By Gabriel Omonhinmin
For a short while now I have been battling with myself whether to, or not to do this article. The reasons for the hesitation, is simply because I do not want to be accused of patronising anybody. I had to keep this article in view, awaiting more developments in the Niger Delta Region.
But now that officer and men of the Nigerian Army are bagging jail terms over illegal arms sales in the Niger Delta region, I thought it safe to go back to my computer for this piece.
The very harsh judgement delivered by the Kaduna based General Court Marshal (GCM) over a three-count charge of illegal possession of prohibited firearm, the unlawful possession of ammunition and the fraudulent misapplication of service property, which resulted in a middle level army officers and some soldiers getting as much as life sentences, has justified my long time opinion that under no circumstances should Governor Rotimi Amaechi or any government official, state or federal negotiate with the militants.
It has always been my conviction, that what is required to bring about a lasting peace in that region is massive infrastructural and human development. Negotiation in any form with militant is a waste of time and energy.
October 26, 2008 it was exactly a year that God in his infinite wisdom, decided to show to all Nigerians, that it is he, who is in charge of world affairs.
The unprecedented judgement delivered by the justices of Nigeria Supreme Court which brought about the Governorship of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was to say the least unexpected at that time, considering the way and manner the immediate past President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratic Party P.D.P. leadership at that time carried on. Amaechi’s eventual return from Ghana where he went on self-exile to Port Harcourt to assume office is another attestation to the fact, that, the universe cannot exist without God. And that if there is no God in what we do as humans, we are sure to go through days that have no meaning and have no end.
Common sense therefore suggests that Amaechi on assumption of office as Governor would do anything and everything, to defend his mandate, his government and himself from the threats that was so much palpable in Rivers State and in the Niger Delta region as a whole when he was declared the Governor. Amaechi without any apology needed to take this very hard stance, if he has to function in office.
When negotiation with the militant became an issue, some few months after he took his oath of office as Governor, I knew right from inception, that the type of Rotimi Amaechi sitting as a Governor of a State will never ever court a deal with any group that go by the name militant. I told my colleague so, during a heated debate in one of our editorial conferences in Voice of Nigeria. Some of them wondered what would have informed my confidence and prediction of Amaechi.
My prediction of Governor Rotimi Amaechi is based on my knowledge of him some eight years back, when we met and interacted in Abuja, the only such opportunity ever since.
My chance of meeting with Amaechi came during a two week seminar organised by the United States Government in collaboration with the Nigerian Ministry of Defence, in Abuja. That was during the experimental stages of the present democratic practice in the country. The United States Government as expected then was no doubt very apprehensive about Nigeria. The U.S. government therefore, thought it appropriate to educate a selected group of Nigerians made up of very high ranking military and police personnel alongside civilians on what to do to sustain the country’s democratic process. The Niger Delta issue was exhaustively debated at that forum.
Governor Rotimi Amaechi and I were among other few Nigerians who were privileged to participate at these seminars. That was in September of year 2000, barely fifteen months after he had just been elected Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. Amaechi and the first speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly actively participated at these seminars cum workshops at the NICON Hilton Hotels Abuja. One seminar that was particularly very interactive and interesting was the “Executive Seminar on Quality Force Management and Civil-Military Relations”.
These seminars were put together for Nigerians by the United States Defence Institute of International Legal Studies and the Centre for Civil-Military Rations Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. As was expected from a seminar like this, many briefs were given on how to handle the situation that eventually manifested itself in today’s “Niger Delta region”. The seminar also afforded participants the rear opportunity to size up one another and to network. As we sat through the very intensive lectures of Commander Burton J. Waltman, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, United States Navy and his other colleague, my restless eyes occasionally wondered towards Amaechi’s direction. The reasons for this, I still cannot say up till now. But one thing was certain; and most probably it was this quality that made me took special notice of him, he was extraordinarily guarded when he spoke.
Other things I observed is that Amaechi although retiring by nature, dresses immaculately and looks like he could be on the cover of a fashion magazine, “so it’s easy to stereotype him”. But behind this gorgeous and very glamorous person, I later found out, is a very good person. He has a good heart and means well all the time. Amaechi took every topic and lecture very seriously as if we’re going for another degree exam.
