As the shopping for the Speakership of the 10th National Assembly hits up, knowledgeability in international politics is one of the major ingredients required of leadership and Nigeria at present cannot be pretentious to wishfully assume that such will not play a role or be an added advantage to elect leadership.
The Parliament as it were, remaining a shining light of representative and participatory democracy, the assertion above is required of it’s leadership to be armed with same as a necessary prerequisite for performance.
Diplomacy, being the established method of influencing the decisions and behavior of foreign governments, agencies and peoples, through dialogue and other measures short of war or violence also comes in handy as a tool required for robust diaspora engagements, with innate and acquired skills of managing international relations, typically by a country’s representative abroad.
All the above astutely fits into the person of Representative Benjamin Kalu , the Spokesperson of the Federal House of Representatives and in all honesty, part of the reason there is a wide clamour within the length and breadth of Nigeria, for him to take the bold step forward and make himself available for the Speakership of the 10th National Assembly.
Representative Benjamin Kalu’s Diaspora interface and engagements has led him to forging news partnership, evolving new trends to foster health development with special emphasis on third world countries because of its proximity to pandemics as a result of health care deficiencies and the need for Africa not to be taken unawares and the propagating new vaccine policies which will ensure vaccine availability.
When Parliamentarians and health community leaders across the Globe at the Unite Global Summit at the Portuguese Parliament in Lisbon Portugal, under the aegis of the Unite Parliamentarians Network for Global Health, Benjamin Kalu, standing shoulder to shoulder with Parliamentarians from developed European countries proffered solutions garnished with legislative acumen like financing vaccine prevention and encouraging local vaccine production as a political process involving a multitude of actors with differing powers and interests.
Legislative backing was also brought forward by Representative Kalu via insisting that legislation be passed that encourages foreign direct investment in the vaccine manufacturing value chain and visible exercise of oversight on Ministry of Health and other related agencies to ensure efficiency and judicious use of budgetary allocation.
All the above were propounded by Benjamin Kalu in far away Portugal and it takes intelligence to make such bold statements that showcases a man fit for leadership.
In the United States of America, when the Governance and Economic Development Programme, GED, organized by the Centre for International Trade Development, CITD, The International Economic Forum for the Americas held at the World Trade Centre and the Miami Herbert Business School, Representative Benjamin Kalu was specifically nominated because of his sagacity and partly sponsored by the organizers of the event with Rt Hon Femi Gbajabiamila and other select legislators from Africa in attendance, the world stood in applause for Benjamin Kalu for bringing Nigeria to global reckon.
Yet, the Oracle of the House as he is called was humane enough to say that he is only motivated to make contributions and “learn from the successes and wealth of knowledge of other key stakeholders, fostering strategic partnership with international NGO’s and private sector investors in addressing some economic problems facing Third World Countries.”
Even the Mayor of the City of Florida, Francis X Suarez, appreciating the inputs of Benjamin Kalu stated that the Nigerian Parliamentarian has shown that “Globalization should include interdependency and interconnectivity among all nations ensuring that the global community is built in a sustainable manners as each is part of the whole.”
His Diaspora engagements has taken him to Turkey, Ghana, United Kingdom among others and among others, this shows an individual with contacts that will translate to performance, which the Federal House of Representatives clamours for.
The Center for Excellence and Performance in Governance do join in the call of well meaning Nigerians and particularly soon to be inaugurated Members of the 10th Assembly with reference to the Green Chambers to look at the person of Benjamin Kalu as the unifier and the Speaker Nigeria needs now.
HENRY ONYEMA MADUBUIKE
Convener
Center for Excellence and Performance in Governance CEPG
