By ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES


Today in Abia, a very imperative consequence of intentional and responsible governance will become obvious with the formal inauguration of the Geometric Power Plant in Aba by President Bola Tinubu. Accompanied by the cremē de la creme of Southeast nay Nigerian politics and business, Tinubu, APC leader will be cheered on by millions of Igbos, Nigerians and indeed, all lovers of prosperity, from across the world, as he opens what promises to be a bastion of opportunities and a gateway to economic prosperity for the entire Nigeria, especially, the Southeast.


It has taken Governor Alex Otti barely nine months to stamp his signature across Abia State without wasting too much resources on trying to get the media to tell a story about his transformation of Abia State. The story is telling itself; from road infrastructure, to public service reforms, to social programs that reduce economic pressure on the poorest of the poor, to educational reforms, Alex Otti has restored faith in the Abia vision, and people from within and outside Abia are massively investing in the future of Abia State without regrets. When was the last time you heard of any major criminal activity or terrorist attack in Abia State?


I hold the opinion that Nigerians are among the easiest people to govern, because they demand very little from their leaders and are usually impressed by very little, but Igbos are even easier to govern, because the average Igbo man does not care about who is governor, Chairman or councillor. We don't even care much about what they do in government houses. Like every Republican inclined society, the Igbo man only gets angry with government when they are taken for granted. The average Igbo man does not believe that he needs a government to be wealthy, but if the government takes actions or propounds policies that make it difficult for him to go out in the morning and return home with all the profit he is entitled to after a day's work, then, the Igbo spirit in him will be angered and prone to revolt.


While I must admit that the Southeast appears to be having its best set of governors since 1999, I choose to use Alex Otti as a model of the transformative governance that is needed in the Southeast at the moment, because he has used the shortest possible time to make the greatest impact and without playing to the gallery. He is focused on the business of governance and I have hardly noticed too many media hirelings around him or trying to impress. Yet, his good works are loud enough to dwarf the noise of those 30k per month vuvuzelas, which our current day politicians are most at home hiring.


With the biting economic hardship in the country and the volatility of the polity, the average Southeast political leader has, true to character, jumped into the bandwagon of applauding Igbo youths for their apathy towards impending hunger protests across the country. Some of them have even written long essays on that while others are issuing statements upon statements, aligning with what they believe is popular, rather than what they think is right. The bane of political leadership in the Southeast is the apparent lack of belief or what we may describe as political ideology. So-called leaders go with what they feel is popular at each point in time,  because they believe that whatever is popular is also politically convenient.


In the last few years, Nnamdi Kanu has provided a convenient distraction for many Igbo leaders, because they realised that one of the best ways to win the support of the populace is to publicly sympathize with Nnamdi Kanu, and since his incarceration, politicians, activists and so-called cultural leaders have all jumped into the bandwagon of "championing Nnamdi Kanu's release from detention". But, in reality, very few of them are doing anything or has as much as uttered a word where it matters, with regards to seeking Nnamdi Kanu's release. They have mostly being playing to the gallery and buying political lifeline with the man's name.


Governor Alex Otti is one the few politicians from the Southeast who have focused on proffering solutions to the problems of our people rather than playing to the gallery. In barely nine months, Alex Otti has provided the kind of transformative and far-reaching political leadership that Abia has lacked in the past 24 years. Just nine months ago, Abia was seen as the worst governed State in the country but in these few months, the same State has become a reference point, across Nigeria, for responsible and creative governance. Like I tell my friends when this issue come up in our discussion; "Alex Otti may not be more intelligent than others before him, he might not even be more morally upright or even better progressive minded, but he is simply wiser and more realistic by accepting the reality that he won't be on that seat forever and won't even be alive for too long, hence, the most he can do is to use the time he has to engrave his name in gold".


There might be relative peace in the Southeast at the moment, but our political leaders must not make the mistake of mistaking this calm as evidence that Igbos are exempted from the prevailing economic hardship across the country. We are also suffering. Instead of going on like everything is alright, our political leaders should seize this opportunity to show that they really care about the people by embarking on projects and introducing policies that will fundamentally improve the living standard of ordinary citizens.


Without playing to the gallery or buying up every media hand that is available, Alex Otti has executed and continues to execute projects and implement policies that directly impact ordinary citizens and residents of Abia State. This is the kind of leadership we need across the Southeast at this moment.


The Southeast has seen too many political leaders giving good speeches on TV, writing long essays in newspapers, posting videos of themselves dancing or eating agbado on social media, or any of such publicity stunts. This time, we need leaders with policies and programmes that shall serve as enduring legacies of their time in power. We need legislators who make laws and pursue legislative motions that speak to the problems encountered by ordinary people in their constituencies, we need governors and LGA chairpersons embarking on projects that will revive and drastically improve their local economies. This is no time for any governor to rely solely on what comes from Abuja. Like Otti, any governor can create a self-sustaining State. A governor who is not creative enough to do revive the economy of his state like Otti is going, can at least, preserve the humongous money they are now receiving from the FAAC and use same to make lives easier for his people, by providing the required infrastructure and pursuing economic policies that reduce tension on the ordinary people and boost small businesses.


The average Southeast political leader might think that they can navigate political times and seasons by strategically positioning themselves as "aligned" to the people through good media works and other deceptive strategies, but the reality is that like all cosmetics, the veil will fall off the eyes of the people, sooner or later, and the anger of the youths will consume many of those they consider deceitful. Igbo political leaders must understand that Igbos might be everything else, but hardly gullible. We are definitely very emotional people, but we are not fools, and if we are taken for a ride for too long, we may respond in ways and levels that may make the so-called "hunger protests" a mere joke.


A stitch in time saves nine.


May Ala Igbo Survive!


NOTE: The Geometric Power Plant, Aba is a private sector project driven by former Minister of Power, Prof Barth Nnaji.