NIGERIAN POLITICIANS SHOULD EMULATE PETER OBI AS REGARDS HAVING THE RIGHT MINDSET/ATTITUDE TOWARDS PUBLIC SERVICE
February 2, 2021 | News
It is sad that the typical mindset most Nigerian politicians have about public service, is that it is a place where they enrich themselves, enjoy wasteful fringe benefits of public office, and become Public Masters rather than Public Servants.
NIGERIAN POLITICIANS SHOULD EMULATE PETER OBI AS REGARDS HAVING THE RIGHT MINDSET/ATTITUDE TOWARDS PUBLIC SERVICE
It is sad that the typical mindset most Nigerian politicians have about public service, is that it is a place where they enrich themselves, enjoy wasteful fringe benefits of public office, and become Public Masters rather than Public Servants. Most of them go into the Government with this wrong mindset and attitude, at the end of the day, underdevelopment pervades the land, poverty, and substandard living becomes the lot of the masses, while they, that are supposed to serve the public, continually live in affluence and waste of our collective wealth.
This is why I will always admire the likes of Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State. He has become a very good example of what every Nigerian politician should be like, and the sort of mindset and attitude they should have as regard public service.
I saw another clip online of Mr. Peter Obi, expressing exactly what I am talking about here. According to Obi, he talked about a doctor who he only got to know when he was a governor, but prior to that he has never met him before. The said Doctor told Obi that he is a heart specialist, and that he can do heart operations successfully. Obi then asked him why don’t he come and perform such surgeries in Anambra State? The Doctor told him that there’s no such hospital in there where he can perform such heart surgeries. Peter Obi then asked the doctor to give him the cost of all the equipments he’ll need to perform such heart surgeries in the hospital. Peter Obi then went to a mission hospital, and they all calculated the cost of the said equipment, which amounted to close to a billion naira. And Obi wrote the cheque and gave it to them, to get everything and set it up. And today, the said hospital with all the equipment needed to perform heart surgeries, is there in the State and working.
Obi noted that they have not operated on him, but they are there saving other people’s lives. Obi then asked: “why would I take that money to come and buy a house in Atlanta, USA? Do I live in Atlanta? No! If I come to Atlanta, I pay for a hotel, and go after I am done with what brought me to Atlanta. The hotel room cannot cost more than 200 dollar a night. I won’t even pay if it is more than that because I only want to sleep. And people call me to say they’ve paid 2000 dollar for a night in a hotel. If I pay for that kind of amount. I won’t be able to sleep because it’s like being robbed… all you do in a hotel is to sleep, it doesn’t matter the name, or how exotic it is. You’re not the owner of the hotel. You’re only there to sleep. So, it doesn’t matter the name; a hotel is a hotel. And people do this with other people’s money. You cannot do that.
"That’s the waste you see in our country - Nigeria. Nigerians are people who use Government money to travel first class. Who said if you stay in the other side of the plane you won’t get there? I have been flying all over the world. I don’t need all of that. If I go to the Airport and they upgrade me, goodluck. If not, stay where you are supposed to be because you’re using public money. Today, our people chatter plane to Abuja. Do you know to chatter plane from Enugu to Abuja for instance, is 15,000 dollars. Whereas, it can cost you N20,000 Naira in Airpeace for the same flight. Yet, people will spend N6M (from public pocket) for it. And they are people who don’t use to enter plane before we voted them in."
That is the sad situation in Nigeria. Our politicians and elites who go for medical treatments and checks in Europe/North America, how many of them are admitted in teaching hospitals. In the advanced countries, the facilities they have in the best teaching hospitals, such facilities are also in the local hospitals, just as their teaching hospitals, with the same medical specialists and consultants in every section of medicine. But here in Nigeria, the few good hands are concentrated in teaching hospitals.
In the past, the Eku Baptist Hospital in the present day Ethiope East LGA of Delta State, was the foremost best hospital in Nigeria then with the best medical specialists and consultants, and with the needed facilities. That was the situation before it was taken over by the Delta State Government and then destroyed it. Back then, patients were coming from all over the neighbouring countries for medical checks and treatments. I believe Delta State should have such well equipped hospitals in each of the Senatorial Districts of the State, and not just the Delta State Teaching hospital alone, which also doesn't have anything.
We need the likes of Mr. Peter Obi, not only in Delta State, but across the length and breadth of the country, to develop the State and the country respectively. The only question is, will the existing James Ibori cabal, and ethnicity problems amongst us, allow that to happen? I seriously doubt it.
