Governance is not show business, it is a serious business.
Through governance, lives have been saved and lost too.
At the dawn of the second phase of this nascent democracy,most of us were privy to the government of a certain young business man. Abians accepted him thinking that he was a serious business man but he ended up a neophyte who traded more on Okirika than on fiscal policies .
He could not distinguish between Governance, trading and show biz.
He ended a disaster with baggage of incompetence .
The rest is history only reserved for the hindsight.
Who remembers Festac’77 and the associated gliteratti?
It ended a huge show but with needless waste of Nigerian resources .
That was the definition of governance by a certain Juvenile.
I remember the historic statement credited to the young man then, ” that the problem of Nigeria is not money but how to spend it”. Today we know how to spend the money but inflation wouldn’t let us.
Decades later,we are still in the trenches grasping for breath while licking our self inflicted wounds, because we allowed an exuberant youth to steer the big ship of our destiny. We haven’t got it right yet.
We may pay for our negligence longer if we don’t learn.
Governance is not tea party.
It is a serious business reserved for MEN.
Such men must not be inexperienced, but schooled in the art of governance, with a traceable antecedent and forceable future,not giving to permutations and emotionality but rich in wisdom, native and urbane.
Governance demands experiential knowledge, cognate leadership exposure and a verifiable result oriented,result driven public service career.
As we reminisce on the history of the lack lustre yester years, another future beckons.
We can’t risk it lest we face the dire consequences.
Governance is not like Yahoo Yahoo, neither is it Nairabet.
It is a serious business. I repeat, a serious business.
It involves knowledge,skill ,wisdom and experience .
Another promising future beckons but not for the idealist, not for the show men but for realists, who have tested the waters once or more.
I insist…
That the demands of Governance,in the 21st century, are far from the ludicrous.
It’s not for Juveniles.
Some minimal considerations like who he is,where he has previously functioned,public or private sector, will suffice .
Citizens will equally interrogate his cognate industry experience, discipline and maturity.
Because we can’t afford to gamble with neophytes again, efforts will be made,intentionally, to recruit the best hands, devoid of premordial sentiments, clannishness and exuberance.
Without sounding immodest, Professor Eleazar Uche Ikonne meets the spec.
An imperfect Ikonne, with comparative advantage of age ,public sector experience coupled with the vigor of an ex US Army, legal practitioner and seasoned politician deputy, is better than the others put together .
