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| Chief Willie Obiano |
There are many
reasons why observers of the intense political activities leading to the
November 16, 2013 gubernatorial election in Anambra State believe that Chief
Willie Obiano will win the race. Some of the reasons are easy to see. But some
are intricately embedded in the intriguing world of symbols.
What is easy for
all to see is that the APGA standard bearer is the most outstanding of the crop
of candidates jostling for Governor Peter Obi’s job. Obiano, a CKS Onitsha old boy and UNILAG MBA
comes with a blend of professional experience and international exposure that
gives hope that finally, Nigeria may begin to have political round pegs in
round holes. Obiano’s career profile is the stuff of high achievers. After
working with one of the oil majors; Texaco Nigeria plc, for over 9 years during
which he rose to the post of Chief Auditor with supervisory powers on the
company’s internal processes in Nigeria and overseas, Obiano berthed at
Fidelity Bank Plc where he had a meteoric rise to the position of the Executive
Director, Business Banking. In that capacity, Obiano deployed his enormous
knowledge of financial engineering to ensure that the bank had a steady rise
from a mid-level enterprise into one of the best run financial institutions in
Nigeria today. Obiano’s technical depth found resonance with Reginald
Ihejiahi’s cerebral approach to banking and in no time, Fidelity had swallowed
two big banks; FSB International Bank and Manny Bank to emerge a formidable
financial power house from the last banking consolidation.
In a country where
many celebrated bankers have fallen by the wayside for gross professional
misconduct and crimes bordering on public trust, Obiano stands out once again
for retiring from a glorious banking career with an unblemished record. People
who knew his time at Fidelity remember him as the quintessential manager who
effectively combined the carrot and the stick approach to management to
astonishing results. Beyond that, the sheer force of his personality ensured
that anyone who worked under him drew a natural inspiration from him. He is
charismatic, stylish and humorous with a razor-sharp intellect to boot. It was
these qualities that drew the young Turks in the bank to him and made him the
life of the party during AGM dinners and other milestone celebrations of the
bank. Indeed, Obiano’s background is fascinating and inspiring as his victory
in the coming polls will ensure that peter Obi’s years of laying a solid
backbone for the rapid development of Anambra State will not be washed away by
the corrosive touch of candidates of questionable pedigree.
For anyone with a
modicum of discernment, it is difficult to miss the first symbolism of Obiano’s
involvement in the Anambra gubernatorial race – the right people are finally
joining the political fray in Nigeria. Hitherto, Nigerian politics has been the
typically absurd theatre where only men with tainted profiles and a confirmed
absence of scruples held sway. Anambra particularly has had an unfair share of
political brigands and underworld characters that held the state prostate for
years, diverting public funds to their private use while the institutions of
governance went to seed. The state made headlines for the wrong reasons
including the kidnap and disappearance of a sitting governor as well as the
widely reported fetishist oat taking by political desperados who wanted to grab
power by any means necessary.
That thoroughbred
professionals like Obiano are filing out today for the Anambra gubernatorial
race is an indication that Anambra may finally be headed to that bend in the
river where its most accomplished citizens are no longer turned off by the
rough and shadowy men that have defined Anambra politics in recent times. It is
also attributable to the shining example set by Governor Peter Obi whose heroic
struggles to reclaim his stolen mandate from Chris Ngige has been fully
validated by the enormous legacy he will leave behind when he exits office in
the next few months. For most Anambrarians, Obi’s legacy is so monumental that
the greatest challenge the state faces at the moment is to find a suitable
candidate that will preserve and expand it. Happily, many people believe that
Obiano’s emergence as APGA’s flag bearer represents the best hope for the
survival of this legacy.
Interestingly,
beyond the symbolism of a break from the belief that politics is reserved for
thugs and the blood-thirsty amongst us lies another symbolism – the symbolism
of Ojukwu’s place in Igbo memory and its political leadership. It is a known
fact that no political leader in the last half century has embedded himself in
Igbo memory quite as completely as the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu
Ojukwu. Interestingly, with his passage and burial last year, it became even
clearer that Ojukwu was more than an Igbo hero. Ndigbo know that Ojukwu’s
twilight years were spent envisioning a future for them and constructing a
roadmap to Igbo renaissance within the larger Nigerian family.
The All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was a major part of Ojukwu’s grand plan to
give Ndigbo a metaphorical political roof to shield them from the torrential
rainfall of Nigerian misgovernance. He fought tooth and nail to establish the
party and ensure that it took roots in the 5 states of the South East, arguing
that in time, it would become a bargaining weapon with which Ndigbo would
negotiate their way through the nebulous theatre of Nigerian leadership. In
fact, Ojukwu is reported to have thrown his enormous influence behind the party
and had even implored Ndi Anambra to grant his final wish by voting Governor
Peter Obi into office for the second term.
His people granted
him his wish and Obi triumphed at the polls. But Obi has also validated
Ojukwu’s confidence with a 5-Star performance. So, it is easy to see that among
the many issues that will swing voters’ sympathies in the coming election is
the symbolism of Ojukwu’s legacy and his ideals. An APGA loss at the polls in
November, barely one year after Ojukwu’s heroic burial, will cast Ndi Anambra
in the mould of a people without memory. And in today’s world as in worlds
before, a people without memory are doomed. In the words of Marcus Tullius
Cicero, Roman philosopher, politician,
lawyer, orator and political theorist, “memory is the treasury and guardian of
all things.” And being a society of highly enlightened people, Ndi Anambra will
certainly vote with a strong memory of their hero.
Another symbolism is also the symbolism of the party APGA
as the only standing political structure that Ndigbo can lay claim to in
Nigeria as their own. Some Igbo people would quickly point at ACN now turned
APC as a Yoruba party and the ANPP as the Hausa-Fulani party while APGA is for
the Igbo. There is this sense of ownership that APGA represents to them. It would amount to political suicide for Ndi
Anambra to allow the political parties of rival ethnic groups therefore to
provide leadership in the state.
As it were, Anambra is the only surviving turf for APGA
and the only reason it still exists. Governor Peter Obi has proven that a
thoroughly prepared leader can leave a resounding legacy even as a member of a
minority party. Willie Obiano’s emergence as the APGA candidate has re-assured
Ndi Anambra that there will be continuity in competent leadership and vision
after Obi. When all these symbolisms are considered, it is hard not to see that
Chief Willie Obiano is simply waiting to take over from Governor Peter Obi as
the next governor of Anambra State.
