By Ogu Bundu Nwadike
As the entire world is kept on its toes by the very complex and intricate pandemic, Coronavirus, Nigeria isn’t left out. It’ll be comic relief by a good jester for anybody to say he’s not been fearfully touched by the danger and threat to life by the scourge that’s also known as COVID-19.
However, much as every country, every city, every town, village, clan and family feels the silently roaring threats of the pandemic, some have proved to be better placed to contend with and contain the menace of the killer-disease.
And from a careful observation and review of the few reported success trends in dealing with the pandemic in various places in the world, it can be concluded that the ingredients of vision, foresight, proactiveness, discretion, decision, action, good leadership and good governance combine to neatly stratify the afore-stated places into performers and non-performers.
This short essay is dedicated to one Nigerian leader that has become symbolic of a confirmed performing performer; a very good and great performer at that. He has over the past two decades proved to be a visionary with foresight, proactiveness, discretion, decision, action, good leadership and governance combined.
His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ogbuagu Emeka Ihedioha CON, KSC, FNIFST on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 added another year as he, his family, his friends and associates celebrated his 55th birthday. He’s a jolly good fellow. May he live long in the land of the living, in good health, sound mind, and all-round blessings and prosperity.
Expectedly, a befitting warehouse of congratulatory messages, comments, well-wishes, and abundant birthday felicitations were unleashed upon the world in the parabolic full week of royal celebrations of Rt. Hon. Ihedioha’s birthday. He deserves it!
Within the last one week, I took time to read through and digest a large corpus of the many things written about the celebrant. I was very much impressed. So much of the finest attributes of the great leader was captured in thoughts and expressed in words. He’s much loved by many!
As I reflected on the personality of Rt. Hon. Ihedioha, I reconfirmed that he has the eyes and mind for setting standards with any task he undertakes. I reconfirmed that he’s a stickler for good quality performance and high grade results in everything he does, no matter the size. And I noted again that he’s passionate about improvement of the life nuggets of humanity. He’s a friend of all, big or small, rich or poor!
His established award-winning excellent performance as a national legislator par excellence notwithstanding, the hallmark of his knack for striving to make the world a better place was his landmark, award-winning seven months service to the good people of Imo State in Southeast Nigeria.
I have been severally taken up by his and my detractors on my decided, unrepentant description of Rt. Hon. Ihedioha and his tenure as Imo governor as award-winning. I wave such attacks off into the trashcan of ignorance caused by unnecessary envy, jealousy, hatred and malice by enemies of truth.
For the benefit of those who genuinely don’t know him well, among being a principal officer and presiding officer of the Nigerian Legislature at the national level, Rt. Hon. Ihedioha is a Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). It’s a very high award by the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for his excellent service to Nigeria in the Legislature. In fact, it’s the fourth highest national award of honour for excellence in service to the Nigerian nation. Only very few people have been honoured with the fourth highest national honour. Yet, there are some other dozens of awards bestowed upon him by reputable organizations and institutions in Nigeria and abroad.
Rt. Hon. Ihedioha’s seven months in office as governor of Imo State was award-winning too. In the period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) rated Imo “The Least Corrupt State In Nigeria” with 17% corruption rating, which was the lowest among those of the 36 States in the federation. That was a very big award won for Imo State by the Rt. Hon. Ihedioha and his RebuildImo administration.
Under his charge also, the BusinessDay Media named Imo “The State With The Highest Growing Economy In Nigeria”. That too was a sweet award for the successful growing of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from a paltry N250 million in June 2019 to an impressive N1.18 billion in December 2019.
The roles of the financial control best practices introduced by Rt. Hon. Ihedioha in earning Imo State those awards among others cannot be over-emphasized. Take for instance the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy, which he introduced by the Order 005 that he signed to end the operation of over 250 bank accounts by the Imo State Government (IMSG) as at May 29, 2019, when he took up the mandate mantle of governorship and leadership in the State.
The TSA was a financial disciplinarian policy that succeeded in plugging holes that caused leakages in the financial bag of Imo State, raising the IGR meteorically. With the TSA, transparent and accountable receipts and releases of public revenue were meticulously introduced and monitored, with very huge success in the financial story of the? State. Little wonder Imo State was honoured with highly honourable awards by reputable organizations for good standing in economic growth and incorruptibility rating.
