Appreciative of the uncommon but tortuous sacrifices some great men had made through their sweat and toil in the universal annals of democracy and democratic consolidation, Frederick Washington Douglass, an African-American social reformer, writer and statesman had tersely submitted that, “If there’s no struggle there’s no progress.
Those who profess to favour freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening, they want ocean without the awful roars of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it maybe a physical one. And it maybe both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organised conspiracy to oppress, rob or degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
Nigeria’s Fourth Republic which commenced in 1999 emerged from the rubble, protruded rafters and the haunting vestiges of military junta after decades of military rules with its gory of human deprivations and rights abuses encoded in decrees and whimsical, discourteous promulgation of edits and orders literally violating human dignity and freedoms. Such was the psycho-social orientation and devastating effects the rule had been implanted in human minds before now.
With regime transition, many who had emerged from the old order had wished to continue to have their way by blending the anachronistic characters of military indices with democracy. As such, personal whims hinged on rudderless impulse and control rather than the new legal framework being the constitution were almost glorified as an act of democracy in our fledging democratic clime. But there was a dire need for a social re-orientation and paradigm shift from the old order which must, as a matter of necessity, give way for a new order; for democracy, for freedom, for people’s oriented policies driven by collective will and common patrimony.
This was where the young but astute, dynamic, enterprising and professionally equipped Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani had to come in. He came in at a time our democracy was still under heavy threats of shadowy dictatorship and power was still under the usurpation and suffocation of the minority oligarchical class rather than the people in general. To him, as a surgeon of global repute, he understood that our democracy needed to undergo emancipatory surgery and structural re-engineering in order to take power back to the people.
Dr. Chimaroke embarked on the liberation mission. He was elected governor of Enugu State, Nigeria, in May 1999. He swam against the tide, riding with the people whose common patrimony he had been advocating. All he wanted was to make the people, the 1999 constitution aptly provided that sovereignty resides on, the epicenter of his leadership. The struggle for the soul democracy was staged, overwhelmingly supported by young people who only understood the language of democracy from textbooks but never experienced it in reality. In due course, democracy triumphed. Power was decentralized. For the first time over a long period, the people heaved some sigh of relief.
But Senator Chimaroke had not finished with his job. According to Chimaroke’s article of faith which could be gleaned from his administrative structure and governance composition, the government must be made up of people from diverse backgrounds undefined and unconstrained by class, clan, gender, religion, profession or sectarian bias. He believed in balancing and socio-political class equilibrant force to assure the public that government belonged to them. He hunted for talents, classically affixing round pegs in round holes. He was there on the streets connecting with the common people and stamping out the protracted obstinacy of poverty despondently attired by the masses like the apartheid South Africans.
Chimaroke’s era saw young men and women having voices in government and decision-making for the first time. His government incubated potentials and talents and masterfully unleashed them to make great exploits in different professions such that the administration became a reference point for leadership, political, professional and technocratic mentorships.
In the words of the world’s renowned leadership and development expert, John Maxwell, “One of the greatest values of mentors is the ability to see ahead what others cannot see and to help them navigate a course to their destination.” His Excellency, Senator Chimaroke is often endorsed to have played the role of mentor and transmitted the same skills on others that have benefited immensely from his wealth of experience, leadership dexterity and establishment. Through his Ebeano structure, many have discovered themselves, and great men and women have been empowered. The Ebeano’s tower is definitely being celebrated to have made men and built institutions.
That, perhaps, accounts for why the structure remains entrenched in every political and economic establishment that has found its root in the state and beyond since those establishments could only inextricably trace their source to the Ebeano Family. It’s not out of place to emphasis that every political actor and many successful business men and women in the state from the Fourth Republic were and many still members of the Ebeano family. He made them one after the other. For those hiding under a reflecting finger to deny him, history will be kind to judge. It was this same Chimaroke that went out of his way, against all odds, to send Chijioke Edeoga to Abuja as a House of Representatives member even when his Isi Uzo kinsmen protested against the decision. He made Frank Nweke both Chief of Staff and Minister. He influenced many positive developments the people of the state are enjoying today. It should be kudos to him.
Nobody can take away the fact that Chimaroke is now a positive enigma across Nigeria having made sacrifices for the establishment and consolidation of democracy within and outside his immediate state. His laid down mentorship prism was not designed to give fish which could be ruinous in the long-run but to teach how to fish and how to consolidate the fishing skills. He is now a fisher of men in a country where what Karl Marx described as primitive accumulation is almost entrenched as an emerging norm. Chimaroke took a radical departure from that vicious cycle of thinking to a much flexible, selfless, inclusive and dynamic policy where human capital development and institutional investment defined his administrative orientation. There are certain consequences for these steps. Senator Chimaroke, like it or not, is everywhere even though he is not physically everywhere. His works are speaking for him. His institutions and the men and women he made are all over the globe making exploits. In one way or the other, everyone in Enugu is a beneficiary of Chimaroke’s benevolence. This is what democracy is all about. It’s the government of the people and for the people. The senator understood this and aptly reinforced the principle. He is an Iroko tree that could alone make a forest, but he has refused to make a lone forest. His mission is for the people to live together and make a forest together. That’s why Chimaroke will remain the modern father of democracy in our clime. Nobody can wish away that. Period!
Let me note this without any modicum of apologies even though I have had reasons to disagree with some of his decisions because of the fallibility of human nature, Chimaroke has the right; in fact, absolute right as recognized by the constitution, to take a political stand and hold a certain political view. He has the right to support anybody without being demonized or blackmailed. It’s within his right to openly, vigorously and audaciously declare his support for Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s candidacy without explaining himself to anybody. The malicious attacks on him by some political miscreants from the opposition candidates, some of them whom he influenced their appointments as Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan, were uncalled for. Chimaroke deserves apologies from Enugu Labour Party and those dragging his name. However, he also needs to play the role of a statesman by being compassionate and forgiving.
As the Senator clocks 63 years today; a golden age that calls for us to reflect the character and principles of his goodwill, I cannot but celebrate him in a special way. The first time I identified myself with the senator after much introspection and analysis, I felt the pressure from some hawks to backtrack. These hawks later betrayed PDP, joined Labour Party and worked for the most incompetent and accidental candidate in the history of Enugu State. But the conviction that Chimaroke has done Nkanuland and Enugu state in general proud and through his dogged struggle against the dark era of junta days placed our collective interests and the interest of the people on the map of history, I was much willing to stand the consequences of standing with the Ijele Ndigbo. The credentials of democracy and democratic consolidation in a country struggling and grappling with asphyxiated democracy have made the former governor a legend. Chimaroke definitely stands out! Happy Birthday the Father of Enugu State modern democracy.