A key problem with Nigerian political leaders is not the absolute lack of vision but the very absence of patriotism. A very insignificant number of our political leaders care a hoot about the country or the constituency they represent. Very few patriots if any have ever found their way to leadership positions in this country. We have mostly had opportunists, gamblers, fraudsters and drug peddlers who latch on the easy pedals of political power to advance their diabolic schemes instead of as an avenue to serve the people or bring solutions to societal problems.
Given Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s background as an academic, one would have expected him to be different and at least provide a semblance of visionary governance to the people, but it is either the man whose major qualification to become governor is his close association with the son of the former governor and not any special qualities or talents he had exhibited.
This short intervention will not make any attempt to review the performance of Okezie Ikpeazu as governor of ABIA State but on his transitional activities.
Barely 40 days to the expiration of his tenure, Governor Ikpeazu is doing what most Nigerian governors do; set their predecessors up for failure by taking actions that are bound to set the State up for serious crisis. By insisting on conducting a coronation ceremony in the guise of an LGA election, Ikpeazu wants to ensure that his successor does not start off on a smooth slate. Even though he should be aware that the new governor will most likely dissolve the LGA administration he is planning to impose on him, he still wants to go ahead with the charade of an election because he doesn’t care if the State burns.
Ikpeazu is not alone in this very unpatriotic act, many outgoing governors and past governors are in the habit of muddying the grounds for their successors, in order to ensure that their administration starts on a very shaky note. They do not care that when they do these things, they are showing their hatred to the State and the people that gave them the opportunity to govern them for some years. They do not care that the monies that would be wasted in trying to clean up the mess they deliberately created is the people’s money which could have been used to tackle other issues that would be to the benefit of the people.
Okezie Ikpeazu should use the funds he is likely to expend on this worthless LGA election to clear off backlog of pensions, gratuities, salaries and other liabilities he brought upon the State in the last eight years, instead of creating more liabilities for the State. He shouldn’t show himself as the enemy of the State by setting up unnecessary booby traps that would definitely sabotage the takeoff plans of the incoming governor.
