By Bob Majiri Etemiku
Of the apothegms employed by thinkers in their classification and determination of true greatness, none seems to have as yet surpassed, in depth of meaning, in logicality of reasoning – that oft quoted in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night – that “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.”
Yet, in this quaintest of quotes, many who ascribe themselves to greatness do not come close from scrutiny in the espousal and personification of true greatness.
Great leaders are not often politicians or religious people or captains of industry or great sports personalities. Great leaders know their people and their people know them; they are honest, authentic, they speak with an authority that comes from the inside, they listen and they accept wrong. Looking for one in these times is looking for a pin in a haystack.
Part of requirements for a consideration of true greatness is love for environment and humanity. This is not so much as patriotism or populism but just plain-old fashioned love – love for peoples and their conditions, love for an environment inhabited by peoples with peculiar issues, challenges and temptations.
And one Nigerian who has achieved greatness, demonstrated through his love for his environment and people through philanthropic activism is Patrick Osagie Eholor.
Here is one man whose antecedents prepared for the role he plays today as a community activist and advocate for good governance, transparency and accountability in governance.
Born and bred in Benin City Edo state, young Patrick saw first-hand examples of injustice, corruption and, suffered therefrom. By acquainting yourself with suffering, man becomes empathetic.
And so, imbued with a strong desire to change these peculiar circumstances, Patrick Osagie Eholor began to challenge the norms that sustain bad governance and a plethora of deficiencies apparent in the socio-political Nigerian milieu through volunteerism in social and religious activities.
But Patrick was only one man. Realizing that human energy is one of the pillars in the temple of prosperity and that his potentials would be limited if he did not harvest the near-limitless energy in the humanity all around, he founded the One Love Foundation.
It is an institution built on the understanding that love is incomplete until man lives it. For over a decade, Mr. Eholor has worked tirelessly at demonstrating that a love sustained by instruments and vehicles harnesses the vast potentialities and capabilities of humanity.
Psychologists insist that the human body is a fountain, and out of which flows the river of living waters. What waters have flown out of Mr. Patrick Osagie Eholor? What has he been saying concerning the one big issue ravaging humanity today?
Why does he say it? What do people say about him, and what does he say about what people say about him? Prior to becoming a community advocate, and describing his antecedents, Mr. Eholor once explained why he does what he does for the uplift of humanity.
“My father explained the value of integrity to me like this: ‘those who hold high office in public life must be men of integrity; otherwise they betray the trust reposed in them by the community.’ When, however such men are possessed of integrity, they will devote themselves to the welfare of the community which has placed its confidence in them.”
With the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, Mr. Eholor has said whether at state and federal levels, Nigeria was not prepared for the disease.
“COVID-19 is real. And as a people, we have not been responsible. Most of our leaders are taking undue advantage. The fact of the matter is that we usually copy whatever the Western world does without taking into consideration the years of research and planning that had gone into the decision-making processes there. They have declared a lockdown and tempered it with palliatives for all. Here we have declared a palliative for some,” he said.
As an advocate for fiscal transparency and good governance, Mr. Eholor thinks it is preposterous for government to have made claims to spending N100billion in three days in the management of the pandemic when there was still a lot of ignorance, and a dearth of test and screening kits.
“In less than one month, fires have gutted three very sensitive federal government offices, and therefore when issues of accountability would come up, nobody would find the papers related to audited accounts/papers of how the COVID-19 funds have been spent. We are pained and very saddened at these unfortunate turn of events.”
As they say, goldfish have no hiding place. Traducers are eager to mar Mr. Eholor’s image as a Universalist and community advocate. They seek to diminish the value of his activism by pitching him against the political actors in Edo State.
In these times, little men would strut hither and tither seeking a dishonorable grave to be buried. But vocal in self-defense without being loud, tempered in defeating this abnegation without being intemperate, Patrick Eholor seeks to follow the rule always in resolving issues.
Alltimepost special correspondent, Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku recently caught up with him, and this was the result of our conversation:
Q: Tell us something about yourself that we don’t already know about you sir.
A: Let’s start with what you already know. I founded One Love Family & Caring Association (One Love Foundation, Nigeria, for short). It is a non-profit non-governmental organization for justice and human rights campaigns across Nigeria.
From 2007-2016, we worked to bring government attention to amenities and infrastructure denied oil producing seaport community, Gelegele, in Ovia North East council area of Edo state, South-South Nigeria.
