I have come to realise that good intentions alone are not enough to achieve good leadership, a leader or an aspiring leader may have the best of intentions for the people he is leading or is aspiring to lead, yet that same leader with all his good intentions and desires may still be a disastrous leader, a failed leader. There are actually just a few leaders who would want to fail those they lead, majority of our leaders have always been motivated to lead and lead well, most of them failed because they lack the basic understanding of how to lead well, not because they do not want to lead well. It is one thing wanting to offer good leadership, it is another thing knowing how to offer good leadership. This is the singular reason for which I have developed a keen interest in the person and candidacy of Barrister Humphrey Anumudu, while I have not adopted him as my preferred candidate to replace the present Governor of the State, I must confess that I am highly impressed with his campaign slogan of “Onye Ma Uzo”, which literally means; “He who knows the way”.
Some people with whom I have discussed and argued with on the candidacy of Barrister Humphrey Anumudu has raised the argument that if he truly knows the way, how come he has not succeeded with his ambition of governing the State, since 1998, when he began to pursue that dream. I have always tried to educate this set of people that his message of knowing the way could not have been about knowing the way to the government House, Owerri. It does not also imply that he knows how to win by hook or crook. My understanding is that he knows the way to lead, he knows the way to lead Imo out of the quagmire of bad and visionless governance which has been its misfortune especially since 2011. It is a fact of history that the most sincere people are usually outsmarted by the slippery, in the contest for power, money and even recognition. The fact remains that a criminal may know the way to win power through deception, vote robbery or rigging and even violence, but it is the responsibility of the people to seize the opportunity offered by democracy to ensure that they stop such individuals and elect the candidate who is not just sincere but capable, credible, knowledgeable and prepared for the task of leadership.
Barrister Humphrey Anumudu has been around for some time and has sought to be Imo Governor on two earlier occasions (in 1998 and in 2003). He is largely acclaimed to have won the governorship primaries of the PDP in 1998, but was denied the ticket because of the interests of the Party bigwigs who seem to have been uncomfortable with his independent mindedness and transparency, they were not sure, their selfish interests will be safeguarded, but they had no single doubt that Barrister Anumudu had what it takes to transform Imo State . In 2003, after seeing that his chances were slim in the ruling PDP, he joined the now defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) where he was given the ticket of the Party to run for Imo Governorship. Of course, he did not make it then. Chief Achike Udenwa was returned by popular mandate. Come 2015, he is one of the over twenty aspirants who are presently angling for the PDP anointing for the governorship election. There are several other formidable aspirants, but should the PDP delegates choose Barrister Humphrey Anumudu, I think the chances of the Party retaking the Government House would have been made clearer. There are actually very few politicians across the State who can comfortably boast of the level of committed followership which Barrister Humphrey Anumudu boasts of. He has loyal friends in every nook and cranny of the State and the fact that he has not held any sensitive elective office in the past stands him out as a sort of saint whom the people can trust.
For a leader to be truly said to know the way, there are certain personal attributes which that leader must possess. A leader who knows the way must be honest as a person, he is not supposed to be someone who will say one thing and do another. Such a leader’s words must be reliable and also bankable. One of the major problems Imo is presently facing is the dearth of honest and reliable leaders. Most of those who are presently enjoying our mandate at various levels of government are those who believe in the politics of deceit and mendacity. The people are desirous of a leader whose word is his bond, a leader who does not change his words according to the situation, a leader who does not call black white, just to please the ears of the led. We are interested in having the kind of leaders who will tell us the real situation of our finances, infrastructures and our fiscal prospects. We do not need smooth talkers, for most smooth talkers are big liars. My investigations have shown that Barrister Humphrey Anumudu is a straightforward and honest man. One of those who have had dealings with him from his days in Port-Harcourt told me that Barrister Anumudu is not actually interested in pleasing your ears with what he says, his major interest is in telling you the truth, no matter how bitter. That is a massive vote of confidence if you ask me.
Leadership is also about personal discipline and positive orientations towards life. It is a confusing misfortune of history that most of those who had privileged family backgrounds find it difficult carving a niche for themselves in life. That is why it is rare to see children of some of the wealthiest men of the past still standing tall and influential. There have been stories where most of them sold off their parents’ assets and squandered whatever comes out of it. There are so many notable families across the world today, whose houses have been overgrown by weed and the rooms of their patriarchs a comfortable abode for rats, snakes, cockroaches and other smelly reptiles. But, Barrister Humphrey Anumudu’s disciplined lifestyle is evidenced in his ability to have sustained and developed his father’s massive business empire. It is to his credit that his father’s wealth has continued to appreciate, while that of most of his father’s contemporaries have evaporated into some merry-go-round winds. That he did not get carried away by the massive wealth at his disposal as a young man gives us confidence that he will not be carried away by the massive resources which he will find as a Governor of our State. His ability to manage his family resources so well also gives us hope that he will be able to expand the frontiers of Imo’s economic base.
