VALENTINE OZIGBO: MY CANDIDATE

Let me come out boldly and declare my full support for this candidate – Valentine Ozigbo for the governorship of Anambra State. I boldly stand and state my preference for him over all other candidates. This is my personal prerogative and my right as an individual. You will now want to ask me why I am taking this stance. Simple: when I dey greet the man for road, he dey answer me.

Seriously, my position in Nigeria today is for us to begin to fill these positions with entrepreneurial leadership. Leaders who understand the current dynamics of world economy and the need to galvanise private resources as we begin to rebuild the nation.

The era of the grass-root leader or the career candidate who just needs the positioning for some ego boosting or selfish and shallow reasons is over. Government, today, can no longer play the role it has stupidly given itself since 1960. It can no longer be the all and end all in the system and even if it wanted to be, it has been shackled with inept policy, daft leadership and an aggressive global economic space that is moving with dizzying space pushing aside the red tapes’ that is government.

So, when I take a cursory look at the candidates for this very important state election, I see a motley crowd of jokers, comedians, career candidates, academics and purveyors of ill-fitting skit all banding around, causing disaffection and mayhem as they jostle for the premier position in the state.

This is why I have stood by Valentine. He is a consummate gentleman, level-headed and a thorough professional who understands the role of private Capital in stabilising the economy and by extension stabilising the polity. What we must realise is that the seeming political instability we face today is as a result of the continued fight for control of dwindling resources being controlled from a power epicentre. Once, we decentralise the forces of economic control, you will see that we will get political stability.

In taking this position, I have taken into consideration that the only Anambra girl, I have chased in my life left me after two weeks in 1997, I do not need to cross the Onitsha bridge on my way to Akwa Ibom and their Afang is not as sweet as our own. So, I really do not have much to lose if my candidates do not emerge.

So, here is wishing Valentine a good run even as I pray that he emerges. Jokes apart, we really do not need all these masquerades anymore. Let’s get serious.