New Post: THE ATEKE TOM DECLARATION PART 2

Politics in Rivers State has come full circle, if nothing, the people are more aware today than they were four years ago or four years before that. The benefit of political tussles and face offs is people tuning in more often to political talk and argument and their desire to understand politicians better and what they stand for. Poster politics has failed and the electorate wants to touch and feel, listen and ruminate on political dialogue, issues and positions.

Politicians should realize that “their people”, as Ateke Tom put it, who call on them to run for office are minuscule compared to the number required to win even a ward anywhere in the state. So, who are these people, how many are they, what are their motivates for asking you to run for office? Do they have the reach that compels attention or are they mere rabble rousers ready to raise the dust but vanish into the air when the chips are down? Are they the cheap ballot peddlers who sell to everyone willing to pay but yet have no ballots to sell?

Personally, any person who says to me: my people have called upon me to run for office, will not have my ear. If you have no previous ambition, desire and vision to run for elective office until you are asked to do so, you’re not qualified, to my mind.

 The job of Governor or any other public office in the land requires personal conviction and tenacity, not one to be conferred upon anyone like an award. Nigeria lags behind in most aspects of development because most public office holders have been called upon to rule, they had leadership thrust upon them and have yet to recover from the shock of greatness. This is an embarrassment to democracy.Societies are built by men and women who see the future and call upon the people to give them the job of taking them there. 

Third world countries, Nigeria chief among them, are living in the past distant. Our present is unsure and our future a mirage. Until we find leaders who will live above self and pursue the agenda of both present and future generations of the people, abhor the notion that office is license to luxury or that governance requires little or no preparations or intellectual capacity and qualities to execute, build systems and institutions cast in granite, our state will subsist in the curse of the snail, appearing to move but making no progress at all.

So, yes, while I congratulate Atete Tom for yielding to his people’s call, I am disappointed that he even mentioned basic infrastructure in his argument. 

These are primary responsibilities of government and to Rivers people, the governor of the future is one who understands the economy of our land on a large scale and has a blueprint to harnessing our extensive natural and human resources to create jobs and sustainable livelihoods, equitably manage and distribute our wealth, enhance general standards of living and wellbeing, to protect our endangered environment, protect and propagate our cultural heritage and diversity and bequeath a secured future for our children.

Is this too much to ask? Hardly.  Government is a continuum and each regime must build on the foundations of the last. Governor Amaechi has laid some excellent foundations, now we seek a leader who is an expert builder to lay the building blocks into the future. The search is on.

Guest Post : H.M.G Pepple @hmgpepple