Thomas Ofem‘s seminal essay aptly titled ‘’ Is it about the Ugep Man’’ is decidedly engaging and thought provoking However, I disagree with Thomas concerning certain aspect of this well thought out and researched essay. The aspect I do not share the sentiments ably expressed by Thomas is his essay that the problem of marginalisation, anomie and rudderless leadership of Yakurr grappling it, is premised on the fact that Chief Okorn Obeten Okorn’s eight whooping years at the National Assembly was uneventful. I do not hold forth for Chief Okorn.
This is just my perspective to this debate which Thomas Ofem has subtly launched in his imaginative and creative essay inspired by the profundity of his fertile mind. This debate is very germane in view of the sorry state and the general deterioration in cherished values today in Yakurr. It accords with the dictates of democracy to indulge in this type of argument or debate on topical issues of the day. Thomas was frankly brutal and forth right in his essay. It surely lends credence to the fact that Thomas is one of the leading minds in Yakurr today no matter what prism one choose to look at it.
I do not think that because Chief Okorn’s obsession and immersion in ‘local politics’’ was the genesis of his inability to make an impression in the national political scene despite his brilliance, charisma and eloquence. Every politician has his own constituency where he strives to influence things locally and therefore any politician worth his salt must strive to maintain some touch with his primary constituency.
I am inclined to believe that the failure of Chief Okorn to win friendship nationally which would have added to Yakurr politics rather had to do with his personality. Chief Okorn is not a very outgoing person. He is self opinionated, shy and somewhat introverted. He does not make friend easily. He finds it extremely difficult to keep and maintain friendship Maybe he is not cut out for politics. Bassey Ewa, a very dodgy politician exploited these weaknesses of Chief Okorn to maximum effect.
I do not think that it is fair to heap all the blame for the down turn of Yakurr politics on one single individual in as much as I will not entirely absolve Chief Okorn being one of its Political Leader and elite. The problem of the failure of leadership in Yakurr must be situated with the trend in Yakurr that anybody who manages to win a rigged election to get into a position of clout and influence automatically becomes a Leader whom everybody much genuflect and hero worship into order to ingratiate and win his favour. Let me say it very clearly that all elections we have had in Yakurr from 1999-2007 were not a true reflection of the sovereign will of the Yakurr People. It follows that we cannot in all righteousness use these massively rigged elections them as barometer or parameter to choose leadership. There is this gripping culture of sycophancy among our people. This politics of sycophancy has destroyed the careers of many of our political leaders in recent times. The hall mark of Yakurr political followership is for everybody to crowd around somebody who manages to win a rigged election or gets an appointment in government as the ‘’ new leader’’ or ‘’Ete’’ or ‘’ Oga’’ so forth and so on. These sycophantic followers always build a cult of personality around these ‘’ leader’’. They gossip and indulge in all manner of subtle manipulation and blackmail to be in the good books of the ‘’ leader’’ and strives to fence off every other person from getting close to their ‘’ Ete’’. This ‘’ Ete’’ in order to continue to enjoy follower ship and loyalty occasionally doles out money to his crowd of so-called followers ;pay the school fees of their children; pay their hospital bills and marry or buy cars for his people. All the other people whom represents do no longer qualify to be his people (save a select few) because they do not genuflect or hero worship and see him as a demi-god or tin-god that must be obeyed. It is therefore not fair to heap the entire blame of the obvious down turn of politics in Yakurr and the current season of anomie on one individual notwithstanding the fact that he was a member of the National Assembly cannot be held responsible for our woes as a people. We all must collectively share the blame. But some people must obviously take the lion share because they are our leaders. They include those who have found themselves at the helm whether in politics, government, business or even the traditional institutions.
