Former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, is cast in different moulds by different commentators for good reason. Kind words are used to describe him and his style of governance in Anambra State for eight years.
No recent publication in newspapers and magazines which x-rays his tenure portrays him in bad light. It has been encomia all the way to his last day in office on Sunday, March 16.
I was in Awka on March 8 to witness the stewardship ceremony organised by the Anambra State government to acquaint the new Governor,Willie Obiano, with the balance sheet ahead of his assumption of office on March 17.
The event attracted the high and mighty in politics, the economy, religion, culture, among other spheres of society, to underscore the phenomenon called Peter Obi, popularly called Okwute (rock).
From former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; to the richest man in Africa, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; to the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; to the Obi of Onitsha, Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe; the testimony of Obi’s performance they chorused cannot be quantified.
I was a bit taken aback by the barrage of good stories I read on Obi, whom many had tried to demonise because he came to the job with a mind-set to change a system he felt was not the best for the people.
Before he became Governor, everybody who is somebody in the state and their supporters were used to a system where a few – mainly politicians and their cronies – shared scarce state resources with a boldness that redefined god-fatherism in Anambra politics.
The era of Dr Chris Ngige and its implication on state and national politics is fresh in the mind.
That Obi was determined not to distribute money was, on its own, a cardinal offence to the indigenes, politicians and leaders of Anambra extraction, and to their numerous friends – including those in the national media who, before Obi came on board, were used to the corrupt system. They viewed him and his great ideas with huge suspicion.
The verdict of the commentators on Obi and his tenure is the most treasured gift to a political office holder in Nigeria. They think that Obi’s achievements can be replicated in other states.
His disposition towards power is what anybody aspiring to public office should emulate. He demystified power and political office such that many wondered if he was real or acting. Yet his approach from his first day in office remained the same till he left.
He was as simple as he was peaceful in all matters significant. He clutched his bag and checked himself into a public airline, unlike other governors who think power is baseless without arrogance, pride, loudness, troublesomeness, and class distinction.
While his colleagues boasted of private jets acquired with tax-payers’ money, Obi was comfortable flying with the people. He fought like a wounded lion to defend the mandate he was given and buried his head in people-oriented programmes.
Throughout his reign, the office of First Lady, another conduit for many governors and their spouses, was not flaunted. Margaret remained for eight years the governor’s wife and was recognised as such.
Obi converted Anambra guest houses, which were ‘slaughter houses’ for pot-bellied politicians, to revenue centres and collected millions of naira in rent for Ndi Anambra.
Nigerians who crave good governance should insist that Obi’s style be the yardstick to measure other public office holders.
“Obi is a man of vision, mission, focus, compassion, piety and integrity….One of the ways of assessing the performance of governments in Nigeria and indeed across the world is to evaluate what the government has done and is doing with the collective resources of the citizens,’’Anyaoku said at the Awka ceremony.
Dangote added: ‘I think all of us should increase respect for Peter Obi. I am really very proud of him, particularly because he was coming from the private sector. It is not easy to run business in Nigeria; it is very difficult, but what he has done is even more difficult than running a business.
“Even people from Yobe know that governing Anambra is not an easy task. Today, I don’t really think there is any state that has N7 billion in savings…. I think for anybody to run a state or a country, he needs to follow what you have actually done, because to run a state in Nigeria without having a majority in the House of Assembly is almost impossible but [Obi] he did just that.
“I have never seen Peter Obi with more than two people following him. This is part of cuztting cost.’’
I wish Dim ChukwuemekaOdimegwu-Ojukwu were alive to be part of the success story of Obi. He told me in Enugu in an interview in 2009 that he had implicit confidence in Obi’s leadership qualities, as we are all telling it today.
Nigerians ought to have listened to Ojukwu who wanted to raise leaders to take the country to the Promised Land.
“The monarchs in Igboland and other Igbo sons and daughters are looking up to him to assume a higher responsibility in the Presidency someday,” said Achebe, who led other traditional rulers to turban Obi as Okwute Ndigbo on March 15.
No doubt, the system of government run in Anambra by Obi should interest students of history and political science.