Enveloped By Darkness. The Killing Fields Of The North~Eze Ugochukwu

Enveloped by darkness. Now they are killing themselves Who say God no dey-God dey. ~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

The chicken has come home to roost. Now they kill themselves daily. It is a land flowing in blood. Their own blood. In most states of northern Nigeria the diet of death is served as breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is served stone cold in blood.

They do not comprehend what has befallen them. The awareness of how deeply they have fallen into trouble is not too obvious to them. They dont know what hit them. They are the children of wickedness. The offsprings of evil doers. They have innocent bloods on their hands.

The promise of God that he will visit generation upon generation of evil doers did not come back void afterall. This is examplified by the massacres in the north. From Borno to Yobe. From Zamfara to Kaduna. It is bloodbath everywhere in northern Nigeria. Not forgeting the ethnic cleansing the Benue. No place is safe in northern Nigeria. Kebbi state is centre of hell. They have turned their guns against themselves.

Helicopters on air now excort the train to move her human cargo. They have deserted their roads. What does the future hold for northern Nigeria?. God said he will bring every deed into judgement. Today, that judgement has arrived for northerners. They take delight in killing others. They derive joy and gladness in reaping where they did not sow.

” woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil…because it is in the power of their hand”. In the power of their hand, they massacred two million Igbo’s and minorities of the south; with power in their hands they sat on the resources of other regions of Nigeria; with power in their hands they mount police,army,custom checkpoints all over Igbo land extorting innocent motorists; with power in their hands, they unleashed operation python dance on innocent citizens in Aba and Umuahia, the Igbo heartland.

Man is evil. The northerners epitomizes evil in the treatment meted out to Igbos. They are relentless in their efforts to subjugate those who came to dwell in their land. Every day the body bags increases. It can only be that, finally, God is keeping to his promise by coming to judgement. You cannot go scot free no matter how long it takes. That is the reality facing the north.

The ruling class are on the run. The exclusive sections of northern cities are deserted. An unintended, unplanned, and hurried exodus has now come. The street urchins are the new leaders. The new kids on the block. The irony is that arms are everywhere. The northern society is saturated with illegal arms procured by the same elites.

They first bombed the churches and trained their guns on visitors. Then businesses start to close and investors fled. They now focused on themselves. Its an open killing fileds. The economy of the north is in ruins. The farmers are suffering the most. They can no longer cultivate their lands. Either they face bullet from herdsmen, or total wipe out of men, women and children by marauders. The lifewire of the north is under threat.

Still their leaders like the ostrich that buried her head in the sand have not fully come into realization that the game is up. That indeed a plague driven by AK47 assault riffles have arrived to wipe out a whole generation.

They are still busy in Abuja sharing the taxes and oil revenues from Southern and Eastern Nigeria. Even in Abuja the fear is palpable. Liberty has taken flight. They have refused to hear the voice of reason and atone for their sins and change their evil ways. They want to hold Nigeria by the neck and bleed the nation dry.

Issues of devolution of power and financial autonomy to unleash development is alien to the leaders of the north. Blind dominance is all they crave for. Unfortunately they are now looking back over their shoulders in their own region. The enemy is no longer in Igboland but in hausaland.

Their leaders are scared to death.They have no place to run to. Their army has failed them. There are little selfish pontifications against the Igbos for now. They have their hands full of their own blood, oozing like river. It is indeed rivers of blood. It is now northern blood not Igbo blood.

As the saying goes, ” the evil that men do …………..”

~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

Ochiagha Nkwerre.

https://www.bloglovin.com/@redlionexpress/enveloped-by-darkness-killing-fields-north~eze

Why Leaders Should Manage Their Brand Assets Properly~ Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

Nowadays, people are not only interested in the capabilities, expertise and experiences of their leaders.They go beyond that. People are also interested in their reputation, trust and image-These are assets too.

People choose the leaders they know and trust rather than take a gamble on somebody they are not sure of. The reality of todays world is that people expect a certain level of quality from their leaders.

For leaders, what they say, or what is said about them on social media has the ability to either enhance , or diminish their personal brand. What differentiates a good leader is his ability to consistently deliver on his promise to the people.

