It is no longer news that Enugu State has been reformed on the words of Proverb 22:6 under the good leadership of the all-inclusive governor, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Dr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the leader Enugu State has been blessed with for the past six years.
Like the Bible quotation, a child trained in the way he should go does not depart from it in the days of his old. This has been the good philosophy of His Excellency who believes in giving young people chance in leadership, allowing them to prove themselves.
Even Bill Gates once posited that as we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. Though in reality, the true leaders are those who in empowring others, do not look at their ages before believing in them. This has been the life Governor Ugwuanyi is known for.
Comparing the Enugu today with her days of yore, one would wonder if there is a truer leader who has ever given the young people more hope and sense of belonging than Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has done in the past few years of his governance.
In choosing majority of these youths for appointive positions in his government, Ugwuanyi never looked at their ages, where they come from or who are their relations are, rather, he considered their track record, experiences, maturity, capacity and knowledge, which he strongly believed would be of immense benefits and value to the state. Perhaps Ugwuanyi knows that the major key in the choice of leadership at any level is the ability to perform and not age. If age was a determining factor in good, patriotic leadership, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and many other nationalists who fought and got Nigeria’s Independence would not have achieved this aim. Instead of exhibiting youthful delinquencies, these early nationalists conquered the temptations of youthdhood and put their patriotism, commitment, and diligence into the pursuit of an independent Nigeria, which eventually they got.
Performance and age are two different things, as was noted by Simon Ugwueze in this Day News. When a leader has performed or is performing, nobody cares about his age. What good leadership requires is strength of character, direction, focus, accountability, transparency and selfless service, and certainly not age.
The capacity or ability to perform on assigned responsibilities is the key factor. Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi knows this. Putting young people in appointive positions, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi gave them ample opportunities to prove themselves, a big plus to the success of the state.
While some of them were made Commissioners, Special Assistants, Technical Assistant s and Special Advisers, others were given local government Chairmen to prove themselves. With this particular mark of leadership, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has proven that while many are leaders, only very few were born leaders, the league to which he rightly belongs...
Chukwu Emmanuel uchechukwu writes from Akpugo, Nkanu West LGA
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