The overall objectives of political engineering and gaining the trust of the electorates is the immediate delivery of the gains of democratic governance, represented by life-changing projects, empowerment programmes and policies, as well as developing and improving the physical and social dynamics of the people.

Disappointingly however, these attributes have been consigned to the background as elected representatives now see themselves as either above the people who elected them or view their positions as their personal entitlements and not as communal trust.

These were the views of the former Chief of Staff to the erstwhile Governor of Cross River State, Senator (Prof.) Ben Ayade, Hon. Chief Martin Orim.

He noted that ever so often, political figures have always got the wrong ideas or adopted the wrong approach soon after assuming office.

This inevitably leads to multiple problems in the polity with the people becoming disenchanted and wary of their identification with certain elected public office holders. Adding that unless there is a significant change in focus, he sees no real solutions to the myriad of problems confronting society. He emphasized that there is a big difference between merely representing the people and assuming all kinds of titles and sincerely giving back to the same people the gains of their political investments.

Hon. Orim, in a graphic representation of his thoughts, opined that public office is a trust and the trust element must always be borne in mind while the trustees are the people, the electorates, who queue up, sometimes in the worst of weather conditions, to cast their votes for their preferred candidates. The elected representatives therefore become the holders of the trust and must be responsible to the people at all times by ably managing the trust factor in providing the necessary services and support to the people.

The former Chief of Staff enthused that the electorates on the other hand, reserve the right to question or demand for accountability in whichever way they may choose to go about it. He cautioned political players never to chastise their people but to evolve very proactive and meaningful ways of expressing their shortcomings to allay the fears of the people.

Hon. Orim, who is the founder and moving spirit behind the G.F Orim Foundation, which has positively touched so many lives, maintained that the yawning gap in Nigeria’s version of democracy is that a whole lot of the people’s representatives lack the rudimentary knowledge of what the concept of representation and leadership really mean.

As a result of this, they have a mistaken notion of the offices they occupy at the behest of the people. As a result of this lacuna, Chief Orim advocated that the issue of leadership training should become an integral part of the electioneering process as that will significantly improve the knowledge and performance of our elected office holders.

According to him, anybody who aspires to public office should be ready and willing to answer the people’s call at all times and give them a true sense of belonging in the process.

These propositions are undoubtedly from the mindset of a man who has tasted political power and who, unarguably, delivered the dividends of democracy as much as he possibly could. The rest of society is hereby taxed with the message he has passed across.