PETER OBI: YET TO BE CELEBRATED ~ REV. FR. JUDE UDEMEZUE

Peter Obi, Erstwhile Governor of Anambra State

I am enthralled by the retinue of quality writers who in recent time have used Peter Obi as the reference point at this time of great revelation of profligacy of some state governors who have been unable to pay their workers and deliver to their states the much desired democracy dividends. While I do this, I do not expect those who thrive in parochial engagements to find my position palatable.

I don’t intend to entertain the opinions of those who are buried in nepotic disease to celebrate my position. I ask those who are propagators of “onye kwuru oto egbutuo ya” to look away from my article.

I request those whose sense of appreciation is driven by partisan allegiance to look the other way. I appeal to true Igbo sons and daughters to read me with patriotic disposition.I implore my readers to know that I am celebrating a man who catapulted my state to the position of prominence. I am celebrating a man who is being celebrated across various ethnic divides. I am celebrating a man who buried profligacy in the management of state resources, a man who while in office refused to jump on the bandwagon of profligates, a man who did not allow his already achieved personal financial means to impact negatively on his management of common till.

I am celebrating a man who demystified governance, a consummate politician. I am celebrating a man who was not and is not faultless, but whose disposition to goodness overwhelmed his human weakness. I am not celebrating a man who thrived in propaganda whilst he held sway in government. Rather, I am celebrating a man who has become a reference point in good governance. I am celebrating a man whose achievement in government left critics befuddled. I am celebrating a man that his immediate constituency has refused to celebrate due to some blind pedestrian reasons. I am celebrating a man whose financial austerity left my state rich and better.

I am celebrating a man whose achievement in education, health, infrastructural development and all indices of development made my state a cynosure of all eyes. I am celebrating a man whose stock in trade whilst he managed the affairs of my state was the common good before individual good. I am celebrating a man who has refused to fire any acidic, hateful shot on those who have made casting aspersions on him their pastime. I am celebrating a true Igbo son and a proud son of the Church. I am celebrating an enigma, an epitome of humility. I am celebrating a proven planner, a man whose shot at governance was the case of a square peg in a square hole, a man who refused every pressure to self-destruction.

I am celebrating a man who championed the Anambra renaissance. Isn’t it unfortunate that this gold of unquantifiable proportion is not receiving the desired accolades from those who are the direct beneficiaries of his magnanimity? I have heard the Igbos scream marginalization in the Nigerian project, and I ask, who is marginalizing who when we take pleasure in running down our achievers?

Every other tribe support their own who are not as good as ours, but we take pleasure in running down our own. Let us know that “n’egbuo dike n’ogu uno, ubochi ogu achoba dike.” Let us celebrate Peter Obi. He is our “dike.” Nobody loses anything by celebrating his “dike,” rather, he gains everything. My discussion with people of other tribes opened my eyes to how much this son of Igbo extraction is revered across the Niger.

Thank you, Peter Obi, for coming. Thank you for leaving your footprints on the sands of history. Thank you for choosing good over evil. Okwute Ndigbo, daalu. Make effort to remain focused and good. (Source: Guardian)