COMPARING MR. PETER OBI AND RT. HON. EMEKA IHEDIOH: A LEADERSHIP COMPARISON SERIES. Written by KEMKA S. IBEJI

Rt. Hon. Ihedioha & Mr. Peter Obi

I got interested on this topic while reading comments on a post agitating for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction ala the popular IGBO PRESIDENCY 2023. Someone was saying that Mr. Peter Obi is more popular than Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha while a few others were of the opinion that Mr. Peter Obi was  more gifted with leadership skills than, far above Emeka Ihedioha but, every Igbo man or woman in politics today and so should be placed at the first rung on the ladder of choice for an Igbo Presidency.

This is my argument and line of thoughts about the matter of discourse. 

Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha is as popular as Peter Obi.

It is a commonplace knowledge that some sections of the country will never vote for Peter Obi even when they are convinced that he is the best.

Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha

However, Emeka Ihedioha has national prominence having been a former Deputy Speaker and Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives. His consistency in partisanship especially is one that keeps him shoulder high on the scale of political morality.

His 7 months sojourn in Douglas House Owerri as the Governor of Imo State and the Supreme Court judgement which is largely perceived and received as cheating made him rise across the world in popularity and he has maintained that clout. His rating is indeed so high above what many people may imagine about him.

On political prowess, he is more skilled than Mr. Peter Obi even when Obi had been a governor. The best place to learn leadership and politics is the legislature. Yes, Mr. Peter Obi was a governor for 8 solid years but I am aware that the Executive arm of government does not prune and refine a leader as much as the legislature does. Rt. Emeka Ihedioha was in the legislature for 12 years handling principal positions and taking up very tasking duties both as Chief Whip, Committee Chairman and member severally, being at strategic positions of the government under the legislature, making laws while engaging in oversight functions on the executives not even of just one state but the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.

You could see what Emeka Ihedioha started doing with the World Bank through RAMP PROJECT and other projects about to sprout in Imo state.

You could also recall what he started to do with UBEC and other institutions of the Federal Government which was unknown to many of us.

Learning from the short stay of Emeka Ihedioha in Imo state, I could see how government can run using windows open to it without dipping into state coffers. Those are the things Emeka Ihedioha has over and above Mr. Peter Obi. Yes, Peter Obi could manage state resources very well jus as he has successfully managed his private businesses and Anambra State. But in comparing him with Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, you could see the difference between an expert in private sector and an expert in public sector. Why we tend to always clamour for Mr. Peter Obi is because we have been used to poor public sector players and we now compare them with the success of a private sector expert result in the public sector.

Mr. Peter Obi

Obviously you couldn't have compared Mr. Peter Obi with a K. O. Mbadiwe or a Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe. These men were what Emeka Ihedioha would have reestablished in Nigerian government beyond Imo State.

Now think again how Rochas Okorocha was owing salaries of state workers. Think again of the bailout funds and their impacts. Also, think about the Paris Funds that was used to help Sen. Rochas Okorocha's administration and that of his fellow state Governors of that tenure. Remember how poor Rochas Okorocha presented Imo State as before he left office. Now, can you remember how salaries, pensioners and contractors were paid in Imo State under Emeka Ihedioha?

Remember the processes and procedures of awarding contracts under Rochas Okorocha, Peter Obi and Emeka Ihedioha. You will know why Emeka Ihedioha is a more quality public sector administrator than Mr. Peter Obi.

I give respect to Mr. Peter Obi and I applaud his tact and shrewd administrative style but I assure you that he wasn't the best of public sector player or administrator. Yes, he has the economic proficiency in delivery of what he can do with the resources available to him, but he didn't understand the other sources that can make more resources to be readily available to him.

If only Emeka Ihedioha was allowed just one tenure of 4 years with the gradual tempo he was beginning to build up and gather, the 8 years of Mr. Peter Obi in Anambra State would have been a real time dwarf.

Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha got the RAMP from World Bank which he already paid his counterpart funds. That would have turned the entire Imo State to a construction site and get it renewed in 24 months.

He got the ecological funds and World Bank assisted environmental project in Orlu Zone worth billions of Naira if not dollars. He  paid his due and it was set to fly.

You remember what he was beginning to do with the technical schools in Imo State? Do you know what only that would have meant to the entire Africa and not just Nigeria and Imo State alone?

Or will you mention his foray into the new world of wealth - ICT? Emeka Ihedioha would have built grounds to raise billionaires in dollars for and from Imo state youngsters.

In that very short stay of 7 months, you really will need more than a year to get all he was already doing or had done. You also need to be equipped technically and tactically to be able to assess the government of Emeka Ihedioha. He got the best hands in all the sectors. He had a perfect mix of satisfying his teeming party men and women and other entrants into his support group without undermining delivery and quality service.

LGAs were beginning to work and many LGAs already commissioned their Secretariat in just less than 5 months. I mean Transition Management Committee and not elected LGA officials. Jobs were being created without big talks and mentions. The economy of Imo state was beginning to be promising. Even the civil servants will tell you that they saw what leadership meant. The trust which is the core requirement of a successful government was speedily beginning to return to Imo State. Just in a very short while!

That was in a state where the immediate outgoing Governor professed poverty and lack. Emeka Ihedioha was paying full salary of workers, paying full pensions to pensioners, paying adequate fees and mobilization to government contractors, engaging government agencies fruitfully for Imo state and much more.

Obi and Ihedioha

I can't say it all but I am very sure, certain and convinced that Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha was much more endowed with prowess of and in public sector management than Mr. Peter Obi. And I also give him one more great accolade; he also had much respect for Mr. Peter Obi and others. He wouldn't even want this comparison but it has nothing to do with both of them and their relationship. This piece is only interested in an objective assessment of leadership quality of our Nigerian political leaders from Igbo land but with concentration on Mr. Peter Obi and Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.

In the main however, Emeka Ihedioha listened to advice and took a lot from public opinion.

I cannot hire Mr. Peter Obi over Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha in an employment that centers on public sector management and administration. Emeka Ihedioha is above Mr. Peter Obi.