A Glowing Remarks From Arinze Igboeli To Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige At 62 Years Old

         

Odogwuemekaodogwu.blogspot.com reports that Senator Ngige is still heading to Supreme Court to Challenge Governor Obiano’s Election. Enjoy

Grow Old Along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life for which the first was made.

Robert Browning , Rabbi Ben Ezra

In a nation where life expectancy is said to be four score and eight years, it is a thing of celebration in a nation known for its proclivity for celebrations for one to roll out the drums and do the jig. A prayer to the supreme deity normally leads the pack of celebrations with a lot of food and drinks for well wishers as well as gatecrashers.

The celebrant will naturally point to one or two achievements as well as the fact that he has arrived at such an age and haven seen all and done all, he has no other choice than to thank God for sparing his life in a nation riddled with poor leadership, corruption, Boko Haram, strikes, armed robbery, political violence etc. Such a celebration seems worth it.

However, for the titan in Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige, there will indeed be much to celebrate this man whose name will surely reverberate in the political realm of Nigeria centuries from now.

To the Alor born medical doctor turned politician, I cannot but celebrate his feats in the socio-political sphere of Nigeria, like a cat with more than nine lives who has given many Nigerians hope, that even in our misery ridden political life what many would call our peculiar mess, the likes of Senator Ngige shine like the silver lining in the clouds.

How best do you describe a man who rose from relative obscurity to emerge as one of the leading lights of politics for development as well as a pillar of the opposition in Nigeria?

A man surely not born with a stainless steel spoon talkless of a silver spoon but who through harvesting  the spirit of the rugged individual in him took to the world with the mindset of an Ijele masquerade determined to succeed even if it is at the cost of his life.

One conquest led him to another, in the fields of medicine and civil service, Dr. Ngige awed and impressed many earning him several accolades as well as a worthy retirement as a Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Health.

Ngige then turned his eyes to political activism and what his stature lacked, his wits and willpower helped much and with such the bearded Ngige powered Aka Ikenga, a socio cultural group to speak for NdiIgbo while many of his traducers today  were laundering money for a bevy of corrupt military administrators or engaging in advanced free fraud.

 It was through Aka Ikenga that NdiIgbo projected a wonderful team of delegates to the Abacha Confab of 1995, where but for Abacha’s death, the cries of marginalization of the Igbo people in Nigeria would have at least abated.

Politics came calling and Ngige found himself drafted by the Chris Uba and his merry band of political raiders with the mission to clean up the Mbadinuju mess. Unknown to Ngige, what he had in mind was not what the self styled godfather wanted and Ngige would have none of that.

With the display of immense sagacity, Dr. Ngige bided his time and broke with the marauders who had taken Anambra hostage even at the expense of his life and family. Roads began to receive attention, education was given a boost, compassion was introduced into governance as pensioners and salaried workers began to receive their pay as tuition fees of tertiary students were slashed by fifty percent.

Suddenly government was assuming the path of responsibility and even those who doubted the capacity of Ngige did agree that there was something good in the Alor politician!

Even as a Senator, Ngige has continued to put people first despite the attempt by hired boo boys and facebook robeasts to diminish his image. I will eat my head if proven to the contrary that Senator Ngige’s performance as a Senator has been bested by anyone who has occupied that seat in the past.

As I write the people of Anambra Central, Anambra and Nigerians at large are benefitting from the silent revolution of the Senator’s contribution as Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on power. His contributions on the floor of the Senate have been impeccable, his bills outstanding and his relationship with his constituents a model for other politicians to emulate.

If Zik was the beautiful bride of post civil war Nigerian politics, then Ngige is the present day beautiful bride. Courted by many and wooed by various platforms, Senator Ngige has rejected the crocodile nature of come and chop politics in Nigeria, principled he stands, with the belief that politics is not about contracts and board appointments but about issues, ideas to fix them and development.

Thus when he argues why the second Niger Bridge should cost twice the amount the federal government is spending on other bridges and yet Nigerians who ply that bridge will still be made to pay a toll for the next twenty five years after its completion, Nigerians can nod with hope that there are still politicians who know their onions after all.

A bridge builder, a core nationalist and statesman, Senator Ngige is indeed a people’s politician and this is to him, that as he marks his birthday, like the old Irish blessing, the road will rise to meet him  and that the wind will always be behind his back.

Igboeli Arinze writes from Awka

@IANIGBOELI