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On the trail of the governors
to Bayelsa
By ADAGBO ONOJA
Thursday, November 26, 2009
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•Sylva
•Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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It was the very first time ever that the regular meetings of the
36 governors could be held outside Abuja. Yet, it was a decision
that should have been taken several years back. Typically, it was
never a clockwork thing, with all the hitches here and there, but
there has probably been nothing like that in the annals of the Governors’
Forum since 1999 or so when they recognized the power of their unity
as a layer of authority and, collectively, a discourse of Nigerianity.
The symbolism alone was such an overwhelming and healing experience
when nearly all the governors or their deputy decentralized their
regular meeting from Abuja to the states, starting with Bayelsa
from November 6 – 8th, 2009.
Above all, holding the meeting outside Abuja constituted in itself
an automatic peer review mechanism. For, there is no way over 90%
of Nigerian governors would converge on any state capital
and not send any aggregate message to every actor in the process
–to the voters, the parties, among the governors, and, in
fact, the Nigerian state. In all, there was the substance and symbolism,
almost in equal combination and there is the difficulty of deciding
which comes first.
On the whole, this generation of governors has no mavericks
or the “men with swagger” instinct among them. Instead,
there is an incredible aggregation into something of a near generational
informality or ideological contempt for aristocratic faddism associated
with power. There are, for instance, very few of them who will not
throw a jibe or two at some journalists or some crowd anywhere,
anytime.
Certainly not any of what I may call the emergent troika of
the original trouble makers - my own Sule Lamido, Oshiomhole of
Edo State and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State. At Bayelsa, they entangled
each other as usual, appearing to have found a moderator of their
incessant quarrel in Babangida Aliyu of Niger State. (Oshiomhole
argues that Lamido’s membership of the PDP is an ideological
aberration and makes him a renegade while Lamido counters by saying
that Oshiomhole contesting on the platform of the AC instead of
the Labour Party is a worse aberration). Every time they meet, they
engage in that circular banter.
No matter what, this troika is a product of the Nigerian left
and they are a collective message to all of us about the connection
between struggle and freedom. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers and Peter
Obi of Anambra somehow fall in here. While Amaechi is about the
only notable politician now still capable of saying that after the
Prophets, his next hero is Karl Marx, Obi is a product of protracted
electoral struggle. It is in this sense that though he was not in
Bayelsa, Mimiko fits into this list just as well as Benue’s
Gabriel Suswam, whose own radicalism appears to be a generational
revulsion against gerontocratic orthodoxy. If and when coherently
encapsulated into a dogma or a movement, it might enable him become
a statement in the matrix of humble beginning/great arrival.
There was, of course, Timipre Sylva, the tall governor of
Bayelsa and the chief host from whose lip I heard “how now”
to as many persons as i could follow. It was not surprising when
I later learnt from his media aide, Doife Ola, that his boss read
Literature at the University of Port Harcourt and was taught by,
among others, Professor Ola Rotimi, Claude Ake and Chidi Amuta.
The epistemic competitiveness in people’s background does
not count any longer in Nigeria because money speaks nowadays but
we must still recognize quality intellectual breeding. Although,
politics is not just about academic power but about acceptability
to the people, academic preparation is no less an important part
of it, especially for those without opportunity of exposure to systematic
political education as was the case many years ago.
Though without mavericks or the “men with the swagger”
among them, each one of them is still a study in the politics of
power. There was Adamawa’s Murtala Nyako who still walks straight
and hurriedly like the soldier he was. Kwara’s Bukola Saraki,
the Chairman of the forum was, of course, there. His face still
never tells you anything about what could be going on. There was
Katsina’s placid Ibrahim Shema, then Shekarau of Kano, aka
‘Malam’, Wammako of Sokoto, Namadi of Kaduna. Most South-
South governors like Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers and Akpabio of
A’Ibom arrived in traditional outfits, with Uduaghan of Delta
particularly decked in what I learnt is an Urhobo complete chief’s
attire.
There was Governor Elechi of Ebonyi State and there was Danbaba
Suntai of Taraba who arrived much, much later. Sullivan Chime of
Enugu and Theodore Orji of Abia completes the gubernatorial kaleidoscope
at Bayelsa from which the following were absent viz Fashola of Lagos
State, Gbenga Daniel of Ogun, Yuguda of Bauchi, Geidam of Yobe,
Modu Sherrif of Borno, Dakingari of Kebbi, Jonah Jang of Plateau,
Ikedi Ohakim of Imo, Ibrahim Idris of Kogi and Oyinlola of
Osun State. Oyinlola and Mimiko sent in their deputies. There is
the sheer reportorial fascination of observing each of the governors
and the way they plumaged or plunged into it all.
It was as if the Bayelsa State Government anticipated they
would be hosting an event like all Nigerian governors when they
decided to build their “Villa” in a way that accommodation
for the governors was not a problem. Almost each governor had a
dacha to himself within the Villa, a sprawling estate of several
duplexes, wings and facilities. I was completely and permanently
at the mercy of one of our advance team drivers to find my way around
the place throughout the three days in Yenagoa. If only that beauty
were replicated across the length and breadth of Bayelsa.
There is the Peace Park element of the ‘Villa’ in Bayelsa.
Its splendor is marked by the water fountains, programmed to shoot
out in a crescendo and array of colors that simply arrests your
fancy. This was where the pre-dinner taste of Bayelsa’s official
hospitality took place. That started at 21. 12 p.m. Many of the
governors were there. The dinner proper started only at 10. 46 p.m.
