Sir,
A columnist writing in Nigeria at this period of our national crisis is faced with the task of wading through the miasma of events of concurrent national importance. So no writer complains of the proverbial “writer’s block” now. What we have now is the “writer’s glut!” There is so much happening around you that one often gets confused sifting through to make an appropriate choice of what to tackle first. The north is still reeling under the sustained threat of Boko Haram bombs. Victims of the bombs are arriving their homes in body bags to the wailing and anguish of their loved ones and the rage of their communities. The country is at the lowest point in her patriotism quotient. Nigerians are now openly discussing how to break up. The nation’s institutions are still under lock and keys as a result of strike action by the academic staff union of universities. Nigerians are grappling with unimaginable hardship arising from the removal, albeit partial, of subsidy on petroleum products.
I had started writing on the highly provocative statements in recent media credited to Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s Central Bank governor that tended to justify the madness that we call Boko Haram. I was tempted to dwell on his once fixation on the introduction of Islamic banking, a policy that I had no problem with, but one I am beginning to read more meaning into due to his current posturing on a number of issues. I had to suspend my comments on Sanusi, when the news of the ruling of the Court of Appeal came tumbling in. To me, the case had to take precedence over every other matter, because you are involved.
It was in the process of proceeding with my comment on the ruling that I came to realize that Saturday, January 28, 2012 was your fifth-second birthday. Was it a coincidence that nature brought the two incidents almost at the same time? No! Things don’t just happen like that. The outcome of the court case came at the time of your birthday to remind you that God owns everything, including our lives. The juxtaposition of the seeming antithetical events draws a natural attention to the fact that we tend to look at mundane worldly things and attach more importance to them than they deserve.
But I know you well enough to realize that you accept things the way they are and look up to God for direction. It takes a man who anchors his entire life, political and social to the unseen hands of God, for you to have risen to the heights you are now. I still hear your voice the day you told me the story of your youth. I still choke with emotion to remember the touching story of the deprivation of your youth. Your story on how you raised the last examination fee that saw you through secondary school, is still fresh. In your life, I have seen the hands of God in the affairs of man.
I am sure that your state in life today has confounded some people. Some are still surprised and angry that you have risen beyond the bounds they set for you. They are obviously miffed that another from a less class has appropriated what should have been theirs by birth. But while they play God, they are not God. The Almighty has lifted you far beyond their blighted imaginations. And He has not even finished with you.
As a politician, you are light years ahead of the clan of rent politicians furiously seeking your fall. You have demonstrated a brand of politics that they have never witnessed and of course, it shouldn’t have been you. You have shown the superiority of mind power over their manipulative power. You have proved that with a little political power, the story can change for the less privileged.
I understand sir, when you face the undeserved vilifications and organized demonization of your person going on. I appreciate the turn of events when friends turn foes, for no reason other than following the herd. I, sometimes pity you when I see the grand conspiracy of the elite class, fighting so hard to dim a light they did not light. The very essence of the type of politics we play here thrives on blackmail and muckraking. If it were not so, how come that the same man our governor so publicly extolled his virtue at Ibom hall, calling on other representatives to take a cue from, would over night become a non performer? How come that the man the entire state rose in oneness to salute his sagacious presence in the National Assembly, would within a second become a nonstarter?
We all know what went wrong. The rent-taking political maggots waiting to scavenge on what rightly belongs to the people felt shortchanged. It was right that the various community based projects you either attracted to the communities in your constituency were forfeited and the baggy pockets of political godfathers are lined up with cheap cash. It would have been good representation for you to dole out undeserved cash to political louts and political pimps in place of the numerous life-changing empowerment projects you embarked upon. We understand that even those you sent abroad should not have gone anywhere so that you will be able to give car gifts to political contractors, who already had four or more ill-gotten cars packed in their garages.
If others don’t know why you have almost become a demon before these demagogues, some of us know. You did not give them cash to marry new wives and lodge girl friends in posh hotels each time they come to Abuja. Yes. You did not provide chuffer-driven cars to make their stay in Abuja cozy enough. You did not take care of their daughters’ wedding expenses. We know, because they tell us that you did not buy cows and hundreds of bags of rice to pay homage to those who own the party structures. You forgot to attend burials and even naming ceremonies. Those are your sins. It does not matter that you sent children of the poor to school. It is immaterial that many youths have had the benefit of a means of livelihood, thanks to your foresight in sending them to the Maritime Academy Oron to empower them to be useful to themselves. It does not make sense to those who are calling for your head that cooperative societies could be a veritable means of economic independence if effectively and efficiently managed, as you created some for your people. It is of no use to those waiting to hang you that you brought health facilities, libraries, ITC centers, water projects and supported many individuals that your being in the National Assembly had given the opportunity to become self reliant.
Sir, I have a friend here. He has a testimony that would mean nothing to your adversaries. He is not even from your constituency. But he has a story of Hon Eseme Eyiboh, who saw through his circumstances and asked him what he wanted for life. Sir, Linus said he chose education and ever since that life changing encounter with you, he has been a direct beneficiary of your education empowerment, which is today seeing him through the University of Uyo. I was with you in your hotel room some day in 2010. It was some days to the Asan Ibibio declaration for Governor Akpabio. They came in, spotting the cap of Akwa Ibom Democratic Voice, ADV. Both of them were Akwa Ibom youths you have never met. You brought them, a boy and a girl into the room and asked them what they were doing for a living. They both said they were supposed to be in school, but they did not have the wherewithal to continue. Even before you asked them their name, you had expressed your desire to assist. I can still remember the looks in their eyes. The boy sir, shed some tears. I did not hear you ask them where they came from. They could have been from the moon, but all you cared about was their future.
I have no time to sing your praise, but if I had sir, I would hymn you eternally. I also have my personal testimony. It was a rainy evening sometime after the election. I did not know you were even in the court trying to reclaim your seat in the National Assembly. I only knew you were yet another victim of Nigeria’s poverty of politics and politics of poverty, where the political vultures still subvert the will of the people through some unfortunate cooptation into positions. That evening a mail arrived. I was supposed to fill the form to attend a UK based public relations course. I was shocked. You said it was a full scholarship, to be paid in pounds sterling. I was touched. This was a man that has just lost an election, so it seemed then. You did not mind the state of things then; you were still seeking to make a better person out of a man that had nothing to offer you. I had to decline the offer because it would have conflicted with my law degree programme in Uyo.
Hon Eyiboh, your life has been a light for all those you have positively impacted on. The hounds may despise you; you may be vilified by those who are perpetually in search of the ways and means of dipping their hands into public purse, even if such purse is a personal purse made available to the community.
Note sir, that I have not said a word concerning the court of appeal and its verdict. I leave that to those involved and the likely historical place it will occupy in our jurisprudence. I have faith, just like you, that at the appointed time the true verdict of God would come. I am sure that the roadblock is just a signpost to make you savour the ultimate victory when it shall come.
I am sure I have not bored you with so much political talks on this season of your birthday. It is not easy to celebrate when a man seems to be on the valley of life or career. At such points, even friends take unceremonious leave, goodwill messages dry up and jolly good fellows move to where the sun still shines. But be rest assured that even if the whole world depart, those you have touched would still remember that a man once passed through their lives. Happy birthday sir. Your light will never dim, because you will never walk alone!
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