Dr Chukwuemeka Aroh
“The dream lives on” is a phrase of tribute to people in death or their lifetime where their Ideas or achievements continue to bourgeon despite challenges to get it quenched. These are people who have created things that have or will most likely outlive them. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. These are men who see tomorrow and become a part of moulding it. We fly in airplanes because the Wright Brothers stood up, we connect on Facebook because Mark Zuckerberg stood up, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jack Ma of Alibaba, etc. The political Scene is not left out as leaders of such stature show up ones in a while and do not show up only as political leaders as a result of welding influence as a fallout of State power but they do so as a result of vision and we call than visionary leaders. Examples of such leaders are Mahatama Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jnr., Malala Yousafzai and our own Zik of Africa. Each had a vision for the future and a cause to plegde themselves to. We style them visionary leaders because they see tomorrow in their minds eyes, pursue it and aggregate people to achieve it.When that tomorrow comes we salute them.
In Enugu State Visionary Leadership has walked its way into our political history.Permit me to announce to you that hanging on this wall is the portrait of Senator Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani. He is a Nigerian Senator who saw tomorrow and took yesterday to situate a solid foundation for a new Enugu. He is the founder of the Ebeano political movement.A movement that has produced all the Governors of Enugu State since 1999 and will definitely produce the next governor as the handwriting of the voting direction is already clear. Prof Ujam in a write up titled “Situating anticipated governorship ‘coronation’ in Enugu wrote eulogising this visionary leadership and I quote “Dr Nnamani set to re-engineer Enugu state politics through purposeful governance consequently selecting and grooming a crop of leaders that have continued to steer the ship of government progressively”.He also more emphatically wrote “Come May 29,2023,the fourth generation of Ebeano administration will begin it’s first term in Enugu state”. This is indeed a definition of visionary leadership. According to Daniel Goleman, visionary leadership is leadership that looks at long term goals based on big picture thinking. The core of visionary leadership is having the ability to inspire others to contribute towards those long term goals. The energy, faith and devotion with which Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani has built and sustained the Ebeano Political Movement thick and thin stamps him the visionary leader of Enugu State politics. This became clear to all and sundry with the emergence of Barr. Peter Mba who will be the fourth Governor after the general election from this political movement Ebeano in pursuit of its third decade in Lion building. The discussion on the streets is “Enugu has been lucky with Governors in this fourth republic”. The reason is simple, these crop of Governors have not disappointed one bit. The man who has shown up as the PDP flag bearer, Barr. Mba an offspring of Ebeano has come with a proposition to take the State to the next level with unparralleled experience in both Public and private sector and an intimidating CV of performance. The Ebeano Political movement started out in 1999 by Senator Chimaroke Nnamani who started to raise a totally new political class. As expected, what you do not understand you attack, they labeled and tried to kill the movement but they failed because the movement lives on. The establishment and sustenance of this movement for this long is a pointer to the visionary leadership capacity of the iconic founder of this movement, Senator Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani christened Ebeano.Let me summarize by looking at just few qualities of this visionary leader because ideally this should be a book not a write up. A Bible pasasage Prov. 29 vs 18 says where there is no vision the people perish. The vision of the founder has kept the movement, as expected every vision is anchored on an ideology. “Ebeano movement is all about community organizing. One family united in simplicity to build bonds of a common union, no demands, and no expectations, to fight for a common place under the sun on a joint date with destiny. A marathon of self-expression, Que Sera Sera”. This recent statement by the founder of Ebeano reflects the ideology of the movement which is egalitarian. No wonder over the years he has not looked at people’s backgrounds to empower them only their capacities counted. Those unknown people of yesterday have now become icons in the Nigerian political space. His hobby has been raising men to relevance. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others” – Jack Welch. This has been the story of Chimaroke; he is popular for lifting from zero to hero. As expected, some of his beneficiaries have remained extremely grateful, some absolutely ungrateful and others have turned enemies. These notwithstanding, he has continued in this pattern till tomorrow, always thinking of how to empower somebody or make people greater. This has earned him unprecedented followership, the people have it as common knowledge that when you are around him just by a wave of thought you can have destiny smiling at you.It was Ralph Nadar who said “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders not followers”. This has been the watch word of Dr. Nnamani, having the unusual capacity to know people with potentials even when they are yet nothing. No wonder most notable politicians in Enugu today are products of Ebeano. Brian Tracy said become a type of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position. This quality has been evident in Sen. Chimaroke who was out of government for eight years but enjoyed unprecedented followership. His house remained a rallying point for politicians, the Ebeano structure remained afloat and today blossoming. One can say that a man with high intellectual capacity, a good heart and a leader has built a political structure that has spanned decades and will still cover more. Anytime we see results it shows there are principles in place, you can argue depending on your theoretical framework but you cannot dispute the results of Ebeano. The next generation of Ebeano is about to emerge who will be relevant in the upcoming decades in Enugu and Nigeria at large. The good thing about this expectation is that because of the natures of the founder Sen Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, the present leader Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the incoming leader Dr.(Barr) Peter Mba who stands as the bridge between the old and the new, it could be anybody from anywhere which is the beauty of democratic empowerment as espoused by the Ebeano political Movement.
“Ebeano ka Ano Maka Na Ebeano di Mma”. A man who saw tomorrow and tomorrow is here.
Long live Ebeano
Long live Dr Chimaroke Nnamani.
Dr. Chukwuemeka Aroh(MNIPR)
(PhD political science,Public Relations and Development expert)
Writing from Ngwo in Udi.