A careful observer can attest to the fact that in his plans and planning of the leadership nuggets to deploy to make any situation better, Rt. Hon. Ihedioha is very meticulous and often fastidious. For him only a tested and proven good performance is good enough. That’s because he’s quite passionate about good quality in whatever progamme or project that’s designed for the people. He’s very well known for being people-oriented in all he does as a leader of people. He has zero tolerance for mediocres and their mediocrity!
Talking of people-oriented programmes and projects, Rt. Hon. Ihedioha has a first class scorecard. He’s a man of the people! And to the surprise of many Imo people and amazement of many others, he was able to proactively articulate a rather large number of progammes and projects simultaneously in a very short time. And that, in no small measure, endeared him to the greater majority of Imo people. He has a burden to transform the lives of people wherever he may be!
There were the over 500 kilometers of roads across the State, which he ensured were being rebuilt by the respective contractors. After paying the counterpart funding for the resumption of the abandoned Rural Access Mobility Project (RAMP), Gov. Ihedioha, as he was then, went ahead to award contracts for the construction of some 25 major critical roads in the State.
Checks and analyses have confirmed that all numerous achievements accomplished by Rt Hon. Ihedioha in his seven months in office were all signature projects. In all sectors of the State – civil service, pensions, finance, education, health, environment, works, sports, local government, security, business and economy, commerce and industry, and even the novel agency, Bureau for Imo In Diaspora Affairs, etcetera – all recorded signature projects.
High quality was the summary of Ihedioha’s conditions for the award of the contracts to contractors. Durability of projects was non-negotiable and not to be compromised by any contractor. All contracts were duly documented and signed by both the government and the contractors. No cutting of corners!
As was visibly seen and credited to him, he personally undertook the monitoring, evaluation and supervision of most of the projects that he initiated. On countless number of times, he will roll up his sleeves and on his jean trousers visit project sites, with his helmet appropriately on his head. He saw the contractors and workers at work, and urging them to ensure high quality of their work. He was an agile, indefatigable workaholic governor!
Generally, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha is very passionate about establishing sustainable high standards in every aspect of the delivery of good government and governance to the people. He never pampers mediocrity and he’s never diplomatic about bad leadership and poor performance. And in his seven months as Imo governor, he brought that to bear in the State. His achievements still speak for him and his great team!
Now, the issues arising from Ihedioha’s bent on high standard for progammes and projects in Imo State and for Imo people is that he is selfless and sacrificial about it, focusing on the wider Imo State and greater Imo people. He never betrays himself with the pettiness of selfishness, greed and avarice associated with recent governors of the State.
Reviewing His Excellency’s penchant for establishing high quality standards in leadership won’t be complete without mention of his efforts at institutionalizing the practice of rule of law and due process in running the business of the State. Nothing must be done without the imprimatur of rule of law and due process. That was his wish and command. And Imo people, in relating with the RebuildImo government at the time, were displaying evidence of quickly imbibing the very good ingredient of good governance best practices, guided by rule of law and due process.
To ensure that rule of law and due process guided one of the most crucial aspects of government, which is contract awards and payments, Rt. Hon. Ihedioha reinvented the Bureau for Public Procurement and Price Intelligence (BPPPI), which unfortunately was discarded by the previous regime. He appointed a BPPPI expert to man the agency for best results. And sanity was restored to that sub-sector.
Also, to ensure that there were no ugly stories of uncompleted and abandoned projects as well as poorly done projects, Rt. Hon. Ihedioha recreated the Bureau for Project Monitoring and Evaluation, which was also sadly jettisoned by his predecessor. He appointed experts in that field as Special Adviser and Senior Special Assistant. And on daily basis they worked more on their feet at project sites than on their seats in their air-conditioned offices.
The lesson in that is that Ihedioha isn’t and hasn’t ever indicated that he’s an omniscient jack of all trades as some governor would do. That’s why he sought for, discovered and selected some of the best hands and heads in Imo State and beyond to join him in the onerous task of rebuilding Imo State. Virtually all of his appointees were tested and proven intellectuals technocrats and professionals in their respective rights. They were all round pegs in round holes. They knew their job descriptions and worked dilligently and conscientiously on set tasks with little or no supervision. And the end was a success story the great leader and his wonderful team.
