I have curiously watched with interest how encomiums are pouring out in numbers from different quarters and corners of the state and beyond in celebration of a figure that has rightly been described as an enigma of performance, love, peace, security, development, compassion and values in a society where almost all these features are becoming elusive especially in leadership.
I wasn’t surprised at such impressive outing reeling through the air. It’s a deserved celebration of someone who has shown love and championed the cause of humanity in no little measure. We’ve got profound reasons to show gratitude to God for the gift and celebration of life.
We are sure that Hon. Okechukwu Edeh, the Council Chairman of Nkanu East Local Government Area, is not being celebrated today because it’s a matter of norm and convention to do. Beyond that, his celebration by people is aptly motivated by his indelible marks and records ingrained in their hearts through uncommon public service.
Making the world a better place for humanity is a moral obligation for us. In whatever profession, position and stride we find ourselves, we are called to make our own little contribution. By deliberately making attempts at offering random services, lending helping hands and providing for the needy among us, are all the quickest route to a better and just society. This can be borrowed from the way the council boss has been carrying on with his responsibilities.
Through his development strides in Nkanu East council area, we have seen more development, projects and human empowerment gradually making inroads even to the most hinterland. When people talk about democracy and local government administration, the understanding is that government must not only be close to the people or loosely defined as government of the people, but extend to a government whose positive impacts must be felt by the people through life-changing policies and projects driven by selfless desire to fashion out a just and better society.
In this instance, we could comfortably submit that Hon. Okechukwu Edeh has championed a just cause deliberately fashioned towards nation-building that would lift people out of the pit of poverty, hardship and torrent of frustration. Over the past one year of his administration, one would admit, with factual conviction, that Nkanu East area has witnessed relative peace, security, incremental development and human capital improvement.
We owe it as duty to commend acts of audacious public service where appropriate and to take a departure from visible societal ill caused by the actions and inactions of those saddled with responsibility to lead as holders of our commonwealth. In this regard, we must commend the giant strides and nonpareil leadership of the council boss. His desire to give and add to the society and make it better than he met it has yielded positive impacts. It’s a kind of passion we hope other leaders will emulate regardless of their position or office.
I’m compelled by the recent good news in Enugu State to salute one of the heroes of the celebration. Enugu people had been clamouring for a radical or transcendental departure from the unilineal or vertical mode of economic development over the years. However, not until recently when Dr. Peter Mbah, Enugu Governor-Elect, expressed interest and preparedness to take up the gauntlet and birth the yearnings of the people, the dream had remained a long-term one.
People needed to be weaned of their skepticism on his ability to enable the deliveries. Interrogatories were made by some discerning minds and with their conviction, they confessed that Peter Mbah would be a project that must not be missed at a time the nation is in a dire strait of confusion and economic entropy. However, the road became rough by those that were bent at holding the state at the jugular. Some believed politics should be taken in Cicero’s words that, in war all is fair and foul is fair too.
Some persons, remained, however, undeterred and resilient by the conviction they’d seen. One of them is Hon. Okechukwu Edeh who took the project beyond his hinterlands, beckoning on other citizens, most especially his colleagues, to join in making the state great again. Such call and movement for a new state driven by transcendental passion and innovation did not disappoint. On the 18th of March, 2023, Enugu people trooped out en masse to the polls and spoke with one resounding voice, reposing their common destiny, fate and future into the hands of Peter Mbah.
Even as Hon. Okechukwu celebrates another year today, I wish to join family, friends and well wishers to wish him many more years of good health.
Congratulations.