By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
In holding leaders accountable, people must look beyond what they have been presented with. It is crucial that leaders are weighed by the people based on a deep knowledge of what they have done or failed to do with the mandate they have. Looking beyond the surface might sound all too simplistic, perhaps naïve, until a real test case shows up.
For years, organized campaigns have become the major source of what informs the way a lot of people think politically. In consequence, people make a hero out of what they have been presented with, as they become increasingly unable to call up important issues that affect them. What matters to the public is what has been brought up by the government or the opposition, and most times, neither the government nor the opposition says the entire truth. The reason is that both are struggling for the same attention of the people, which they need to gain access to power or maintain access. So, if a government says too much, it risks exposing itself and being asked far more questions than it would be willing to answer. This was demonstrated in clear detail when the Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, assumed office as governor. He made appearances on the Anambra State Broadcasting Service – ABS, for live interactive sessions with Anambra people. After the first or second appearance, he made a promise that he would appear on the live interactive session at least once every three months. But around halfway into his first year in office, or about the third or fourth appearance, he stopped to date. In all, he made only about three or four appearances at most.
Governor Soludo’s termination of this interactive session was so remarkable that even while he was contesting for his second term, he never appeared on any interactive forum on ABS. Soludo set out wanting to be the governor of the people, like many leaders do, but he quickly realized that the people are not prepared for that level of engagement, or he risks damaging his government irreversibly. To avoid getting himself into complications, he quietly backed out. This did not come to me as a surprise, as it was expected. When ambitious politicians gain power, they set out trying to please the people. But in that process, they learn lasting lessons that remain with them throughout their public life. Mr. Peter Obi, Anambra’s former governor, had the same experience. He tried to govern and make a difference, but he first tried to contain Dr. Chris Ngige’s high public rating at the time, so he put himself forward as the better man. He was then often on the radio speaking and begging the people to cooperate with him, to no avail. Instead, he was cajoled and called weak. He quickly learned his lessons, and he was then called Okwute, or the Rock. As of now, in Abia State, the Governor, Alex Otti, is battling to find a middle ground that justifies the funds the government has received under his watch with the work on the ground in Abia. Many state and national legislators are now under the same pressure as the 2027 General Election draws near. They try to offer explanations, but no government and no lawmaker can faithfully account honestly for the funds entrusted in his or her care for his or her people. The people demanding accountability are not interested in anything other than how their money has been expended in a way that makes sense to them. At some point, to put this in a very plain form, the government learns from experience not to tell the people the truth. Those in power learn that the acquisition of state power is different from the maintenance of the same.
This is where the opposition comes in. Indeed, this was why opposition became necessary in the first instance. They put up efforts to discredit the government in power or individuals in the legislature and try to expose them. In doing these, they also tell lies. Only recently, I was looking at one of the flyovers in Awka, Anambra State capital, and recalled how the flyovers were described as deathtraps. How its collapse was predicted to be imminent, and how the job was not only poorly done, but also dubiously contracted. That is, the flyovers were an inflated contract at the expense of the State, with a terribly poor job that would, as it was then peddled, collapse and kill innocent people. This was unacceptable by any imagination. The voice of the opposition drowned all others as they insisted, with frequent pictures of cracks on the wall to strengthen their narrative, that the flyovers’ collapse was imminent. But over a decade later, the flyovers are still standing and still serving. So, all of that was just to prevent the Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, from getting his second term in office. Though Willie got reelected in 2017, his reputation suffered immensely.
While the government in power is managing so much to avoid telling the people more than they ought to know, the incoming government is doing the exact thing and more differently. The people are the biggest losers because they are left on both sides with scanty information and know-how to rely on and make informed decisions. Pressure groups and civil society organizations would have bridged the gap, but they are not mere observers. No one is a mere observer in politics. They are for or against, either directly or by proxy.
As 2027 approaches with great speed, the people must unravel the truth by and for themselves. Neither the government in power nor the opposition jostling for power is saying the truth that an honest voter can rely on.
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