The one hour or so between the cocktail and the dinner proper was
used to wait for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the Vice-President. His
convoy was sighted outside The Peace Park at 10. 08 pm. Nobody ever
told anyone it was his convoy but from mere looking at the procession,
anyone could say it could only be the Vice-President’s convoy.
Who again could all the governors be waiting for if not the Vice-President?
So, it must be Azikiwe Goodluck Jonathan.
The Azikiwe aspect of his name has been missing since he became
a politician but it is common knowledge that Azikiwe is the name
given him by his mother when he was born. His mother who had been
spell bounded by Zik’s oratory and persona during a tour of
that area by the legend wanted her new baby to grow up to be a replica
of the great man of the time. I am sure the VP has surpassed the
mother’s expectations in the speed and quantum of power he
has acquired and consolidated.
This evening at Yenagoa, Governor Bukola Saraki received the
Vice-President at 10. 14 p. m. while we all remained standing. His
arrival was followed by the National Anthem and the Christian and
Muslim prayers. Every governor was introduced.
Then there was the cultural display and a dramatic presentation.
I was able to piece together the message of the cultural display.
The women songsters and dancers gyrating their way into the arena
were saying there is chance for everybody someday, a celebration
of their own regional time symbolized by Dr. Jonathan’s VPship.
But the drama sketch had a more powerful message, a reminder of
what our people went through under the colonial and immediate post-colonial
tax regimes in Nigeria, including running away into the forests
from advancing tax collector, the most hated agent of the repressive
state. It was as if the dramatists were sending a message to their
leaders to watch out against a regime of continuous levies and taxes.
The dinner itself began at 10. 47 p.m. It was followed by
the post-dinner speeches. Governor Timipre Sylva said he was too
overwhelmed to have all the governors and the Vice-President converge
in one place, Bayelsa for that matter. He said it was unprecedented.
“You have come to show to the world that peace has finally
come to Bayelsa. You have come to see and to feel the peace. All
our militants have given up arms because there is a season for everything.
There is season for militancy and there is season for giving up
arms. Their commitment to peace is genuine and final. Today, we
have signaled to the world that this nation is One Nation, One Destiny.
Militancy has become part of history of this country”.
The problem, he seemed to be saying arose from a disjuncture
in the enjoyment of the oil assets but without a care for the share
of the liabilities. But, for him, the assets and the liabilities
of oil must be for all. Anyway, he said, Nigerians have solved
the problem all by themselves without any assistance. For him again,
this is remarkable.
Turning to Bayelsa State, Sylva said it is the tourist’s
destination, being the state with the longest coastline, stretching
to about 185 kilometers. It has the most beautiful beaches and it
is acquaculturally endowed. Of course, it has oil and it is the
home state of Goodluck Jonathan who happens to be the Vice-President
of the Federal Republic.
Sylva also said to his colleagues: because you have come to
solidarise with us, your lives will never be the same again. It
will be going from glory to glory to glory”. The applause
for him was deafening.
Bukola Saraki of Kwara State then took the podium to speak
as the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum. He too emphasized
the fact that, for the first time, the forum was meeting outside
Abuja and that it was History making. He described the Niger Delta
peace process as a completely Nigerian initiative, not one based
on the thinking that unless Nigeria brought statesmen from across
the world, it could not be achieved. The governors had come to show
to the Niger Delta people that the peace efforts were real.
He then yielded ground to the man of the moment: the VP who
took the podium at 11. 33 p. m. He too began by recognizing that
the meeting of the Governors’ Forum has never been held outside
Abuja. “The history is that it has shifted and it is to Bayelsa”.
His happiness with the shift is both personal and structural. Holding
the meeting in Bayelsa, his home state is a thing of joy but more
than that, he was also concerned with what such rotation of the
meeting means for functionality of the states in relation to over
all stability. “If the states are stable, there are
less problems at the centre”, he intoned.
Speaking specifically, the VP said the meeting being held
in Bayelsa and in open spaces was a clear demonstration that peace
had been attained. “That stage of history is gone”,
he declared, adding immediately that the next stage of militancy
is development of science and technology such that if the white
men are gone, Nigeria, like other oil based economies, will not
lack the human resources capacity to husband her oil and other resources.
He said a few other things and concluded by 11. 42 p.m.
The MC was to describe the VP as “a devil avoiding VP”
which drew an applause or approving cheers from the audience, bringing
the dinner to a close with the usual Christian and Muslim prayers
and the National Anthem at 11. 49 p.m.
Sunday November 8th, 2009 and second day of the governors’
meeting turned out to be a pot pourri of activities. Some of the
governors went on to inspect some projects of the host. Some others
had a chat with ex-militants but they all converged at the meeting
proper which did not take-off till about 4 p.m. This was followed
by the communiqué which was read to newsmen right there at
The Castle (the governor’s office) by the forum’s Chairman.
He took no questions, signifying that the communiqué officially
brought the entire thing to a close. The following morning, all
the governors were ferried in batches by choppers from Yenagoa to
Port Harcourt and by air to Abuja, closing a very memorable exercise
in the management of diversity, diversity being the foundation,
the magnificence and strength of the sprawling reality called Nigeria.
Onoja is Media Aide to Gov Lamido of Jigawa State
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