“Audacity in governance is the courage to prioritize people over power, principles over politics, and progress over privilege.” — Anon.
Yesterday was my first time coming face-to-face with any principal officer in Governor Peter Mbah’s government. I have been following the administration remotely until Aka Eze Aka’s nomination as PDP Chairmanship Candidate for September 21 LG polls in Udenu was confirmed. The catchphrase “Udenu project” is to our hearts, what the word “Biafra” is, in the heart of wider Igbo people. Everyone drummed support for him. Post-election and into the business of governance, I belonged to the few on whose shoulders lay the burden of communicating his policy action plans and achievements to our people.
This role shortened my distance from Gov. Mbah’s government.
I know of the much reported integral developmental projects tagged “disruptive innovation” which the Governor is executing in over 260 communities across the State. Last time I went home I saw the Smart School being constructed in my hometown. I looked at the hyperbolic size of the project and felt like it is just one of the white elephant projects of government that will soon assume the baptismal name of “abandoned project.”
So when on November 10, the news filtered in, that the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) — Prof. Chidiebere Onyia will arrive at Udenu on a one-day working visit to the Local Government, I was a little excited. The purpose of the visit was to “handover ongoing State projects in Udenu to the Councilors, Traditional Rulers and Town Union Presidents” as the custodians of the initiatives. The banner at the entrance of the venue for the Town Hall meeting read: “Smart Schools Project — Stakeholders Engagement.”
The Media office of the Executive Chairman positioned its cameras to the threshold of the Council headquarters awaiting the arrival of the pivotal Head of Mbah’s government. Prof. Onyia has been comparatively rated fairly well, as being the best to occupy the position in 24 years of the return of democracy in Nigeria. It leaves to be seen whether this will make a good topic for debate; but he is, at least, to my knowledge, the most decorated (academically and charismatically) SSG in the South East geopolitical zone currently. His CV is intimidating. My first physical contact with him was last month at Mater Dei Catholic Church Trans-Ekulu Enugu where he attended the Child Dedication Mass of Okikeabia Jesoeme, the first fruit of Aka Eze Aka and his wife —Syl. He came in his capacity as a friend of Aka.
But this time around, I was waiting to see and hear him, since he is coming as an emissary of a government whose policy affects me and my family directly.
He got to the Udenu Secretariat’s multipurpose Hall at about 11:10 AM. After a brief welcome formality, he was handed the microphone to tell the people why he left the state-of-the-art office at Abuja building to the sun-baked and weather-beaten agrarian community of Udenu.
The stage of was tastefully set. The hall was filled to the brim with full compliments of Traditional Rulers, Town Union Presidents and Ten Councilors. The everyday people of Udenu were seated long before he arrived. Aka Eze, naturally knew how to plan events, but with a close ally like Onyekachi C. Ugwu (in consonance with Jude Ukwueze and Chika Aroh— the SLG), it will always be El-dorado. The SSG took notice of the near-perfect organizational arrangement of the meeting and confessed that, of the six Local Government Areas he and his team had visited so far, Udenu can easily be scored “110%”
When he began his speech, the AkaEzeAka Media Team turned their tape recorder on, ostensibly thinking it will be usual government rhetorics. But after a short while, they would realize that Prof. Onyia came to lecture with all the exegetical arsenals as a teacher he is. Combining illustration and exhortation, he opened the eyes of the people into seeing the over 25.5 billion Naira worth of infrastructure being cited across the ten political wards of Udenu. “If you like, allow vandals and/or Contractors to sabotage the good intentions of Gov. Mbah in your community,” he said while charging them to guard these mega projects jealously. Without mincing words, he gave a timeline of September 2025 for the entire 256 Smart Schools to come live. My jaw dropped when he made this assertion. I saw, for the first time, the audacity of a working government. I began to understand why Mbah had to look beyond the shores of Nigeria to recruit his SSG. The whole hassle of flying in a highbrow academic, multisectoral researcher and unrepentant development advocate to man the business of governance in the current dispensation in Enugu was worth it.
During the time of Emperor Constantine, there was a popular native adage in Rome:
“Chi ben comincia è a metà dell’opera,” which transliterationally denotes: “A good start is half the work.”
It means that good leadership and governance begin with strong, thoughtful decisions from the outset.
Mbah got it right spot-on.
For almost one hour, the audience were spellbound with Onyia’s homiletics. When he was done, the countenances of the people suggested the Catholic liturgical ritual of “…mea culpa mea culpa, mea maxima culpa” which is an evocation of penitence that they had been careless in paying less attention to the State projects cited in their villages.
His speech was disarming and the applause that trailed it were ceaseless as he lowered the microphone to mark the end of the interactive engagement.
That meeting was essential, because across social media platforms, some sections of Nsukka people (still embittered by the outcome of 2023 Guber polls in Enugu) are already predicting doom for the projects. Their argument is that the simultaneous erection of 256 Smart Green Schools, 256 Type C Primary Healthcare centers as well as the promised 256 10KM roads across the 256 political wards in Enugu is a utopian dream, that will never see the light of the day.
Shockingly, Onyia argued that these cynics should not be blamed, for they are speaking from the ugly past experience where government acquires people’s lands and ends up subverting it into private business. He gave an example of the misconstrued “Ogige market demolition” which was a reclamation of the old Nsukka motor park, that had been usurped by avaricious millionaires in the past. He said that after initial grudges, the people are now becoming fond of the rapid modern transport terminal that is already 75% completed in Nsukka. The spate of work there is even faster than that of Holy Ghost and Abakpa respectively.
To conclude this essay, I will bore you with another ancient Italian adage: “Governare è prevedere” — “To govern is to foresee.” This portrays the anchor point of Prof. Onyia’s speech. Effective leaders must anticipate future challenges and plan accordingly. As much as some find it difficult to believe, from what I saw yesterday, Gov. Mbah (like Peter Obi of Anambra 2006-2014) has envisaged a future where Enugu kids of today, if not raised in the most trending global education system will be nominally 
irrelevant global citizens in future. And he has elected to forestall it. The best anyone of my generation will do is to lend him support.
May daylight spare us!
✍️Jude Eze.
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Wonderful and reliable news blog