In the spirit of the inclusive system of government which keeps far the winner takes all mentality, Rt. Hon. Ihedioha, brought into his administration, some deserving people from across party lines in the State to serve Imo State and Imo people. Expectedly, that earned him a lot of respect even from among his detractors, because it’s not to everyone in his position to accommodate even people who fought to stop him from emerging governor.
One Oriental saying holds thus: “Good thinking, good product”! The seven-month RebuildImo administration of Rt. Hon. Ihedioha was characterized by good products that were the results of quality good thinking. Ihedioha is a great team player. Right from the outset, after his victory at the polls, when the Transition Technical Committee (TTC) was created, through the 2019 Inauguration Committee, to the appointments of aides and officials, and ultimately to the prioritization of programmes and projects, Rt. Hon. Ihedioha showed he had great capacity for right thinking. Truly, he’s a great thinker!
That’s why in this season of COVID-19 pandemic, as government wobbbles and fumbles over plans, policy, progammes and projects to contend with and contain the scourge, many people nostalgically remember Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha. No doubt, Imo people must be arguing about what would have been the situation of Coronavirus if Ihedioha were still in office.
Those that know him closely would correctly answer that it would have been less reactive talking and much proactive actions. special Test Centres and Isolation Centres would have been created in Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe Zones. Intensive Care Units (ICU) would have been provided at strategic places. Relevant human and material resources would have been provided in adequate numbers and quantities.
Rt. Hon. Ihedioha would have approved procurement and distribution of unadulterated hand sanitizers to Imo people. Masks would have been provided for the people. Palliative relief measures would have been arranged and provided to Imo people. He’s such a proactive leader!
On the conflicting issues of “close the markets”, “stay at home” “lockdown”, etcetera, it’s very certain that Ihedioha would have come out with meaningful and reasonable approaches that would have been people-oriented and generally acceptable. Surely, it would have been a different and better story than what’s observed thus far. May God save Imo people!
That’s why many people in Imo State, Nigeria and overseas still believe that the unfair and unjust removal of Rt. Hon. Ihedioha from office as Imo governor by the Supreme Court of Nigeria will ever remain a very grave injustice to the people of Imo State. Ihedioha is God-sent. The Supreme Court and its justices know that the judgement they delivered against Ihedioha was based on fraudulent claims and forged vote results. The apex court and its operators are quite aware there were errors and mistakes on its part in proclaiming the judgement of injustice that ensured the erroneous removal of Gov. Ihedioha.
That’s one judicial decision by the Supreme Court of Nigeria and by extension the Nigerian judiciary that will remain indelible for at least a century to come. Imo people were robbed of their mandates and denied of the good governance for which they massively cast their votes for and elected Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha on March 9, 2019. Yet, it wasn’t only Imolites that were robbed and denied their rights, but also Nigerians, who were also robbed and denied their rights to auspicious and judicious judicial jurisprudence. Not a few people suffered the holistic opprobrium caused by that rape and abuse of justice by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
However, we don’t mean to dwell on an unforgettable past, indelible as it may be. What Pilate did, he did! Jesus was crucified! The difference was in His ressurrection on the third day. In that same spirit, Imo people are convinced that dry bones shall rise again. Our people strongly believe that in spite of the Supreme Court having done what it did, Ihedioha shall still rise again to complete his divine vision and mission of rebuiding Imo State for the overall benefit of all Imo people.
The reason for the nostalgia already being expressed by Imo people in their very large numbers isn’t far-fetched. Rt. Hon. Ihedioha was the first Imo governor, in a very long while, to display a good understanding of what the problems of Imo State were and what the right solutions were. That’s an incontrovertible statement of fact. He’s a gifted leader!
Be that as it may, it’s quite cheering, however, to note that Rt. Hon. Ihedioha only stepped aside. So, he said in his speech. It’s also most reassuring that he has recently declared his resolute resolve not to relent in driving his vision and mission of ensuring that Imo State is rebuilt and Imo people enjoy the best dividends of democracy.
On this occasion of his 55th birthday, all I can do is continue to wish him good health, long life and God’s all-round blessings in abundance. Once again, let me say a very hearty happy birthday to His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ogbuagu Emeka Ihedioha. Man of the people, Imolites are waiting! Imo must be rebuilt!
Nwadike a journalist, is author of the book ‘Nigeria: Worth Dying for
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