This is a year-old sermon on four cardinal points of a new leadership guide in Ebonyi State Nigeria. Our Feature Editor, Lawrence Egede reflects on crowns of governance and leadership uneasy to wear in power in the state.
Governance in Ebonyi State has come to stay for good so that the impact of government will get closer to all the nooks and crannies in the new world of expedient development.
The governance legacies that successfully brought into being a system of new dispensation, for further Consolidation and Continuity from the immediate past regime have to be followed, to achieve the needed goals in today's development policy of Ebonyi State.
As a new and young program of adjudication in governance recommends, the four-legged cardinal points of development must be copied fully into the new democratic regime in Ebonyi State.
The four cardinal points of renewed hope, for the equity furtherance of democracy has to be imported into the system of the present government in Ebonyi State.
There are four notable areas with the previous stand on tripod grounds of development, seen as one great principle fit for adoption by the present regime of Governor Francis Nwifuru.
The principles are such as Education, a priority program by Sam. O. Egwu, the irreversible and irrevocable stand on stable decision-making empowered by Chief Martin N. Elechi, the steady and fast developmental feat of Governor Umahi, plus the present regime's program of people's welfare by Governor Francis O. Nwifuru, a campaign promise he made should fit into the actualization process of the new generation in the present responsibility package of the new regime in Ebonyi State.
This is because the Nigerian political, social, economic and safety situation report is facing security challenges everywhere, which demands domestic care first before any other thing.
Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru of Ebonyi State must watch it, with his experiences in the past and with what he has presently. It is not so easy to be where he is today. This time is not the same as yesterday and tomorrow which is the future.
What went on with Governor Umahi was altogether a good example and of which, people like us knew that everything he did as good as they were could not satisfy the appetites of the ingrates, who gained from his regime but didn't appreciate it.
Instead of appreciating it, they separated themselves aloof from everything good, and secretly in oblivion refused to commend it with the same ungrateful level of ignorance and obstinacy.
They silently sat on the gains given to others for having made purposeful contributions. They also discouraged people from being confident of the system in use for mass participation in governance and leadership.
They nearly forced people not to trust former Governor David Umahi's system of government. They equipped themselves with a wild dismissal sense of approach, against the system they pretended to serve as if they were good partners in progress.
Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru must watch it for the fact that behind his leadership will arise pressure groups, that can use pretence and pranks in demanding a pound of flesh from the present government.
They will lobby for his approval of what they want, which will be a result of selfishness. They will go into cartel and cabal movements. They will seize the opportunities and the privileges of other people. They will come together with an egocentric habit of sensation. They would want this or that advantage only for themselves, or else may decide to plunge the whole system into chaos, conflict and confusion.
If not that Governor Umahi was strong, dogged, rugged and indefatigable against such groupings, he would have been a failure but he overcame their temptations and gimmicks.
Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru should watch it for the fact that at times, those who are good could be bypassed.
Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru must watch it for the fact that this time demands maintenance culture, over what Ebonyi State has already got proofproofealth acquisition on the grounds of development.
This is an advisory note to Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, with examples of what was and was available for vivid display, especially during commitments with all the campaign promises to effect faster fulfilments.
This is about the past happenings in the development of peoples and places, around the circles of political regimes in power facing the realities of life and coming down the line.
Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru must watch it because of his campaign promises, out of which the most remarkable is to administer a people's oriented practical government.
In addition to his campaign promises, he should pay proper attention to the three past governors and their deputies, with other dignitaries both inside and outside politics in Ebonyi State.
At this point, we should be grateful to God that Ebonyi State has got leaders who led the masses, through thick and thin and brought people into the marvellous light of development and achievements privately and corporately done far and near.
Let him also attend to those in business circles of honour and with due respect at all times.
It is a way to fix the deposit of goodwill into the account of the mindsets of the masses and on record with the Almighty God.
At this point also we should be grateful to God, for having given us the chance to experience the expertise developmental profile of the immediate past regime.
Governance is not easy and it is not hard to discover difficult areas in any leadership, which may involve many persons that are performing differently.
