By Isaac Asabor
Whether they be maladministration, political uprisings or people’s disgruntlement, it is common for government to encounter crises. These crises can affect a government’s performance and reputation, making it important to properly navigate these challenges. Without gainsaying the fact, implementing crisis leadership allows government to maintain public trust and properly manage future incidents. Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to opine that crisis of leadership is regressive, and tantamount to weak governance.
The foregoing view cannot be misunderstood as weak governance is a driver of disaster risk, and is linked to many other risk drivers such as poverty and inequality, poorly planned urban development, and globalized economic development. Therefore, to be most effective in reducing disaster risk, an integrated systems approach to governance, featuring strong coordination across sectors and a delegation of responsibilities to the local level is needed.
Contextualizing the foregoing graphic illustration, it is not wrong to opine that there is a very serious crisis of leadership in Edo State today at all levels of the communities that made up the State. However, this glaring deficiency continues to be exhibited primarily by whoever runs the State from the hallowed halls of Edo’s Government House. Since Nigeria adopted democracy as a system of government in 1999, successive political parties in the State, namely the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have in their own respective ways perfected the art of winning elections, which is fast becoming an abracadabra. Regrettably, they have both failed, so far, to provide effective governance in the State.
Indeed, if we are to in this context use Governor Godwin Obaseki’s promises as a litmus test, it will be convenient to recall that when he, and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, as well as their campaign train berthed every nook and cranny, wooed Edo people with countless promises in exchange of votes from over one million eligible voters and, ultimately, got the nod to pilot the political affairs of the state for another tenure of four years, that it is fair to rate the performance of the duo in the ongoing administration ‘F’ for failure.
Against the foregoing backdrop, there is an urgent need for Edolites to rally round Hon. Dele Igbinedion, by virtue of being a gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) ahead of the forthcoming governorship election in the State. The reason for the foregoing view cannot be farfetched as he is the candidate that possesses the most robust academic and professional qualifications, experience and high level of integrity.
Without a doubt, the candidate for the next elections; both at the primary and gubernatorial levels, that possesses the aforementioned background, in my own assessment, is unarguably Hon. Dele Igbinedion, who is a lawyer and human rights activist.
In terms of corporate governance, he has brought his leadership skills to bear when he served as the Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Industry in the State, and even when he was also the Chairman, Board of Directors of the government owned Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS).
Not only that, he has also been the legal adviser and consultant to the Edo State House of Assembly, Secretary, Law Review Committee of Edo State
Currently, Hon. Dele Igbinedion is a successful lawyer in private practice where he specializes in Human Rights Enforcement and litigation, and has successfully handled several high-profile cases, which has changed the way government relates to Nigerians. He is currently a patron to the law students Association, Ambrose Alli University, and also the National Open University of Nigeria law students, Benin study Centre. He is a publisher and author of several law books and journals.
Without any iota of doubt, there is no denying the fact that his experience would be brought to bear in taking Edo State and her people to the Eldorado of good governance. It is high time we stopped making the wrong choice by maximizing the power that is inherent in our voter’s cards.
Simply put, the opportunity of electing the most qualified candidate at the primary level and voting for the best among gubernatorial candidates at the polls in the State have not been significantly realized. This is attributable, to a large extent, to prebendalism and primordial sentiments, which have over the years characterized elections in the State.
For the sake of clarity, the term prebendalism simply means a political system where elected officials and government workers feel they have a right to a share of government revenues, and use them to benefit their supporters, co-religionists and members of their ethnic group. Argued from this perspective, delegates at primary elections and voters at gubernatorial polls were usually inclined to vote for the candidate that would offer them better or more gratifications; irrespective of the credibility of such candidate. This no doubt led to the emergence of inept leaders which the State has had to groan with, or rather suffered from.
At this juncture, permit me to urge fellow Edolites; both at home and in diaspora to eschew prebendalism and primordial sentiments in the forthcoming elections in the State, and vote for the most qualified and experience contestant, who in my assessment is Hon. Igbinedion. The reason for this call cannot be farfetched as Edo State need to be taken to the next level. The socio-economic and political growth of the State should be paramount in our minds at the polls. It suffices to say that it is high time we delivered the state from the pages of political history that gave it ignominious mention as one of the States that have literary been passing through bouts of chequered history.
To me, the coming elections present the opportunity of using Hon. Igbinedion’s candidacy to banish inept governance in the State, and entrench a new dawn to the advantage of posterity.
For the benefits of those who may not have comprehended the spur of my viewpoints, it is expedient to make them understand in this context that in sports, business and even politics, competency and experience are not undermined. Would Argentina have won the 1986 soccer world cup without Diego Maradona? Or Apple existed without Steve Jobs? Would the US have had a New Deal without Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Or what would have happened had Robert Kennedy become the 37th US president?
My fellow Edolites, we need a leader, such as Hon. Dele Igbinedion, who political history would record as being responsible for the emancipation of the State and her people from inept governance.
In a similar nexus, it is germane to opine that since robust qualifications and experience are sine qua non to good governance, there is wisdom for us to rally round Hon. Igbinedion.
I understand that party loyalists across all registered parties in the state are directly controlled by the party (leaders) as they typically grow up within the party organization, and are keen to vote along party lines, and have been trained to perform rent-seeking activities for the party. These characteristics may be dear to party leaders and to hardcore party supporters but much less appealing to unattached, swing voters. Be that as it may, the need to retrieve Edo from the mouth of the jackals has come. It is now or never! At this juncture, it is expedient to conclude this piece by opinionating that amid leadership crisis in Edo that Dele Igbinedion’s expertise would serve as a rescue.