The people are starting to become more emotionally involved in the choices they make about who governs them. The focus on good governance have become an essential part of people’s daily lives today. Therefore, the agenda of any leader must have a purpose of bringing value to the people through development programs with complete transparency.

A leader must be able to connect with the people on an emotional level. There must be an affinity. The name of a leader must positively resonate in the eyes and minds of the people. His image must signal quality and value. There must be a reputation associated with a leader.

This is where branding comes in. Branding plays a big role in helping boost the careers and reputation of many leaders. The crucial question to ask is this, “ What are the thoughts and feelings that people and stakeholders have, towards a leader.?

We should remember that those who work with, and those who are close to a leader are directly involved in projecting and communicating the brand of their leader. How they behave and act plays a key role in either enhancing or diminishing their leaders brand. It is what they communicate that influence the public either for good or for bad. They are the face of their leader.

A leader however must represent something. Certain attributes that brings benefit, assurance and peace of mind to the people. People are interested in the derivable benefits from a leader more that anything else. He must inspire people to dream big and imagine the possibilities. A leader must bring on board positive values, transparency, honesty and believability.

There is intense and fierce competition amongst leaders. The people are faced with abundant and varied choices. To select quality leaders have  become a headache. This makes people’s perception about a leader very crucial. People go for who they trust more. Therefore any leader that seeks the attention of the people must be able to satisfy their want and need. These wants and needs may be tangible or intangible.

The people expect a leader to be able to improve people’s lives , helping them and their families to overcome poverty and injustice.

To build a good and strong brand, a leader should plan and implement programs and initiatives that favour the people and accurately measure the performance of those programs in order to meet his set objectives and targets. This way, he can identify threats and weaknesses.

Even when a leader is on top of his game, he must be very careful to avoid complacency, because lurking around are adversaries and shifting, changing circumstances. Therefore, a leader must innovate and evolve in order not to go into oblivion.

A leader must not in any way under-rate or under-estimate the importance of the people themselves.The arrival of the digital age and social media have given the people the ability to either assist in building a brand through positive reviews and posts, or  diminish a brand value through an angry rant or post. The social media have linked people together in a “ collective conversational web”. The people now have greater say, and can help in promoting their leader and collaborating with him, even disseminating information for the leader without being prompted. People’s participation is crucial for a leader to succeed.

Conclusively, leaders can no longer rely on simply pushing their ideas and programs to the people. It has now become imperative to build and establish meaningful relationships with the people as well.

Prince Eze Ugochukwu writes from Nkwerre, Imo State.

Perspectives As Uzodimma Proposes Imo Micro, Small And Medium Industries Development Agency ~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

In the just concluded virtual conference on Imo State economy after covid19, the governor, His Excellency Senator Hope Uzodimma proposed the setting up of an Imo State Micro, Small And Medium Industries Development Agency

This is a welcome development since the aim of such economic development will be to improve the material standard of living of the people by raising the level of per capita income.

This proposal by the governor is coming at a time when the coronavirus pandemic have ravaged the livelihood of citizens, and impacted negatively on government income and earnings.

All over the world, governments and companies are grappling with heavy misfortunes that have led to job losses, and company closures. Imo State is equally a victim of the global economic slump. Earnings from Nigeria’s oil revenue have dwindled, and the lockdown have occasioned zero returns from internally generated revenue.

When eventually established, the Imo Micro, Small And Medium Industries Development Agency as proposed by governor Uzodimma, will among other things, device policies, and initiate programs with the objective of assisting individuals and enterprises to thrive, and  create new frontiers of business innovations and growth using fiscal and financial tools, in a manner that will increase the employment level, the per capita income, and the local production capabilities.

While the private sector makes necessary investment to create jobs and increase wealth, the job of the government will be to provide opportunities and remove roadblocks that impedes economic activities.

For a state like Imo, where the agenda is that of Shared Prosperity, economic development will mean the growth in the standard of living of the poor. An increase from low-income to  high-income earning. For our people in the villages, this will mean improve in local quality of life, and market for farm produce.

There are certain things to look out for. This includes, the availability of employment opportunities, the ability of government to generate revenue to provide services, and inflow of new investments leading to growth in production.

There are numerous types of economic development ranging from:
1. Infrastructure-improved efficiency in services, good roads, internet access.
2. Education- these are institutions, systems, tools and facilities that support the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
3. Healthcare- access to hospitals, health centres and drugs.
4. Justice- an open and fair system.
5. Safety- crime prevention and disaster preparedness.
6. Finance- access to funding.

