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'Weep Not for Okadigbo'
By Kezie Ogaziechi

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The news of the death of Dr. Chuba Okadigbo did not come to me as a shock because death awaits every mortal. Rather, I felt that a Nigerian family has lost a husband, father, uncle, son and brother.

Never felt like picking a pen to write about Chuba in the sense of a dirge simply because many families have lost their dear ones and such deaths did not receive copious mention in the mass media, neither did anyone deem it fit to open condolence registers. Those were the unsung and they would remain so, not because they never contributed in any form to the society but because they lived and died in a society where the system celebrates only the visible.

As I was thinking about Chuba, my mind raced to that poor trader in Onitsha who was allegedly sent to the world beyond by a reckless policeman who ostensibly abandoned his duty post in some bank to engage in inquests about receipts of goods being carried to the market in a wheelbarrow by a poor trader trying to eke out a living unaided.

When the bullets went off and did the job, which is almost becoming customary in a system where extra-judicial killing go unpunished, the ruthless cop started telling the usual police tales that suggested that the poor lad that was dispatched constituted a security risk in the bank by using GSM phone within the banking hall and thus attracted the capital punishment from a "dutiful policeman."

Story, story. The death of that hapless breadwinner received a mere mention in one of the national papers, but from the content of the story, the news was that a bank was torched as a result of the incident by some traders who felt that one of theirs was treated unfairly.

Sometime last year, some mobile policemen dispatched some traders to the world beyond in a bid to stop a bus driver who refused to part with N20 or less which has become the unofficial toll at every police check point.

The number is countless, and daily, families are left to mourn loved ones who are unfortunate to be citizens of this country where extra-judicial killing can easily be swept under the carpet by simple press releases from the so-called police public relations personnel who are almost turning into a big embarrassment to professionally minded public relations practitioners.

Back to Senator Chuba Okadigbo who I had the opportunity of interviewing in 1982 when I was with the Sketch Publishing Company Ibadan.

After a two-hour interview with him while in the company of late Irrepressible Kanmi Ishola Osobu at the residence of Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye, the impression I came away with was that this man has no business being in politics in the Nigerian setting.

I told him that much after listening to his sound political theories, which can only make meaning in a society, where people have homogeneous thinking and political disposition notwithstanding our heterogeneity.

Chuba had a lot of things in common with late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe; their understanding of political arithmetic was (is) not consistent with the practice which potency in Nigeria can only be discoverable within the precincts of politics predicated or rooted in ethnic nationalism.

While reading through the condolence messages by the usual crowds that visit the homes of the bereaved prominent politicians in Nigeria, who called again at Chuba's residence, what was passing through my mind was the ten-letter-word HYPOCRITES.

The wordings of the condolences are usually well rehearsed to serve the purpose, couched in good poetics and others in beautiful prose eulogizing the dead that was vilified few hours before he passed on to the great beyond.

Unconfirmed reports have it that the former number three citizen was tear-gassed by the Nigerian police personnel in Kano at a rally and that contributed to his death.

The police have denied that teargas was used to stop the crowd that defied police order to hold the rally.

Between the police and the people who were at the rally, God knows who is saying the truth, but can the truth ever surface?

If Dr. Chuba Okadigbo did not opt to play the Azikiwe kind of politics where they decided to be more Nigerian than Nigeria, the police would not teargas him.

One wonders whether anyone, no matter how highly placed would have risked teargasing the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo or Sarduana of Sokoto. These politicians understood political arithmetic in an ethnically driven nation and built iron-cast fall back machine with their ethnic nationality.

That became their operational bastion and opponents held them in awe because they had constituency. These kind of incidents raises the challenges for the Lawmakers who should consistently review our body of laws to make them more socially relevant and less susceptible to abuses due to human error in application or sheer over zealousness.

The National Assembly should therefore be more socially sensitive by revisiting some of our ACTS downloaded from statues in civilized settings.

