Reviewing the statesmanship of Senator Theodore Orji
Theodore-Orji
Eddie Onuzuruike commends Senator Theodore A. Orji for his firm assurance to bow out from public service after the 9th Senate ending in 2023
The life of man may be phased into 3, 4, or more stages depending on the school of thought. Thomas Manson postulated 12 stages in his work, the human odyssey. Other notable authorities like Mark Manson and Integris Health, an Oklahoma based thinktank projected differently. For the sake of this article, let us work with the infancy stage, teenage, youth, adulthood and the aged.
Nature has made it that man should retire, play lesser active roles, by teaching, mentoring and directing others.
From a rich observatory point, people in present day Nigeria, especially the adult and the aged find retirement scary. Even those in the civil and public services who hitherto had a well-structured retirement template now crave for more active roles even when it is obvious that they are not physically and medically fit. Look at the spate of changes in retirement ages of judges and teachers. The growing trend can be as a result of unpaid and unsteady pensions, disloyalty and faithless followership coupled with challenging financial realities and not having reliable successors to fall back on where necessary.
In the history of Nigeria, the sixties, seventies and eighties saw youths leading in Nigeria. Recall Matthew Mbu, Okotie Eboh, who were youthful ministers in the First Republic. M. I. Okpara, Premier of Eastern region and his counterparts in the north and west were relatively young. Ironsi who emerged as the first military leader, followed by Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha were scarcely 50 years old, especially Gowon who married in the State House in Lagos as a military leader.
Sadly, gerontocracy took root and has refused to shift grounds even with the ‘Not Too Young to Run policy of the Buhari-led government. Even Obasanjo who was widely acclaimed for being the first military officer to hand over unconditionally to civilians regretted when he surreptitiously worked on regime elongation, seeking to change the constitution in the scandalous Third Term Agenda that many worked against and made the National Assembly uproarious then.
Hear him as he argued and bemoaned his predicament with Atiku, his deputy. In a book by Dr Fresh Onuoha titled ‘Atiku is the Answer,’ page 114, Obasanjo said, ‘I left power 20 years ago, I left Mubarak in office, I left Mugabe in office, I left Eyadema in office, I left Omar Bongo, and even Paul Biya and I came back and they are still in power, and I just did eight years and you are asking me to go, why?”
Contrary to all these fears of the sit-tight mentality and despite the distractions, it is cheering that some Nigerians are still principled and disciplined, resolute in mending this disorientation of sit-tight mentality, even when irrelevant.
One of such men today is Senator T.A. Orji who has been a constant personality in national affairs and like the old wine is seasoned enough to chart a new direction. Coming from a staunch civil service background, he served as Chief of Staff for eight years, Governor for eight years, now in the Senate for six years and still counting. You can say, 22 years of uninterrupted political service and leadership of his people. He has sworn to bow out after the 9th Senate ending in 2023.
His recent activities are indicators of a fulfilled man exiting the scene and stepping into the super statesmanship category, practically bowing out when the ovation is loudest.
On June 30, 2021, he was in Port Harcourt with his entourage as the guest of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State who invited him to inaugurate some of his multiple projects that have earned him the sobriquet of Mr. Projects. Not far from his Rivers State encounter, he was at his constituency where one of his ardent followers, Hon. Darlington Nwokocha, Representing Isi Ala Ngwa North and South Federal Constituency who lined out projects to be inaugurated and named the legislative building he constructed after Senator T.A. Orji.
In his speech in Port Harcourt, he thanked the Rivers strongman for the recognition and urged him to continue his good works of project multiplication, fierce protection of his people and touching lives at home and abroad. He added new names to Wike as action governor and Governor Ho-ha, a man who is brave enough to say the truth, no matter whose ox is gored but harped on Wike to intensify efforts in grooming a successor who will continue in his speed and energy of founding more projects so that the people of Rivers State now used to performance will not fall into an antithetical mentality and tempt Wike into regrets in retirement or push him into dreaming of a comeback.
For Senator Orji, the political nightmares may not be much as he already has a successor in Rt. Hon. Chinedum Orji now the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly who is doing wonderfully well in his sworn political mission to make the best of our disgruntled youths of Nigeria in making a legislative foray. His residence and office have become Mecca of sorts as they throng these places for solace and survival.
We plead that many of our leaders should emulate this nationalistic gesture of Senator Orji making the political waters navigable for the youths.
