All eyes, ears, gossip and political commentary are on the Anambra State governorship elections scheduled to take place on Saturday, the 16th. Whoever emerges victorious in that election will be taking over as the Chief Executive Officer of probably the only state in the Federal Republic of Nigeria that is not in debt today. Anambra has not been saddled with any untoward liabilities since Mr Peter Obi became governor. On record, too, is the fact that the state has consistently maintained the lowest total overhead bills for running the office of governor in Nigeria for the same period. Obi has been able to sustain the practice (described as reprehensible by many political jobbers) of travelling exceedingly light. Not for him, the retinue of aides who often had no roles whatsoever in whatever business the governor was traveling for. Some of his detractors comment with irritation on his often-repeated thesis that “A governor is not a big man, but merely the coordinator of a people’s resolve to survive through responsible management of their human and material resources.”
You hear some who are not enamoured by Obi’s ways lamenting their ill luck at being saddled with a man who simply will not stop reminding everyone that Ndigbo have no culture of paying people for idleness. Their view is that he should at least pay some, but not all. Obi’s position, however, is that idleness is not a means of livelihood; so that the logic of paying some fell outside his understanding of how to manage public resources. Those who try to remind him that the funds in question were not his personal resources get this in return: “I will not help Ndigbo to nurture an emergent and disgraceful political culture that subverts the true essence of the Igbo spirit. Able bodied men and women should either be in the farm, at their shops, in their offices or in their factories”. For many of his detractors, the debate ends with a frustrated “the man should go and sit down, joo”
Anambra State is not indebted to anyone today and we should see the implication of this for an incoming government in the current national and global economic climate. For a state that is not indebted to any institution, or any bank, Anambra is still one of the most disadvantaged beneficiaries of the Federation Account. The state has not owed salaries since the commencement of the tenure of the current governor. The delivery time lines for all on-going projects are firmly established, with money in the bank to boot. Those not already completed and fully paid for will be paid for without the new governor having to look for funds to make that happen. Yes, the current governor has put the money aside and made the accounts where the funds are warehoused public information. That is why whoever will be sworn in as the new governor will not need to touch fresh financial inflows in order to pay anyone.
But we must wait until this coming Saturday to know who will walk into the Anambra State House as governor, come 2014. In the meantime, let everyone prepare to file out and elect a new governor. It is to the credit of the incumbent governor that the electioneering campaigns have been peaceful and the people know it. They also know that the charged atmosphere that characterized political combats in the state in the recent past is absent. The candidates have all largely conducted themselves with commendable self-possession. Those who started spending too early are obviously at their wits end. Others who went into the race in order to raise their ‘political nuisance value’, so as to get commissionership (or other) appointments, must be reviewing their arithmetic by now. All said, a bit of cash has been let loose on the people. Beer parlours, water and beverage sellers, take-away food vendors and sundry commercial activities got substantial fillip within this season of chop and quench.
There have also been debates and ‘meet the people’ platforms. These have been convened in several places. It was the Anambra State Public Officers and Elder’s Forum (ASPOF) that brought some of the candidates to meet the people of the state in Abuja. The outing was a good idea and the outcome was very helpful for Anambra people in Abuja, who would otherwise not have had any contact with the candidates. Thanks to Chief Simon Okeke, A.V.M. Umenwaliri (rtd.) and the ASPOF executive, the people in Abuja had a fair opportunity to meet and question some of those prancing forward to govern Anambra State. It was an occasion for frank talk and it was easy to see through the tattered profile of some of the aspirants.
Besides these platforms, there have also been contrived polls designed to suggest victory for whoever funded the ‘polls’. But the game is a familiar one, even in America. It is also fast becoming a boring one! But while we are in the midst of the political brickbats and summersaults, we must acknowledge that several combatants did their best to undo each other. And it is these wars that constrain us at this point to turn our attention to a thesis propounded by Ikedi Ohakim, when he was foreshadowed by the forces that saw him out of office. Ohakim’s impressive political ideology can best be described as ‘political itantiology’. It comes basically from two Igbo words ‘ita’ (to bite) and ‘nti’ (ear).
Ikedi used the last fight between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield to create an image of what his detractors at the time had resorted to. He said that they could all see their star going dim in the face of his (Ohakim’s) growing brilliance and eminence. They could also see him doing so well as governor and generally coasting to political immortality that they resorted to shameless acts of desperation. For them to achieve some results, so as to undermine his clear triumph as the only Imo son of great promise, was to behave like Mike Tyson in the aforementioned fight with Holyfield.
In that fight like Tyson, who saw that he was being clobbered to an obvious defeat by a better boxer, decided to give him a bite in the ear. Rather than suffer humiliation in the ring, he decided to end the fight in what can best be described as controversial circumstances. Thus Ohakim’s opponents were depicted by him as trying to bite off his political ears out of desperation. With that a new political ideology, as propounded by the former governor, was born. Yes, he brought the concept of “political ita nti”(political ear biting) into our lexicon. While intantism is the practice, itantiology is the philosophical and ideological umbrella for every form of unprincipled self-presentation, especially in matters with well-known Rules of Engagement.
It is in this regard, too, that one would like to make a few remarks about Willie Obiano, the obvious front row runner among the candidates for Saturday’s election. He is the object of special mention here because of those aiming at his ears. He comes with the needed sobriety and background for serious work and his professional background and track record as senior management employee of a global conglomerate put him in good stead. The talk about his being the preferred candidate of the incumbent governor is sometimes couched in a way that is supposed to make him feel guilty, or at least appear embarrassed. Utter bunkum!
Obiano is already an accomplished man anyone putting him forward for a position at the national or international level will not be guilty of poor judgment. It would in fact be to the credit of his sponsor and for a simple reason: his track record and personal attainments are such that he is a good bet – since he has a name he needs to protect as well as capacity to deliver. No matter how much you like someone and wish to promote him, even when he does not deserve it, it takes more than “I like this man” for anyone to attain the position of Executive Director in a serious bank and then hold the position on merit. It is also unlikely that anyone can get into the top echelon of an international platform like Texaco and remain there for all of 20 years, except he has something the company believes it should be paying him for.
The point being made here is that Obiano is not coming with a limp. Despite appearances to the contrary, especially against the background of the national politics of the 1999 – 2003 era, Anambra people are basically conservative in their perception of a true leader. They will expect and demand respect for the laws of the land along with bravery and even daredevilry of him. He must also be relatively predictable, married with children, respected among his people, useful in the community and respectful of elders, etc. That is why Ndigbo will say that elders do not worry much about young men who are yet to learn that akwa (cloth) is not the same thing as akwa (bed); and that akwa (egg) and akwa (crying) are still different from the other two.
Obiano bestrides the divides of business, manufacturing, oil and gas, finance, and traditional political leadership. He also has the reassuring disposition of one who does not seem to be in a hurry to impress the impatient and untutored.
The itantiological endeavours of the gladiators in Anambra should not distract anyone from realizing that Anambra’s next governor cannot plead pressure of lack of funds. He also has enough time to navigate the treacherous waters of party demands and design a survival template that will accommodate party loyalties without undermining economic progress and good governance. Obiano has what it takes to keep Anambra State on course and in the right direction as the new governor of Anambra State. I so believe. I so declare, without apologies.
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