The police ACT must be revisited to ensure that it does not provide room for creating more mischief than it was intended to eliminate in line with the law makers intention.

Perhaps, after that, we would be able to draw a line between actions arising from over-zealousness, human error, and criminal negligence or an obvious performance of statutory function.

The errors are getting too many to be glossed over by the law makers who are constitutionally expected to consistently place our laws on the scale to weigh their social relevance or otherwise.

Leaving such serious issues to the discretion of the Police Inspector General would amount to allowing an individual in position of authority to play God.

Police permits for rallies are almost being politicized like interim orders via ex-parte motions.

There must be conditions statutorily set for such permits to be granted or refused and not left to the whims and caprices of personnel who may want to be good boys of the government in power.

Such indiscretions are undemocratic and should not be encouraged in a civilized society.

That could be an antidote to police brutality, recklessness and favouritism when the price and conditions are right.

Had Chuba been a good student of Nigerian political history and sentiment, he would have secured more than a mere belated eulogy in the circumstance.

Without sounding incisive, political arithmetic and its good understanding in the Nigerian setting goes beyond theatrics and flamboyance which opponents consider as a source of entertainment.

If the Inspector General of Police and his security goons reckoned with a Dr. Okadigbo that has strong following in the South-East, other options would have been considered to deploying teargas in stopping the rally. One is assuming that teargas was used in the first instance.

That the Igbos have not started setting bonfires and threatening to march on Abuja to unleash mayhem for the heartless hacking down of an Igbo political giant shows that Chuba may have attracted attention from the North and West but definitely not from the South-East.

It's a shame that Igbo politicians always receive the best accolades on death but their qualities and virtues are usually down played when they are alive.

Who is to blame? Their brand of politics.

The temptation is for the growing body of armchair theorists and optimists to write me off as a one busy body Igbo irredentist that should be sentenced to the past but the truth remains that the Nigerian project would continue to be an illusion until all the ethnic nationalities decide to iron out their differences and agree to agree in a truly representative national conference.

Any political calculation or arithmetic that fails to recognize this hard fact, cannot add up and anyone from the South-East or South-South geographical zone that pretends to enjoy the respect and confidence of the rest of the country must be daydreaming.


Dr. Chuba Okadigbo more than any other political player from the South East would have done better as an ethnic political pivot upon which the aspirations of the Igbos should have been hoisted if he did position himself properly.

It may sound idiotic but I stand to be corrected that the so called Igbo politicians that deceitfully tag along as national politicians were only used as long as they remained obedient servants and mouth piece of the real masters.

As soon as they decide to tread the path of honour and stand on principle, they are dropped like a disused tissue paper.

The list is long and they know themselves. Chuba in all fairness refused to be anybody¡s tomboy, always conscious of his pedigree and that made him almost irrelevant in the scheme of things. Not even his towering scholarly and political credentials could earn him the deserved reckoning from colleagues and minions who belatedly make a singsong of his being a primus interpares in comparative terms.

Posthumous accolade seem to be the lot of Igbo politicians, but can the living be good students of history and learn from the experience of their predecessors?

The people of Oyi and indeed Ogbunike have lost a defence minister, a rare gem who would have been better celebrated as a man with fertile scholarly mind than a poor student of political practice whose arithmetic failed him because he did not learn from the mistake of his mentor, late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

Make no mistakes about it, the only politician that can earn my respect and regard in Nigeria is one that places his ethnic nationality above all others and indeed Nigeria.

The ones that opt to be nationalists have always died unsung. So why should any sensible politician toe same path?

Even the people who plotted the downfall of Dr. Chuba Okadigbo while he worked tiredlessly to create an image for the comatose legislature in our nascent democracy, have risen to acknowledge that he was the Best Senate President after Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. What a dirge at what time!

