“I must humbly offer myself as a servant -leader. I will be there as a good listener and doer…Let us work and strive together to restore our time-honoured values of honesty, decency, generosity, modesty, selflessness.”
-Umar Yar’ Ardua (of blessed memory, then President of Nigeria in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2007)
One strong and time-tested connecting chord in the illustrious lives of avatars, legends, heroes, which continues to serve as a source of inspiration to generations after them is the fascinating fact that they sacrificed their treasures, pleasures and leisure for the good of others. They are therefore, considered as enduring role models.
Name them- Jesus the Christ, Prophet Muhammed, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther king Jr, Nelson Mandela and of course, Mother Teresa- and you are right on point. But what really is their driving passion, propelling their philosophies and principles to make the desired difference in the lives of others? The answer is not far-fetched.
Right here in Nigeria, precisely in the Confluence State, Kogi is one uncommon and yet unrelenting defender, supporter and provider of the people’s welfare. She is none other than Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central Senatorial District at the Red Chamber. Indeed, within the short period of less than one year in office as her people’s voice she has emerged as the gem of diamond; beaming brilliantly out of the rubbles of mass poverty and ignorance. She is gradually emerging as the light at the end of the long-winding, dark tunnel of maladministration in Nigeria.
So far, her leadership paradigm has been strongly anchored on the principles of having the vision to connect directly with the Ebira people she represents. By so doing, she is well placed at understanding their most pressing needs and providing pragmatic solutions without a bat of an eye lid. This she has done from the infrastructural development of providing street lights, through facilitating business registration for entrepreneurs via the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, to the direct financial empowerment of others with business ideas but lacking the needed funds. Others include wearing the shoes and feeling the pains of the market women and widows.
Truth be told, Akpoti-Uduaghan has done what no other senator in the area has attempted before. That perhaps, explains why she has earned the nickname as the true “Game-Changer” in Kogi, nay Nigerian’s socio-economic and political landscape. But there is more to this beautiful and brilliant Amazon than meets the eye.
In a country ranked as home to the world’s extremely poor people; home to the world’s second highest unemployed youth at 53.4%, according to Spectacular Index (April 2023) and with 26.5 million hungry people according to the World Food Program (WFP) as at December,2023 the Senator’s interventions are purely based on empirical evidences on ground. That is similarly reflected in her decision to assist some poor students with monthly stipends and scholarships because according to UNICEF, one-in-three children in Nigeria is out of school. That includes 10.2 million at the primary school level and 8.1 million at the Junior Secondary School level, JSS, amounting to what analysts have aptly described as a ticking time bomb!
Furthermore, she has the vision of the larger picture of sustainable economic development, hence her noble gesture of empowering entrepreneurs in Ebiraland. She is doing so not only by providing them with the fish but the fishing nets, lines and hooks as well. Thus, with their businesses registered with the CAC they are good to go by benefitting from government grants as well as the long-term development of their self employment. Such focus on small and medium scale enterprises is exactly what the World Bank has been clamouring for, as the missing link in Nigeria’s fragile economic framework.
Praiseworthy too is her consistently reaching out to the most needy ones in the society, such as the sick, the physically challenged and elderly persons, to who she has made notable donations of cash for foods, drugs and clothes. Commendable, is it not?
Of course, it is and we urge her to keep striving forward on the noble path of practical, people –oriented policies and programs. Like it or not, she is making her indelible marks as some other female political leaders have done. That is, similar to what Ruth Badar Ginsberg, did in the US as a gender equality advocate, what Malala Yousafzai achieved for education for the Girl-Child in Pakistan and the feats of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Liberia’s first ever female president. Similarly, both Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel became the female Prime Ministers in the UK and Germany, respectively. And of course, Kamala Harris is currently expressing her political ambition, to turn the presidential tide in the US.
Our increasing urge for Akpoti-Uduaghan to succeed is therefore, all because she understands the bitter Truth of this life we live; that all the riches, the wanton wealth, the affluence, the opulence and the apparatchiks of office politicians enjoy are transient. What matters most is the positive impact we make to lift the quality of human development index of the people we lead, not living large in the midst of pervasive poverty and defending the indefensible.
Indeed, the Biblical King Solomon, who savoured and enmeshed his lifestyle in all these pleasures, had to confess at the end of the day, that: “Vanity upon vanity, all is vanity”. And as Leo Tolstoy, the much acclaimed Russian author stated: “No one has ever regretted living simply.”
Now is therefore, the best of time for all our political leaders to heed the words of admonition from our late President, Umar Yar’Adua as Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is currently doing.