Many persons who are called into a progressive union to do one work or the other may be different on duty, especially in partnership with the system under which they are rendering services.
With such mixtures, the union will prove themselves right or wrong, whether they be good or bad, whether wheat or chaff as individuals doing their work.
If within those involved are the wheat and the chaffs that is where the trouble lies, but they work together in the system of governance for different means and purposes, yet wonders can occur as to who is who there.
At times the Chaffs come first and the wheats come last and rarely would the wheats be the first found in governance of the people. Carefulness is needed in leadership, not to fall short of the right choices in governance and high leadership circles.
Over the years of experience in governance, the most hidden difficult aspect is how to sift the wheat from the chaff in the verification of service unions.
The chaff is the difficulty unknown yet until the time of winnowing exercises in the political X-ray harvest is done as an experiment. This has to be established in leadership and in the governance of the masses to know who is who.
It is when the winnowing takes place that the eyes will discover the difference between the bad and the good working together, but separated accordingly after the sifting exercises had taken place. The end can tell but not always, because in politics the chaffs are actively pretentious and good-looking more than the real wheat during harvest time.
This is where the opposite is hardly discovered to exist in the union, both with the good and the bad in a system of people's governance and leadership by their fruits only shall we know them.
There are snares unknown to leaders at times. The snares are traced to the political front-line groups, who oftentimes go into ugly displays of distractive gossip.
Not just gossip alone but also the deceitful carrot gifts accompanying the whole thing, which are so attractive to lure leaders into the trouble of not knowing who is who. This is because of the high attraction in the many titles that follow it signalling outright deception.
Political Frontline workers of iniquities are lovers of crisis, whose stock in trade is to bring two or more heads and hit them together, just to achieve an aim based on early sabotage of the system, to gain an advantage over others at last. They deliberately cause suspicions or bring into the scene a prejudicial sense of disaffection among people.
They are intertwined in the game of sowing the seeds of discord in different ways and at different times, to sit on the chances of those who are innocent. They ignite trouble at hind places and report the same at the front as if they are not part of the conspiracy, just to cover up their bundles of iniquities.
They can conspire and form a persuasive gang of usurpers to distract government, by the use of a set-up to persuade, advise and chase selfish shadows in governance and leadership.
Now, if the leadership is not wise enough to know what is going on, the focus of those in power will be diverted, thwarted and disorganized to a point that incessant crises here and there will start and can make a system of governance.
Experience is the best teacher in these lessons to learn from the examples on record with us, who were doing things head on the heel to facilitate sanity privately and publicly in the interest of a system of governance.
It was quite unfortunate that at last, we got so disappointed, openly treated as saboteurs of the system and silently shifted as mere chaffs, whereas there was wheat in us. This is just the tip of the iceberg concerning an opposite phenomenon of life.
Each time we write about what was revealed to us, which is not based on the mere necessity to attract any special attention but to tell the truth about what we know, referring to sabotage in governance we get ignored over it and tagged as sycophants.
Ebonyi State started to enjoy self-governance in 1996 till date, with both the military and the civilian regimes but civil rule has been the most prominent.
Ever since then the masses, the government and those in power have seen a lot, but not beyond some regrets because of the way things were going.
That's why when new regimes emerge, the next thing that will happen is to seek political favour from the top leaders in power, command and control.
When people are then allowed to be part of it, they go into festivities and rejoice for work not yet done and then embark on a self-aggrandizement spree, which is the reason why Nigeria is the way it is today.
The time for a change from bad to good is here in the best interest of development and for the good of the entire masses, who are always victims of all manner of security challenges bedevilling the nation all along.
Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru is the fourth Executive Governor of Ebonyi State. He is automatically a square peg put into square holes in the fourth civilian regime in the State.
He requires the utmost application of carefulness to judge from a historical distance of the former leaders till today. He must have known that governance is quite a Crown uneasy to wear by any leader that should grow above the woods of political regrets.
To God is the glory forever.
Written by Egede Lawrence.
Media Reflection On Crowns Of Governance And Leadership Uneasy To Wear In Power.
