Senator Agbo writes new book, ‘Governance Under Gross Limitations’

Erstwhile Senator representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District in the Senate and former Commissioner representing Southeast zone at the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Distinguished Senator Anthony Agbo, has written a new book titled: “Governance Under Gross Limitations”.

The 228-page book with ten chapters by Senator Agbo, an astute politician, mathematician, researcher, public commentator and poet, reveals the ancient secret, mystery and truth that tends to give convincing explanations for the failure of leadership and lack of progress in Africa.

Published by Snaap Press Nigeria Ltd, Enugu, the book, according to the ex-parliamentarian, seeks to find solution to “a seemingly intractable problem by first of all seeking out the primordial root cause of the problem. And the problem is that of failure of leadership across the continent of Africa.”

Realising through a painstaking research that the answer to the continent’s leadership question does not lie squarely, but only marginally on leadership theory books, the academic, political and civil exposure of the individuals concerned, the author dug beyond “the thick layers of all that have been known and canvassed about leadership; and searched with a glowing lamp of diligence and dispassion into the dark, lonely and obscure path of hidden knowledge in the scripture and ancient history to unearth undisputable facts that form the bedrock of, and strikingly explains the tragic failure of the continent both in leadership and in other areas of life.”

According to him, “If sound academics, intellectuals, nationalists, reformists, sufficiently western exposed persons, products of conventional textbook leadership theories, self-acclaimed revolutionaries, and people of diverse social classes and orientations have all held leadership positions in Africa, without moving the continent into symmetrical developmental match with other nations of the world; then there is a hidden factor behind the continent’s predicament that has not be canvassed; something that needed to be known and addressed that has not been. That is what this book has painstakingly investigated, discovered and presented to readers.”

Describing Africa’s situation as “A Tale of Rich Fertile Land And Poor Broken Harvest”, Agbo in the book observed that “From the medieval period through the renaissance, to the evolution of the modern nation states to the contemporary era, the entire length and breadth of black Africa has maintained abysmal presence or indeed near total absence in the table of global development evolution that the rest of the world has assumed and indeed tagged Africa an inferior race, and in further mock attestation to this called it, ‘the dark continent’.

“As African history moved out of the antiquity after the 3000 years’ reign of the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs and their magnificent and unparalleled civilization; to the middle ages, through the renaissance to the contemporary era, every label of greatness, honour, power and glory seem to have left Africa. When modern nations began to spring up and compete for space Africa was missing in the queue.”

In the book, Agbo, a respected author and politician of note, explored the bible and traced the ancient historical root of black Africa to Ham, one of the tree sons of Noah.

In his words, “Of the whole and entire population of the old world (being the descendants of the progenitor Adam), only Noah and his family survived the flood, with the male and female of every animal species on earth.

“The antediluvian Patriarch, Noah had three children, namely, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham, the black son of Noah is the father and progenitor of African, the black (or Negroid) race. Ham, begat four sons, namely; Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan. These children of Ham, the ancient Africans, are the central subject of discussion in this book.”

Agbo’s Governance Under Gross Limitations is a sequel to his book, “Africa: The Glory, The Curse, The Remedy”, that gave a biblical perspective of the African predicament, providing explanation as to “Why Africans are different from other races of mankind; why we are black; why we are poor (in the midst of plenty); why we were enslaved; why we are ravaged by disease; why we are dominated and enslaved; why we have problem of leadership; why we are burdened by disunity, war and strife; why we lack imagination.”

‘Adoration of the King: Poems in Honour of the Great God’ and ‘Power, Populism and Accomplishment: The story of Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo’ are among other books authored by the cerebral writer, a one-time Speaker of Old Enugu State House of Assembly.