By Steve Osuji
A STATESMAN IS SUPERIOR TO A PRESIDENT(Please let someone pass this message to Mr. Goodluck Jonathan): Again and again, and yet again, he teaches us the fine art of statesmanship. He is indeed a class act in this regard. Mr Peter Obi (Okwute Nigeria), former Governor of Anambra State, continues to lay the markers of leadership and statesmanship for Nigerians to imbibe… if they may.
After a stellar performance as a two-term Governor, he has continued to live a most exemplary life of charity, leadership mentorship, public probity and a spartan outlook that negates the extravagant seizures that currently afflict Nigerians.
Peter Obi is unarguably one of Nigeria’s most diversified investors in nearly all sectors of the business spectra. It’s a well known fact that he had made good well before he ventured into politics.
It is also a known fact that he ran for politics on his own financial steam. And that’s no mean feat if you know a bit about the viciously monetised Nigerian political process.
Yet, he came into the game the hard way. For years, he trudged through the courts of the land seeking to reclaim his mandate brazenly snatched in broad daylight.
He was up against a mountain-high leviathan: a demi-god President and his ruling party, a maggot-infested political class and an incontinent judiciary. But Mr Obi has will of iron. He overcame all these mammoth obstacles.
LIGHT IN A SWATHE OF DARKNESS: For eight years he swam in a sea infested with sharks and anacondas, for that’s what Anambra and indeed Nigeria’s politics is. How they could not swallow him must be a book to be written some day for postgraduate studies in Politics and Public Administration classes.
All we know today is that he came out of that deadly sea with nary a scar. Not even a rumple of his trademark two-piece kaftan. He came out all dry and smelling roses. He came out like a fairy, the Houdini of our time.
How do you explain an age in which all the Governors in the land left their States in death, sorry, debt-choke. But Obi left his State awash with cash and liquid bank instruments. And hardly anyone of his peers outperformed him in terms of delivering public good. Not one.
And this: not once did the economy police knock at his door since he left office. Most of his peers have been entangled almost inextricably with the EFCC since they left office.
Such is the power of integrity, dignity, discipline and public service as duty to man and God. There’s one word for it all: STATESMANSHIP. One could write about the Peter Obi phenom ad nauseam, ad infinitum! He represents a powerful point of light in a swathe of dark void the size of Nigeria.
HOW TO DO CHARITY: But it may suffice to highlight exemplary acts in his soul lifting acts of charity. Just yesterday, Peter Obi donated N100 million to Bishop Shenahan Hospital (BSH), Nsukka. It’s for the upgrade of the hospital’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Technology.
Among other positives, Obi is shrewd like a shrew. Not a kobo of his would drop if it won’t reach the last mile. He doesn’t give to impress or please. He gives for targeted effect. Most importantly, he gives to where he’s sure his hard-earned money would be applied most judiciously.
Therefore, there’s a trend to giving to faith-based organisations, especially well-structured ones like the Catholic and Anglican churches. They already have some well run health and educational facilities. Obi’s intervention is usually for upkeep and upgrades.
This is what the N100m BSH is for, upgrade of its training organs.
Apart from showing us that good governance using the best international benchmarks in still possible in Nigeria, Obi has again, continued to teach the Nigerian moneyed class, the noble art of charity. He is also teaching our politicians the art of life after political office.
But most important for this column, he teaches us a universal lesson in the fine art of statesmanship. Therefore, the object lesson here, especially for popinjays all over the country currently craving for power, is that you don’t have to be in power to be a statesman.
And you know what: A STATESMAN IS SUPERIOR TO A PRESIDENT (Let somebody please pass this message to a certain Mr Goodluck Jonathan).
▪︎Osuji is a newspaper columnist.