The struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria from all forms of socioeconomic shackles that impedes infrastructural development, environmental justice and social mobility has been on for years, but recently gained momentum.
Essentially, one leadership lesson from the present disposition in the region which flows from, and largely consist of positive efforts by Mr. Chiedu Ebie led governing board and management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and significantly manifest in the consolidated peace and unity that envelopes the region and its people, is that: the only difference between good and bad leaders lies in the number of obstacles such leaders remove from, or place on the path of their respective followers.
Interestingly too, going by commentaries from stakeholders as regard the sudden shift from ‘excuses that have produced monument of nothingness’ which used to characterize the agency’s affairs, to a season of resuscitation and strategic rejuvenation of the region by the agency’s new governing board and management, it has again confirmed that similar to war, leadership could be ‘Yin and Yang’ (meaning hot and cold), as explained by Sun Tzu, a Chinese author and war lord, in his masterpiece, ‘Art of War’ a book that documented the Chinese military treaties dating from the late Spring and autumn period (roughly 5th century BC).
Interpretatively, ‘Yin and Yang” are guiding laws in warfare, just as they are in all other aspects of life. The changing dynamic of the battlefield creates an ever-shifting flux of advantage and disadvantage, opportunity and threat for the wise. Sun shows that for each outcome there is an opposite outcome, and for every advantage, there is a disadvantage.
What this, in a nutshell, emphasizes is that leadership is the architect of the fate of man. Leadership well understood has the capacity to prime, position and create a mood in which Niger Deltans become keen to acquire skills and discipline of developed nations while preventing the region from going through the pang of underdevelopment. But when leadership fails in this role, the region and nation by extension can never hope to raise the standard of living of the people or achieve the hoped infrastructural development.
Thankfully, there are hopeful signs!
Recent reports abundantly found a clear link between the present NDDC governing board and people-focused projects/programmes.
Out of so many examples supporting the above assertion, is the recent media report that leaders of ethnic nationalities, professional bodies, and critical stakeholders from the Niger Delta region recently applauded the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), for its massive electrification of rural communities through the Light Up the Niger Delta project.
The national chairman of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Senator Emmanuel Ibok-Essien, gave the plaudits when he led leaders of various groups to meet with the NDDC management team at the commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
In an address read on behalf of the visiting delegation, Senator Ibok-Essien reportedly said that the leaders were delighted by the efforts of the NDDC to light up communities across the Niger Delta states, noting that it would help in fighting criminality in the region.
The leaders said: “The rural electrification projects have not only enhanced the aesthetics of these areas but also contributed to reducing nocturnal security challenges. We encourage the Commission to extend this initiative to all communities and ensure the training of local manpower for the effective maintenance of these facilities.
“We also appreciate the Commission’s efforts in road construction and rehabilitation, as well as human resources development through educational scholarships, women and youth development programmes, vocational and skills acquisition initiatives.”
“We are glad to note the successes you have recorded, such as your Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, on shared aspirations and on corporate governance with KPMG. We do hope to see that these interactions and engagements will generate positive fruits of development soonest.” The visiting stakeholders concluded.
For me, one heartening development in this whole episode is that the same NDDC, that a few years ago ‘enjoyed’ more burden than goodwill and received devastating reputational blows than applause, is today celebrated.
Comparatively, when one juxtaposes the region’s developmental impasse experienced years ago, with the ongoing efforts by the present leadership to offer a lasting solution to the socio-economic difficulties of the Niger Delta Region and to facilitate the rapid and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful, as stipulated by the Act establishing the agency, one thing stands out; it is leadership that makes the difference!
In view of the above discrepancy, this piece believed and still believes that it will be highly rewarding if the nation carry out a re-evaluation of roles leaders play in the socioeconomic development of not just the region but the nation as a whole.
This action is not only imperative but further predicated on the consciousness that the country certainly needs leaders with visions, plans and those who are ready to sacrifice and lead by example and assist re-enact at all strata of government similar developmental strides ongoing at NDDC.
Viewed broadly, aside from the new awareness that those concerns that hitherto dominated the region’s discourse have today ended in the dustbin of history with all critical stakeholders morphed from complaint to applaud for NDDC leadership and harmony among ethnic groups within the region, one useful lesson we must not allow to go with political winds is that ‘region or nation fails not necessarily because of its geographical location or lack of mineral resource but primarily because leaders in charge makes decisions that engineers poverty-most particularly as everything starts and end with leadership’.
To their credit, two factors are, in the opinion of this piece, working in favour of the NDDC’s governing board and management.
First, is their profound recognition that on the road of survival and extinction, leadership holds the key; such understanding goes a long way to signify that one will either be victorious or defeated. The second is closely related to the first and elaborates the governing board’s understanding that ‘public order, economic and social progress and prosperity is not the natural order of things but depends on the ceaseless efforts and attention from effective government’.
This particular cognizance, in my view, should be another leadership lesson for all as the nation continues with its quest for building a Nigeria of our dreams where peace, unity and enduring development shall reign supreme.
• Utomi, is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Public Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He could be reached via;jeromeutomi@yahoo.com/