The proposal by  Governor Hope Uzodimma for an Imo Micro, Small And Medium Industries Development Agency when constituted will hopefully see to the provision of  grants and technical assistance to entrepreneurs, businesses, clusters, co-operatives and communities, to generate new employment, help retain existing jobs and stimulate industrial and commercial growth.

The responsibility of such an economic development agency will be to aggregate the use of land, labor and capital to help shape, stimulate, develop, and support economic growth.

The agency will be a source of information, a source of  assistance for startups,  and a livewire for expanding existing businesses.

We therefore commend His Excellency for this potential life changing proposal, and urge him to quickly bring the agency into existence.

Prince Eze Ugochukwu writes from Abuja.

EzeUgochukwu: Avoiding leadership pitfalls.

Nowadays, any average voter could be offended by the sight of increasing suffering of our masses.

Indeed many of our people no longer trust our leaders. Most often, those in office commit various atrocious misdeeds and mischiefs and abuse of power.

How can we dictate early enough and stop in the tracks this type of poor leadership. What are the yardsticks, the barometer to use to gauge good leaders. We cannot continue to cry and remain helpless as our generation gradually fades away.

Society has been arrested by men without soul. By insatiable monsters who feast on the commonwealth of the people for themselves and their families. They hide under different disguises to perpetrate evil against humanity. They look clean outside, while they are very rotten inside.

Why do our leaders fail most often. What brings about the failure of a person once regarded as a messiah.?

Lets look at the under-listed points of failure:
1. Personal Interest.
2. Egoism.
3. Limited knowledge/ know-how.
4. Pressure.
5. Character weekness.
6. Poor Communication.
7. Inexperience.

People in public office fail due to the manifestation of the above listed traits. The above inhibitive factors leads to the inability to unleash both the human and natural resources and endowments of our people.

Going forward, care must be taken to identify hard working, skilled and visionary person(s) to lead our people.

Winning office for personal deal-making and racketeering is not good enough.

There are certain virtues to look for in men who has governed well. Be it Mandela, Lee Kwan Yew, John F. Kennedy, etc.

These men took their people to new levels of freedom, accomplishments, achievements, and emancipation.

They brought to bear:
1. Consensus Building.
2. Inclusiveness and participation.
3. Strength & Effectiveness.
4. Equity.
5. Vision.
6. Fear of God.
7. Boldness and Fearlessness.
8. Humane & Humility.
9. Impactation.

Therefore to look for a good leader, we should look for individuals equipped with the above gifts, and there are a good number of them.

One area that we ignore is the failure of the business class to partner with politicians in looking for and identifying great leaders.

In most cases, persons of vision and versatility cannot emerge to lead due to paucity of funds. This is an area where the private sector players can assist in pushing forward this visioners through funding for the general good of society. Afterall good governance means good business.

Our society is in serious trouble. We cannot meet the needs of the citizenry. Misuse of public funds for private gain is the order of the day.

If truly we have stakeholders and opinion molders, although very difficult to do, nevertheless it is not beyond achievability to identify men and women of goodwill who will occupy public office and deliver prosperity to our people.

Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

Avoiding Vulnerability While Fulfilling Your Mission ~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

Institutions are faced with competing situations on a daily basis. To remain on top and in control, it must develop unique selling points to overcome adversities.

Those manning strategic positions in institutions must be aware of what is going on around them and in the larger society as well. No doubt about it, different situations can either make or mar an institution.

There is no Institution that is not faced with one challenge or the other. This is expected. In todays world; technological innovations, the changing global economy and recurring political upheavals poses threats and challenges to many institutions. Therefore, institutions must adopt strategies to overcome such threats. Beyond that, they must also adapt to new  opportunities offerred by these challenges and threats because there is always an inherent silver lining underneath every situation.

Obviously, part of self conciousness is for Institutions to conduct periodic situation analysis to understand both their internal and external environment. This is because something can go wrong both from within or from without.

For every institution, you must at all times and in all circumstances:-
1. “Know your enemy.
2.  Know yourself.
3. “Know your terrain, and
4. Know the weather”.
What is your vision, what is your mission, what are your strengths and weaknesses, what are the opportunities and the threats out there.

