By Valentine Obienyem
You need not lead a corporation or country for your capacity to lead to become manifest. A leader is always a leader even when he is leading his primary school mates. This is the lesson I learnt during our one-day recent trip to an African country. We travelled to one of my favorite destinations and returned the following day.
*ObiMr. Peter Obi had notified me about the trip after which I saw myself included on a WhatsApp group for the journey. Do we need the roll call? Not at all, because it has nothing to do with politics. What struck me was the fact that like Mr. Peter Obi does, Mr. Atedo Peterside, as common a name in the Nigerian financial world as Obi has become in politics, was personally directing affairs. He was posting most of the time; telling us what to do. He would always emphasize the importance of communication through deeds: he communicated each step he took and encouraged us to do the same.
After associating with him, my
belief in the power of communication, as my boss always emphasizes, became many
times magnified. Indeed, like Obi, Atedo is among the rare breed of Nigerians
that can only be found on the pages of the classics. Every step in their lives
is a vital leadership lesson that would assist any sedulous observer in
climbing the rungs of success.
The
moment I encountered some challenges, I communicated that to our group; and
pronto, he assured me he would get his contact to take it up. I did not know
what happened, but the problem was expeditiously solved. In our private chat,
Atedo told me he would not have been happy if I were left behind.
This
is another leadership lesson: carry everybody along with understanding,
patience and kindness: no paternal omnipotence. It is generally a question of
inequality recognized but not abused. Some other persons would have
ignored me, saying to himself, “Who knows why he got into “trouble”, let him
sort himself out.”
In
each of his communication, I detected a parallel between him and Mr. Peter Obi.
I silently said to myself, that if Plutarch were alive today to write lives by
parallel, he would have chosen Obi and Atedo on leadership models, simplicity
of life and the philosophical inclination of not taking this life so seriously.
Recall that when Tsze-Loo asked Confucius, “what constitutes the Higher man?”,
he replied, “the cultivation of himself with reverential care.” Obi and Atedo
are indeed higher men. If gentlemanliness is measured by living a life
consistent with virtues, both men are richly endowed.
In the airplane, I observed Her Excellency, Mrs. Margaret Obi engaged in discussion with
Aisha Yesuf and others. Mrs. Obi is Peter Obi’s wife, a woman as beautiful
inside as she is outside, with a surfeit of a mother’s tenderness and
surpassing kindness. That woman can wear her entire life out while trying to
help others. She is worried, very genuinely so. She says to Aisha that the
hardship in the land is getting out of hand and that she is daily engrossed
with thoughts about how Nigerians survive.
She
knows, like every other Nigerian that whoever wins the presidential election
would have a herculean task stabilizing Nigeria before talking about progress.
She realizes that her husband’s victory would come with great expectations from
weary and over-burdened Nigerians.
She
is, however, very optimistic that a husband she has lived with for over thirty
years is quite capable of out-performing Hercules. “Aisha”, she said mellowly,
“Peter is an amazing human being. He teaches us that whatever a man’s mind set
out to achieve could be done with commitment, hard-work and remaining focused
at all times.
Knowing
him full well, I am optimistic that he would turn the country around for good
if offered the opportunity. He is consumed by the condition of the country that
his daily ritual is now predictable: wake up at 4am, do his prayers and exercise and thereafter become engrossed with the thoughts of how to pull
Nigerians out of poverty, how to solve energy problem, the marshal plan for
education and the desiderata for a progressive Nigeria.”
Indeed, the support Obi is enjoying among Nigerians is borne out
of the discovery that he means well for the country. If he did it in Anambra
State, he could replicate it nationwide. It is,
therefore, not about Peter Obi, Margaret, Atedo or Aisha, but about Nigerians. It is about
striving to reclaim a country that has been heartlessly battered over the years. My old
teacher, Rev. Fr. Dr. Collins Okeke
would have put it differently, “ striving to make a country mercilessly
immersed in disequilibrium to be at an equipoise.”
In
the past, Nigerians were apathetic about electioneering, thus exposing the
electoral space to easy and criminal manipulations. We carried on until things got
very bad. What is happening today is that Nigerians want a better Nigeria. For
the first time, Nigerians, forced by the degeneration of their country beyond
compare, are determined to take back their country.
They
are no longer enamoured by the appeal to tribalism or
religion, which has remained the elite tool of subjugating the people. This is
why Nigerians are searching for that Nigerian with proven mental and physical
capacity to deal with the myriad of problems confronting her. On this, Obi’s message resonates: ”It is not the turn of any
particular person; it is the turn of Nigerians. It is about time
Nigerians woke up from political slumber and take back their country.
