MAZI EJIMOFOR OPARA
Southeast Nigeria does not need “normal leaders” nor leaders high on public validation. More so, they particularly need leaders who are deaf to social media noise and averse to popular opinion. A leader in the mould of Governor Soludo who, before coming to power, has both diagnostic and prognostic knowledge of the endemic issues of social malady plaguing the region.
From get-go he warned us (his media handlers) of “apologetics” or pandering. My Baptism of Fire happened after the partial demolition of Odumeje’s church which was sitting on the Nwangene flood channel. I remember trying to beg the matter using some Public Relations sophistry that tended towards massaging Odumeje’s ego and popular social media sentiments. My Boss roared back in a way that reminded me of the Igbo proverb, “it is the same teeth a dog uses in playing with its puppies that it deploys in biting them hard when they err”. Before then, I had never seen Odenigbo bite as hard. After that redefining moment of intense tongue lashing. What followed was a calm paradigm shift that has continued to produce results in the most unusual way. If, as a Soludo Apostle, I misunderstand his modus operandi, what then would the larger public do?
For a moment, imagine Soludo allowed the continued spread of the Okeite-virus just to be seen as a “normal leader”… Imagine if Soludo allowed the “normal” Monday sit at home to continue without consequence… Imagine if Soludo just reasphalted the single lanes of the now dual carriage beltways just because he didn’t want to incense the public or destroy structures sitting on the way of public good because they are worth “millions”… imagine if Soludo allowed Main Market to continue to die under the weight of unthinking developers committed only to the distortion of its masterplan.
Imagine for a moment if Soludo was a “normal leader” who handed over public education to the church, acquiescing government responsibility to those who have concluded that government can’t run public institutions effectively… Whoever believed that a public Primary school in Woliwo, Onitsha would ever emerge the overall best school in Nigeria? Soludo is not a normal leader.
He came with a plan to lay the foundations of the Africa-Dubai-Taiwan (ADT) in Anambra. This plan cannot be laced upon decrepit infrastructure, and most importantly, it cannot be committed to a primitive and unproductive human capital. This is why at the core of the Solution agenda is the intentional redesign of our value systems that will birth the new “Onye Anambra”.