It is said that legends are born once every generation. It is also common knowledge that during a typical rainstorm, every bird seeks shelter from the storm by settling on a safe branch of a tree, waiting for the storm to subside; except for one bird, the Eagle. In a typical rainstorm, the Eagle uses its powerful wings to soar above the storm, until it ascends above the storm and above other birds of lesser pedigree. The Eagle also sees farther, even as it maintains a higher altitude than other birds.

The above scenario is about to play itself out in Nigeria today. Among a cacophony of multiple new candidates, some of whom are just attention seekers, in the upcoming 2019 presidential election.

For watchers of Nigeria’s political space, the new phenomenon is Mr Okey Sam Mbonu, the Abuja-based but Washington-trained politician. Mbonu, who hails from Anambra, has always been a man of first among equals. He declared his intention to seek the presidency on May 11, 2018 in Abuja. In his declaration speech, he listed four critical areas he would focus on in his first four years in office.

These are: (1) Internal security and strife

(2) Electric energy and related economic infrastructure

(3) Youth, women empowerment, and reforming the education system (4) Agriculture/water resources, and healthcare.

He said his experience in creating policies towards “community development” as a former “commissioner” in the US, provides him with a foundational framework to develop Nigeria beyond where it is now.

The following facts bear this out. Mbonu moved to the US at a young age, and attended American University, Washington; and the University of District of Columbia, School of Law, where he earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD).

No doubt, many Nigerians have earned JD from American institutions, but it is what Mbonu did during his professional training and post-qualification that sets him apart from his peers. Leveraging human relations and interpersonal skills while in Washington, Mbonu became the first non-US-born student to be elected a senator at the DC law school.

Colleagues of Mbonu from the Washington-based law school who were interviewed by this writer, said he had a mix of charm, political and social dexterity, which easily enabled him to out-campaign native-born law students, to win the coveted seat at the law school Senate.

On graduation from law school, Mbonu quickly navigated his way around Washington, and worked as senior adviser to a Washington firm during the liquidation of government assets by a US agency. At the same time, Mbonu had started to hone relationships with various stakeholders from institutional Washington, including US Congressmen and Congresswomen and other elected and appointed officials.

While his colleagues were building legal careers in Washington, some of them with reasonable material success, Mbonu, in his typical element, gravitated towards public policy and public service. He was soon appointed a Commissioner for Housing & Community Development in Prince George’s State of Maryland. Prince George’s Maryland was founded in the year 1696. It is one of the oldest and most affluent jurisdictions in the Washington metropolis (established during English colonial era).

Again, history was made when Mbonu became the first foreign-born to be appointed a commissioner in the history of Maryland.

Mbonu left public service at the end of his five-year term, to leverage his public service expertise towards a private career in the housing and urban development industry. Shortly after, he co-founded the Nigerian-American Council, a think-tank in Washington that provided policy guidance towards Africa for US institutions and private corporations.

As a Strategic Advisor and Consultant in Washington, Mbonu has provided expertise to Washington institutions, ranking members of the US Congress, Diplomats and the media on sub-Saharan Africa matters.

Over the past few years, Mbonu has also appeared regularly on various US and international media, from MSNBC, to CNBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, VOA, etc. He has been called “A Powerful Voice” in US-Nigerian matters, by US media giant, MSNBC.

Also, on February 18, 2018, he was honoured at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California, as one of the most accomplished Nigerians in the US.

If Mbonu wins the coming 2019 presidential election, it will not be the first time a Diaspora Nigerian has shaken up the status quo in Nigeria, because the Rt Hon Nnamdi Azikiwe returned from the United States in the 1937, after a nine-year sojourn, and spearheaded Nigeria’s own independence movement.

However, Mbonu said that comparing him to Zik is flattering. He maintains that his professional training and service in a United States jurisdiction, as commissioner-in-policy-making role, in an agency that included “community development,” and overseeing budgets in the $700 million-$1 billion range, sets him miles apart from every new candidate for the office of president in Nigeria today.

He said Zik would marvel at the heights Nigerians in the Diaspora, such as himself, has attained in the United States today. We tend to agree, eagles soar above the storm, eagles see farther than others and eagles do not flock; they fly alone.

The foregoing factual narrative means that the country and Mbonu could be on their way to another first: the first Nigerian with Diaspora roots to be elected president of modern Nigeria.

Even in the early stages of his campaign, Mbonu has already recorded a first, being the first presidential candidate to visit the internally displaced persons camp (IDP) camps in the North-east, at a great personal risk, because of the dangers inherent in travelling in the Boko Haram infested geo-political zone at this time.

Mbonu, indeed, is a phenomenon and a new beginning for Nigeria.

•Charles Adeyinka is Media Aide to Hon. Okey Samuel Mbonu, Presidential Aspirant, Labour Party.

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