A leader who knows the way must also be a good manager of human and material resources. For someone who sits atop one of Africa’s biggest business conglomerates, Barrister Humphrey Anumudu is no doubt a perfect manager of human resources. With a workforce of over two thousand people, there has not been any news of discontent from among his staff, neither has he been reported to have slave-driven his workers. Mr. John who is in his mid-forties, has been a staff of the Anumudu’s for the past two decades and he has no plans of quitting his work in the nearest future. According to him; “if it is possible to remain a staff of the company till death comes, then I will be very happy to end my life here. Chief Anumudu is like a father to me, he treats all of us who are his staff like we are his biological children. When you come into this house, you will not find it easy knowing who is a family member and who is a hired labourer or a domestic servant. Everybody is treated equally.” This is the impression of all of those who have worked for him and those still working for him, that I have interacted with. Imo being a civil service State really needs a person of this compassionate bearing to handle her affairs. No doubt, if we have this man at the helm of affairs in the State, ITC workers will not be traumatising our sights with the odd sights of caskets and necromantic impressions. IBC pensioners and staff won’t be this frustrated. The Umuguma General or did they say it is Specialist Hospital will not be locked down as it is now.
The fact is that the present Governor may want to give us sterling leadership, but there is no doubt that he does not know how to go about it. That is why we have a State that is in serious straits, a State whose future has been borrowed away, yet there is nothing to show for it. Most of those who have also declared their interest to run for the governorship of our dear State on the platform of the PDP may also have good intentions for our dear State, but there are very few of them who knows the way to implement or realise their good intentions. Just like the incumbent, there are among them, those who will be in a haste to deliver, but at the end they would have hastily destroyed the State. Somebody is saying that the incumbent Governor also has a history of success in his personal business before he became Governor, yet he couldn’t manage the State’s resources well. There is a difference between a very poor man who jumped into instant and questionable wealth and another man who was born into wealth and he retained and expanded the wealth. We all know that the present Governor’s businesses were almost in shambles before he became Governor. But the Anumudu business empire has been around for about seventy years and there has not been any story of insolvency, rather what we have is a steady history of growth and expansion. With Anumudu as the Governor, Imo will continue to grow from Strength to strength that is my belief and conviction.
Barrister Humphrey Anumudu’s background as a top of the class realtor also stands him out as one person who has what it takes to tackle the comatose housing sector in Imo State. As a consultant in the real estate sector with some highbrow estates to his name, Imo people will no longer be at the mercy of callous landlords as he should be able to embark on massive low income housing as a measure towards alleviating the hardships faced by our people in the hands of their landlords. There is no doubt that there are so many aspirants who have this idea, but what is important is who knows how to realise the idea. It is a different thing having an idea and another thing having the knowledge of how to actualise an idea. As a writer, I spend quite a lot of my time interacting with humans and one thing I have found out is that there is hardly any human being without excellent ideas, but what is in very scarce supply among many human beings is the knowledge of how to realise these ideas. That again explains my keen interest in the candidacy of Barrister Humphrey Anumudu. He has the ideas and the knowledge on how to actualise these ideas.
Consistency is also a crucial attribute of a leader who knows the way. In a recent article I put up on Facebook, I argued that Barrister Humphrey Anumudu has been a consistent Party man, in as much as he had once temporarily defected from the PDP, he does not waste time in returning to a Party he helped to found. Some of my readers and friends argued that a man who could leave the Party at any time at all could not be said to be consistent. But I completely disagree with that notion. It is like saying that a wife who disagrees with her husband on certain occasions cannot be said to be a loyal wife. The concept of consistency does not imply that no change should be made, it rather implies that one remains self and makes steadfast efforts towards improving on his or her stated principles and ambitions. One who has not tasted the other side of the game cannot be said to be truly consistent. You need to go out sometimes, and if you return with as much speed as you left, that confirms that you are actually consistent with your principles. The simple reason why Barrister Humphrey Anumudu returned speedily to the Party was because, he found out that the manifestoes and modus operandi of the other political Parties are not in consonant with his personal political principles. He is comfortable with the stated political principles of the PDP, hence his determination to stick with them, even while it is obvious that it will be easier for him to get the tickets of the other Parties.
According to Frederick Douglas “the limit of tyrants is prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress”. The people of Imo State must join their hands and hearts in one accord and decide that enough is enough. They must say enough to unprepared leadership, they must say no to emergency Governors, they must say no to looters, they must say no to liars. Imo people must take their time in taking a decision on whom to queue behind. We must be careful with those who make mouth-watering promises of building some sky-scrapers in the sky and hanging a road on the air. We must investigate the track records of all those who seek to govern us. we must not allow any chance for those who will want to learn on the job. We must stand up and take a stand for the best option among all those clamouring to lead us.