Physically, Amaechi is much changed from year 2000. Although never heavy, he has grown much older in looks.
As Governor Amaechi takes on his challenges, the will, courage and ability to deliver service is not lacking in him. At least, this much I know of him, during our short interaction. The question therefore is, to what extent are the people of Rivers State ready to assist Governor Amaechi and the Nigerian government to bring about quality service for people of River State? In the area of security in the region, it is about time, we tell our people in the Niger Delta Region, that what they do not value will not be valued by someone else outside the region, and what they do not make concerted effort to change will never be changed. Governor Amaechi in the past one year has being made to go through a gruelling and intellectually challenging process of convincing the electorate of his preparedness for the office he now occupy, and within this period he has been able to prove that he has what it takes to govern a state like Rivers. But contrary to most people’s expectations, his problem is not just the provision of needed infrastructures, and the social and economic revival of Rivers State, the Governor’s major obstacle now is how to root out what has now become “the peg of materialistic philosophy”. Sadly this is the peg upon which almost everything is hanging in this generation. This problem is particularly very pronounced among the uneducated youths in Rivers and Bayelsa States. This generation is unfortunately hanging its hopes on the wrong peg - materialism. This should be a source of concern not only to the Government of Rivers and Bayelsa States but to the Federal Government.
The crux of the matter is “how prepared are the people in the creeks and the city of Port Harcourt and Yenogua in assisting the government of Rivers and Bayelsa States, in rooting out hoodlums and kidnappers who masquerade as militant crusaders, of a better deal for the people of the Niger Delta?
Once there is a collective resolve by all and sundry, to checkmate criminals in Rivers and Bayelsa states in particular, and the Niger Delta Region in general, Governor Amaechi, evidence has shown, that the tendency to fulfil his electoral promises, such as excellent health care for the poor, protection of civil rights, enforcement of law and order, transmission of values, and the defence of freedom, could be achieved.
A lesson Governor Amaechi must learn now, is that, sometimes we don’t take responsibility because we believe others are more qualified. No, those who make a difference in life don’t do so because they are the best qualified, but simply because they decided to make a try. Please try, and do your very best for the Rivers people. With time, they would come to appreciate you, as they now do with the first Military Governor of that State, Alfred Diete-Spif.
Mr. Omonhinmin is a staff of Voice of Nigeria –Lagos.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
On Emma And David Omonhinmin
BY GABRIEL OMONHINMIN
November 2007, is one of the saddest moments in the Omonhinmin’s family. In quick succession and in an unbelievable manner, two of my immediate elder brothers, Emmanuel and David took their exit from mother earth. Emmanuel, my brother, had before November 6th when he died at the Auchi General Hospital, had been broken-hearted and bedridden, with stroke for eight excruciating years as he was abandoned and forsaken by his wife.
As if it was planned, as the curtain drew on Emmanuel’s life, David Emmanuel’s half brother, who is also his closest friend and confidant in the family, on his way from Benin to Jos in Plateau State had a motor accident which resulted in a spinal cord injury.
Knowing that the two men were much closer, we resolved never to allow David know that Emmanuel had passed on.
On Saturday, November 10, 2007, as I arrived at the Auchi General Hospital Mortuary to prepare Emma’s body for his final passage, one of the most haunting words on death, I have ever read was the description by the one and only Professor Wole Soyinka in his memoirs, “You Must Set Forth at Dawn” on one of the last moments of his friend Femi Johnson.
As the mortuary attendant, threw open the door and pointed to the corpse of Emma, the inimitable words of Soyinka came to my mind. His words: “As I looked down on the stretcher, I received a jolt, rather like an electric shock, a crude intimation of finality. Nothing had prepared me for the plea for help that I encountered when my eyes looked into my brother’s. His, glassy and mud brown eyes rolled upwards to encounter mine, eloquent in their depth or bewilderment. Like Prof Wole Syoyinka, I asked what is happening to me. I pleaded. Help me up out of this pit; just help me emerge from this darkness. Emma’s eyes appeared to dissolve into a deep, endless tunnel; fathomless...I withdrew slowly, chilled to the bone, acknowledging that he had withdrawn himself from the world, even as my hands left his. For I knew, in that moment, that I had left Emma at the very end of the tunnel, within that fathomless space, that my elder brother who laid on that stretcher would not return home to Ehallen-Ewu in the form we knew, and cherished.