What of the likes of Bassey Eko Ewa who was the Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly for four Years? The position of Speaker of a Legislative Body in a presidential system of government is obviously a very powerful because the Speaker is the Head of the Legislative Branch of Government. In the hierarchy of Government, the Speaker is third in Rank after the Deputy Governor. The House of Assembly is the Constitutional Police Man and Watch Dog of the Executive Branch of Government. The Legislature has under control all the other two branches of government because it has oversight powers over them. The House of Assembly appropriates money for the Executive. It goes without saying that an intelligent, smart, large-hearted, courageous and exposed Man who knows his onions can do a lot of things for his people as speaker of the House of Assembly. But what we saw during the tenure of Mr. Ewa was somebody who was obviously overwhelmed with the clout, panache, and glamour of that office. We saw raw arrogance. We saw somebody who was obviously inebriated by power so much so that he lost focus completely. He allowed political jobbers, careerists and sycophants to distract him. A lot of time was wasted in turf warfare to gain political space and ascendancy which is of no moment to the aspirations of our people. Ekori became enmeshed and a theatre of this turf warfare and many young people were wasted in this senseless war over nothing. In the House of Representatives, he has become anonymous despite his pedigree and experience as Speaker, and member of the Cross River State House of Assembly and his educational background as a Lawyer. This is undoubtedly a very good background for a great parliamentary career.
All Bassey Eko Ewa did in his four Years as Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly to maintain the loyalty of his army of sycophants was to promise everybody a political appointment and patronage. He became very dodgy and sly. He plays each community against the other. He would go into a house hold and promise two siblings a political appointment in order to divide and rule and win their loyalty. When some of us pointed that this was not the way to lead a people, he sponsored personal attacks on us in order to divert attention. He heaped all the blame on Chief Okorn and other political leaders and depicted them as incompetents in order to promote himself. Our people did not see anything wrong with his style because he occasionally hands out peanuts to them, so everybody struggled to win his heart. It turned him into an egomania
What of people like Etim Ayomobi who was Commissioner of a powerful and influential Ministry? What was his contribution during his tenure? Ayomobi had been a Member of the Cross River State House of Assembly and Commissioner for Rural Development before his appointment as Commissioner for Lands and Surveys. What of the likes of Sam Oju who was a member of the Cross River State House of Assembly (1999-2003)? The same Sam Oju is now busy from his exalted position as a Commissioner in a strategic Ministry such as Agriculture sponsoring and mobilising all other Yakurr communities under the aegis of ‘’EMINAA’’ to forge an unholy .alliance against Ugep, exploiting ancient fears and prejudices. This is the type of bad leadership we have been saddled with in Yakurr for some time. Despite the fact that we are the same people in all ramifications, we are perpetually at war with one another; Ugep-Mkpani; Idomi-Ugep; Ekori-Mkpani, Nko-Mkpani; Nyima-Nko; so forth and so on over land. Ugep that is naturally endowed to be the Leader of the Yakurr Nation has not being able to provide that leadership because the other communities would always want to spite her. So the vicious circle continues unabated. Yakurr is an archetypal atomistic society perpetually at War with itself; apologies to the renowned Professor of History, Dr. Emmanuel Ayandele.
We had Chairmen of the Yakurr Council such as Godwin Etta; Elder Eteng Eloma, Thompson Ukagu, Ubi Arikpo, Ubi Itam Etta. Yakurr has received more than N10 Billion from the Federation Accounts for the past 11 Years. What have we done with this huge amount of money? The Yakurr Council has been plagued with extreme bad leadership because our so-called political leadership sees the Council as a centre for political patronage and a place to show their political clout and influence by imposing their lackey as Chairmen rather than a veritable institution to engender development.
What of our powerful Civil Servants? They are so self conceited and selfish. What of our brothers in strategic areas such as Customs, Immigration, Prisons etc? At a point we had two Senior Custom Officers at the helm of the Customs leadership in the country. We had an Assistant Comptroller General and Comptroller in the Nigeria Immigration Service. No, it is not fair to blame just one person for our ills. What of our completely and totally disoriented Youths? These Youths who fuelled the political in-fighting between Obeten Okorn and Bassey Ewa for their selfish and personal gains must not be left out of the blame game. These Youths were the purveyors of the gossip, lies and slander that caused the fight between these two political leaders. Some of them were spies in the camps of Obeten and Ewa. They carry stories, tales in order to curry favour. Some of them who were very prominent in Chief Obeten‘s group promptly decamped without any scruples to Bassey Ewa’s faction when Obeten lost out.
Our Youths have become totally dependent, lazy and subservient to these political leaders and they instigate them against people who do not pander to the whims of their master and make enemy of those who are critical. The Yakurr Youth is no longer the self assured, courageous, enterprising and industrious person of the Yakurr of the yore.
