On One Wrist Watch and a Favorite National Pass time of Pettiness.

On Workers' Day, the Covenant Christian Centre in line with their famed and laudable practice of having reputed intellectuals organized the now famous "The Platform".
This was an ample opportunity for the problems bedevilling Nigeria to be discussed and solutions proffered.

Former Anambra State Governor, Mr Peter Obi gave perhaps the most memorable and didactic speech at the event particularly on the need to reduce the cost of Government in the Country and subsequently boost savings.
On the face of it, this was an excellent and harmless speech which ordinarily should spur us as a country to do things right.
Well, this is Nigeria and the lessons that should naturally be gained were thrown to the dustbin while extensive research was undertaken to impugn the character of the Speaker.

Perhaps, Mr Peter Obi's greatest mistake was using personal examples of his own " frugality " and proclivity for minimum spending as an individual and during his time as Governor of Anambra State.

To be precise, Mr Obi made reference to the fact that he has only two shoes and also that for the past 17 years, he has used only one wrist watch consistently.
With the above statement, all hell was let loose against him by those who couldn't fathom the possibility of a Public Servant in Nigeria living within his reasonable means.

To them, he was trying to attain sainthood and without much ado, he was nicknamed "Saint Obi".
As though to prove the assertion that extravagance and public office holders in Nigeria are Siamese twins, different pictures of Peter Obi wearing different wrist watches were uploaded to the social media all in a bid to establish that in Nigeria, it's impossible for you to be a public officer without being fantastically corrupt and irretrievably given to extravagance.
Well, it's not in my place to defend Peter Obi especially given the rebuttable presumption that pictures don't lie.

However, it is saddening that nobody is talking about his call for Government officials in Nigeria to cut down on the cost of running their offices.
Nobody is taking note of his analysis of how irrelevant it is for elected and appointed public officers to travel with intimidating convoys and entourages.

Instead of paying attention to the message, we've resorted to our all too familiar and favorite pass time of casting aspersions on the messenger.

Really, it's disgusting that we have to dwell on the fact that he has more than one wrist watch as he had earlier claimed than focus on his nuggets for a national economic recovery and stability.
So, are we now going to allow our public officers to remain wasteful in the management of our resources, thereby plunging us into more severe economic difficulties simply because the person who preached it to us has not done what he preached.
Personally, I feel that we are so petty in Nigeria that we pay inordinate attention to things that really do not matter compared to the real issues that we should be cracking our heads over.

Finally, the truth is that whether Peter Obi has 7 or 15 wrist watches, one thing we can't run away from as a people is the fact that the cost of running our Governments at the State and Federal levels is astronomical and if we fail to deviate from that unholy path, the danger of an even worse economic crisis will overwhelm us.

So, rather than bicker over whether Peter Obi has one wrist watch or nine wrist watches in actual sense, we should pay greater attention to making our "leaders" more accountable in delivering the dividends of democracy as well as cutting down on the cost of maintaining themselves and their large families and entourages.

By Wilson-Okereke Clinton Elochukwu.