By C. Don Adinuba.
The testimonies on this platform that top Enugu State government officials are genuinely enthusiastic to welcome prospective investors, engage them professionally and keep communication channels open provide a glimmer of hope regarding rapid progress in the Southeast.
One critical criterion for promoting a member from one rung of the Chinese Communist Party ladder to another is the number and quality of investments attracted by the person in his area within a given period. Civil servants and other Chinese public officials understand business and speak the business language. It is no mystery that China’s rise in the last few decades is unprecedented.
Extremely important in the conversation on Enugu is the revelation that commissioners in the state are empowered. That is, they have the authority to do certain things because they are trusted and treated with courtesy. It is dispiriting that in an era marked by decentralization and empowerment across the globe, Nigerian state governors centralize authority, micromanage and behave like imperial lords, rather than servants of the people.
I am about to finish reading a charming book on the unimaginable Dubai transformation under the leadership of Mohammed Al Maktoum. Entitled “Sheikh CEO: Lessons in Leadership from Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum”, it is authored by Yasar Jarrar, a former Jordanian academic and Senior Research Fellow at the Cranfield School of Management in England. The author on page 232 advises mostly Middle East, Asian and African leaders in the public and private sectors to “Delegate, Delegate, Delegate”.
No one doubts that Enugu Governor Peter Mbah delegates authority to the Secretary to the State Government, among other officials. Contemporary leadership researchers speak of the benefits of distributed or shared leadership, as opposed to a one-man dictatorship. Leadership is teamwork, and never a one-man show. Anywhere this basic fact is ignored, the outcome is always, at best, suboptimal and, at worst, brutal.
For showing the light, let us toast to Gov Mbah of Enugu State.
