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Okwadike As A Wise Counsellor By
These are trying times, indeed. At present, the country is adrift. A few days back, the President even spoke of the threat of disintegration posed by the call for resource control by some southerner governors. Sharia still hangs around the nation's neck like an albatross.
Certainly, the country needs an Ahithophel whose famed counsel in the courts of King David was recorded "as if a man has inquired at the oracle of God."
For Nigerians who may have met Chukwuemeka Pius Ezeife one way or the other, whether through his weekly column in the Punch, "Political Currents", or in a seminar setting, or on television, you cannot but be impressed by his deft or nimble intellect whenever he touches on issues of national importance. He is what you simply call cerebral. But then, Ezeife possesses something a notch or two higher than his intellectual prowess. This is wisdom ñ strikingly, an attribute they teach no one at school ñ a divine gift, people are apt to agree.
Samplers: "The Yoruba is a great nation; they cannot leave Nigeria and live with stable peace among themselves with growth and development. Where will be the captive market for their great industries." (What he wouldn't tell them is that most of those industries run at parlous capacity rate of utilization these days).
Nonetheless, to the Hausa, Ezeife would say: "The Hausa cannot leave Nigeria to share poverty with their northern desert neighbours. Where will be the captive market for their great agricultural production? Where will be their access to the sea?"
He wasn't done yet: "As for the Fulani, if they were to disengage from the Hausa, they will have difficulties establishing a home base."
On the Igbo: "They have voted with the feet for One Nigeria; they have helped in modernizing, commercialising and developing many parts of Nigeria which they treat as homes. Should they want to leave Nigeria, nonetheless, where will be the great markets for their traders and for their small medium-scale manufacturers? What will happen to their landed property across the country? And where is the landmass for their population. They must now drop the iyem ego ebuem onwem psychosis and face the real-politick of Nigeria.
"The Ijaw have received the rawest deal of all and for decades. They are justified to desire to leave and they may improve their lot by leaving ñ at least in the short term. If there is a definite scheme to make meaningful amends, won't they prefer to stay? But will they be left to go in peace? If not, as they are spread thinly over much of the coast of Nigeria, is there no danger that they may be shoved into the sea?"
Yes, he throws barbs, only that he leaves you reasoning after as a compatriot, if not a friend.
As the Political Adviser to the President, Dr. Ezeife will be faced with the challenge of how to often make the President see things from his perspective. A case of one civilian statesman and another, a soldier-statesman.
Indeed, how does an Ezeife who stands at the other side of the divide make President Obasanjo see the nexus or connecting link between the constitutionality and politics of both Sharia and resource control.
Remember, on resource control, the President only talks of constitutionality, on Sharia, he's rooted to the political dimension.
Ezeife's opinion on Sharia can be glimpsed, even if oblique, in this statement: "Shagamu, followed by Kano and the mother of problems, the Sharia, which threaten to dissolve the thin glue which holds the country together ..."
There are a few more things that divide the new adviser and his boss. He believes in national conference if not sovereign. His words. "With the, though belated, effort to repair the damage caused by decades of neglect of the Niger Delta, it is understood that, shakara apart, no group in Nigeria will like to leave the Nigerian system unrestructured, both to make things work and to take account of the new dimension introduced by Sharia. Nigerians need it; international investors are waiting to hear the affirmation of one Nigeria, in whatever form. That affirmation will best come from a national conference sovereign or not as long as the constitutional arrangements agreed by the conference is final but do not affect the present term of office or actions of the government in power."
It will be quite instructive to know how this 61-year-old man from Igbo-Ukwu, Aguata, in Anambra would counsel his boss on MASSOB, the body that pushes for a resurgent Biafra. Before his appointment, he had this to say on police clampdown on MASSOB. "MASSOB's political agenda is the only way of giving the Igbo a sense of belonging in Nigeria," he told a gathering of distinguished Igbos in Warri, Delta State, last December. He queried the moral justification in the current hunt by the Federal Government for the leader of the group, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, whom he described as harmless.
Ezeife brings vast, and equally varied, experience to the job, no doubt. Whether as a lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda during the civil war, or Permanent Secretary, Employment, Labour and Productivity or as a trader dealing in produce such as palm kernel or cashew nuts.
In declaring his presidential ambition early in the year, Ezeife somewhat made reference to this. He had said that considering his contribution to the political development of the nation, he deserved to be the next helmsman of this country.
He is an apostle of unity or one Nigeria. Just like the President. His commitment to this, it seems, is predicated on his belief that only Nigeria, of all black and African countries, can truly emerge as a Black super power, and consequently restore the dignity and pride of black and African peoples.
He wrote in an article, "One Nigeria as Economic Union", that "to become a super power requires a fairly large population, fairly large geographical size and a substantial endowment in resources, human and material. Nigeria has all these. Nigeria, therefore, can become a super power. But she must have, above all these, the capacity to actualize her potential economic greatness; she cannot remain a contradiction of 'poor rich' country and become a super power."
Ezeife doesn't deny his Igbo origin. Examining the brief comment below, one cannot but infer that if push comes to shove, he'll say as follows: "We must answer our father's name and this is the time to do it." Sort of, to your tents oh! Israel. That is to say, Ezeife is simply a product of the times that is, the contradictions which permeate an amorpous polity.
Taking up this appointment may be Ezeife's way of re-affirming his claims of being a statesman, not a politician. A pragmatist, so to say rising above the fray of party politics to answer a nation's call.
"Ezeife" which some Igbos say perhaps means "king that makes things happen", will need all the experience and knowledge he has mustered over the years, including that of his Ph.D thesis at Harvard to help make the President a David, a man known for courage.
Nonetheless, let not the Okwadike forget that he was the one who beckoned on us, including the President to drink of his wisdom fountain through his many writings and public discourses. Afterall, a few weeks ago, he had written that Obasanjo must be supported to succeed, not excused to fail.
Ezeife, described as humble, was accused of non-performance as the governor of Anambra State, a charge he dismissed with a wave of the hand, though not without acknowledging that good men sometimes do fail. It will be interesting to see how he bridges the gap between postulation and practice.
The puzzle, however, is if Ezeife, husband of Christiana and father of six children, is the Ahithophel, without his Hushai though. No matter - in the final analysis, his is to offer counsel, hopefully wise, the President's to accept or reject. November 2001
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