By Bala Zakari.
There is no gain stating the fact that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown especially when such crown attracts a lot more challenges that ordinarily shouldn’t be. At such times, it takes the grace of God and the confidence of the people to keep the crown resting on the head of the crown bearer.
Such is the case of the Speaker, Kogi State House of Assembly and Member representing Lokoja I State Constituency, Rt. Hon. Umar Ahmed Imam. By all standards measurable, he is a People’s Speaker and indeed, a man of the people described in several quarters in glowing terms that is enough to inspire would be public service providers in whatever capacity.
A winner of several awards and a high chief of the Ido-Osun Kingdom, Osun State, Rt. Hon. Umar Ahmed Imam have just been conferred with the Best Legislator of the Year Award for his outstanding achievement in public service by the African Media Roundtable Initiative (AMRI) in collaboration with the Coalition of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and African Hall of Fame (AHF).
The event which took place at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Abuja on Friday, 23rd of June, 2017 was in commemoration of this year’s United Nations Public Service Day Lecture Series/Honor 2017.
The Speaker who was honored alongside two distinguished Nigerians, the President, Customary Court of Appeal, Honourable Justice Moses Bello and the Akwa Ibom State Head of Service, Mrs. Ekerebong Akpan was accompanied to the event by the member representing Idah State Constituency, Hon. Haruna Idoko Musa, his Ward Party Chairman, Alh. Abdullahi Maikudi Bature and several well-wishers across the country.
While justifying the reason for bestowing the award on him, after a very intense and careful selection, the Executive Director of African Media Roundtable Initiative (AMRI) Omoluabi Olabode Adeyemi said at the venue that Rt. Hon. Imam, who he described as “very humble, very celebral, intellectually very mobile, dynamic and highly indoctrinated with sound legislative administration” was chosen base on the stability he brought to the Kogi State House of Assembly, after the crisis it went through, and providing a leadership direction for the Assembly and doing that very well as well as doing everything to entrench democracy and democratic value in Nigeria.
In his acceptance speech, Rt. Hon. Imam was quick at informing the guests at the event of his motivation to join politics after an unblemished 17 years of working as a public servant in Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which he said was to answer the clarion call of his people who have suffered from long years of perpetual under representation. According to him “The driving force that actually propel me to come to the public service is that thing that drives me to contribute to the process of nationhood. Knowing too well that politics is the only vehicle to attain leadership, particularly in a democracy”
He said even though he is a new entrant into politics, he enjoin more Nigerians with better ideas to get involve and salvage the nation because of the deficit so far suffered when you have mediocre public servants in power. Quoting Aristotle and Socrates to support his stand he said “If you say politics is dirty and you claim to be clean, you will have dirty people getting into public offices and ruling over us, the clean ones as a punishment”. He therefore, charged the civil society to get more actively involved in politics rather than standby and watch mediocrity take over.
The African Media Roundtable Initiative (AMRI) is an international group of media professionals and civil society activists across Africa with the objectives to mobilize media and communication professionals towards advocacy for leadership development, policy formulation, human rights defense and journalism practice in line with ethics of the profession.
The Coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CCSO) is an assembly of responsible and responsive civil society groups in Nigeria that came together with a view to promote the defense of human right, play the roles of checks on the government, her agencies and other constituted authorities and advocate the democratic advancement of African countries.
The African Hall of Fame (AHF), Publisher of the African Views Magazine is a media organization that promotes and advocates an afrocentric agenda. The organization is also in the vanguard of media development and advancement of Africa through exposition of potentials of Africa to the Global Community.
The Annual Lecture Series/Honors is held to identify and reward African Personalities who are offering unconditional public services to African States and this is done in commemoration of the United Nation’s Public Service Day and this year’s theme was “the Nigerian Public Service, Challenges, Opportunities and Way Forward”.
For Rt. Hon. Umar Ahmed Imam, it won’t be out of place to say “this is just the beginning for daring to make a difference where men in your shoes would have gave in to the sparks that comes with your office as Speaker and the number 3 Citizen of Kogi State”. And for whatever it is worth, you have been able to raise the bar as far as responsible, responsive and qualitative representation is concern. Congratulations to you for yet another super plus to your growing political and public service profile.
– Bala Zakari writes from Lokoja, Nigeria.
