressly allowed without molestation from government agents which was not readily allowed in no distant past. Enugu metropolis might be dirty in Ngobili’s own estimation, but should the people not take responsibility of keeping their environment clean and disposing their wastes more responsibily assuming without conceding that the Enugu waste management board has gone under, under Ugwuanyi’s watch?.
Ngobili and his ilk should wait for this… When the world’s economy was been battered by the effects of COVID-19, the government of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi stood like a rock of Gibraltar to cushion the effects on the people. He was not only paying regular salary of civil servants but could still afford to pay extra 13th month to the workers. Since last did Ngobili if he is sincere with his spurious narrative heard about delay or even non payments of workers salaries in the state in spite of the global meltdown?
Ngobili should be able to also ask how the megre IGR in addition to the federal allocation to the state as a non oil producing state is being managed to pull off some of the legacy projects Ugwuanyi has been able to build in the last seven years. It may no longer be necessary to play politics with everything. Ugwuanyi’s modest achievements in the last seven years, to appear conservative about it, is too glaring to be dragged into the mud waters of politics. His massive investments in Education, Healthcare and Agricultural development is yet unmatched despite the lean purse of the State. In a few weeks from now, the first ever flyover to be constructed by any government before Ugwuanyi to ease traffic congestion at the gateway to the city would be let open to the public. This was a project started under 24 months and the pragmatic leadership of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi remained a catalyst towards the record completion of the legacy project.
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has performed veritably. This is no politics. So does his predecessors in office too in their own styles. The citizens are clamoring for a replica of Ugwuanyi in 2023. They are just not praying for 2023 to come to usher out Ugwuanyi but are increasingly apprehensive about the type of character that might wear the big shoes he would be leaving behind. Ngobili and his cohorts should align with this prayer instead, so that we may never have to doubt that God has come to the rescue of Ndi Enugu through the gift of Gov Ugwuanyi.
Bibian Anekwe News added: “A leaders job is to look into the future and see the organization not as it is, but as it should be”.
© Austin Okechukwu Chijioke.
Public Affairs Commentator.
Media Team Lead for Enugu Di N’akachukwu Movement.
