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By Kenneth Okey Anozie
In every season of political contest, there are men and women whose kernel the gods have cracked, as the political system throws them up to become the cynosure of all eyes, while the political permutations fall in their favour.
Today, Enugu State has the mantra: “Enugu State is in the Hands of God”!
It is palpable that this mantra is playing its divine role in who emerges as the successor of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Gburugburu). The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) family in Enugu State, as usual, is poised to continue its winning streak in the state by fielding the right candidate.
Dr. Kingsley Udeh, who has solid and versatile academic qualifications with requisite political and governance experience, added to his very humble and amiable personality, has a youth base that is powerfully enchanting. The good people of Enugu State will rejoice with a character like him as the governor come 2023: a worthy successor to the performing governor, Ugwuanyi.
As a jolly good fellow, who matches his words with actions, Udeh has procured his expression of interest and nomination forms, which gives him the impetus to now run as the Enugu State guber aspirant of the PDP. Enugu State has an unwritten understanding of zoning and, Udeh, being a native of Ozalla in Nkanu West Local Government Area, falls within the zone that the next governor is expected to come from.
His previous governance duties as the Senior Special Assistant to the incumbent governor on Development Aid Coordination and Mobilization, later as the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, and the Focal Person of the Enugu State Open Government Partnership (a multi-stakeholders good governance platform and unifying force between government and the civil society) endow him with the versatile experience to excellently pilot the affairs of Enugu State from May 29, 2023. He is a developmental expert and has in the previous offices held in Enugu State developed unparalleled developmental initiatives that will take the state further. Udeh is what Enugu State needs now, and the people of Enugu should rally round and hire him as the best man to oversee the affairs of Enugu State in the succeeding administration. He is a clean-slate man with no baggage that will encumber his service.
Udeh possesses the unassuming character and humility of a true servant-leader, like the incumbent governor, and will definitely continue and advance His Excellency’s trajectory of developing Enugu State and enthroning peace. This is guaranteed because Udeh, a man that fears God, has always been a silent achiever and developmental philanthropist, supporting widows, orphans, people with disabilities, the less privileged and communities without fanfare.
Enugu State has a youth voting base of nearly 34 per cent of the voters. And with a proper youth as the national youth leader of PDP, the sky is the limit for the highly skilled and progressive youths of Nigeria to excel, of which Udeh is one. If the youths can properly engage themselves and work with the women and the men of Enugu State, their political success will be limitless. Their courage and commitment in projecting Udeh as the best man for the job of the succeeding administration in Enugu State will bear bountiful fruits. There is no way Enugu State will not continue to be in the hands of God with Udeh at the helm, as the youths vicariously and politically mobilize one of their own to clinch the 2023 Enugu State governorship. Youths of Enugu State will thrive in that time, as Udeh has always in various capacities empowered the youths in diverse ways, including scholarships and skills acquisition.
In terms of professional work experience, Udeh was a lecturer at the Nigerian Law School, a senior lecturer at Baze University, Abuja, a visiting senior lecturer at University of Nigeria, as well as having held other forms of academic positions in other prominent higher institutions.
Udeh had his secondary education at the elite College of the Immaculate Conception, Enugu; obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from the prestigious University of Nigeria, a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, capping it with a Doctor of Philosophy/Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. One can say that he got it all, academically.
Udeh’s career has seen him working as a consultant with international development organisations such as the United Nations, (UNICEF, UNDP, etc.), the World Bank, African Development Bank, FCDO and the European Union in addition to national institutions, including the Nigerian Governors’ Forum. He has close to two decades of development work experience across all the states of the federation and other parts of the world. Indeed Udeh has seen it all when it comes to experience with international development partners and governments. No doubt, he will bring these excellent capacities to bear on state’s administration, if the good people of Enugu State will hire him as their chief servant. He possesses all it takes to excel.
Indeed, one of the greatest legacies that Ugwuanyi, who has done exceedingly well, will bequeath to Enugu will be to have a man like Udeh succeed him in office. That is when the positive paradigm shift that the good people of Enugu State have been clamouring for would have been successfully actualised!
•Anozie is a political analyst