Institutions must be sure of what they are offering. What programs and policies. What are the deliverables and at what price. What are the timelines to fulfill your mission.

We should note that communication is very critical for the vision and mission of an institution. You can never get the buy-in of the population if you have zero or faulty interface with the people. How is the institution promoted. What are the people being told, what are they hearing. What services are being offerred to the people and through what processes. Is the message and messenger in sync and in harmony? A wrong messenger can render a good message unattractive.

Institutions must check the forces against it. The intensity of the rivalry, the power they weild, how damaging is this, and how can it be overcome or controlled. What  are the tactical approach and terms of engagement to overcome competitive rivals and stay on track?.

Most importantly, an institution must be able to create, communicate, and deliver value, to the population. Who are your intended beneficiaries?, Are they benefiting, if not, what gaps exist out there, how can you fill the gaps, how do you exploit opportunities, how will you win?.

Institutions must be able to identify and segment their target audience. There are vast differences amongst people, their background, needs, wants, behaviours, inclinations etc.

Segmentation will help an institution to determine the best way to meet your target audience, to determine the best way to connect to them and the appropriate method of communication. You must be strategic to position yourself. You must know what programmes to deliver, and to which target audience. Bear in mind that there are rural and urban population, that there are age, gender, education, income, lifestyle, social- class and behavorial differences. How do you take cognizance of all these array of backgrounds.?

At each point in time, you must carefully target which of the identified population you are interested in, age, location, gender, income bracket etc. You must position and find a niche in the minds of a particular audience and fill it with something that sticks to their mind. What makes your institution different in the minds of the people? What are your selling points.

Most importantly,  and in most cases; it depends on how you have communicated value to the people. What are your values. Your programs and policies. How has it impacted on the different segments of society and how have you informed them about it. Are they aware. Are they fully abreast of what you are doing. What are your feedback mechanisms to know how the people are reacting.

It must be understood that when making choices, people gravitate towards what they know and trust. Here, the best way to build trust is to show genuine understanding and concern for the population. And gaining trust requires a subtle but important shift in the way in which you present yourself.

Address the pain and needs of the people, because only then will they be open to exploring what you have to offer.

Prince Eze Ugochukwu writes from Abuja. Nigeria.

Avoiding Vulnerability While Fulfilling Your Mission ~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

Institutions are faced with competing situations on a daily basis. To remain on top and in control, it must develop unique selling points to overcome adversities.

Those manning strategic positions in institutions must be aware of what is going on around them and in the larger society as well. No doubt about it, different situations can either help or mar an institution.

There is no Institution that is not faced with one challenge or another. This is expected. Todays world is full of technological, economic and political threats and challenges. Therefore, institutions must adopt strategies to overcome such threats. Beyond that, they must adapt to new  opportunities offerred by these challenges and threats because there is always an inherent silver lining underneath every situation.

Part of self conciousness is for Institutions to conduct periodic situation analysis to understand both their internal and external environment. This is because something can go wrong both from within or from without.

For every institution, you must at all times and in all circumstances:-
1. “Know your enemy.
2.  Know yourself.
3. You must “Know your terrain and
4. Know the weather”.
What is your vision, what is your mission, what are your strengths and weaknesses, what are the opportunities and the threats.

Institutions must be sure of what they are offering. What programs and policies. What are the deliverables and at what price.

Communication is very critical for the vision and mission of an institutions. You can never get the buy-in of the population if you have zero or faulty interface. How is the institution promoted. What are the people being told, what are they hearing. What services are being offerred to the people and through what process. Is the nessage and messenger in sync and in harmony? A wrong messenger can render a good message unattractive.

Institutions must check the forces against it. The intensity of the rivalry, the power they weld, how damaging is this, and how can it be overcome and controlled. What  are the tactical approach and terms of engagement to overcome rivals.

Most importantly, an institution must be able to create, communicate, and deliver value, to the population. Who are your target audience?, what gaps exist out there, how can you fill the gaps, how do you exploit opportunities, how will you win?.

Institutions must be able to identify and segment their target audience. There are vast differences amongst people,background, needs, wants, behaviours, inclinations etc.

