Of cobwebs and spiders: Kefas fumigation efforts. Emmanuel Bello

 

Who cares what a street is called so long as the road is well done, pliable and maintained? Whoever argues about the name of a doctor who cures them of a malignant tumor? The healing is all that matters. As a matter of fact, what's in a name?

Most people would rather enjoy the substance than bother about nomenclature of anything. But for my big brother and senior colleague, Osborne Adi, the main concern of Tarabans after a year of Governor Agbu Kefas star performance should be about naming ceremonies. In a write-up that's now viral, Osborn stubbornly tried to make a puerile point. He fumed that Governor Kefas is no longer humble ( as if he has a thermometer to measure that quality). He decried the naming of certain projects after the governor. He struggled to white wash the battered records of the administration he served.

Now, if many people can not recall who Osborne Adi is, it won't be their fault.  He was one the spokesmen of a regime that started some things they could not finish. It wasn't a noisy job back then because there wasn't anything for the erudite Osborn to talk about.  But now he has suddenly found his voice. Thanks to the Moving Forward agenda. 

But let's reexamine his main contention that Governor Kefas is renaming some of the projects after himself.  Truth is, the majority of our people didn't even notice any of that. They are more concerned with how these projects impact their lives. What's the point, for instance, having a half completed Abbatoir that is not named after anyone? They would rather have a functional Abbatoir named after anything. What's the use of the history of a project if it is not completed to serve its full potential? Methinks people will prefer to have what works than worry about who it is named after. In the long run, what should be immortalized is not mere structures and names but the services those edifices rendered. That's what outlives all of us. Good leadership should strive at that.

For Governor Agbu Kefas, the cobwebs and spiders he's been dealing with this past one year are the backlog of failed promises, skewed policies, and age long problems allowed to have fostered over time. And it is for these, he's getting all the accolades.  People are busy admiring his good works to bother about whose byline the projects are carrying.