Saturday, October 5, 2013

Anambra 2013: Obiano and the Symbolism of Ojukwu’s Legacy




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.  

 

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment