(This would be a long read worth your time. Kindly share your thoughts with us in the comment box). This is written with the understanding that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was addressing politicians during that lecture which my Governor is one of them. She never mentioned his name while at the conversation although i contextualized her lecture to address our local reality in Abia State.
Each time the tenure of an elected executive office holder in Nigeria comes full cycle such that a new election would have to be conducted in other to choose who takes up such positions, it comes with mixed feelings for me.
Permit me to say categorically that the democratic system of governance as it is known to the world especially in developed nations means an entirely different thing when compared to what we have in the Nigerian context.
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Most of the newly elected office holders in most cases are always hooked on the opium of abandoning most projects initiated by their predecessors, to start off entirely new projects just to prove points that are not necessary and in some other cases, make some money off these newly initiated projects.
According to Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala during her now famous lecture on social contract between the leaders and the masses at the NBA 2024 National Conference held in Lagos, she specifically called this phenomenon of elected office holders abandoning the projects initiated by their predecessors, “not made in my administration syndrome”.
For those who have followed my thought pattern consistently over the years on how Executive political office holders should be assessed, I rarely assess their performance based on the number of projects they are able to initiate and commence.
As long as such leadership carries on with people-oriented projects from the previous administration and completes them, we must boldly give them their flowers.
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When you call Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu names for maintaining a political power brokerage monopoly in Lagos State, some set of people would always argue that the reason why Lagos State has enjoyed a relatively seeming sustained growth and development trajectory over the years is because of the consistency of government policies which is being achieved by making sure that a particular political party wins for most strategic positions during elections in the State. Unfortunately, APGA in Anambra State cannot boast of such benefits despite having been the dominant party in the state.
The Lagos state pattern of selecting who becomes the Governor may have its demerits but you would be blind not to see that the political schedule has earned Lagos business stakeholders a form of relative stability in economic policies which encourages them to keep investing massively in the state.
Another example that comes to mind when discussing the gains of having consistency in government policies which has really helped in making economic and infrastructural growth possible is the reality of Rwanda and Peru.
While we must always remember that absolute power corrupts absolutely, we must also acknowledge that when there is a political leadership that deliberately prioritizes service to the citizens, having them lead the people for “a while” confers a form of stability on such economies that these leaders superintend over.
Paul Kegame of Rwanda is a shining example of the above analogy.
However, while we must also acknowledge that there are a lot of factors that affect who is elected to an office, we must acknowledge that the Lagos State model and Rwandan model of governance recruitment cannot continue to be the litmus test for ensuring that an economy maintains a steady trajectory in terms of policies which ensure growth and the development of the society.
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This is where the thoughts on Social Contract as shared by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala during the NBA Conference comes to bear.
For a keynote speaker at one of the world’s largest gathering of lawyers to extensively speak to the issue of social contract between the politicians and the governed, then it tells you that it is a matter to be taken very seriously.
We must delineate sectors of our economy that change of government should not affect the policy thrust for any reason.
These sectors must be protected by legislations while the masses and bodies like NBA, NMA, AMLSN, ASUU etc must be deliberate about seeing that these contracts are respected and strictly followed.
We must discourage political office holders from getting into office and starting off random projects without paying attention to consolidating on the development trajectory of the previous government.
Let me drive this conversation home a bit with what has happened in Abia State for some months now since the present government led by Dr. Alex Otti of the Labour Party came to power.
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There is absolutely no doubt that the current Abia State governor emerged on a popular mandate from Abia State electorate.
It is obvious that the voting out of the PDP was a form of referendum by the people to express most strategically their pain, dissatisfaction and frustration with how the PDP had conducted its affairs in the state over the years they have been in charge.
These Abians who voted for Dr. Alex Otti massively did so because all they need are solutions to their myriads of problems and nothing beyond that.
To them, PDP had failed them and as a result, they massively came out to give Dr. Alex Otti the mandate to take them to a place where they would be able to explain in practical terms what it means to have a leader who is responsible, accountable, transparent and drips off huge drops of milk of human empathy.
While I must acknowledge that the Labour Party government have been deliberate about some of their tasks in Abia State which includes but not limited to the drive towards making Aba one of the cleanest cities in Nigeria, the Reconstruction of Port Harcourt road which would have a massive impact on the economy of the State when completed, one of the least things I expected from this government in all sincerity was the amount of resources invested in apportioning blames to the past government.
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The alleged interference of the government with Enyimba Economic City which is a generational transformational project validates my worry.
Firstly, this government started off with a sort of state sponsored, well-oiled propaganda machinery which was aimed at making sure that the inactions of the present government in some areas were blamed on the former government which they had just wrestled power from.
Some of us are convinced beyond doubt that it was outrightly unnecessary as the task at hand was mainly about fixing the state and not to bore us with narratives of how the former government ran the state aground with their recklessness.
Dr. Alex Otti and his team members must realize that they were not elected to give us excuses or tell us tales about the past government, they were recruited to solve the problems created by the previous governments.
My suspicion of the Labour Party government in Abia State being more interested in distracting the masses than doing the real job of governance was confirmed when the newly elected government started casting everything done in the previous government in dark shades, making us have the notion that everything done by the previous government was bad and as such had to be scrapped.
They even elevated the demarketing of that immediate past administration to the point of never giving them credits for the modest achievements they recorded where necessary.
