Transcription
My mind is to just talk about the issue of loyalty and gratitude.
For me, I believe that every leader should be grateful and love those who help him to be a leader. It's not non-negotiable; you be loyal. I'm speaking from the chairs of the El, from the chairs of the... those who don't know anything.
For I understand that loyal means steadfast allegiance to a constitution or to a people. For a leader, you should be loyal to the people that you have want to defend or to the people who elected you. It shouldn't be to the person who assisted you to be a leader. You can't be that person; rather, that person should be loyal to you because, being a leader, it should be the people who should be loyal to the leader.
Then, for instance, past presidents have been invited by the current president to be... that's loyal to the man who is on... is not loyal to one who had left. But the one who had left is loyal to the one who is there.
So, for anybody to have sat in a position of authority and left, and expect his predecessor, I mean his successor, to be... it's...
Today, we are waging a very strong... and I think I've made this point several times in the public domain myself. In Rivers State today, we are waging a very important ideological struggle. Some people characterize it as a struggle between the governor and the minister. No, that is not the case; they don't have any personal issues.
The debate and the struggle is a location of sovereignty. Should the people rule? Should the people govern? Should the priorities of the people come first, or should the whims and caprices of God be... that we should override every other consideration?
This debate, as the chairman has said, has very wide resonance across the country. Because if we win this debate by enshrining the supremacy of the Rivers people, it is going to have a contagion effect all across the country. People will see Rivers as a source of inspiration to reassert the sovereignty of the people over the kind of criminal tendencies we see.
Leadership just doesn't come by accident. A person has to learn that once you become a leader, there are obligations. And part of the obligations is to make sure you know exactly what you want to do.
So, that knowledge of what you want to do translates into this particular leadership. Now, the vision itself is not sufficient; you have to translate it into action. The action should be such that will ultimately benefit the people.
We identified certain key sectors, you know, which a leader who wants to impact sustainably must emphasize. One is education, because you need human capital development for sustainable development. When we are all out of here in the next 20 years, we need to have good quality leaders who can take our place.
So, education will enable us to build a foundation to ensure that we have good quality leaders. Now, once you're in the leadership position and you want to lead, you must leave a legacy of service.
Legacy of service means investment in these critical areas I mentioned: education, health, because we must have people who are healthy in order to have a productive workforce.
So, this is a very important time. I will add agriculture because you need to have food sustainability, especially at a time like this when there's so much food insecurity. A lot of people are suffering because we keep... how can we make sure there is a dedicated and committed investment in food security through investment in agriculture?
The government is doing already. When he came on board, all the agricultural investments of the previous administration were just about... now, from what I have seen so far, it seems to be a renewed commitment to bring back those farms and to try to, you know, agenda what looks like a green economy here in Rivers State, where there has been food sustainability.
I think there should also be an investment in... there should also be social investment. Social investment means investing in people, building their capacity, investing in communities, lifting them from poverty so that the people can take ownership of the process and become participatory in the process that will benefit them.
There is a link... there's a missing link. I think it may have been because of insufficient time. Some here didn't quite mention this, but I have to... that's part of my job as the moderator.
Now, we talk about leadership, we talk about loyalty, gratitude, and all that. We haven't quite captured the importance of accountability to the people.
I say this because in Rivers State, in the past eight years, records show that Rivers State received over 5 trillion naira. In the previous administration, the government received over 5 trillion naira. Maybe someone has to respond: at what point would the previous administration be called in the service of the people to give account?
Because all these people who have been swanning, for instance, under this particular ESO in this supreme organization... this particular one, I suspect, at the end of your time, you will leave office and you give accounts. Is that correct?
By the same logical extension, I think that there ought to be a time when, after service, you ought to be able to come back to the people to say, "While I was in office, in my capacity as your servant, I received so much; I did so much; I did not..."
This is not an indictment; it was part of your gratitude to the people. Will there be a time when leaders of the previous administration, especially the past eight years, will be able to account to the people to say, "We received on your behalf 5 trillion, and we want to give account"?
Is that an important subject that we should... that's... FL.