Well Done, Prof. Soludo

I take this opportunity to wish the esteemed Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo well in his future endeavours, after serving meritoriously as Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank.

I appreciate him not for being a good economist, not for anything he did while he was governor of our Central Bank, but for being human.

A few months ago, I entered the following in my blog:

“Every first class brain in the Obasanjo regime was not like this. We can point to the example of the one person who, in my view, has been exceptional (and very, very effective) in his approach: Charles Chukwuma Soludo.”

I was referring, of course, to a certain brash tendency exhibited by most first-class degree holders appointed to public office by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The era of the good professor at the Central Bank has ended and, as predicted, he left public office with his head held high.

One of the things that endeared me to Prof. Soludo was that he never forgot the friends he made before he was appointed to public office – not by “settling” them the Nigerian way. He kept up with his friends at the personal friendship level, rejoicing with them on their fortunes and commiserating with them on their misfortunes, as do good friends.

This is the testimony of three friends of Soludo that I know. One of them, Chief Ikechi Emenike, once told me the story of how Soludo was “queried” by PDP warlords for attending a social (not political) event organized when he (Emenike) was running for governorship of Abia State on a different party platform. Soludo patiently explained that the organizer of the event was and still remained his friend, and the event was not of a political nature.

I only met Prof. Soludo once in my life – when he came to address us in the State House Office of Public Communication on what NEEDS was all about (he was then National Economic Adviser). Apart from this chance meeting, I have not had any other personal or official dealing with him. As a matter of fact, the only first-class appointee of Obasanjo that I related with as a consultant was Ifueko Omoigui at the FIRS.

Yet, everything these first-class graduates did in public office greatly impacted on the Nigerian nation and ultimately influenced us citizens to harden our views (positive or negative) on their performance.

Each of them had an opportunity to influence their image positively before they left public office. The way to do it is quite simple: be firm but fair to all. No selective applications, no discriminations, no nepotism, everything done for the good of all.

You can influence a positive image of yourself as long as you have time and you are still in public office. Once you leave office, it will be too late to change history, regardless of the thousands of friends, cronies, or PR gurus you may wish to deploy to the task.

Once you leave public office, your public image becomes a matter of history. As we know, and to paraphrase Zik, history inevitably and surely vindicates the just, even as it exposes the Machiavellian who once served the public.

Reflections on Fathers' Day

I wish to congratulate Good Fathers on this day, Fathers' Day 2009, and to offer the following reflections on poor fatherhood.

I am a father because I have a child. My child came into the world because, once upon a time, my sperm captured a female egg and life was formed.

Thus, my true worth as a father must begin to count from this moment of conception.

My worth as a father is reflected in why I allowed this union of sperm and egg to take place, and what I did after shooting my “successful” sperm.

There are many ways we can judge our failings as fathers:

We fail in our responsibility as fathers when we decide to remove – or blackmail a poor girl into removing – a developing child that this shooting occasioned.

We fail in this responsibility when we shoot our load only because we want to ensure our family’s survival, and not because we are interested in making the world a better place through the quality of human beings we nurture and introduce into it.

We fail in this responsibility when we do “hit and run,” leaving a poor hapless girl alone and afraid in the world, and sometimes abandoning the product of this union at roadsides or the garbage dumps.

We fail in this responsibility when the product of this union of sperms and egg are brought up badly and they end up as armed robbers, prostitutes, or child labourers.

We fail in this responsibility when our girl-children are, by design or default, made to play second fiddle and denied of equal treatment in care, affection, or education.

We fail in this responsibility when we do not take up the command to raise our children in the way of the Lord. It is important to note that, although man and woman share equal responsibility for the care and nurture of a child, it is fathers that have been given special responsibility to raise children in the way of the Lord. God commands fathers to instruct the child on the Commandments and to raise it up as a member of God’s chosen people (Deut. 6: 7). Is this not a role that the women have assumed in most Nigerian homes?

We fail in this responsibility when we take the money meant for the family’s upkeep and head for the nearest bar or motel to entertain women of easy virtue – be they call girls, girlfriends or concubines.

Do not despair if, as a father, you fail to measure up to the scale because there is Good News for us all. Despite our many human failings, God still loves us. He has given us many anniversaries of Fathers' Day, like today, in the hope that, one day, we would pause a little from the frenzy of celebration to deeply reflect on what it actually means to be a Good Father.

Happy Fathers' Day