Former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, has been trending on new media in recent days for all the right reasons. He was one of the speakers at The PLATFORM, a public discourse event organised by Covenant Christian Centre on Independence Day; but he ended up as the Speaker of the event; a show-stopper and the real McCoy.  Peter Obi (please note he is not a chief) did not say anything beyond what Nigerians already know. He simply placed a mirror before Nigerians through which they saw the organic greed and gangrenous putrefaction that assail leadership and followership in the country by giving a down-to-earth testimony of his life style.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus, famed for his Epicurean philosophy of life once said that “he who doesn’t find a little enough will find nothing enough”. This powerful line and many more defined the orientation of Epicurus. It is the same philosophy that Peter Obi has wittingly or unwittingly adopted. It is a life style of blissful simplicity, living within your means and being happy with yourself and at peace with humanity. It is a life style void of fear because in actual sense you really have no reason to fear. You are at peace with yourself and humanity so you don’t have live in a fiercely guarded fortress called house or cruise about town in bullet-proof limousines. The Epicurean life keeps it simple; be content with what you have, buy what you can afford and only what you need; live within your means and income. In other words, the hunter can only eat what he kills. Such life of frugality shorn of showy exuberance and obscene ostentation is the stuff of great leaders and iconic men and women who through studious enterprise built nations, business empires, innovated a brave new world and made life more worthy of living than it ever was.

Such men did not eat away their tomorrow; did not borrow to throw lavish parties nor consume lustfully the dainties and candies of life. Leaders of the Epicurean philosophy endured the pain of yesterday for the pleasure of today; those in public offices are guided by the passion to serve humanity better and not to serve their belly. The Epicurean theory though suffers when subjected to paradoxical scrutiny but its underlying essence of simplicity should never be lost. This is the context in which it finds remarkable expression in the Peter Obi personal testimony at The Platform.

For Peter Obi, a man exposed to good money right from his undergraduate days at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, not on account of inherited family wealth but on account of his own sweat and entrepreneurial derring-do, you would expect him to live life on the fast lane. As chairman of a bank and sitting on the board of other flourishing enterprises, you would expect him to join the club of private jet owners or sundry wannabes who lease jets just to keep up with the Joneses. Never! He kept it low by joining the rest of the ‘hoi-polloi’ in commercial flights. Frugality became the basis of his existence.

It was therefore no surprise that he took such life style to Government House as Governor of Anambra State. Some of us were not surprised at the revelations of Peter Obi from the Platform soapbox. He only re-lived the moments of his Odyssey in government. As governor, he flew economy class, queued at airports to check in and board, did not have bouncers endowed with heavy biceps as guards and chaperons; did not join the inglorious club of private jet Governors (most of whom were owing workers’ salaries and gratuities). This is no fable. Many Nigerians saw him carry his luggage at airports as Governor. He kept it simple yet he did not lose his appeal and respect as the leader of a state.

Yet, we live in a country where a mere tout suddenly rewarded with the ‘crown’ of local government council chairman for his thuggery during election travels nothing short of Business Class, cruises in bullet proof SUV, beats traffic light with his convoy of alcohol-inspired acolytes. Never mind that such council Chair never owned a motorbike before his arrival at the new office. Or what do we say of governors who flew above our heads and above the law in leased or private jets all paid for with state funds.

Nigerian public office is fuelled by greed. Nothing is ever enough for the actors; from little to much, nothing seems enough. Peter Obi told the audience how he saved money for his state, cut drastically the cost of running government and ploughed the money into worthy ventures like liquidating workers’ arrears of salaries and sundry emoluments, and building one of the best network of roads in the country in his time. His tenure also hallmarked by milestones in healthcare, education et al. He was not grandstanding. I have traversed Anambra before, during and after Peter Obi years and the fact speaks for itself.

While not denigrating every public office holder, the message of the man who has successfully combined entrepreneurship with scholarship (an alumnus of Lagos Business School, Harvard, Oxford, Columbia, London School of Economics, Kellog, etcetera) is that governance in Nigeria at all levels is a wasteful enterprise. And it should not be. The most lucrative job in Nigeria is engagement in politics and political office, not a career in the private sector. We have no regard for research and development; a barely literate tout bereft of knowledge, character and scholarship is made to superintend core professionals and eggheads just because he was appointed as minister or commissioner and the society idolizes him to no end. This explains why we can owe doctors, judges, teachers and other strategic actors in human and infrastructure development while jobbers called politicians lavish the nation’s wealth on frivolities. And nothing happens.

In our time, we have seen prime ministers of Britain take commercial flights, leaders of advanced societies travel in their respective country’s public transport as a show of faith in the system they run and to cut cost at the same time that no Nigerian public office holder of the rank of a governor could ever contemplate sharing seats with plebeians in a public transport.

No sane society would ignore the voice of Peter Obi or jettison his leadership style, a style that promotes local production and discourages importation. Nigeria has relapsed into economic recession not so much on account of drop in oil prices. It is more on account of our collective proclivity to consume all things exotic from vegetable to fruits to choice wine and sleek automobiles.

Nigeria is the only member nation of OPEC cartel that imports more than three-quarters of its domestic fuel consumption at exorbitant price after selling its fine grade of crude oil at a giveaway price. It is only in Nigerian government houses that you have the highest pool of PRADO SUVs and bullet-proof BMW cars more than you can ever find in any office in Japan or Germany, the native countries of these brands. Our lawmakers hold the ignoble record of being the most expensive to maintain worldwide but our public schools are the most decrepit; our teachers are underpaid, in some cases never paid at all. Yet, we want to compete with the rest of the world in development. It is just not possible. A nation that spends billions of naira annually to sponsor pilgrims to holy lands but never sponsors any adventure in research and development, innovation and technology does not have the moral right to aspire to greatness.

The time has come for Nigerians to re-evaluate their taste and priorities. We must take the hard stance of cutting cost of governance. Peter Obi has demonstrated that fiscal prudence is the chief recipe for development at all times, and much more now in our moment of recession, it’s the inevitable path to tread. The President, Governors, Parliamentarians, Ministers among others must lead this change.

• First published in Sun, Sunday, October 9, 2016