However, what we should take from the Obi example, is that our Nigerian politicians seriously need to have a different mindset and attitude towards public office. Rather than waste public funds, they should be prudent enough to channel such funds in addressing people-oriented projects and amenities. Rather than misappropriate public funds, and use same to acquire mansions and property in different parts of the country and across the world, which they hardly make use of, they should think of better infrastructural projects and programs they can do in their State and Local Government Councils, that would benefit the people. That is the only way we can spread the needed development across the country.
Zik Gbemre.
February 2, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
It is sad that the typical mindset most Nigerian politicians have about public service, is that it is a place where they enrich themselves, enjoy wasteful fringe benefits of public office, and become Public Masters rather than Public Servants. Most of them go into the Government with this wrong mindset and attitude, at the end of the day, underdevelopment pervades the land, poverty, and substandard living becomes the lot of the masses, while they, that are supposed to serve the public, continually live in affluence and waste of our collective wealth.
This is why I will always admire the likes of Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State. He has become a very good example of what every Nigerian politician should be like, and the sort of mindset and attitude they should have as regard public service.
I saw another clip online of Mr. Peter Obi, expressing exactly what I am talking about here. According to Obi, he talked about a doctor who he only got to know when he was a governor, but prior to that he has never met him before. The said Doctor told Obi that he is a heart specialist, and that he can do heart operations successfully. Obi then asked him why don’t he come and perform such surgeries in Anambra State? The Doctor told him that there’s no such hospital in there where he can perform such heart surgeries. Peter Obi then asked the doctor to give him the cost of all the equipments he’ll need to perform such heart surgeries in the hospital. Peter Obi then went to a mission hospital, and they all calculated the cost of the said equipment, which amounted to close to a billion naira. And Obi wrote the cheque and gave it to them, to get everything and set it up. And today, the said hospital with all the equipment needed to perform heart surgeries, is there in the State and working.
Obi noted that they have not operated on him, but they are there saving other people’s lives. Obi then asked: “why would I take that money to come and buy a house in Atlanta, USA? Do I live in Atlanta? No! If I come to Atlanta, I pay for a hotel, and go after I am done with what brought me to Atlanta. The hotel room cannot cost more than 200 dollar a night. I won’t even pay if it is more than that because I only want to sleep. And people call me to say they’ve paid 2000 dollar for a night in a hotel. If I pay for that kind of amount. I won’t be able to sleep because it’s like being robbed… all you do in a hotel is to sleep, it doesn’t matter the name, or how exotic it is. You’re not the owner of the hotel. You’re only there to sleep. So, it doesn’t matter the name; a hotel is a hotel. And people do this with other people’s money. You cannot do that.
"That’s the waste you see in our country - Nigeria. Nigerians are people who use Government money to travel first class. Who said if you stay in the other side of the plane you won’t get there? I have been flying all over the world. I don’t need all of that. If I go to the Airport and they upgrade me, goodluck. If not, stay where you are supposed to be because you’re using public money. Today, our people chatter plane to Abuja. Do you know to chatter plane from Enugu to Abuja for instance, is 15,000 dollars. Whereas, it can cost you N20,000 Naira in Airpeace for the same flight. Yet, people will spend N6M (from public pocket) for it. And they are people who don’t use to enter plane before we voted them in."
That is the sad situation in Nigeria. Our politicians and elites who go for medical treatments and checks in Europe/North America, how many of them are admitted in teaching hospitals. In the advanced countries, the facilities they have in the best teaching hospitals, such facilities are also in the local hospitals, just as their teaching hospitals, with the same medical specialists and consultants in every section of medicine. But here in Nigeria, the few good hands are concentrated in teaching hospitals.
In the past, the Eku Baptist Hospital in the present day Ethiope East LGA of Delta State, was the foremost best hospital in Nigeria then with the best medical specialists and consultants, and with the needed facilities. That was the situation before it was taken over by the Delta State Government and then destroyed it. Back then, patients were coming from all over the neighbouring countries for medical checks and treatments. I believe Delta State should have such well equipped hospitals in each of the Senatorial Districts of the State, and not just the Delta State Teaching hospital alone, which also doesn't have anything.
We need the likes of Mr. Peter Obi, not only in Delta State, but across the length and breadth of the country, to develop the State and the country respectively. The only question is, will the existing James Ibori cabal, and ethnicity problems amongst us, allow that to happen? I seriously doubt it.
However, what we should take from the Obi example, is that our Nigerian politicians seriously need to have a different mindset and attitude towards public office. Rather than waste public funds, they should be prudent enough to channel such funds in addressing people-oriented projects and amenities. Rather than misappropriate public funds, and use same to acquire mansions and property in different parts of the country and across the world, which they hardly make use of, they should think of better infrastructural projects and programs they can do in their State and Local Government Councils, that would benefit the people. That is the only way we can spread the needed development across the country.
Zik Gbemre.
February 2, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes