Anambra Needs A Leader With An Eye For The Future

MAZI EJIMOFOR OPARAH

...The Unusual Deserves The Uncommon

I woke up this morning with some thoughts about the fast paced changes greeting our world. The kind of things we read in books are manifesting in ways that leave us in hypothetical crossroads. What this means is that the language and style with which we approach most things in life have taken an unusual twist. As at today, the world is broken on all sides. Sadly, we cannot mend it the same old way.

We have come to a point of practical abstractions. No thanks to the disruption occasioned by the rampaging COVID19 pandemic. The debates are not just on the health fronts, but more on the economic, social and political aspects of our lives. Our health workers and researchers should not be the only ones on the front line of this fight, we need the best on all fronts to help us navigate through this turbulent times. 

 
This is where persons with proven records of managing chaotic situations are needed in every facet of our lives going forward. This is not about political correctness. No. It is more about a decision to either swim or sink. We were at similar points as a country in the wake of this millennium.

Remember the popular “Y2K compliance”? Yes. This was a rapid socioeconomic change occasioned by advances in technology. The proliferation of the GSM and Internet enabled services changed everything we knew including the way we lived our lives. 
Imagine if President Obasanjo did not assemble uncommon minds like CeeCee Soludo, how would Nigeria have managed the disruption of that era so seamlessly with negligible casualties? 

Another unusual scenario is upon us today. We are gradually heading to the point of autarky as the center of international trade and governmental systems may no longer hold. The effect of this on us as a State would be determined by the quality of Leader we elect for ourselves in the days ahead. Will the focus continue to be the “bricks and mortar” help that is coming? Or the comatose philanthropy and showmanship behind the swinging “open door”?

Anambra needs a Leader with an eye for the future. People who see tomorrow. We are fighting a global war of self preservation. If we decide to make Generals out of greenhorns, we have inadvertently signed up to defeat. And I ask, are we ready to be losers?

– Mazi Ejimofor writes from Awka, Anambra State.