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Such a disposition is outrightly wrong as government is a continuum and we must realize that we must build on the wins and losses of our predecessors in government.
Who would have thought that something as basic as the State logo created by the previous administration would be changed by this tenure?
Look to the reality of Lagos and Anambra State governments and you would understand that things as critical as cooperate branding of the state should not be changed after every tenure just to score cheap political points or in some cases due to political differences.
The second illustration with which to buttress this line of thought of newly elected political office holders always interfering with the development of their states can be seen with the delay in the commencement of the development of Enyimba Economic City Aba Abia State.
Why has Enyimba economic city development not kicked off yet as we have really been expectant? Remember that this is a privately funded and developed project which the state and the federal government both have stakes in.
What about the Certificate of Occupancy that is alleged to have been issued earlier for the area of land on which the project is meant to be cited on?
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Enyimba Economic City is an ambitious project that is reputed globally as one of the biggest wonders of the world in terms of planning, architecture and landscaping.
This project is scheduled to sit on a 9,803-hectare space of land as a greenfield integrated city where the residents would work, live, learn and play.
This city is a product of the Made in Nigeria for export programme of the previous administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
It is a project expected to gulp a whopping sum of $201.7 million, out of which $150 million would be provided by the Afrexim Bank which Dr. Oramah was instrumental to making possible – talk about African owned institutions financing the ambitious development of Africa.
The Enyimba Economic City is the winner of the prestigious new cities business plan contest of the Chattered Cities Institute in Washington DC beating black stone sharter city in Australia to second place and Novgorod New Hanse Town in Russia to third place to win a cash price of $20,000.
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These details were given to express in empirical terms, what level of excellence that is on its way to Aba, Abia State before political difference/alignment interfered massively as alleged.
How can we explain it that with such an ambitious project located in Aba Abia State, the state government under Dr. Alex Otti’s leadership still proceeded with a conception of a similar project called Aba Industrial Innovation Park to mimic what is to be developed at the Enyimba Economic City within the same cluster?
Permit me to remind you my dear reader that Abia State under last administration developed a 30-year strategic development plan which when implemented was going to usher the State into a phenomenal phase of sustained development and not some sort of episodic styled improvement in infrastructure and the economy.
Anambra State also under the leadership of former Governor Willie Obiano saw to the development of a 50-year strategic development plan which the present governor Prof. Charles Soludo was the Chairman of the committee that drafted that plan.
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In a nation like Peru which has had six (6) Presidents in seven years, they have maintained a certain level of consistency with respect to some critical areas of the nation’s developmental policy.
Moreso, i would not be amazed if Dr. Alex Otti of Abia State and Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State for the sake of politics and convenience choose to jettison these strategic long term development plans.
Governor Alex Otti must be deliberate about looking into the Abia State 30 years long term development plan to see areas that he can key into in the interest of ndi Abia just as I also wish same for Anambra State where the incumbent Governor would be seeking re-election in a year to come.
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We must stop the “how many projects did he start and complete conversation” as citizens and encourage our leaders to key into the established development plans of the various states as this would aid in maintaining the tempo of development in the various States where such plans exist over a period of time.
We must remind our political office holders that they must not stand in the way of the development of their various states because of perceived difference in political inclinations or personal interest.
A social contract is desperately needed with the aim of making sustained progress in the development of our various states. This remains the only way the Southeastern states can be developed and transformed massively.
9 responses to “ LESSONS FOR OTTI FROM OKONJO IWEALA’S ADDRESS AT NBA CONFERENCE.”
This is an unbiased assessment if only Otti will take the hint
There is something about power that beclouds their reasoning but however, we would continue doing our part as citizens.
Thank you Ngozi Okonji Iwuala for bringing this to public knowledge.
I hope our performing Governor Dr Alex Oti will read this and put it into action so as to make such huge project a reality.
This is very simple and not deserving of the so much noise they are making about it. The Governor should reconsider and do better in the interest of ndi Abia and not to feel sad that we dared to call his attention to the obvious.
Fake news monger. This fake article has been debunked by Okonjo on X
Truthful Man Nwanne m, thank you for your opinion. It is well respected and appreciated although you were careless with your bold display of ignorance.
If you had the least of decorum within your space, you would have made out time to read the article yourself and infer if indeed there was anything fake about the thoughts we expressed.
In this journey to make Nigeria work in our lifetime, not even blackmail from your likes would deter us. We wish you well and we appreciate your comment but henceforth, it would be more honorable if you get involved with activities that stretch your cerebral bandwidth so that you can engage from a place of knowlege and not trend.
Just to let you know that we could have also deleted this comment of yours so that it never features on our wall but we respect you enough to allow your opinion count in the scheme of things on our wall. Nigeria must be better in our time.
I completely understand where you’re coming from. It’s frustrating to hear the same calls for change when it feels like nothing is really improving. Many people feel disillusioned, like the country is beyond saving, captured by those who care more about power and money than the well-being of the people. When you’ve seen so many sensible ideas go ignored, it’s hard not to feel tired and hopeless. It’s difficult to keep listening when it seems like words alone aren’t enough to fix what’s broken.
Bro we are in deep mess in Africa and the irony is that if you dare speak up, they call for your head instantly. However, we would not give up on Mother Africa although most of the guys who get access to power always often do the same thing their predecessors did that they criticized.
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