“Democracy gains more from an honest look at reality than it does from harangue or polemic”. -- Hendrick Smith
About a month ago, I published a piece titled “Hon. Bassey Etim Vs Sen. Bassey Albert: The imperative of a political solution now,” The article received reasonable readership.
As it is to be expected, the article attracted a lot of reactions from a cross section of the Akwa Ibom people.
What one took away from that brief intellectual romance with the people is the conviction that the contemporary Akwa Ibom person may be more politically aware than many may have thought. And so it cannot be gainsaid that the growing educational awareness in the state has begun to pay off.
Did Awolowo not say that education makes a people easy to govern and difficult to oppress? I reckon that education also makes for the easy enlightenment of a people.
Vincent Ike Otuonye who authored Nnamdi Azikewe’s biography Zik of Africa, has this to say of education: “Learning which merely fills the mind with crumbs of facts is useless.
That which enlightens by revealing chains of causes and effects is helpful and creative. But that which not only enlightens the mind but also stirs the spirit and steals the will is education”.
The positive public response to the work equally goes to confirm Obama’s opinion as captured in his book Dreams from my Father In the book Obama says: “--- throughout my years in Springfield, I had clung to the notion that politics could be different, and that the voters wanted something different.
That they were tired of distortion, name-calling and sound-bite solution to complicated problems; that if I could reach those voters directly, frame the issues as I felt them, explain the choices in as truthful a fashion as I knew how; then the people’s instincts for fair play and common sense would bring them around”. We tried the Obama approach in that write-up and the response was positive.
The third thing that the critical success of the work has taught one is that it may have met the standard of Wilbur Shranm, a communications expert, who said that in winning public opinion, “The people must be informed, but all the angles must be explained”.
One of the beauties of democracy is freedom: the freedom to agree and the freedom to disagree. But to Nixon, “The essence of freedom is that each of us shares in the shaping of his own destiny”.
The freedom of opinion as expressed by the Akwa Ibom people over the subject matter of the said article has also served to prove the point that Senator Albert’s electoral victory is assured beyond the law courts. Assured also is his political future.
Senator Albert has indeed stormed hearts across Akwa Ibom. Through his excellent public service and personal sacrifices for the people, he has made solid inroads into the people’s hearts thus confirming the permanence of his victory as far as politics and elections are concerned in the State now and in the future.
The Senator has indeed succeeded in laying a firm foundation for himself in public service and as such a foundation hardly falters nor fails.
One inalienable fact about the Senator as deduced from the public discourse which the former article instigated is that he gives his supporters a sense of value. And as Pastor Odukoya did say, “No man who knows he is valuable in a project will take it lightly”.
The Senator also appears to have a good knowledge of the intrinsic nature of man which may be the reason he captures people’s hearts so easily. Hear Robert Greene, the world-acclaimed authority on power:
“All men are mortasl and face the same dreadful fate; they all share the desire for attachment and belonging. Stir up these emotions and you capture men’s hearts”.
The unrivaled mass following that Sen. Albert appears to enjoy across the State also goes to show that he is a good student of Napoleon.
For in the opinion of the pudgy French general whose army dominated Europe, “The men who have changed the universe have never got there by working on leaders but rather by moving the masses.
Working on leaders is the method of intrigue and only leads to secondary results. Working on the masses, however, is the stroke of genius that changes the face of the world”.
In the classical definition of democracy by Abraham Lincoln, “the people” is mentioned three times which confirms the rightness of Napoleon’s assertion that the people or masses are the ace where leadership in the public sphere is concerned.
Another fact about Senator Albert is that he hates to see people suffer. A story is told of how he visited the beneficiaries of his free medical service, and on seeing the large crowd of sick elderly men and women broke down and wept.
But his tears that day were not just for the sick elderly people that were before him; it was for all the sick people in the State and beyond who suffered for lack of adequate medical attention.
I guess the Senator may have recalled the words of the Holy Writ which says, “Remember those that are in pains and bond with them”. And that to be fully liberated as a human being, his people must first be liberated also.
In his few years of public service, the Senator has stormed the hearts of all manner of people in the State-students artisans, the clergy, members of the traditional institution and even former colleagues in the State Executive council etc.
Stories of OBA’s benevolence abound all over the State and serve to confirm the popular notion that Senator Albert remains today the most sought after political leader in the Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial district and one of the best administrative hands the State can boast of in the present dispensation.
Senator Albert is a political rare breed on our shores. He is the kind of leader who on a good day can win an election under any political party however small or insignificant.
He is currently bankrolling all school expense scholarship for 130 undergraduates drawn from the nine LGAs that make up Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial District studying in various universities across the country. Again very recently after the skill acquisition training in partnership with SMEDAN got 120 youths starting their own small businesses with a start- up capital to the tune of N10m.
He is the type that can win an election without zoning. He reminds one of the inimitable Chief M.K.O Abiola who won with a major landslide the 1993 presidential election.
Chief Abiola’s election was an eye opener to Nigerians as it was won on a Muslim-Muslim ticket and in a country reputed for religious intolerance.
The Nigerian Christian community voted overwhelmingly for Abiola, so also were the northerners who disregarded the fact that he was a southerner.
The mercurial youths of the country for the first time also saw reason to unite behind a single politician.
But why would the Christians not vote for a Muslim who built churches and sponsored many Christians on religious pilgrimage to Israel? Why would the northerners not vote a southerner who did not in any way discriminate against them?
Why would the Nigerian youths not rally behind an elder who had an uncanny knowledge of their challenges, and embraced them all as his own biological children? And why would the Nigerian masses not vote a billionaire who was very much at home in their company?
Those who annulled the 12th June, 1993 election have regretted their action as that election marked a significant milestone in Nigeria’s march to democracy.
The annulment robbed the country of the opportunity of rewriting her electoral history and redefining how politics is played in the country.
But above all, by the death of the great Chief Abiola, Nigeria lost the chance of learning first hand the great secret of his landmark political victory.
For that oversight, Nigeria qualifies today as perhaps the only nation in the world that fails to appreciate the wisdom in the immortal words of Isocrates that “the good public spirit of a single individual can bring profit to society”
OBA’s public spirit can very well be likened to that of the late MKO Abiola which is why many continue to marvel at his meteoric political ascendancy.
But a good public spirit is all we need in our leaders to transform the great promise of our State into reality.
A good public spirit is all we need in our leaders to rise above the primordial sentiments that tend to divide us and drag us back as a people.
So may we in Akwa Ibom State not fold our hands and watch the wicked attempt at subverting the promising career of one of the few politicians in the State who best epitomizes a good public spirit and who can possibly re-enact in our State the Abiola magic.
Are we talking about his Liaison office hall in Ewet Housing Uyo where he has given free of charge to constituents for weddings, child dedication as well as allied social and entrepreneurial engagements? It can only be OBA that can show this kind of magnanimity.
The foregoing is the honest reality which should stir all men and women of goodwill into positive action in defense of truth. That will be the best step for Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial district, the best for our beloved State and the best for our nascent democracy.
For as Hendrick Smith whom l quoted above posits,“ Democracy gains more from an honest look at reality than it does from harangue or polemic “ God bless Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial District, God bless Akwa Ibom State.
No comments: