A trader, a professor, brain surgeon, physicist, does not necessarily make you a great leader or president or prime minister. What distinguishes you as a leader is what you have done in the past, how you did it and the level of success or deliverables you achieved as at the time and what you intend to do if you are entrusted with leadership position.
This issue that Peter Obi is a trader is absolutely none sensical and baseless. To my knowledge, when Peter Obi was trading, he did well and l do think being a trader gives you an edge over other candidates. Trading in Nigeria exposes you to the good, the bad and the ugly sides of our country.
Most traders are extremely creative otherwise they cannot sell and will not make money which is the outcome of anybody in commerce or industry. Peter Obi’s background gives him the creativity on how government could earn revenue and double its IGR. I have watched Peter Obi and his communication skills cannot be matched with his political contemporaries. He speaks from his heart, as someone eager and hungry to get on with the job of governance. He collaborates well with his peers.
He graduated from University of Nigeria, Nsuka with a degree in philosophy. Therefore, there’s no government brief he cannot read, digest and act on. As former governor of Anambra State, he displayed his mettle, took decisions that affected the citizens of the state for good.
In governance, all you can do as a smart leader is to assemble a formidable team that can get you from A to B based on your visions and aspirations. From where we are today in Nigeria, we desperately need a person that can get us out from this ‘pit of hell’ we found ourselves as a nation. Academic qualification as important as it may be, may not be what is required right now. Someone like Peter Obi with business or trading background will make a decisive decision knowing fully well that delay and dithering could be very costly and dangerous.
Obi may not be the saint Nigerians are looking for, but his integrity level seems to be above level in comparison with his peers. Again, his frequent line of “go and verify has so far not been faulted by the media or his political adversaries.
Again, he has globetrotted just to learn how other countries solved the issue of power, seaport challenges, economic rebound, job creation, excellent education management etc. For those people talking about academic qualifications and university attended, Obi attended one of the best Universities in Nigeria but academic qualification is far from the ability to govern. So, they should give us a break as administration is not a brain surgeon. You either do the job by getting your fingers out or you waste your time, resources and energy attending frivolous meetings when you should be working during the day.
Enough of that nonsense from people trying to pretend that administration has become a rocket science. Some of them could have deceived us in the past to believe that you have to be an expert in economics or an industrialist to be able to govern effectively with deliverable outcomes. Obi does not have the requisite academic knowledge but an outstanding administrative background and untapped management potentials and catapulted him into being chairman of board of Banks and many financial institution.
Obi possesses not only the wisdom to rule from his background in philosophy but the capacity to go into smart negotiations as a trader as well as the discipline to reduce the cost of governance, attract Foreign Direct Investment for job creation and conservation of our foreign exchange and turn the economy of the country from consumption to production.
Prince Tim Ogwuru is a Political Analyst and Public Affairs Commentator who resides in Abuja.
