IT was Professor Chinua Achebe who wrote over a quarter of a century ago in The Trouble With Nigeria that ‘it is basically leadership.’ Several years later, if there is one point on which there is unanimity of opinion among Nigerians, it is that leadership remains a problem in our nation.

We have remained a potentially great nation because we have, for many years of our history, been unable to install the leadership required to translate our potential greatness into actual greatness except for a few islands of accidental successes. If we are to expect and obtain different results from our leadership in future, particularly under the current democratic dispensation, we must change the method of identifying and electing them. We must seek to change our politics and our leadership recruitment process.

In our families and in our businesses, we know that the right personnel are our best assets and we hire them through rigorous processes. How much more important should we therefore consider the recruitment of men and women for the most important jobs in our land – our public service? In the more developed countries that many of us admire so much, citizens often express a desire for less government preferring to take on the responsibilities of national development through advancements in their various walks of life.

The citizens understand the role of government as that of an enabler; one that provides the right environment for them to make successes of their legitimate pursuits. Indeed, for them, one of the measures of the effectiveness of government is its unobtrusiveness. For, when governmental institutions are functioning as they should, no one notices that government is working because it is taken for granted.

However, when institutions fail, people start demanding to see government in action. Unarguably, increasing demand for government is perhaps an evidence of failing government. I have severally advocated for a complete overhaul of the way government business is done in the executive arm in our land to place emphasis on policy formation which provides multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional solutions and clarity to spending plans.

I have always held that it is not every policy initiative that should result in public procurement or contract award, as some policies may merely lead to new legislation on how to improve economic performance by realigning market incentives, while some may lead to progressive regulatory controls as checks against market imperfections.

I qualified as a chartered accountant after my first degree in Accountancy from University of Nigeria, Nsukka. And I had extensive private sector working experience in diverse sectors of the Nigerian economy including banking and insurance. I am also a Chartered Insurer and I hold a Masters degree in Banking and Finance from University of Lagos.

I was first invited into public service as Special Assistant to Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning in Delta State in 1999 and I later became the pioneer Commissioner for Economic Planning. In 1999, we met a chaotic system of administration left behind by the military and immediately embarked on some progressive reforms to bring order and transparency to governance. We pushed through some of those reforms and successfully changed the way government business was done despite some resistance.

Travelling the length and breadth of Delta State in recent times and listening to our people, I find that despite our ethnic and cultural peculiarities (not differences), our desires and aspirations are basically the same, underscoring our common humanity. Our people want to live in a decent society where everyone will be treated fairly and with dignity.

They want to live in a society where they feel safe and do not need extra eyes behind to walk our streets. They want our children to go to good schools within our neighbourhoods and not travel long distances with associated risks, in search of good schools. They desire to see our children get well-paying jobs upon graduation or where they are entrepreneurial, for them to realize their dreams in a society that rewards talent, hardwork, risk taking and enterprise and provides the enabling environment for the flourishing of a “Nigerian Dream” of rising from grass to grace with hard work and industry as the guide ways.

They desire access to quality healthcare where our people can receive healthcare and our wives and sisters can go for childbirth without fearing that it is a death sentence. They desire to live in cities that are well planned and not just in fine houses in slums.

They want our children to have safe playgrounds where they can really be children. They want basic infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, functional mass transit systems, and good roads.

They want markets for our farm produce at prices that justify their efforts and they desire to eliminate huge post-harvest losses. They also want to see leaders that are accountable and transparent and who are not their masters but servants in the true sense of the word. Yes, these are the common desires of our people and they are the aspirations for a better organized society where relationships are guided by laws that are fairly and firmly enforced and indeed, our people understand the direct nexus between respect for sanctity of contracts, investments and job creation.

Evidently, our people are not asking for the moon and certainly, we can work to give them the decent society that they yearn for. After due consultation and extensive consultation with my family, friends, associates and political leaders, I came to a decision that I should present myself as candidate for the office of Governor of Delta State in 2015 under our party – the Peoples Democratic Party.

This decision was followed by a lot of introspection and personal interrogation of my motives and I am satisfied that I am not driven by an ambition for power for its sake but by a commitment to serve, founded on a strong belief that my demonstrated leadership capability, my interpersonal relationship, particularly across the ethnic divides in our state, my professional development, strength of character and integrity and my political career trajectory to date have prepared me for the daunting challenges of providing effective leadership to our people as Governor of our state.

It is also a desire to restore core values and ethics to our society in need of moral surgery, the absence of which accounts for our limited progress despite our vast potentials. This is a task that calls for one who is stout hearted, intellectually equipped and psychologically and spiritually secure to make necessary but difficult decision under very trying conditions.

Bearing in mind the chronic fragility of our public institutions, I believe that the personal example of the leader of the government is critical to winning the trust of the people so that collectively, the ardous task of developing our state can be given a new impetus. To sustain the trust and confidence of the citizenry, leadership must be seen to be serving the people rather than being served by the people. And our state cannot afford the rising cost of governance that sends out signals of opulence to our people amidst increasing poverty.

We must endeavour to put the people first. To the rest of Nigeria, I am acutely aware that Delta is critical in Nigeria and getting it right in Delta can have a seismic effect on good governance and development in our country. For in the immortal words of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, “few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation… It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped.” These words ring eternally true today.

If we cannot change Nigeria overnight, we can begin by transforming constituent parts now, and soon enough; the Nigeria of our dreams will emerge in all her glory to take her pride of place in the comity of nations. This is just one more necessary step in that direction and I urge all of you to please join me and let us realize this dream. I aspire to be your humble servant.

Chief Clement Ofuani is a governorship aspirant in Delta state