When I read the condolence message from Remi Oyo, President Obasanjo¡s spokesperson, I nearly puked. Nothing can be more hypocritical than that. Though we all know that Obasanjo we know couldn't have authorized that, but even if he did, that must be very laughable.

If dead men do have ears, then Dr. Chuba Okadigbo must have responded to that with his deep-throated trademark laughter and he would likely chuckle: a devil yesterday and a saint today. (He would draw another big laughter this time not on what was said or who said it, but his mind would race to the same ten-letter-word Hypocrites). Perhaps that could be a variant of mocking the dead.

As I am writing about Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, my mind quickly raced to Dr. Alex Ekwueme, another Igbo politician who has refused to build an ethnic umbrella.

He has suffered so many losses that one need not remind him that all efforts to put on nationalistic garb is not appreciated by anyone. At least his experiences on the political turf so far, would have impressed it upon him that Nigerians have no place for ultra-nationalistic political players.

Being a good Igbo leader would have placed him in good stead than warming up to the now unrealistic handshakes across the Niger, or is it Benue?

As Senate President, the principal officers that did Dr. Okadigbo in were not Igbos. But while defending such officers, he burnt his fingers and most of them are sharing bed with his political enemies today.

In the heat of the impeachment saga, one remembers vividly the question Senator Arthur Nzeribe put to him, �In the whole contract scheme: ndi Igbo ha nwetere ole (how many of such contracts that has become your albatross went to Igbo senators).

That question was loaded and may be reserved for Senator Wabara, the new Senate President someday. He has started surrounding himself with Senators and personal staff from other parts of the country, avoiding Igbos in the wrongful belief that by so doing, he is entrenching himself in the system by widening his flanks. I pity his discretion and decision but one wonders why Igbos are not learning fast.

The epitaph I can spare for the late Senator Dr. Chuba Okadigbo is �Here lies a Nigerian intellectual giant, born of Igbo parents but whose political ideology was rejected simply because of his situation of birth.

To those who feel pity for the late-distinguished scholar, ensuring that justice is done in the circumstance of the events that led to him death should be the best final gift to a man who played politics with passion and scientific fervour. Atleast that much has been acknowledged by political allies and opponents.

My prayer is that should Dr. Chuba Okadigbo reincarnate in the same mould and meets Nigeria in the form it is today, he should redefine his political orientation by being more Igbo than his dressing depicts.

Need I say that Nigeria has lost yet another star, a flowery politician whose biggest political weapon was his ability to square up against any opponent deploying high cerebral gifts which he had in good measure. One wonders how many politicians today can enrich the polity as did Okadigbo who suffused the system with good dose of intellectualism.

I grief but do not weep because the late Senator Dr. Chuba Okadigbo did not give Igbos as much as he gave Nigeria and yet the recipient of his superlative endowments placed less value on it. Who do we blame? Nigeria or our deceitful leaders who would rather deny towering giants and obvious intellectual superiors while they lived.

May God reward you and sustain your family dear Chuba Okadigbo, a good man who shot straight out of conviction without minding whose ox is gored.

You lived a life that should have been reserved for a Nigeria already extricated from the diabolic clutches of ethnic irredentists and dictators donning the apparels of democrats. Adieu.


Mr. Ogaziechi is a Lagos based legal practitioner.

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Okadigbo's burial: Obasanjo told to keep off

By Okey Maduforo, Awka


As preparations for the burial of former Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo, are nearing completion, a chieftain of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and former council chairman for Dunukofia Local Government Area, Mr Clems Ezika, has said President Olusegun Obasanjo is not welcomed in Anambra State for Okadigbo's burial. Also, the State Publicity Secretary of the ANPP, Prince Chuba Ukeagwu, has asked the President to steer clear of the burial.

Speaking with Daily Independent in Awka, Ezika said going by the circumstances surrounding the death of Okadigbo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)and its flagbearer, President Obasanjo, did not have any business in Ogbunike, the hometown of the late flambouyant politician.

