By Henry Christopher

So I want to turn your attention to this subject: “Doing for the People what the people cannot do for themselves”. As taught in the field of Political Science, this is the most basic principle that should be borne in the mind of every political leader, alongside the second, “Providing Greater Benefits to the Greater Number”. And whenever performance appraisal of such political leader/public servant is concerned, these two principles form the bedrock. Affirmation of these by the masses, ideally, guarantees successive reelection for such leader.

Besides solving the problems of space and congestion that characterised the erstwhile Direct Democracy wherein, in its earliest Athenian City State, citizens gather in a square to deliberate on, and resolve issues of public interest, Indirect or Representative Democracy is, in good conscience, premised on the view that those who are representing are obliged to selflessly return the products of representation back to the electorate, the people. And this is the IDEAL stand of modern representative democracy.

Obviously a travesty, in the most part, is the simplest way we can describe or assess the performance of our politicians, as regards dividends of democracy. Democracy “as supremacy of the masses” appears elusive to our politicians. Such undemocratic greed might resemble what informed Martin Luther King Jr’s quote that “Democracy is the greatest form of government, to my mind, that man has ever conceived, but the weakness is that we have never touched it”.

However, in the mist of all these, wherein we have politicians who are indescribably greedy and insensitive to the people whose mandate they enjoy today, we still have a few who are selfless and sensitive. They deliver promptly to the electorates, as practicable, all their campaign promises; they campaign for another tenure, NOT by frivolities and or prodigal spending, BUT by doing their jobs; just as they are concerned, not to SAVING their jobs, but to DOING their jobs. Honestly, in Anambra State, my first experience of such selfless and conscientious politician and without BLEMISH, was with HE Peter Obi, as a governor. My second experience is with the honourable member representing Nnewi North, South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituency in the House of Representative, Hon. Chris Azubogu.

Succinctly, doing for the people what the people cannot do for themselves provides the fair grounds for judging who a deserving leader is. And Hon. Chris Azubogu has acquitted himself so creditably on that, providing, evidently, different democratic yields to the people of his constituency and beyond. His just concluded Fourth Free Medical Outreach was a topnotch, to say the very least. Little wonder he’s currently in his third tenure in a row.

Aspiring higher, he vows that

HelpIsComing.