Yesterday the Nigerian TV station; Channels TV; hosted Mr Peter Gregory Obi as well as his running mate; Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed of the Labour Party for a town hall meeting towards the February 25th Presidential election in Nigeria. The programme lasted for 2 hours from 7 pm to 9 pm. The programme was aired on YouTube, Facebook etc
Town Halls like this one organised by Channels are good for democracies as they entrench accountability and transparency. They equally help the electorates to rub minds (as Nigerians say) directly with the candidates and understand fully where each stands on the issues. As you can probe and scrutinise. This is beyond just reading a candidate’s manifesto. Some manifestos are not really from the candidates but are cobbled up by consultants. Hence, can be taken with “shiploads” of “sand” đ as I’m wont to say.
Someone like PO has repeatedly said again and again what his manifesto contains. Hence, it’s safe to take the manifesto seriously as something genuinely from his heart. This is very rare on our shores.
One interesting thing that happened was Dr Datti getting emotional; because some people are not only attacking him personally but his father and family. This might be painful. I have experienced the same on social media. Some people have no limits. They don’t only insult the hell out of you without even knowing you or having all the facts but bring in your parents and/or family. As painful as that is. I think the best thing is not to take things to heart. Ignoring is the way to go.
Obi said If you don’t do the wrong thing, no one under you will do it. That’s leadership, in my view. But, there’s a caveat- Talk is cheap.
As a leader, any policy or programme or limitations should start with you not the populace. You can’t be flying a private jet and don’t even care if your people can afford an economy ticket or not. You cannot be sending your kids to study in the UK and don’t care if the common man can afford school fees for his kids here in Nigeria. You can’t be travelling abroad for treatment and don’t give a damn if our healthcare system works or not. You cannot be siting universities, hospitals etc in your hometown while other towns equally deserving do not have. You can’t have a naval base in your hometown while more deserving places are not considered. The way our leaders behave on this side of the pond is how not to lead. Leadership is seriously lacking. Sad!
It was the APC Chieftain and the DG of VON, Osita Okechukwu that said “His fear is Obi may overdo it in terms of prudence because that’s in his nature”. If you ask for my personal view and my professional view as an economist. That’s exactly what Nigeria needs.
We need a prudent leader. Enough of the profligacy. Enough of the waste. Enough of the inefficiencies. A President Obi is precisely what Nigeria needs at the moment. Someone that cannot only perform excellently but save aggressively and not accumulating debts that we may be paying for generations. This is a complete about-face from what Nigerians are used to: Bingeing on debt to everyone’s detriment.
Another incident was a tough question a medical doctor asked Obi about why health workers under him were on strike for 13 months. Obi talked about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. He said investments were made into the health care system but nothing to show for after two years. Hence, he approached an organization that was excelling at the success he wanted for his home state. And he decided to bring it in to help, but some health workers were not happy that he did not follow the right channels.
Another example I always cite is about the Nigerian ports are some of the worst in the world. Take this scenario. It takes longer and costs more to convey a cargo ship from Apapa to a warehouse within Lagos than from Shanghai (China) to Apapa (Lagos)! It is that bad. But, let’s say we have a leader willing to get his hands dirty to fix this stubborn problem. Of course, the people benefiting from this terrible system will fight back. But, as a leader, you do right by your people on the pain of death. That’s leadership. It’s never for cowards. People that cannot even withstand criticisms on Twitter.
