When I was imported from the “diaspora” as it were in 2006 (excuse my latitude in the use of English) to do the hatchet man’s job as reputation and brand management consultant, little did I envisage the cold shoulder reception I received from some key political actors in my constituency. You will recall that the local branch of the Peoples Democratic Party led by Hon. Frederick Agbedi, at the time was in dire crisis. I was brought in to help invigorate the publicity machinery of the chairman’s office. And to give voice to his activities despite the plethora of infighting at the party secretariat.Â
I never knew that political appointments were the exclusive preserve of matchete weilding and gun totting fellows who grew up in the village. They were the local champions in the political loop.Â
Incidentally, there were no sorcerers in sight to warn of the impending tiff ahead unlike Julius Ceasar who had the privilege of knowing the calamity lurking around the corner. Ceasar eventually paid the supreme price for his misjudgement. Luckily, i did not lose my limbs in the class struggle. Instead, I went on to occupy more political offices as a professional albeit at the periphery, after that altercation. More on my experiences later.
Of course, nothing prepared me for this twist of fate. I had always imagined perhaps wrongly too that competence and qualification and not any other exotic transcedental consideration should be the barometer for appointment into public office. May be I was ignorant. Just may be. Let me admit my error publicly. But I am much wiser now. You know. What matters most here is your connection to a godfather. Nothing more. The godfather as seen in the prism of Mario Puzo’s thriller of the same title— dicctates who gets what when, where and how., he gets it.Â
If you must climb the political ladder or touch it at all then you should be ready to get your fingers soiled in the machiavelian Ipower intrigues. You must be prepared to play the fool, and play the betrayal game to a ridiculous end. You must be adept at obsequious. New recruits must engage in vainglory by massaging the ego of the leader. Who ever he is irrespective of whether he is a dummy or not.Â
Boot licking is the order of the day. You must learn how to sabotage a neighbour by heaping coals of lies upon his head, if that will open doors of opportunity unto you. Get rid of perceived competitors by whatever means, as long as they are pressumed to be a threat to your ambition. Disable your enemies if you can. Learn to elbow friends and foes out of sight. Be smart, fight the war of attrition. Be suspicious of everyone around you even your own shadow, if posible. Be what Ebenezer obey called “omo manija.”Â
Keep an eye on your boss, cause him to pay premium attention to your interests. These and many more will lead to the highway of success. And if you don’t have the presence of mind to subscribe to these intrigues, kibosh your ambition of becoming a political leader.
Little wonder why we are where we are in our journey to maturity. The blight in the polity is as a result of our misplaced priorities. It obviously gave credence to why we have rallied round this valley of political miasma for so long. Indeed, we are stuck and stunted in our movement towards El dorado. The state is dwarfed by misrule and her twin sister, corruption. We are fond of taking one step forward and two steps backwards. This, sadly has been our lot over the years.Â
Political skirmishes with casualties every where have become a common feature in our political landscape. The refined personalities and competent brains are often sidelined or denied the opportunity to prove their mettle while the dregs of the creeks get the oysters.Â
Let me hasten to add that some of the players in the political arena have been very outstanding and intelligent. They are extremely brilliant in addition to being smart and courageous. These handful of men and women of scruples are entrenched in the corridors of power in the state.
Afterall our governor is a shinning example of a man above board. He has proved himself worthy to be trusted with greater responsibilities. He’s a man of honour, faith and discipline. Even so, some of those around him are less so for want of a better expression.Â
In this domain, we celebrate incompetence and applaud mediocrity. In fact we have over the years effectively elevated both vices to art forms. Otherwise, we have no reason on earth to be poor and beggetly. A faulty recruitment agenda has blinded our vision, so we rarely see beyond our noses.
I have been asked times without number how I got the appoint as a special aid on media and publicity to the speaker of the State Assembly in 2007. Well the impact of this confrontation did not register in my mind until many years after when it dawned on me that the environment was hostile and not receptive to outsiders. It does not matter how lofty one’s academic background.Â
Sincerely, i am yet to come to terms with this firmly rooted stereotypes against those of us who legitimately are citizens of the state by birth. That we were born and bred outside this environment does not diminish the fact that we are bona-fide citizens of the state with equal rights and obligations. It is quite laughable that some individuals still suffer the fools to assume that we are not entiled to aspire for the apex political office in the state. It beats my imagination.
Let me ask a rhetorical question? If Prof Soludo were a citizen of Bayelsa State, would the stakeholders have allowed him to contest the governorship race? I don’t think so.