We
have lost it and cannot afford to bequeath anarchy to posterity.” The way
things are, if Nigerians get it wrong, we can as well sing a dirge for the nation.
The candidacy of Mr. Peter Obi is, therefore, relevant to Nigerians who seek
greater things for the country.
The
foregoing was their discussion throughout the duration of the trip amidst
punctilious airport protocols. Between Obi and Atedo, the same discussion took
place. I knew this because as soon as we landed, Mr. Atedo jokingly said that
most of us slept throughout the trip while he was busy with Obi discussing the
problems of Nigeria and their possible solutions.
I
have been to several African countries with Obi while he was seeking solutions
to the problems of Anambra State. I remember our particular trip to South
Africa on hydraform building technology, water issue and wooing of Shoprite,
Distell and SABMiller to invest in the
state. I also remember when I accompanied him to Kenya to meet the United
Nations’Habitat team.
The
then trip to Kenya was part of his determination to get things right in the
State. He had gone to discuss the livability of Anambra’s major cities of Awka,
Onitsha and Nnewi. It was during discussions that the UN Habitat boss described
Onitsha an “organized chaos.” But Obi, with the gift of repartee, quickly
agreed with her, but insisted that he had come for them to assist the
Government of Anambra State turn that chaos into order.
Throughout the meeting, Obi spoke passionately about Anambra State
that
I
suspect the love he showed for the State infected the UN Habitat team.
In the end, Obi not only convinced them of the need to come to
Anambra, but they agreed to assist without Anambra State paying a Kobo. This
was how the UN Habitat raised an international team that produced structural
plans for Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi, with detailed sequential order of
implementation.
Part of the plans were the reasons, in Onitsha for example, Obi desilted Nwangene and Sacamori drains, built critical roads at Okpoko, started water projects, expanded the head-bridge
road, intensified the call for a Second Niger bridge which President Goodluck
Jonathan started, removed some refuse that blocked major roads for over 10
years, built two massive business parks in Onitsha, build two mini stadia in
Onitsha, tarred all roads in the GRA,
Habour Industrial Layout and selected critical ones, completed the Ministry of
Justice building, started the Onitsha Hotel and Convention Centre (since
abandoned), collaborated with the federal government to deliver the Nkpor
flyover, did massive erosion work at Omagba and other areas, among others. By the time he left office, Onitsha was bubbling with life. In fact the
city was reported as the fastest in Africa in terms of growth. How far was the
regeneration carried on after his tenure? This is beyond the scope of this
piece.
The
last trip to an African country by Obi was for varieties of reasons. As a
leader, he always emphasizes the complementary role of leadership and learning.
As the wise one said, education comes one fourth from the classroom, one fourth
from self, one forth from experience and one fourth from travels. He has the
better combination of the four sources.
Many Nigerians are not aware that as part of his preparation for
the big job, he has been visiting many countries where he takes time studying
what they are doing well and rightly. When he talks about the improvement in
power supply, he has studied it locally and visited Egypt and South Africa to
see how they are achieving results in that regard. When he talked about the
incredible policies that led to the reduction of poverty in India and China, it
is from the view-point of one that has done an in-depth study and capped it by
visiting those countries.
From
the vantage position of having visited Bangladesh, he talks about the country
and its poverty alleviation programmes and how the commitment of her leaders
enabled them migrate from clothes-buying to clothes-producing country.
Have you imagined how millions of Nigerians will take
to tailoring if opportunity opens in that regard? When Mr. Peter Obi talks
about agricultural revolution, not many people are aware that he had visited
the countries he cites and carefully studied by what magic they are doing it. He is certain he would turn Nigeria around because he has a sound
knowledge of global best practices.
Though the trip was not because of politics, I am sure that
subsequently, he would tell us one or two things he observed in that country
(whose identity I would prefer he discloses himself) that could be applied to
Nigeria. The world is moving on and has left countries like ours behind due to bad leadership. Any leader desirous of moving
Nigeria up the notch of development must aggregate the good policies of
different countries wholesale to Nigeria.
But why are some Nigerians campaigning against him, clamouring for
the atavistic throwback to the old and superceded ways? It is expected. Some people
that benefit from the old order are convinced that by enthroning the architects
of that dreaded order, they will continue to enjoy some unmerited privileges even when the country is dying. But with Obi, we are
sure of the decapitation of that old order so that Nigeria will start anew.
*Obienyem is a commentator on public issues
No comments:
Post a Comment