I saw photos from the commissioning of a manual borehole project in Ebonyi State by a Local Government Chairman in Nigeria.
And honestly?
I had mixed feelings.
Not because borehole is bad.
Not because clean water is not important.
Not because communities don’t need it.
In fact, if we’re being honest, more than 95% of communities across Ebonyi State still struggle to access clean drinking water.
So any leader who provides water deserves credit.
But while looking at those photos…
The ribbons.
The balloons.
The crowd.
The speeches.
The ceremony.
I found myself asking one question:
When did basic responsibility become a major achievement?
And that question has refused to leave my mind.
You see, one of the biggest problems with leadership in Nigeria is not lack of projects.
It is our dangerously low standard for measuring success.
A politician repairs a few culverts.
We celebrate.
A politician drills a borehole.
We celebrate.
A politician repairs a transformer.
We celebrate.
A politician grades a road.
We celebrate.
Meanwhile, these are things citizens should already have access to.
Think about it.
Imagine a commercial bank sending you an alert after withdrawing your own money from your account.
Then organizing a ceremony to celebrate the withdrawal.
Would that make sense?
Of course not.
Because the money already belongs to you.
In the same way, public projects are not gifts from politicians.
They are paid for with public resources.
Taxpayer money.
Government allocations.
Public funds.
The people already paid for them.
That is why leadership should never be treated as charity.
Leadership is responsibility.
And public office is not a favor to the people.
It is a debt owed to the people.
A debt that must be repaid through service.
Let me say something that many politicians may not like.
The day citizens start celebrating ordinary responsibilities as extraordinary achievements…
Development begins to slow down.
Because low expectations create comfortable leaders.
And comfortable leaders rarely create transformational societies.
Because….
Why pursue industrialization when a borehole attracts the same applause?
Why attract investors when ribbon-cutting generates headlines?
Why build innovation hubs when balloons and photographers can create the appearance of progress?
This is the trap many politicians don’t realize they are falling into.
They begin measuring success by publicity instead of impact.
And that is dangerous.
Very dangerous.
Because history does not remember leaders for how many ribbons they cut.
History remembers leaders for how many problems they solved.
Let me also be fair.
At least something was delivered.
And in a country where many public officials especially in Ebonyi State complete an entire tenure without delivering anything tangible, that deserves acknowledgment.
But that is exactly why this conversation is important.
Because the question is no longer:
“Did you do something?”
The real question should be:
“Is this the level of development our people deserve in 2026?”
That is a different conversation.
You see, one thing many politicians fail to understand is that citizens don’t become grateful because you spent money.
They become grateful because you changed their lives.
There is a difference.
A borehole provides water.
Good.
But what happens when young people cannot find jobs?
What happens when businesses cannot access reliable electricity?
What happens when farmers cannot transport their produce because of bad roads?
What happens when healthcare facilities are inadequate?
What happens when schools produce graduates who are not employable?
These are the conversations that should keep leaders awake at night.
Not commissioning ceremonies.
Not balloons.
Not photo sessions.
Not social media captions.
But….Real impact.
Real transformation.
Real development.
In serious societies, the day a project is completed, people start using it immediately.
The water flows.
The lights come on.
The road opens.
Life improves.
That is the commissioning.
The beneficiaries are the ribbon cutters.
The impact is the ceremony.
The transformation is the celebration.
Here’s My advice to politicians:
Stop chasing applause.
Start chasing outcomes.
Because applause lasts for a day.
Impact lasts for generations.
And if there is one thing every public office holder should remember, it is that:
The people will not remember how many projects you commissioned.
They will remember how many problems disappeared because you were in office.
That is leadership.
Everything else is publicity.
And perhaps that is the conversation we need to start having across Ebonyi State and Nigeria.
Not whether a borehole deserves a ribbon.
But whether our expectations of leadership have become so low that basic responsibilities now look like miracles.
Because if a functioning borehole can attract this much celebration in 2026…
Then maybe the project is not what should concern us.
Maybe our standards should.
My name is Iking Ferry
A Financial Literacy Advocate and Investment Strategist on a Mission to Build 10 million Financially Free Nigerians via Fokona
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