By Reuben Onyishi
(Ugoachataberu)
As it is written in the holy book, wisdom is better than weapons of warfare. Certain battles in life are avoidable only if men have wisdom. The Almighty God was minded to give King Solomon rest from battles, unlike King David, his father, who, all his life, fought battles up and down the hills and caves. His hands were soiled with blood so much that when he purposed to build a house for God, the Almighty objected to that and would rather his son did build His temple. So when Solomon asked for wisdom, he asked according to the will of God; he asked and received because he did not ask amiss. God granted him unprecedented wisdom and so he could manage relationships effectively with every diplomatic savvy without detracting from the dignity of the exalted office he occupied.
Many of the tyrants that did people the governance of the world were men who lacked the wisdom of governance embedded in interpersonal skills and relationship management abilities. Wisdom is the ability to solve a problem without creating another problem in the process. Tyrants seek to protect their positions arbitrarily. They are cowardly men who lack the competence and the art of wearing the toga of power. Tyrants undress power naked and have it rampage and gallop uncontrollably along the streets of the country with no loincloth of peace and modesty around its rude waste, as Achebe would say. Tyrants know not how to negotiate power across the bends of governance and so end up crashing it into the rueful heaps of indiscretion. They are haughty and so wear the anklets of power up to their knees. They provoke the vindictiveness of the gods on account of their hubris- excessive mortal pride – and so undo themselves in no time.
Some leaders might not have set out for the low they found themselves, for while taking their haughty steps to the Olympian height without the needed circumspection, they stagger down the lugubrious stairs into the lowly cesspit. By so doing they confirm V. S. Naipaul’s prelude to his ‘A Bend in the River’ that the world is such a place. Men who are nothing, who have made themselves nothing, have no place in it. Indeed tyrants have no place in the world besides the lowly cesspit into which they often descend.
If wisdom was a gift, it is denied leadership at all levels in Nigeria and this has a historical dimension. Nigeria as a country has had a checkered history full of crises. We have had leaders who lacked relationship and people management skills, men who ordinarily would have had no business with governance. Many of such leaders across all facets of the land ended up creating more problems for themselves and for the people. Perhaps we are yet to be developed for want of wise leadership. We have yet at the national level to encounter the J F Kenedies and the Lincolns of the American fame in Nigeria.
This history bereft of people management savvy has entrenched itself a tradition, a stereotype of sort, so much that the people suffer shock at a manifestation of such unkown skills in their governance. Such shock is capable of engendering some level of misinterpretation on the part of the people who had not encountered such all their lives. That exactly is what plays out in Enugu State since the coming to power of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. Ugwuanyi’s relationship management savvy has remained as enigmatic as it amazes the learned and confounds the simple. No one has yet to come to terms with it.
Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is like the soldier ants and the pumpkin leaves that know no boundaries. Ugwuanyi is the pathway that has no enemies as he constantly defies the saying that nobody can please everybody. In truth and practice, Ugwuanyi has shown how possible it can be to please everybody. And this is one of the assets of his government.
Since 2015 ,when Ugwuanyi came to power till date, Enugu State has seen rest; rest from political upheavals; rest from security challenges; rest from the opposition; rest from power tussles; rest from executive-legislature crisis and all the ills associated with poor interpersonal skills and lack of wisdom.
Besides wisdom, it takes humility to effectively manage relationships. Many of the political crises come to governance are often times orchestrated by pride and arrogant showmanship. Chief Jim Nwobodo, the former Governor of the old Anambra State, recently attested to Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s humility as unprecedented.
Ugwuanyi’s many victories had come to him naturally as leaves to a tree. He is loved by the people for identifying with them at all times. Some paid vain detractors had thought to ridicule him with his identifying with the people in celebration and mourning, something they had thought unbecoming of his high office, without their knowing that Ugwuanyi has uncommon relationship abilities that erase the barriers between the high and the low. Little wonder the door of Lion Building is open to all.
Opposition politics in Enugu State is dead. It is dead because there is absolutely no need for that. The administration of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has excellent people-oriented policies that are judiciously being implemented. Opposition thrives where the government is not doing well. The government of Ugwuanyi is doing exceptionally well on all fours and so there is no need for any opposition. Ugwuanyi also maintains sound relationship with the APC led federal government despite his being in the opposition party, the PDP. It takes a great deal of relationship management skills to sail through the thorns of opposition at the centre and at the state level. This is something that was absent in previous administrations of the state.
Maintaining a good relationship with the legislature is not a dance done with snuff in palm. We had in the past seen cases of split legislature for and against the governor. We have seen the implications of that as it affects governance in the state. In some of the cases, two speakers emerged. Accusations and recreminations, impeachment and votes of confidence fly the sky and fan the people cold. But this is completely absent in Ugwuanyi’s administration. His Excellency has an exceptional cordial relationship with the legislature. This cordial relationship has wrought positive impacts in the development and governance of Enugu State.
When the ways of a man pleases God, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. In Enugu State, Ugwuanyi is loved by the people. He has the mien; he has the aura; Ugwuanyi has the charisma. Notorious criminals have kept away from Enugu State, avoiding crimes as one would a hot iron. They on their own know that righteousness is on the throne and so they had better give peace a chance or be worse off for any negating criminal action.
Many politicians of Enugu State extraction who went on political asylum have returned home. Old politicians who could not find their feet politically have now been integrated into the scheme of things irrespective of party affiliations.
Youths who had before now complained about their exclusion in political appointments in the state are now appointed to positions in Ugwuanyi’s administration as commissioners, SPAs, SSAs, SAs and TAs. The elders are happy; the youth are glad that true governance has come to Enugu State through Dr. Ugwuanyi.
Ugwuanyi’s Midas touch of relationship savvy also finds expression across the divides of gender consideration. Both genders are equitably represented in his government. Ugwuanyi has been able to manage the gender question in the state that there are no ayes and nays to that effect.
At the local government level, the chairmen of the 17 local governments in the state are not left out. Ugwuanyi relates with them so effectively that there has not been any issue whatsoever with the councils. Ugwuanyi’s interpersonal skills have also robbed off on the chairmen to the extent that they too have developes cordial relationships with their councillors. There has been no case of impeachment of any chairman or leader of the house in any of the councils under Governor Ugwuanyi’s watch.
At the party level in the state, inter-party relationships have been leveraged upon, leading to the adoption of Ugwuanyi by the other political parties as their joint candidate during the governoship election. Within the PDP in Enugu State, Ugwuanyi as the leader of the party, has caused the party to relate like a family. Recently, the party had its state congress and there was no issue at all. The congress was done in an orderly and peaceful manner devoid of any rancor or acrimonious altercation.
No man can do all this if he lacks wisdom; if he lacks excellent interpersonal relationship management skills. These skills do not just occur as leaves to a tree; they grow as boughs in the plant of humility and wisdom. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is the plant and Enugu State enjoys the good fruit it bears.
BIBIAN ANEKWE NEWS ADDED” WITH GBURUGBURU COME 2023, NIGERIA IS RESCUED
Written by
Reuben Onyishi
( Ugoachataberu)
