By Hon. Paul Ohonbamu
Every good politician is some one who always inspires people around him or her and play key roles in virtually all areas of human endeavors that bring development to the society they live in.
Interestingly, some persons who aspire to be leaders, either elected or appointed refuse to abide by the rules that responsibility comes with accountability
For example, a father in the home is expected to display some qualities of responsibility to his children because he is going to be accountable to God. But if he becomes irresponsible, there is a repercussion at that stage. Therefore, everyone occupying a leadership position in the home, the local government, the state and at the federal level should be accountable for every action taken.
To do otherwise is to dodge the responsibility and commitment to the cause of the people.
But very importantly, a leader should exhibit some traits of maturity and whoever acts in any situation that is not for the benefit of the people he is leading is not fit for that role.
The Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo knows the people because he is one of them and will continue to act in line with their legitimate expectations. That is what is expected of any good leader.
According to Professor Adebayo Akerele, ” Leaders must identify the needs of the people and must be like the people they lead.
We all have in one way or the other responsibilities to ensure the survival and growth of our society, that is why at all times when we are occupying any office or position we should see such privileges as a call to service and must be accountable for every action taken.
That was exactly what the Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo expected from the Chairmen of the eighteen Local Government Areas in the state when they were directed to submit their financial statements to the Asset verification committee through the office of the Secretary to the State Government.
The Governor, apparently believes that transparency and accountability are the cornerstone of any good governance and if any one wants to be a leader he must be ready to be scrutinized to gain the confidence of the people he is leading and to do otherwise shows there is no transparency in the actions taken.
Now, if we all see things this way, the gap between the necessary standards and our attitudes becomes very clear. For instance, the teacher at every level of the educational system must accept his or her role as that of a parent to the pupils. They should know that they have the responsibility to give necessary skills which would enable them to fend for themselves and to serve society as well as give them a proper grounding in those hard and difficult lessons which will see them safely through life .
It is still the same for those who have taken politics as a vocation, they should learn to place the general interest of the people above selfish interest. They should not allow primordial interest to becloud their main purpose of wanting to serve the people.
In this part of the world, it has been observed that one of the problems we have with some of our political class is that they are not good managers of resources and they end up bringing the reputation of other politicians to disrepute because they see their foray into politics as a means to acquire wealth.
The House of Assembly has the right under section 20 of the local government laws to suspend the Chairmen or Vice Chairmen if there are infractions of the law and even in certain circumstances dissolve the councils if they are not contributing or performing their functions judiciously to the welfare of the people.
The Governor has reiterated at several fora that during his watch as Governor, Edo state will set a standard for good governance and every money of the state will be judiciously used for the over all development of the state to improve the living standard of the people.
It is however, regrettable that when some of these politicians are in office, they find it difficult to manage the scarce resources of government which should be used for the provision of essential services and building of infrastructures that will be of immense benefit to everyone in the society.
We have seen from the report of the Assets Verification Committee set up to probe the activities of the Godwin Obaseki administration that there are lots of revelation of eight years of stealing of the state resources by the administration that was not prudent with government funds.
That also goes to the activities of the local government chairmen who were expected to be accountable but because they refused to be transparent, they could not render stewardship of their stay in office when asked to do so.
The lesson we must learn is that it is time we know that as leaders in our various sphere of authority, we should be transparent and know that it is an obligation to deploy government resources for the over all interest of the people and every expenditure must be brought in line with economic realities because today, money poses a serious obstacle to our individual and collective ambitions.
There is no doubt that we need a change of attitude, especially the political class and to imbibe the culture of transparency and accountability Championed by Senator Monday Okpebholo’s administration.