Segmentation will help an institution to determine the best way to meet your target audience, to determine the best way to connect to them and the appropriate method of communication. You must be strategic to position yourself. You must know what programmes to deliver to which target audience. Bear in mind that there are rural and urban population, that there are age, gender, education, income differences, lifestyle, social class and behavorial differences.

Therefore, you must carefully target which of the identified population you are interested in, age, location, gender etc. You must position and find a niche in the minds of a particular audience and fill it with something that sticks to their mind. What makes you different in the minds of the people? What are your selling points.

Most importantly,  and in most cases, it depends on how you have communicated value to the people. What are your values. Your programs and policies. How has it impacted on the different segments of society and how have you informed them about it. Are they aware. Are they fully abreast of what you are doing. What are your feedback mechanisms to know how the people are reacting.

It must be understood that when making choices, people gravitate towards what they know and trust. Here, the best way to build trust is to show genuine understanding and concern for the population. And gaining trust requires a subtle but important shift in the way in which you present yourself.

Address the pain and needs of the people, because only then will they be open to exploring what you have to offer.

Prince Eze Ugochukwu writes from Abuja. Nigeria.

The Imo “Shared Prosperity” Agenda As A Sustainable Development Goal ( SDG)~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

The Imo State government agenda of “Shared Prosperity” is primarily targeted to lift a large segment of the Imo population out of poverty. This is exactly in-line with the agenda for Sustainable Development Goal, ( SDG), the focus of which, is to reduce inequality and extreme poverty.

Put together, the goal of Imo Shared Prosperity deals with the sustainable development of Imo State. It is built on social needs and demands, economic needs and ecological and environmental improvements. It is about inclusion of the poorest, in social-economic development.

In his inaugural address, the Imo State governor, His Excellency, Chief Hope Uzodinma captured the goal of his administration saying, ““Our New Imo State will enshrine a new culture of SHARED PROSPERITY in which the common wealth of the people is made available for the good of all…Above all, it is a new Imo State that will ensure good governance, prosperity, rule of law and equity”.

Following therefrom, it can be said that the ingredients of shared prosperity is ingrained on good goverance, rule of law, and equitable distribution of resources to all strata of society especially the poor.

To achieve this goal, the means of implementation becomes very critical. The need for well functioning and effective institutions for capacity building becomes inevitable.

As with sustainable development, it will require the availability of data of those living in poverty, it will require capacity building of institutions and personnel to drive the agenda, for example the bureaucracy; can the bureaucracy help to strengthen the agenda. It will require funding and allocation of resources, the involvement of critical stakeholders is necessary including Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Trade Unions and Business Organizations.

We must strive for a well functioning business environment. New legal and regulatory frameworks are needed to simplify bottlenecks, enable ease of doing business, and position Imo State as a leading business and investment hub and destination.

The State must provide easy access to land for business development and wealth creation, support elimination of all kinds of double taxations and fees and considerably reduce delays in business adjudications by providing alternative conflict resolution mechanisms. This will give comfort to potential investors.

The objective of shared prosperity is for progressive societal transformation and satisfaction of human needs and aspirations.The emphasis as we said earlier, centres on the needs of the poor. A pro-poor growth agenda, carefully engineered by the Imo State government in partnership with all stakeholders.

Implementation of the agenda requires the bureaucrats and public servants to help deliver the agenda, and in some cases, emulate what is happenning elsewhere? Government must address systemic issues within the bureaucracy to untangle any  bottlenecks in policy implementation. Have the activities of the civil service helped to drive the agenda.

The training and retraining of the workforce is laudable. It appears that Governor Uzodinma clearly understood the need for efficient drivers of his shared prosperity agenda, when he directed the; “overhaul of the bureaucratic structures to entrench strict adherence to extant laws, procedures and statutes to achieve efficient service delivery” (unquote).

Equally, there is need to balance resource allocation between the urban and rural areas. Cities are responsible for 70% of resource consumption but occupy 2% of land space. How can rural areas benefit more from government spending, bearing in mind that the main goal of any development is to achieve a prosperous society.

A factor that secures prosperity is the improvement of infrastructure namely, water, energy, roads, waste management, labour productivity, skills aquisition, cheap and inter-connected transport system, and agricultural production. These are main indicators of prosperity. To succeed, we have to accept that it is everyone’s business to fight poverty both public and private sector players. We all need to step-up. Currently, the government of Chief Hope Uzodinma is tackling infrastructure head-on in most of the sectors mentioned.