By the way, I had barely settled down just three weeks into the job, when my principal was eased out of office for some irregulaties, an ‘inexcusable political misdeanor’. He was suspended by the national working committee of PDP for a wrong not known to the constitution of the party. But that is a matter for another day.Â
Me thinks those biases were largely feathered by fear, ignorance and myopia. Needless to say, I came to Yenagoa at a time when the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party was at its peak with very determined centrifugal forces pulling away at the soul of the party. At one end of the divide was Governor Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the major finanancier of the party, at another end was Chief Timi Alaibe, an unassailable element in the political equation in the state. In fact he called the shots at a point in time. The charismatic leader was known and addressed as the Principal. He was the executive director, administration and finance at Niger Delta Development Commission. At another end of the triangle was Chief Timipre Sylva who later became the governor of Bayelsa State by default when Dr. Jonathan was pulled out of the race due to prevailing circumstances. For the records, Alaibe was instrumental for my coming to Bayelsa State.
It may interest you to know that no angel from outside the state has had the opportunity to hold office beyond that of a commissioner or special adviser. The highest position we were ever given was that of the deputy chief of staff to the governor. Hopefully, some day somehow someone will break the glass ceiling. And that may enlarge the political space to accommodate avant-garde idealogues from the diaspora.
Let me at this juncture, identity the citizens of Bayelsa State. By social stratification, there are three distinct group of persons that make up the citizens of the state.. These are
1. The aborigines. The aborigines are the men on ground. They are very influential. By virtue of their position they make up ruling class. More often than not they are ill exposed but highly educated. Very many of them attended the two dominant universities in Port Harcourt— Rivers State University of Science and Technology, the University of Port Harcourt and the College of Education now full fledged university. They hold the unbridled monopoly of power and wealth in the state.
Guess what? Every governor who had overseen the affairs of this state since 1999 emerged from this elite group. Those in this group seem to belong to the same cartel. They hold the machinery of power in trust on behalf of the rest of us. They also control the resources of the state. What’s more? The aborigines are like a cult group. Outsiders are not admissible to the group.
2. The Port Harcourt boys. These are men and women who grew up together in Port Harcourt city. They are the closest allies of the aborigines. They are smart and more intelligent than their counterparts from the village. More often than not these men form the clusters of top public and civil servants. They form the pool of commissioners in the state. To a lesser extent there is another smaller group from the warri axis. They also align with the Port Harcourt men. Many of them were former practising lawyers and business persons.
3. The Lagos boys. These are men and wom who migrated from Lagos. Many residents of Ajegunle returned to Bayelsa state after the arms struggle between the Egbesu boys and OPC faction led by Gani Adams. Quite a number of our people relocated to Yenagoa after the week -long war. These men and women who made up the Lagos group are well educated, independent minded, smart and suave. These crop of persons are famed for their great exploits in the public and private sectors of the nation’s economy. They were involved in every field of human endearvour including sports. The aborigines usually scout for them to procure their services during difficult periods. Soon after their tenure as commissioners or special advisers they are treated with disdain. More often not they prefer to exit the scene by returning to Lagos or Abuja to continue their day to day responsibilities.
We have had a general manager of the state radio station and countless special advisers and senior special assistants. Yours truly also belong to this select group of the returnees. We are largely underrated and undermined in the scheme of things. Or how else do you explain the marginalisation of members of this group even though they are more enlightened and broad minded. I know a lady who was highly qualified but was denied a senate seat because she does not belong to the core ruling class of the aborigines.
Lest i forget, the aborigines have a penchant for engaging the services of non-indege media practitioners to help launder their images either within and outside the state. It is even more pronounced now with the advent of social media with all its deficiencies. I am not sure if I have a clue to this affection especially when we have better qualified and competent citizens at their beck and call. This government almost fell into the same trap. At the beginning of the administration, they also outsourced the position of a media aide to the governor. The government was searching with all seriousness, a person assumed to enjoy some sort of national spread. Whatever that meant. The powers that be eventually settled for the present person who apparently was in the team of the previous governor. Let me also reiterate that the young man is a Lagos boy.
If this state must go past its present glaring deficiencies, it is absolutely necessary that we tinker and rejig the fundamentals of our existence. There must be a strategic collaboration of great thinkers in the different groups for the purposes of charting a new. It is important we address the foundational problems of the state. The aborigines and their allies from Port Court can not transform the state economy without the expertise of their brothers and sisters from the centre of excellence and the diaspora. The aborigines may hold the ace and the key to government house yet they do not have what it takes to bail the state out of the woods as exemplified by the collateral consequencies of misgovernance. Otherwise, we would not The men from Lagos are better placed to provide the strategic and philosophical basis for socio-economydevelopment. Akwa Ibom provides a good template from where we draw inspiration. Political integration is the way to go, if we must get of the rut.
Let us work together as a team to fulfil the vision of our founding fathers. So, help us God.
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