Ezika noted that since the death of the ANPP presidential running mate, the Federal Government has been unwilling to unravel the mystery surrounding his death for fear of being implicated in the gruesome murder.

He further decried the habit of the government which he accused of embarking on the construction of roads in the South East only when a prominent person in the South East dies, insisting that it is one of Obasanjo's antics aimed at creating a smokescreen that all is well with the zone.

"The heavy machines are now all over the place and roads are being constructed because a prominent Igbo man died. This attitude of carrying out road repairs because one Okadigbo or Ajuluchukwu died is a mere smokescreen by Obasanjo aimed at deceiving us that all is well," he said.

Ukeagwu, speaking on the issue, told Daily Independent that President Obasanjo's antecedents showed that the death of Okadigbo did not bother him, contending that the presence of Obasanjo at Okadigbo's burial is not needed in view of his position on the matter.

He also said the ANPP had the financial and human resources to organise a befitting burial for Okadigbo without the assistance and what he called politically-motivated support of the Obasanjo-led PDP.

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Remembering Chuba Okadigbo

JAMES OKOROMA

SEPTEMBER 25, 2004, marks it exactly one year since Nigeria’s former President of Senate, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Chuba Okadigbo (Oyi of Oyi) passed on in Abuja.

To many Nigerians, particularly, Oyi’s close disciples, his death is a hard and inexplicable reality they have been compelled to accept in the last one year.

Everything about Okadigbo was unique: his physique, intellect, ideas and courage.

Many Nigerians have continued to ask the question: so, Okadigbo is dead? If after one year, Oyi has not spoken, his beads have been lying fallow; his numerous kaftans are cold, his horse tail (Nza) and red caps remain unused and the nation continues to acquire the characteristics of a grave yard in the face of challenging situations, then, Oyi is actually gone forever.

To critical observers of the Nigerian political scene, Okadigbo’s exit has helped in making Nigeria look like a conquered territory: is this the nation Zik, Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Aminu Kano and Chuba Okadigbo lived and died for?

Each passing day in Nigeria makes Chuba’s death more real, more painful and more regrettable. The inevitable questions at this juncture are: did Okadigbo come before or after his time? Was he too fast to have crashed so early and quick? Why did Nigeria waste him? Chuba shone like a meteor — he came, made a mark and bowed out of a country that is hostile to her best products.

For many years, I served Chuba Okadigbo as one of his closest aides. I was always one of the last persons he would see before going to bed. Even when all the other members of staff had left, he would ask me to wait for us to review social, political and economic development strategies and take positions on issues affecting his career. Though I found his style exacting, rigorous and very demanding because I had to struggle to measure up intellectually, I came later to realise that he wanted me thoroughly trained with a wider world view and a deeper mind.

My closeness to Chuba, particularly in the last days before his death, made me realise that he died a highly troubled man.

Chuba was broken-hearted because he saw Nigeria on an irreversible journey of decline, but was unable to help — unable to act because his hands were tied. This was the reason he went to Kano where a poisonous substance was sprayed into his nostrils.

In a letter titled "The Crisis which Thomas Paine wrote to the Americans in 1776, the Puritan writer acknowledged, "tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered."

Chuba found himself absolutely incapable of conquering the tyranny and the serious threats posed to democracy, by the men, on whom fate and fortune, had bestowed the privilege of managing our fortunes. He was revolutionary in thought and action, but could not effect the changes he desired because of the numerous forces against him.

He once vowed that "I will not genuflect before executive tables" just to please the establishment.

As his former Press Secretary, part of my duty was to sample public opinion and report back to him. On one occasion after his impeachment, I confronted him with the allegation by several people, including senators, that he was an arrogant man. He reacted: "what is arrogance? Since you started working with me, have I been arrogant to you? What they consider as arrogance is the aura of intellectualism that surrounds me." He added: "since they removed me from the Senate, my popularity has grown, particularly among the masses across our fatherland. Whenever they see me, they scream Oyi, Oyi. Is that how to greet a thief?

