By Daniel Osa-Ogbegie
There is a discipline that precedes relevance. A man who desires to lead must first conquer himself—his impulses, his ego, his appetites. I have long accepted that private victories are the true architects of public honour.
Stephen Covey only gave language to what men of conviction have always known: the world eventually bows to the version of you forged in silence. Still water runs deep, but only because it is anchored by depth, not noise.
I do not live for applause. I live for clarity of intent and the dignity of purpose. Character, personality and vision are not accessories; they are the scaffolding of destiny. A man must refine his mind, his temperament and his instincts until excellence becomes his resting state. Public power without private cultivation is merely noise in borrowed garbs.
My calling as a lawyer has never been ornamental. The law inducted me into a life of duty—of advocacy, restraint, nation-building and sacrifice. Long before I entered any courtroom or political conversation, I understood that this vocation was preparation for something larger than self.
Sir Sapara Williams captured it in eternal words: “A lawyer lives for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country.” He was not reciting poetry; he was issuing a charge.
I have no personal adversary. I quarrel only with mediocrity, ignorance and the instability that small-minded leadership imposes on society. Silence, in the face of decline, is complicity. Neutrality is the midwife of decay. When I speak or act, it is never for display. It is because Edo and Nigeria deserve thinkers, builders and patriots—not placeholders in high office masquerading as leaders.
Men like Asue Ighodalo remind us of what leadership looks like when competence, depth and preparation meet responsibility. His presence invalidates the argument that we must endure accidental governance or applaud the unready because they stumbled into power.
Nations do not ascend on the shoulders of placeholders. Governance is not an inheritance of the unprepared.
In the end, true work does not announce itself. It is the quiet refinement of the self until one’s name arrives before one’s footsteps. Noise is never the measure of depth; the river that carves valleys does not hurry.
Daniel A. Noah Osa-Ogbegie, a lawyer, is the Edo State publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party.
