Nigeria and the Dilemma of Leadership -An X-ray of Chief Tony Enahoro's perspective

THIS book by a journalist, Editor of the Nigerian Observer and author, Eubaldus Enahoro, a nephew to the revered nationalist and statesman and a remarkable journalist, Chief Anthony Enahoro, is a revelation of an aspect of the man who moved the motion for Nigeria's Independence in 1953 proposing 1956.

That year could have been possible if true nationalism was ingrained in all the nationalists equally. If the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) was Nigerian Peoples Congress (NPC), perhaps the story of Nigeria could have been different today.

The first section of the book titled, 'The man', gives an incisive biography of a successful radical public official, an indefatigable man, who, even though an octogenarian could be described as the Caleb of our time. For Caleb, the son of Jephuneh, told Joshua, 'look at me! I am eighty-five years old and I'm just as strong today as I was when Moses sent me out.

I am still strong enough for war or for anything else. Now then, give me the hill country that the LORD promised me on that day when my men and I reported. We told you then that the race of giants called the Anakim were there in large walled cities. Maybe the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out, just as the LORD said' - Joshua 15:10-12.

According to the author, even as an octogenarian, "... he has been determined to sustain the patriotic zeal for which he moved that motion for self government. In all his adult life Chief Anthony Enahoro proved to be patriotically relevant in every decade.

In the second section, 'Historical Review; the author runs down on the pages of the life and times of Chief Anthony Enahoro as a chief spokesman for his age. He always embarks on significant political voyage that must jolt any regime he moved against, right from colonial days.

To him, Nigeria's political leadership have sailed the nation astray against his dreamed Nigeria that made him to move the motion for self-governance in 1953. No politician today burns with his kind of passion for Nigeria. He was a book to study to make a better Nigeria.

Chief Anthony Enahoro rightly fits into the author's observation on page 14 in the second section, thus: 'his life has been a story of arduous and sustained struggle for the nation and in the process, he incurred the wrath of so many people...' In the 'Passion for good governance.' this royal blooded man did not behave royally when it comes to good governance. Although a noble man from Uromi. Edo State, he had a pedigree in his ancestors who never enjoyed seeing injustice perpetrated against fellow man. Chief Anthony Enahoro can best be seen as the fruit of a tree from a family of resistance to any form of injustice and unfairness. That passion in him is not a passion for shameful act.

In the fourth section, Chief Anthony Enahoro is a prophecy fulfilled. For him to be a Jailbird and his father became proud of him is unusual of any father. He was not even encouraged to play safe by his father, but goaded on by the long letter he wrote him in prison. Against all odds, Chief Enahoro began to outlive all those who could not endure his patriotic passion for independent and better Nigeria. One of the testimonies of his political prisoner experience is a rare book, 'Fugitive offender'.

Real great men live by principles or philosophy. The fifth section of this book shows a man who is ravenous in reading different materials which should be the stuff a good journalist is made. He is seen as a journalist, parliamentarian par excellence, and he was the great man of yesterday.

In section six. 'Leadership failure,' as far as Chief Anthony Enahoro rightly perceived, no-good nation without good leadership. Nigeria is prostrate because the nation never had the right leaders to TRULY lead the country. And the followers are not exonerated from the troubles with Nigeria either.

In what seems to be part two of this book, 'Selected speeches of

Dettagli