On the part of the government, there is need to utilize all available channels to mobilize revenue to be able to embark on social programmes in education and healthcare etc. In this era of low crude oil  earnings, how can government fund the shared prosperity agenda?

The answer lies with increase in resource mobilization through efficient and digitalized administration of the tax system, which is being accomplished at the moment by the Imo State government,  bringing more people within the tax bracket, curtailing tax evasion, formalizing the informal artisanship and trading sector. It is equally important to seek international development cooperation. This remains an important source of development finance and helps to supplement the budget. This has been achieved leading to increase in internally generated revenue.

International development partners include the World Bank agencies like Newmap, Unicef, WHO, RAMP, etc, the United States USAID, Ford Foundation, the United Kingdom DFID, the Afrieximbank and the AfDB etc. Payment of counterpart funding for projects will lead to inflow of foreign funds. Again, there are domestic agencies and institutions at the federal level. Aligning with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Bank of Agriculture, the Bank of Industry, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency ( SMEDAN) the NIRSAL for agric funding, etc is necessary to tap into funds, as they have one form of development program or another ranging from agric, SME’s and industry. Interesting, Governor Uzodinma has held meetings with some of these institutions.

Private Sector participation can help to share prosperity among the people. Companies doing business within the state should be encouraged to step-up there Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.This will enhance the lives of the people especially in our oil producing communities, in view of the degradation of their environment. Helping to solve local challenges will help the companies retain local legitimacy. The good news is that government has maintained open channels with oil and gas companies and other key players in the economy of the state.

To pull-off the shared posperity agenda, media activism in support of the program is crucial. If the government choose to partner with the local media, information, enlightenment and orientation can be disseminated to the population effortlessly. This will enable the masses key-into the program of government.

In today’s world, we cannot migrate into shared prosperity without technology playing a vital role. We must improve our digital literacy, upscale and improve access of women and youths to training opportunities, employ technology to reduce cost of governance through cheaper, faster, and more efficient service delivery and having data accuracy.

Agricultural development remains the key to putting food on the table for our people. There are vast funding opportunities out there especially with the CBN, the Bank of Agriculture and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, (NIRSAL). We need to increase the cultivation of priority crops likes rice seedling, cassava, palm fruits, etc, with accompanying value chains. The CBN guidelines towards Anchor Borrowers and co-operatives require proper documentation and data and this calls for agro data capture of agro practitioners in all the local government areas. Today, the Imo State government is providing Imo farmers and entrepreneurs access to funding from federal government institutions.

Education remains a pathway out of poverty. Lack of education disproportionately impacts on students from  low-income families. The government can leverage on opportunities offered by qualitative education to checkmate rise in crimes.

By embracing continuity in governance, Governor Hope Uzodinma been a man of persistency and determination has shown clearly that good politics leads to good policies, and creates good incentives while generating economic growth.

Prince Eze Ugochukwu wrote from Nkwerre, Imo State.

Forging Relationship With The Governed~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

How a government is perceived by the governed, is crucial to the overall success of the government.

A government may on average be performing well, but in the perception of the people, a different image may be presented. Infact, the pace and direction may  not be clear and obvious.

This calls for re-evaluation of communication strategy on the part of government.

Those running the affairs of a government might have their own individual distinctive, positive and unique characters, qualities and intelligence, but still not able to translate these into a cohesive,  aggregate policy communications strategy to positively rub off on the overall government perception index.

The implication is that government accomplishments and milestones are not digested by the average man on the street. This is clearly a VOID.

The key to properly market government policies and programmes is to carefully and strategically allign them with actual sectoral performances.

For example, what is the policy on education, what is the policy on agriculture, health, etc. It is only after identifying policies, that you can measure and follow the milestones and accomplishments therein and then inform the governed.

The age of internet and social media, have generated frenzied public interest in the affairs of government. People at the touch of a bottom gain access to information both positive and negative. Infact junk news now travel faster than real news.

We need to remember that those who serve as links between the government and the governed must fully have knowldge of the overall agenda of government. It is this profound or total knowledge that will help them design and articulate the tone and method of impacting the results on the governed.

