It is an established fact that every person in human government has an archetype of the kind of person that they go into social contract with. Societies are replete with plethora of leaders in different systems and organizations but making the right choice is a herculean task.
Because everyone would lay claim to his/her own qualification, the process of leadership recruitment become imperative. For best practices, ethical and moral standards play a key role in this process.
A study by Harvard Business Review identified a strong “ethical and moral standard” and “communicating clear expectations” as highly rated attributes of a leader.
Statecraft deserves the very best leaders. Recruiting leaders to run a state is different from hiring for any other position. Professor Atahiru Jega, former INEC chairman opines that leadership recruitment has been the missing point in the quest for national development, urging Nigerians to, as a matter of urgency, find a solution pathway before the 2023 elections.
Prof Jega noted that the disposition of politicians who dominate and control governance and political processes runs the country totally aground, beyond redemption or salvation.
According to him, the issue of leadership recruitment at all levels of governance in the country, is central to current national predicament; and getting it right is key to the resolution of poor governance and development processes.
“It is not too late now to do so; we must pick up the gauntlet, as we are truly running out of time. We must contribute to the development of a criteria to be used to mobilize citizens for good leadership recruitment for the 2023 general elections and beyond. This is a task that must be done.
“We must develop an overwhelming consensus that political leadership cannot remain the only job for which no qualification appears necessary except to have a lot of money, usually, stolen money. It is clear that for as long as the current pattern of leadership recruitment continues, our troubles will continue. It is for this reason that we must find a way to bring relevant criteria to bear on the selection of leadership. We have got to find a way of making character, competence and capacity to determine who leads.
The key points here are character, competence and capacity.
Successive governments in Akwa Ibom State have made it a duty to recruit the best hands to succeed them. Citizenship being the most important element in leadership recruitment has always rewarded the governed by voting to power such recruits. The present government led by Mr. Udom Emmanuel has communicated clear expectations of the people at different fora. His moral suassions have taken flesh in the entrenchment of the can-do philosophy, for instance, to change the age long defeatist mentality of the average citizen through Dakkada Initiative.
He has made it a state policy that anyone caught ministering fetish oaths of allegiance beyond being accursed must be sanctioned. He has blazed the trail in proscribing cult groups and criminalising members.
He has the support of the citizenry that Akwa Ibom is one indivisible people and that anyone who is using the symbolic resources of state power to advance sectarian supremacy must be stopped. Governor Udom has raised the bar of governance by running an open and transparent government. He has published state’s financial report periodically thereby maintaining a high level of financial transparency.
His capacity, character and competence have resonated in the larger Nigeria, hence his ‘recruitment’ into the presidential race and subsequent purchase of form by the Brekete Family, a human right organisation.
Beyond moral suasion, a typical Akwa Ibom citizen yearns for continued peace and prosperity. Akwa Ibom has remained the most peaceful state for years running. In the latest report published by National Bureau of Statistics, Akwa Ibom is rated high in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which has impacted on youth employment and empowerment.
These and other factors have impacted immensely on the leadership recruitment process that has produced Pastor Umo Eno as the preferred candidate in the forthcoming governorship elections in the state.
Umo Eno therefore represents the yearnings of the citizenry for continuity. He has the competence, character and capacity to lead Akwa Ibom to the promised land. His humility has endeared him to the citizens of the state.
Umo Eno has a history of funding education and granting over 20 million Naira scholarship to indigent students.
As a private citizen, he supported the state government with relief materials in 2020 during the outbreak of the dreaded Covid -19.
As an established entrepreneur, Umo Eno is in the mold of Obong Victor Attah with a track record of successful growth and development and can take the necessary risks for successful growth and development of the State.
Umo Eno is competence personified. He established Royalty Hotels and Recreation Ltd in Eket. That mustard seed has grown to a conglomerate of Hotels, Apartments, Coffee shops and manufacturing concerns; distinguishing him as successful entrepreneur and job creator.
With experiences in private and public sector, Umo Eno stands out as a bridge between these two worlds. He has promised to strengthen and modernise the civil service, expand our tourism base and promote peace and prosperity.
Being an epitome of peace and prosperity, and a purveyor of high moral standards, Pastor Umo Eno distinguishes himself as the best of the recruitment class for 2023.
John Andrew,a Media Strategist/Image Consultant writes from Uyo in Akwa Ibom State