There is so much enmity and bad belly among us. Yakurr people hardly make good friends among themselves. There is needless envy and unhealthy competition. This is even worse nowadays where every person is taking to politics because of the belief that the quickest way to accumulate private capital is to embrace politics. We have seen how the virtues of comradeship, fraternity and brotherhood have been destroyed by the politics of dog eat dog that has engulfed Yakurr. We lost out when our detractors took advantage of our frailties and lack of unity to edge us out. This is the price we are paying. We refuse to learn from history. The Jews suffered one of the most horrible genocide in the history of the human race when their tendency to fraction into splinter fissiparous ideological camps perpetually on each other throat over frivolous bickering and squabbling led Hitler to take them head on and dealt a fatal blow despite the fact that they one of most endowed race in humanity.
The way forward is for the Truth and Reconciliation Conference to convene to enable all of us to confess our sins, forgive one another and reconcile with one another. It will then be necessary to try to forge a new leadership in Yakurr that is visionary, humane, civil, enlightened, transformational and exposed. We must make a concerted effort to enthrone a new crop of leaders in all facet of human endeavour, be it in politics, government, and business, church and traditional. This leadership must be focused, urbane and progressive.
This is why during the IBB transition political program in the early 1990s the Political leaders of Thought of the State quickly conceded that the Governor of the State should come from Yakurr.Kanu Agabi (SAN) (CON) in one of our conversations with me on the politics of Cross River State gave an insight into what informed this development. He said Yakurr was always seen as the mid-way between Cross River North and Cross south. He further said the Yakurr people are culturally and linguistically close to both to the North and South of the State. We saw two Yakurr Sons, Chief Wilfred Oden Inah and Mr. Clement David Ebri vying to be Governor on the same Political Platform and one of them, Clement David Ebri eventually became Governor. There are the people who are fuelling the seeming intractable political infighting among our people which has caused so much destruction and pummelled our political fortunes so much so that Yakurr is no longer the beautiful bride and nerve centre of Cross River Politics. When Cross River State was carved out of the Old Cross River State, there was this widely held belief that Yakurr would be the dominant political centre of the new Cross River State because of its huge potential and educated elite.
In Yakurr everybody wants to be a Leader! Even Councillors who are handpicked and imposed on us carry on as political leaders simply because they are councillors. My Councillor from Ijiman some time ago boasted to me that he is the Political Leader of Ijiman; whatever that means. This is a guy who was unemployed before he ‘’ elected’’ Councillor. It is this type of arrogance and emptiness that is the bane of our politics. The struggle to acquire leadership by whatever means and method is responsible for the turf warfare we see in Yakurr in the name of politics. This is the attitude we carry into politics and which detractors of Yakurr people such as Bolaji Anani and Senator Liyel Imoke in the corridors of power take advantage of to run down our people. Some body that is close to Governor Liyel Imoke told me that Imoke holds the view that Yakurr people are greed. Can you beat that! I am certain some of our own people sold this defamation to Imoke just to be in his good book. Early this week I circulated a letter on the Internet I wrote to Senator Imoke almost ten Years ago to remind our people that he is not well disposed towards us and events playing out has proved me right. Otherwise why is Imoke so obsessed with imposing a divisive leadership of the duo of Bassey Ewa and Ubi Itam Ettah on Yakurr people if he means well for us?
I have a good friend right from our days at Mary Knoll College, Ogoja in the late 1970s from Yakurr who is no longer in talking terms with me because he is in government and I am seen as a critic of the government. Regrettably my friend has severed his ties with me to continue to be in government. My friend from childhood has forgotten that one day his appointment in government will end and he will surely need to connect with me again. In Yakurr, friendship does not last long. The reason is not farfetched, envy and unhealthy competition. As soon one is perceived to have made a stride, or progress, his previous close friend will promptly spear head a campaign of calumny against him. He will begin to tell stories carefully planted and packaged to run his previous friend down. They will tell all those who care to listen how ones parent were poor or that your blood line is not pure and all that crab.
Okoi Obono Obla is an Attorney and Human Rights Activist based in Abuja.
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