Anambra Guber: Give It To Charles Soludo, Please

Let me quickly recall a germane incident that happened in 2008 when former Vice President, Namadi Sambo, was still the governor of Kaduna State. He called a press conference at the government house. It was his first full press briefing since he was elected governor in 2007. Curiously, all his cabinet members were also at the conference.

After making general comments about the focus of his administration, it was time for reporters to  take the floor and ask questions.  A few journalists asked the governor some questions on what he had said and I found his replies too vague and unspecific.

So, I tried to ask a question that had bothered me and one the governor did not address in his remarks. I asked him to tell us what his administration had done in the area of girl-child education in terms of access and enrolment. For nearly five minutes, then Governor Sambo consulted his aides around the table and after they finished whispering to him, he took the microphone to respond.

Smiling, Sambo looked in my direction and said, “You see, I am not the commissioner for education so I am not the one to respond to your question.”  He passed the microphone to the commissioner for education who later responded, unsatisfactorily to my question.

That incident stood in my memory as an example of leadership failure.  The type of leadership that emphasizes control rather than authority. When a state governor does not care to know all the important information about his state, how can he or she bring change? When the governor of a state does not know what his cabinet members are doing or are supposed to do, how does he deliver on the agenda of his administration?  It only goes to confirm that many people come into power without any clear idea of what to do or how to do it.

After watching the Arise Television debate featuring the three frontline candidates in the Anambra governorship election slated for November 6, only two of them struck me as ready for the job. The All Progressives Grand Alliance candidate, Professor Charles Soludo and that of the Peoples Democratic Party, Valentine Ozigbo, demonstrated deeper understanding of the potentials and challenges facing Anambra State..

Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressive Congress came off as a candidate ill prepared for the office of governor. Throughout the debate, and in all his contributions, he never showed any deep grasp of issues, nor quoted any data about Anambra State.  While he showed an awareness of some of the problems such as insecurity, infrastructure and education, he never articulated any coherent plan to take them on.

For instance, he had no idea how to resolve the agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). When the moderators asked him to explain how he would deal with it, his repeated response was that “I will call them to find out what the problems are.” Soludo underscored this point when it was his turn to speak on the same issue. He said Uba must have “come from the moon” not to know what IPOB is demanding.

Uba tried to explain his lack of understanding of issues by making a ridiculous distinction between a leader and a manager, saying people like Soludo who have figures in their heads are managers while someone like him is a leader! How can a 21^st century governorship aspirant see leadership from such narrow prism? It is this myopic conception of leadership that has grounded our country today when a governor or president takes the back seat and expects others he appointed to do the job.

For the first 20 minutes of the debate, Ozigbo almost lost me too. He responded to Soludo’s expert dissection of Anambra development data by describing is as “mere grammar”– a Nigerian euphemism for arguments not considered important. Soludo, rightly, confronted Ozigbo and said he felt   “embarrassed” that he could dismiss data as mere grammar. The professor of economics then said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t fix it.” It is as simple as that!

But he later showed why he was picked as candidate of his party with the way he responded calmly to questions and made references to failure of the ruling APGA government in different sectors. Besides Soludo, who stood out with his confidence, knowledge of issues and well-articulated plan of execution, the PDP candidate showed intelligence. He responded to Soludo’s effortless reeling of statistics by simply drawing viewers’ attention to the disparity between data and reality.

Unlike Soludo who appeared elitist, Ozigbo sold himself as a man at home with his people. He spoke about the street, not about official statistics, and he seemed clear about what he needed. He does not have the mental equipment of a Soludo, but he showed enough intellectual capacity to understand data and use it for transformational purposes.

This is why political philosophers, since  Plato and Aristotle, reserve leadership for people who are capable of intellectual grasp of issues. Both philosophers agreed that the “best men” should rule for the betterment of the state.  Theorists on leadership also agree that education is paramount to the formation of the best men. 

In this century, education has become even more important qualification for leadership. It helps to conceptualize issues in a fast changing world, articulate and communicate goals and vision in order to influence others and bring change to the society.

I was there at the premises of the National Assembly in 2010 when Pastor Tunde Bakare led a protest to demand the swearing-in of Goodluck Jonathan as president when it appeared the then president Musa Yar’Adua had become incapacitated. He also echoed the philosophers when he said, “Never should the worst of all rule over the best of us. It is time for the best of us to rule us.”

While winning debate does not necessary mean you will be a good leader, it allows participants to showcase their capacities for leadership. You must know what you want to change and why you need to change them.

While Soludo demonstrated he’d spent time to study the issues and relevant data he would need to govern the state, his colleagues exhibited a noticeable disdain for research. Soludo easily quoted figures and documented facts when answering questions, while his two adversaries only attacked his data without giving any of their own.

If we’re talking about capacity, let’s give the governorship to Soludo.

– The writer is  an Abuja based journalist.

Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.