These days I find myself thinking a lot about the boundary, if there is one, between the political and the spiritual. If you walk into a bookstore, much of the material on what is classified as “spirituality” is the “self- help” /new age section. Some of it is quite profound and deeply transformative. A lot of it, well, perhaps less so.
Gov Ugwuanyi’s physical is already illuminated with the presence of the sacred. If we care about the spirit, we cannot avoid concern with the here and now. His Excellency’s spiritual life is deep in thought, it’s all about going about doing the social need of the people, the mystical is also about the political. The cosmic in him has to be about changing the world of which we are a part. The healing inside and the healing of the world are wrapped up in one another.
Gov Ugwuanyi as the Moses of Ndi Enugu and their political and spiritual leader; I ask; was Moses not concerned with the political as he led the Hebrews out of bondage? Was Amos not concerned with politics when he said: Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream? This is the spiritual calling of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to redirect our state to the path of equity, justice and fairness. And did he not say; in Enugu 2023, equity, justice and fairness, will take prominence?
Was Jesus of Nazareth not concerned with social change and transformation as he sat with prostitutes and lepers, keeping the company of the outcast and the downtrodden? This is the man in Ugwuanyi as the political leader of Enugu state. Was the Muhammad of Arabia not concerned with political as he overthrew the Arab tribal bonds and instead insisted that human beings stood radically equal, as the teeth in a comb?
Gov Ugwuanyi’s deep attachment to life of spirit, even silence, did not prevent him from getting involved in issues of justice and injustice, or speaking out against political manipulations by setting individuals against the will of the people. Some years back when Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was called to political leadership in 2003, he was drawn, at that time, to study of mystics because he was burned out of politics, and wanted to govern Udenu LGA in the love-filled eternal and sweet. All of that was there, of course, and more.
But his beloved mystics kept acting socially and politically. Because he loved God, he loved God’s creation. Because he cared about the mystery of the human being, he cared about the whole of the human race. Unlike governor Ugwuanyi, some political leaders overtime, positioned themselves as champions of the weak and the marginalized, and acted in a way that today we would call “speaking truth to power”. In their profoundly hierarchical society- and let us admit that ours today is still profound discrepancy between the super-haves and almost- nothings- these mystics kept on reminding the rulers that it was God who was the ultimate king. Had they been aware to subvert the will of the people.
Bibian Anekwe News added: “If you really want to be an uncommon leader, you’re going to have to find a way to get much of your vision seen, implemented, and added to by others.”
Written By
Prince Ugochukwu Nwanjoku.
