A game changer is in the Enugu State Lion Building, the seat of power. Before the assumption of office of Chief Dr Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi what held sway as an article of faith were the words of Shakespeare spoken by Macbeth, “mock the time with fairest show; false face must hide what the false heart does know.” Mere showmanship was dramatized with the razzmatazz of political singsong.
false in politics was elevated to a lofty height and endorsed by a Cambridge University don David Runciman who in his book Political Hypocrisy says that there is nothing like ‘political hypocrisy’ because politics by its very essence is essentially hypocritical. Governor Ugwuanyi turned that pedantry on its head by demonstrating character in politics.
Although politics is an adversarial business, the basis of political order is meaningful communication. This is why we have chosen to use this medium to outline the seven attributes of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi that entitle him to receive the key to the Government House for a second term.
Governor Ugwuanyi resembles Moses in godliness, Gandhi in humility, Obama in friendliness, Churchill in pragmatism, Zik in eloquence, Okpara in resourcefulness and Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey in development strategy.
The most outstanding attribute of the governor is godliness. Ndigbo are like the Israelites trapped in slavery and need a Moses to release them from the trap before some begin to acquiesce in it as a way of life because they have not known any other life. The man who started the Boys’ Brigade thought that the best man would be one with the courage of a soldier and the faithfulness of a Christian. By the same token, the best leader is a priest-politician, in other worlds, a mystic and a king rolled into one. Such a rare combination is in Governor Ugwuanyi’s DNA.
man who resembles seven iconic world leaders is not born every day. The population of England today is sixteen times what it was when Shakespeare lived, yet since his death in 1616, England has not produced another Shakespeare. To think that it is every day that you come by a leader with near magical qualities like Chief Dr Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi who takes to governance like fish to water is self-delusion.
At the thanksgiving service of Justice C. C. Nweze for his elevation to the Supreme Court, Governor Ugwuanyi reprimanded his police orderly for heckling a poor woman with a baby on her back who came to greet the governor. “These were the people who elected me, allow her to come close to me,” he said and shook hands with the woman. This is the Gandhi-touch in Governor Ugwuanyi.
In the latest cabinet reshuffle, the person appointed a commissioner in Enugu State was a man who contested for the same post of governor with Chief Dr Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on the platform of another political party. Governor Ugwuanyi, like Obama, knows that in politics there are no permanent friends or foes, but permanent interests.
As all soldiers know, taking on your enemy requires different rules of engagement. When Nimbo was attacked, the sight of dead bodies in a large number would have moved some people with the state punitive apparatus at their disposal to return fire for fire. Governor Ugwuanyi visited the scene of the crime and characteristically understood the bigger picture and Enugu State is calmer and better for that non-violent decision. Governor Ugwuanyi’s pragmatism makes Winston Churchill turn in his grave with envy.
When Governor Ugwuanyi mounts the public podium at any rally, you see the incarnation of the great Zik of Africa in him. You hear words deployed for purpose and effect without political innuendos, rhetorical deceptions and the empty technical language of schoolmen full of falsehoods.
Lastly it is the singular fortune of the people of Enugu State that Chief Dr Ifeany Ugwuanyi is veined with the resourceful streak of Dr M. I. Okpara and the wizardry of Ataturk. Workers get their bank deposit alerts by the 25th of every month when some oil-producing states are in arrears of payment of salaries.
“I dare do all that may become a man,” says Macbeth, “who dares do more is not one.” The track records of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi are in the superlative degree hence all across the state, people are saying to him, “Please come again.”
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