Nollywood actor and Commissioner for Culture and Tourism in Delta state, Richard Mofe Damijo also known as RMD, has explained that political situation, when looked from the outside, is quite different from the inside.
According to the actor, people tend to believe that public office holders should cater for their problems, forgetting that they should be for everybody.
RMD explained that since he got his political appointment, he has lost many friends of his, especially those in Lagos, who believe he does not want to associate with them.
“From your swearing in, your people come to you and embrace you, even though they did not get you the job, you become their property, so your sense of responsibility changes immediately. You become automatically responsible for a whole lot of people, and making sure that, for instance, in the area of culture and tourism, you are able to formulate policies, keep it on track and ensure that there is enough impact in the lives of the people and on the economy of your state.
“So, that makes you a whole lot more responsible because you find that when anything is wrong back home, you are called upon. It also places a position of leadership upon your shoulders,” he narrated.
The actor further disclosed that, “For me, there was like a complete transfer of allegiance from Lagos State to Delta State, and friends that you left behind from where you have been all your life think that it is a position of glamour, where you come in, grab a lot of money and come back to Lagos and it’s party time every day.
“But I had to disappoint a whole lot of people and it alienated me from a lot of my friends because they couldn’t understand the transformation, from turning my back on living the life in Lagos State and just entirely focusing here in Delta.
“It took some time for me to educate all lot of them that I cannot carry stuff from Delta for us to be partying, I now have a responsibility towards the people of Delta and that is the core focus of my life from here on. It has also taught me that it is easy to be on the outside and criticise everything that you see going on in government, you need to get in and understand how bureaucracy is designed.”