Social media has come to bind together people who live far and wide, people of different culture and of different levels of knowledge, understanding and comprehension.These once- remote entities are now networked; their agitation and hunger for information have become direct and substantial.

If properly approached, handled and managed, government programs and policies can be choreographed to reach the people and make positive impact on them.

Those handling government interface with the people must aggregate the overall happennings in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies in order to create linkages, sector by sector. It is irresponsible for a government to have all appointees talking at the same time and doing so at cross-purposes. Even with each trying to outshine the other.

The icon of any government is the man at the head, be it president or governor. Nothing should be unknowingly done to undermine this by appointees of government. The loyalty of the appointees is to the man at the helms. There should be non promotion of individual self at the expense of the icon. This can create confusion in the minds of the governed.

Therefore, the key to winning the people lies with, informing them about the core programs and policies of government, measure the milestones and accomplishments and report accordingly to the people. In other words, the policy, the program for implementation, the milestone covered so far, and then the benefits to be derived or gained by the governed.

There must be benefits for the governed for any program to make sense to them. Immediately the benefits are accurately communicated to the governed, they will not have any hesitation keying- into the affairs of the government and giving their own support.

Prince Eze Ugochukwu wrote from Abuja, FCT -Nigeria.

Madagascar’s Public Sector Entrepreneurial Effort And Filling An Insitutional Void In HealthCare Delivery~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.

Madagascar, a small island nation off the coast of Southern Africa has done wonders. In the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, the country has done the unthinkable and unimaginable.

What Madagascar has done, by producing home-grown medical innovation for the cure of covid19 is swimming against the sharks of the Western Pharmaceutical industry. It is unprecedented from the African emerging market perspective.

From the entrepreneurial point of view, the country has filled an,
” INSTITUTIONAL VOID”  by taking advantage of the opportunity offered by lack of vaccine for covid19.

Madagascar has managed to circumvent the limitations of her environment.

Institutional Voids, are the gaps that exist in specific markets, in this case the absence of a vaccine to cure coronavirus disease. Although Institutional voids are impediments, they are also opportunities for entrepreneurship to thrive, via interventions.

By producing her homegrown medicine for covid19, Madagascar has today intervened and filled an institutional void in her healthcare sector. This is an example of public sector driven entrepreneurship intervention. With both hands, it has taken advantage of the opportunities offered by absence of vaccine. It has filled a void.

Madagascar instead of waiting for the major pharmaceutical industry players, has gone alone to navigate the market. They have filled gaps, inefficencies and other dysfunctional elements associated with the provision of vaccine for coronavirus, at least within the emerging markets of Africa.

In any market place, identifying institutional voids are the first step towards effective entrepreneurial intervention. This is what Madagascar has done. It has identified a void. (A gap).

Whether it meets Western Standard or not. Whether it meets World Health Organization ( WHO) standard or not, the crucial thing here is that Madagascar was able to identify a void ( absence of covid19 vaccine) and has used local innovative ideas to intervene, thereby making use and taking advantage of the opportunities offered for healthcare delivery.

Spotting institutional voids thus provides a crucial point for assessing business opportunities and market conditions. Today some markets ( Countries)  in Africa has embraced the herbal-based medicine produced by Madagascar.

In Madagascar today, patients can be linked to a cure facility. The intermediation process between buyer ( patient) and Seller (government hospitals in Madagascar) is fulfilled. Solutions are created. The missing link is filled.

Another achievement by Madagascar is conquering the issue of transferability. Can her medicine be transfered both within and across her borders. Has the medicine achieved acceptance and recognition as a healthcare model. In the Western markets, the innovation has been met with laughter, disbelief, skepticism and scorn as expected. But there are much faster acceptance in Africa because it is local to our environment. So across border transferability and accetability has been achieved.

Yes, the innovation is purely outside the known “MEDICAL” sense. Nevetheless it has huge implications for improving healthcare and has opened Madagascar to the world.

The success factor of the Madagascar intervention is that, it provides access to what the people want, also there are no alternatives and again, it is affordable and convenient. It is also available with adequate supplies.

Madagascar has rocked the boat. The competitive challenges it will encounter going forward will be enormous.

Prince Eze Ugochukwu wrote from Nkwerre. Imo State.