By Pat Utomi
Hypocrisy may be the hallmark of political culture in Nigeria .
It was evident when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was called to Higher Realm, as we
lamented the “greatest President we never had.” With Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu
Ekwueme, gentleman, intellectual and great champion of fairness and balance in
public life, it is even more sad watching the rush to praise on his demise. The
rush of words of praise, plenty by those who toiled to prevent Nigeria from profiting from his leadership
skills and installation of decency in public life, makes those not challenged
with memory loss wonder about the essence of character in Nigeria . Do we
truly look at ourselves?
*Dr. Alex Ekwueme |
I had the privilege of knowing the great man
fairly well in good and in challenged times and learnt to gauge his stoic but
sanguine personal disposition. His place as boss, mentor in my own run tells
the story of who he was. As many very powerful engaged in frenzied lobbying for
position when he was Vice President he asked I be invited to his home. A group
of young Ph.Ds were being evidently pooled for his office but he wanted my
position to come from the President. He had made the recommendation to
President Shehu Shagari without my having any clue such a thing was in the
offing.
With a casualness that still amazes me to this
day he told me the President had approved for me to replace Professor Odenigwe.
I was not quite sure how to respond to that, so I asked if I could think about
it. He gave me liberty to go and do so. A matter that shocked my friends when I
asked their view of the offer. One asked that I immediately get in his car to
go back and say I had finished thinking about it and had reached an affirmative
conclusion.
The baptism into public life really dawned on me when Shagari and Ekwueme went
to Enugu to
condole the people after the F28 plane crash in December 1983. From there I
flew with him and Alhaji Umaru Dikko to Ibadan
where the NPN was having a convention. Arriving the venue, Ekwueme said a few
words that sounded like ejaculatory prayer, like a War Lord entering the
theatre of altercation, and handed me his Ideh of Aguata traditional
Chieftaincy Fan of office. I was overcome by the symbolism of that moment. As a
27-year old, not related in any way, and picked in perception of merit, it was
not lost on me that the noble man standing before me was making a bet on the
future and staking plenty on me. I was determined there, never to let him down.
But it would not be long before things changed.
Like the military wing of the ZANU PF moved to
stop Robert Mugabe so that the presumption of Grace Mugabe would be stopped,
the military wing of the NPN moved to stop Shagari, primarily so that Ekwueme
would not become president in 1987. It is a factual counter point to imagine where
Nigeria
would be today had they not moved. But the facts continue to be more evident by
the day. The class of capture which has exercised state capture in Nigeria
since 1966, mortally afraid that a strong-willed thinking man in power could
interfere with their strangle hold on the Nigerian State could not beer to see
Ekwueme as president in the same way as they have tried to stop MKO Abiola and
Atiku Abubakar, just as they did to Awolowo. But they were not alone. The
governors of the South East did more to sabotage Nigeria ’s future by conniving to
rob Ekwueme a place leading the country when Obasanjo could have been persuaded
to live his dream of being the next Mandela by leaving in 2003.
Former Delta State Governor James Ibori would
prove to be a person of courage in making the point that those shedding tears
that Ekwueme did not get to offer Nigeria the direction he was capable of
giving, were being hypocritical because they betrayed him when the chance came.
It is not my place to write the history of what Nigeria
could have been had these groups not prevented the possible transforming
leaders that have come Nigeria ’s
way from reaching office. But I thought of it a lot more the very last time
Ekwueme and I met, barely a month before he passed on. It was in Enugu at the Ikenga
awards. I had given a lecture on the evolution of the Nigeria Political Economy
and the Imperative of Restructuring.
As I came down from the podium, Dr.
Chukwuemeka Ezeife kept repeating excitedly, my God, that is deep. Jimi Agbaje
nicely assured him that “Pat is always deep.” But Ekwueme just kept up this
smile of satisfaction. He seemed to say I did not make a mistake 35 years ago.
The patronly figure he was then, he remained.
But I remembered also the season of detention
in the hands of many who pay warm tribute to him today. From prison he smuggled
notes that I carried off to designated people around the world and those I
saved for my memoirs. It has been a huge honour and privilege to have had the
privilege of meeting and working with a true giant among men who carried
himself so simply he often made nonsense, by his actions, my goal of desiring
to live a simple life. When he arrived Nike Lake Resort Hotel in Enugu for what would be
our final meeting just last month, he came in a Toyota Corolla. It reminded me
of the remarks of a famous architect who as a young architect arrived London only to find that
a more accomplished senior colleague had flown in the economy cabin of the same
aircraft.
How thankful I am we shared much in common by way of values. When a few years
ago one of the Awolowos said to me, I see this people trying to stop you the
way they tried to do to my father, I thought to myself what a great honour to
walk in the path of the Awolowos and Ekwuemes. But when will the generation Y
challenge those who ensured their future would be deprived of the benefits that
would have come from leaders like Chief Awolowo, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and Chief MKO
Abiola. Quite a tragic history.
Yes I remember the time of laughter, like the
great man’s determination to catch one mosquito buzzing every ear in the room
when you thought he was fully focused on an idea you had just espoused; or Mrs.
Omobola Onajide carpeting a scoundrel and him sticking his fingers in his ears
to hear no evil and see no evil. But above all he was a man not obsessed with
who he was; determined but gentle and reassuring father figure not in the
greatest hurry to impose his will but – unwavering once he was convinced he was
right.
He questioned the premise of your supposition
without letting you fill threatened and gave you that quiet smile when he saw
you had a winner. I surely will miss being at the feet of this sage.Utomi is a
political economist, professor of entrepreneurship, founder of CVL and was
special assistant to the President in 1983.
*Utomi, an Economist and public intellectual, is a Professor of Entrepreneurship
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