His problem was the elite. He belonged to this class, but opposed most of the members because of the way they made Nigeria bleed through corruption, ineptitude and uninspiring leadership.

Contrary to the opinion of certain persons, Chuba had a large heart. He often talked about his adherence to "the Kantian categorical imperative," which he said preached the golden rule: "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." He only opposed people on the grounds of principle. He harboured no ill-feelings and animosity towards anyone.

For example, after the Senate had quashed the Kuta Report, many members of the committee sneaked into his house at Asokoro, Abuja, to explain their roles and seek forgiveness.

In fact, one of them confessed how much he was given and how certain pages of the Report were yanked off and replaced with indictment clauses. His response was: "Truth will vindicate the just." He was later vindicated when Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the Abuja Federal High Court wrote a judgement consigning the Kuta Report to the rubbish dump where it actually belonged.

His decision to run the 2003 presidential election as running mate to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was a pointer to Chuba’s patriotism, and goodwill to all men. Gen. Buhari sacked the Shagari government in which Chuba was a key player. He went into exile to escape Buhari’s clampdown on the politicians of that era. He was later detained. Despite this, he chose to run with Buhari in an effort to chart a new direction for Nigeria.

After the National Assembly elections on April 12, 2003 and it became clear that change was not in sight, some hardliners met with Dr. Okadigbo in his Enugu home. Their mission was to seek his consent to embark on mass violence beginning from the East.

The plot was to stop the presidential election since all indicators pointed to the fact that Obasanjo was going to return. Several meetings were held. All efforts to convince Dr. Okadigbo to acquiesce to this plot proved abortive.

On the day the final decision was to be taken, he summoned his aides including myself upstairs. In that meeting, he said: "The question I always ask myself is: what would Zik have done in times like these? He answered: "Zik would not choose to destroy Nigeria because he was rigged out of an election." Everybody was shocked that even though, his career was on the line, he chose the path of peace to save Nigeria.

He warned that the likely casualties of the proposed violent action, would be ordinary Nigerians who he said "loved me and might have voted for me." The matter ended and the over five thousand youth who were in the field waiting for the last order from Oyi, were disappointed and were demobilised.

He later told me: "one thing I can defend before God and man, is that throughout my political career, I never shed human blood." He loved man and this explains why he devoted his life to the pursuit of high ideals for the good of the people.

To the Igbo nation, the vision for the future has become blurred with Oyi’s absence and to other Nigerians, the political atmosphere is too dull. The candour, charm, charisma and excitement which Oyi’s active life infused into our politics have disappeared. Today, Nigeria appears to still be under military rule as there is no cross-fertilisation of ideas.

Oyi was self-contented man. He had no business outfit anywhere in the world. He never combined contracts with politics as a pastime. He was a philosopher-king of the Platonian school. Like Pericles, the prince of Athens, he devoted his knowledge, time and resources to the good of the poor.

He demonstrated this quality during the stand-off between President Obasanjo and former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim. Some forces who wanted Anyim out, appealed to Chuba to put his house in order and get ready to go back to office again as President of Senate. His reaction was: "If becoming Senate President is an ambition, I have achieved that." He chose rather to assist Anyim to stabilise his leadership even though the executive wanted him out at that point.

It was Franz Fanon who said that: "the future will have no pity for those men, who possessing the exceptional privilege of being able to speak words of truth to the oppressors, but have taken refuge in an attitude of passivity, of mute indifference and sometimes of cold complicity."

History and posterity will remember Chuba for not remaining passive in the face of oppression. He will continue to be remembered for not collaborating with the forces which Ngugi Wa Thiongo says "keep the people down."

For those of us Chuba seems to have abandoned midstream, we shall keep our eyes on the ball and will never appear defeated.


•Okoroma was the Special Assistant to late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo.

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