Akamadu: Rivers crisis: My minority opinion Friday, 09 August 2013 00:00 By Chuks Akamadu Opinion - Columnists E-mail Print User Rating: / 0 PoorBest THE red lights are on. The perceptive and the discernable see them on the road to election year 2015. The recent theatrics in Rivers State, to my mind, has been wrongly tagged: it is not an Amaechi-Wike tussle simplicita, least of all an Amaechi-First Lady scuffle; but an accidental prologue to a tragic-comedy that is capable of distracting the people of Nigeria from the real issues that should preoccupy their minds in the run-up the 2015. If the nation’s intellectual community and the civil society fraternity cannot see through this emergent trick and quickly embark on a counter-offensive, then the people should worry. I am already frightened. Without meaning to sound alarmist, I foresee current political office holders inventing similar crises in the days ahead, to keep the people away from holding them accountable for their actions and inactions in office. Already, a majority of us have, with respect to the brawl in Rivers State, hugged sentiments and emotions so passionately as if our lives depended on them – thereby ensuring that reason proceeded on vacation. If this trend is left to progress, the electorate certainly will not have the sanity, the psychological stability and presence of mind to either insist on quality candidates or make rational choices in the up-coming elections. I reckon that the idea is to starve the Great Nigeria House of ventilation, so that we, as a deprived and fatigued people, would see the electoral process in the months to come as fresh air and rush into it unprepared. The obvious outcome would be the return of this same calibre of politicians that desecrate our democracy – as witnessed on the floor of rivers House of Assembly. I earnestly implore stakeholders to arrest the current drift. Our own Arab Spring should happen in 2015 through the ballot box, without blood bath. With our centenary very much within earshot, the time cannot be more auspicious time. A whole lot is going wrong currently, and we must ask questions and not rest until satisfactory answers are supplied. Particularly, the youth should be frontline combatants in this battle – being the most short-changed fraction of the population. Rather than dwell on Governor Amaechi and his state, the youth should begin to source accurate figures that capture the gap between how many people that sat for last UTME and how many our tertiary institutions can absorb. There should also be ready data that tells without ambiguity, the ratio of youth corps members that passed out in 2012 and how many jobs that were created within same period. Germane issues such as these should be pushed to the front burner, ahead of the elections. Given the enormity of the nation’s present challenges, truth is that we need imaginative leadership with unusual creativity to leap-frog our communities and nation; men with vision, passion, integrity, demonstrable capacity and track-record of commitment to community’s collective interest – not narrow minds who lack average mental capability to articulate their people’s aspirations, but are just interested in self-serving pursuits. 2015 is a time to enthrone a system that celebrates excellence and manifestly advances the common cause of our land. The young people of Nigeria have a duty to rise and reclaim their destiny from men and women who have run short of ideas. The earlier they realize that their time has come, the better for us all. After all, the purposeful leadership Nigeria enjoyed in the 1950s and early 1960s was owed substantially to the fact that those our heroes past had youth on their side. They had the requisite vigour and vitality as young men and young women and were also integral parts of the future they charted for their people. “Departure Lounge” leaders should be compulsorily retired from decision-making positions. Point-blank, today’s Nigeria needs iPad, blackberry and iPhone human resources to catch up with the rest of the world. We need young, robust minds that have the necessary intellectual grounding to re-invent our society - not outdated minds that still see things from the perspective of before-the-war. This is the time for the youth to arise. Nigerian youths arise! No more fishes; please demand for fishing hooks – nothing less. You must brace up for the challenges ahead: Power is not given...it is taken. Please, take it! Let me quickly sound a note of warning: when you choose from amongst you those who would represent you, make sure you do not put forward clones of the unhelpful old order you seek to replace. And make no mistakes about the following: a great mind in office is not likely to steal, because he’s got self esteem on account of his endowments - in terms of knowledge, talents, ideas and accomplishments. Please note these primary features of leadership. But empty souls will naturally seek validation from the society by unleashing their appetite for greed on the public purse, because they know that the only crown that will be left on their heads when they quit office is “money”. Looting of public funds is a manifestation of mental barrenness. Besides, what our people need is the fishing hook – not fish! When the quality of the mind is abysmally low, filth and everything that is mundane become attractive. And creativity cannot be found there. There are very many ingenious ways of expanding the economic landscape of your people without necessarily walking the path of corrupt enrichment. Whoever does not share this view should be denied your support. Keep this at the back of your minds. Come 2015, let the youth of Nigeria endeavour to look out for leaders and aspiring leaders who are able to make a distinction between a life of luxury and a quality life; and who have chosen the latter which is actually what a well-adjusted man needs. So, the society can discontinue the pursuit of things that ultimately usher us into misery. In the same vein, your favourite candidates should be people whose lives teach others be success-oriented as opposed to being victory-driven; for, when a man always strives to be better than his neighbour, by way of crude, murderous competition, he loses his humanity and becomes beastly! Note also that nothing better can possibly come from a spiritually blind and philosophically bankrupt lot. So, flee! Mentally fertile minds walk the opposite direction: they seek honour and peace of mind. Our concept of service and leadership in this part of the world is flawed. Leadership is a calling that has nothing to do with philanthropy. Least of all, wealth! The manifestation starts from birth...remains present all through until it develops to a point of public expression. It is not happenstance either. Accidental leaders are often times plagues to their people. Please thoroughly frisk the credentials and meticulously scrutinize the antecedents of every public office aspirant in 2015 (beginning with Anambra governorship elections in November this year). This should be your headache – not Governor Amaechi’s Rivers of idle misadventure. • Akamadu Esq. is Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) Centre for Ethical Rebirth Among Nigerian Youths (CERANY).
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 03:20:44 +0000
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