Necessity is the mother of invention. You don’t really know how strong you are or your power of absorbency until you’re pushed to the wall. Ebonyi governor, Dave Umahi, demonstrates, in more ways than one, the innate ability of the average Nigerian to innovate solutions in the midst of pervasive challenges.

In their much-referenced seminal work, three Indians – Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu and Simone Ahuja – treated the world to a feast of ideas on a mystique linked to Indians. It’s the ability of Indians to innovate cheaply to meet needs in the midst of scarcity.

As at the time of the publication of their work – Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth – in 2012, Navi Radjou was a Silicon Valley-based independent thought leader, strategy consultant, and a Fellow at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge where Dr. Jaideep Prabhu was the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise and Director of the Centre for India & Global Business. Dr. Simone Ahuja was the founder of Blood Orange Media. These three men co-authored a reference material that holds valuable compass to unravelling why and how Indians have developed a knack to get things done cheaper and faster.

That principle is called Jugaad, a Hindi word which loosely translates as “the gutsy art of overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources.” Jugaad has been described as an antidote to the complexity of India: a country of mind-boggling diversity, pervasive scarcity; and a nation where wealth and poverty co-exist in a queer mix of love and communal bonding.

Several studies carried out about Jugaad showed a particular symmetry in attributes of Jugaad innovators. They innovate faster, cheaper and better. These traits are to be found in the manner Umahi has deployed scare resources to turn Ebonyi into a swathe of infrastructural development initiatives. Umahi has silently built well-lit flyovers with some intersecting in Abakaliki city centre, giving the state capital an exotic aesthetical majesty at night comparable to any in the advanced western world. He has constructed more roads than many governors put together. The roads are not the usual ‘wash-wash’ roads dotting some states with life span of one year or below. These are durable roads built with concrete, roads built to last, built for the people as evidence of development and a working democracy; not for the purpose of scoring cheap political points. Umahi built the best state-owned (now federal government-owned) university – King David University of Medical Sciences; he built offices, housing estates for both the poor and political office holders. He built a new Ebonyi, from the capital to the counties. Umahi built, and is still building. The Edda Bridge, a complicated and complex engineering wonder, is a marvel waiting for unveiling.

A recent tour of duty to Umahi’s state turned out a pleasure tour of a state once derided as backward and provincial. For someone who had frequented the state over 10 years ago, my recent trip to the state renowned for her legendary Abakaliki rice was a pleasure tour of an environment which more than convinces you that democracy is working in Nigeria, albeit far more evidential in some states.

New educational and health facilities point to a leader who understands that a healthy and well developed human capital are the most effective catalysts to drive growth and development of a state, nation or any community of humans.

The beauty of it all is not just in the array of infrastructural totems that signpost the advancement of the state, but in the fact that these constructions are driven by direct labour and local contractors. Umahi is a civil engineer. And he has brought his expertise to bear on the job. Doing so much with very little. Achieving efficiency with little budget and innovating solutions to address compelling needs

Two things stand Umahi’s infrastructure story out: Labour and cost. Granted, he’s not the only governor high on infrastructure. But he’s the only governor using a combination of direct labour and local contractors to achieve so much with so little resources. Umahi has outperformed many governors in infrastructure without plunging his state into the abyss of debt, domestic and external.

Nigeria’s debt stock has graced the $42 billion curve, and still rising. Much of this are external borrowings by states. In the latest Debt Management Office data, Ebonyi is not numbered among states with high domestic and external debt. The states with the highest external debts were listed as Lagos, Kaduna, Cross River, Edo, and Rivers.

On the domestic debt front, Ebonyi has remained among the low debt states. Lagos leads the list with N780.48 billion domestic debt as of March this year, accounting for 16.1% of the entire states’ domestic debt. Ogun follows with N241.98 billion, representing 6.1% of the total debts.

Rivers is in third place with N225.51 billion domestic debt while Imo recorded a domestic debt stock of N204.61 billion. Akwa Ibom follows with N203.11 billion.

Others are Delta (N163.48 billion), Cross River (N158.93 billion), Plateau (N152.1 billion), Bayelsa (N151.41 billion) and Oyo State (N141.19 billion).

So, how has Umahi conjured the quantum of infrastructural development in his state? Primarily, Umahi is a civil engineer with vast experience in private sector construction industry and business before veering into politics. Obviously, he has added his engineering skill to evoke the spirit of Jugaad, using local technology, human capital and raw materials to build infrastructure at half the cost compared to costs in some other states. Jugaad innovators strive to deliver more (value) for less (cost). This is what Umahi is doing in Ebonyi.

A friend and senior colleague, Ocherome Nnana, recently said that somebody like Umahi should be appointed the Minister of Works, no matter the government that takes charge in 2023. No journalist would see the size and quality of transformative infrastructure wrought in Ebonyi by Umahi all at low cost and not make same wish.

India has a vibrant steel industry. They have put their steel to good use: building steel bridges across the land, investing and developing their automobile industry, among others. India education curriculum is largely numerate. This has given them a head start in engineering, software development and science in general. They simply looked inwards, using what they have to solve problems. That is the spirit of Jugaad: using local technology and materials to engineer solutions to local challenges. By using direct labour, local contractors and locally sourced raw materials, Umahi has saved the nation from capital flight, empowered Nigerians and helped to nurture local techies and technology. Ebonyi is a small budget state but Umahi has out of the small budget wrought big things. That’s 21^st century leadership. In this age and time, leadership must innovate. In a resource-challenged global economy, the smart thing to do as leaders is to maximise productivity at minimised cost. It’s called smart management.

The India trio sums it up: “Jugaad is a bottom up innovation approach that provides organizations in both emerging and developed economies the key capabilities they need to succeed in a hypercompetitive and fast-moving world: frugality, inclusivity, collaboration, and adaptability. That’s the Umahi way. And it’s worthy of eclat!

First published in Sunday Sun