Not too long ago, precisely on the 31st of December 2021, the Executive Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano played host to the Governor Elect, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo. The governor elect came with his people to thank the incumbent for all the supports received from him before, during and after the Nov. 6th governorship election.
The mammoth crowd that graced the occasion was indicative that the whole of Anambra went to Aguleri, Governor Obiano’s country home, to pay homage to the Akpokuo Dike for giving Ndi Anambra a befitting successor in the person of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo. The occasion was grand and fundamentally, a day of feasting and speech making. It was like APGA faithful and the entire people of Anambra re-congregated to re-celebrate the victory of their party and Soludo.
Everything went as planned. However, there was something that happened at the end of the occasion that stunned knee observers, especially journalists like my humble-self. We noticed that Chief Obiano’s compound was a beehive of activities while Soludo and his entourage were there. However, immediately the governor elect left, the compound was deserted. Almost everybody, including Obiano’s closest associates left with Soludo. Few of us who stayed behind could see the governor crouching about the enormous compound like an ancestor who has been abandoned by his devotees.
It is obvious that the governor is suffering the excruciating pain of abandonment during these last days in office. This assumption was confirmed by one of the governor’s aides who spoke with Angel Network News. The aid lamented that Chief has been very lonely these days as most of his close associates have crossed-over to the camp of the incoming governor.
But should this come as a surprise to anybody? I don’t think so. That, former leaders are abandoned by their aides and associates when they are out of office or about to be out of office is well documented in the history of Nigerian politics. For instance, Reno Omokri, one of President Jonathan’s dependable aides who stayed with the President till the very end, revealed that Jonathan’s last days in Aso Rock were days of loneliness and feelings of abandonment. I also recall speaking with the wife of the former Senate President, Senator Evans Enwerem after the death of the senator. The woman was in tears as she told us that their home use to run like a pilgrim centre but that since the senator’s demise none of his colleagues and former aides care to know how the family was faring.
The clear message here is that most leaders while in office erroneously feel that the crowds that gather around them are true friends who will uphold their legacies. This is why these leaders squander state’s resources that should have gone into developmental projects to servicing these praise singers. Today, almost all the governors in the five states of the Southeast have uncountable number of praise singers who are paid millions of Naira every month for virtually doing nothing. The money used in this manner could have been used to build industries and employ the teaming population of unemployed youths, engage in youth empowerment and other capital projects that would help the economy to grow. But no, these leaders use this money to build a network of cronies who would abandon them as soon as they are out of office.
Obiano’s loneness and feeling of abandonment should serve as a big lesson to our political leaders. People remember you for the quality interventions you made while in office to better lives not by the network of cronies and praise singers you gather around yourself. These cronies no matter how much you spent on them will soon forget you but the people you touch their lives positively as a leader will standby you come rain, come shine.
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Sam Mbakwe and the few leaders who are remembered and honoured in Igbo land today and not remembered by their praise singers but by the communities and people they selflessly served while in office. Obiano paid billions of Naira to praise singers while in office, unfortunately the only things he may be remembered for by Ndi Anambra are the Cargo Airport and for giving the state a befitting successor in the person of Prof. Soludo.