From 2009, we founded and funded the popular box-office TV programme, One Love Forum, airing on government owned national television network, NTA Benin, which brought election violence in Nigeria into sharp focus in the radar of government and NGOs nationwide.
The impact gave birth to the social crusader promoting and pioneering the famous One-Man One-Vote crusade and catch phrase whose flavor Nigeria state governors and political lobbyists of presidential candidates picked up, thence heightening the consciousness of ballot integrity across Nigeria.
SINCE 2009, we were founding crusader of the Close-their-Legs, Open-their-Brains campaign against sex-for-marks trauma and abuse of women by lecturers of Nigeria universities and higher institutions of learning.
This campaign has since emboldened female scholars nationwide to resist report and testify in courts against sexual pressures by predatory lecturers, leading to sack and high profile prison conviction of culpable lecturers, including professors, in Nigeria universities especially since 2016.
Since 2010, we have been vocal crusaders of freedom of information on demand by Nigeria public, advocating unhindered access to records of public expenditures by government ministries, departments and agencies. This was eventually passed into law as the Freedom of Information Act by Nigeria’s parliament on May 28, 2013.
SINCE 2011, we pioneered landmark litigations enforcing provisions of the FOI Act against Nigeria’s elected public officers. Some of our notable litigations include:
(i) Suit against former Edo state governor, His Excellency Aliu Oshiomhole, and his Commissioner for Health, Engr. Clement Agba, for public disclosure of expenditure details of #25billion state loan meant to execute Benin capital city Storm Water project but embezzled by state actors.
(ii) A suit upheld by federal high court preventing state governor, His Excellency Aliu Oshiomhole, from selling to private proxies of state actors Edo House, the equivalent of a state embassy in another state of the Nigeria federation.
(iii) Litigation against current state governor, His Excellency Godwin Obaseki, to make public and to justify additional #38billion state loan and projects expended in the light of meagre projects on ground.
(iv) Suit seeking his district’s senator in parliament, Senator Ehigie Uzamere to publicly disclose his emoluments and salaries, preparatory to a grand recall process for non-performance.
The respondent senator narrowly escaped recall fall because the suit came at the terminal months of completing his single term and he never achieved re-election because of the foundation’s FOI action.
Other civil right litigations and public mobilization against wrongdoing by state and private sector institutions in Nigeria include Patrick Eholor vs.
Nigeria Customs against checkpoint killings of merchant citizens by Customs officers often occurring during demands for bribes, Central Bank of Nigeria currency abuse and fraudulent service charges by Nigeria banks.
Others include public mobilization rallies and media conferences to enforce compliance and non-diversion by Nigeria state governors of Paris Club debt reliefs from relief specified public interest projects since 2008 to date remains a historical landmark in Nigeria’s public treasury probity advocacy.
Q: Impressive. But tell our readers – what’s your assessment of governance in Edo state. What has the incumbent done well and what do you think he should do to improve?
A: There are many areas the governor is doing well but I want to dwell on infrastructure. He is doing his best in that area but I believe though that to take things forward, he should settle whatever political differences he has with his predecessor.
Q: Do you want to evaluate the coming election scenario in Edo, and how do you think things will play out?
A: Again, apart from what I already said concerning the reconciliation of both the incumbent and his predecessor, I do believe that eventually, the people of Edo state will make a decision on who governs them going forward.
Q: Well said…you have run an NGO based in Benin City. Tell us how you have used it to impact on issues of transparency & accountability in the conduct of governance in Edo and Nigeria?
A: In addition to some of the issues we already highlighted in the course of this interview:
We are friends to patron of Special Children, People with Disability. We are an NGO that has sustained multi-decade material and financial donations to internally displaced persons.
We inducted Friend and Patron-Saint of Orphans Acre, a faith-based sustainable livelihood for orphanages programme in recognition of years of critical funding support.
We have donated Power inverters to Ugbor and Etete Police Divisions of Edo state Police Command to augment poor power supply and improve services by the police precincts.
We have also made available Power Inverters to the Edo State Specialist Hospital to improve inadequate power supply in infirmary facilities which offer critical life support medical services to the public.
Through our NGO, One Love Foundation, we have made available hundreds of small and medium scholarship support funding to indigent and exceptional students, numerous financial contributions to student unions of various Nigerian universities literally totaling millions of naira in the last 25 years.
We are patrons of and made financial donations to various youth football tournaments in Edo and Delta states of Nigeria.
Etemiku is Alltimepost.com Special Correspondent and editor-in-chief of Bob MajiriOghene Communications, a media and public relations organization in Nigeria. majirioghene@protonmail.com