After the burial of Emma, frantic efforts were made by the family members to save the life of David. “Another death in the Omonhinmin’s family must not and should not happen; we decided in finality as if we were God who has the ultimate say about life”.
On Monday, November 12th, I left the village for Benin, and went straight to the Emergency Wards of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital to see how David was doing, what I saw at the hospital brought hopelessness to my mind. My brother requires a miracle to stay alive. I went away sucking and praying that David gives us the opportunity to save him.
On Tuesday, November 13 at exactly 5.30 a.m. I left Benin for Lagos a very depressed person to plan the next line of action. It was not a surprise, when I receive the text message from Conrad the youngest child in the family, “Don’t bury him, he is sleeping”.
Emma and David’s passage made me to begin to make critical inquire on the purpose of life and the meaning of death. The questions that came to my mind, was, is there such a thing as eternity or is this life that we know the only reality? The atheists are of the belief, that there is no God and no life beyond this sphere. They believe only in that which they can see, touch, hear, feel and smell. But if there is no life beyond the grave, is the essence of life not meaningless and purposeless? Why strive for goodness of justice or kindness or any other positive virtues if it all ends in the grave? What does it matter then if you kill or maim your neighbour or help yourself to his wife or rape his sister? Experience has shown, that “when there is no God, everything is permitted”. And if we believe that only what we can see and touch or feel physically exists, how come we believe that love exists when we cannot see love? We cannot see hatred. You cannot feel it, nor hear it. Yet it is one of the most powerful forces in the world. You cannot see, nor hear, nor feel thought, but you know it is a reality. You cannot see the imagination, yet it can take pictures of sense, knowledge and throw them upon a canvass, or can translate them into the most beautiful harmony. You cannot see the wind but you can feet its effect. You cannot see gravitation, yet you can feel it effect. You cannot see conscience, the voice of your spirit, but you can feel the effect.”
It is about a year now, since Emma and David decided to take their exit from mother earth. It has been a year of immense pain which has continued to endure unabated. The deaths of my two brothers’ are not in vain. Their death no doubt has helped those of us alive to draw closer to our creator God.
Their death has made me discover God’s purpose for my life. Life without a purpose is meaningless and mere existence.
I now meditate daily on God’s greatness, His grace and His love. From experience, I can say that major problems have become far less significant when measured against the greatness of an omnipotent God. Adieu! Emma. Adieu!! David. Rest in peace, until we meet to part no more.
November 2007, is one of the saddest moments in the Omonhinmin’s family. In quick succession and in an unbelievable manner, two of my immediate elder brothers, Emmanuel and David took their exit from mother earth. Emmanuel, my brother, had before November 6th when he died at the Auchi General Hospital, had been broken-hearted and bedridden, with stroke for eight excruciating years as he was abandoned and forsaken by his wife.
As if it was planned, as the curtain drew on Emmanuel’s life, David Emmanuel’s half brother, who is also his closest friend and confidant in the family, on his way from Benin to Jos in Plateau State had a motor accident which resulted in a spinal cord injury.
Knowing that the two men were much closer, we resolved never to allow David know that Emmanuel had passed on.
On Saturday, November 10, 2007, as I arrived at the Auchi General Hospital Mortuary to prepare Emma’s body for his final passage, one of the most haunting words on death, I have ever read was the description by the one and only Professor Wole Soyinka in his memoirs, “You Must Set Forth at Dawn” on one of the last moments of his friend Femi Johnson.
As the mortuary attendant, threw open the door and pointed to the corpse of Emma, the inimitable words of Soyinka came to my mind. His words: “As I looked down on the stretcher, I received a jolt, rather like an electric shock, a crude intimation of finality. Nothing had prepared me for the plea for help that I encountered when my eyes looked into my brother’s. His, glassy and mud brown eyes rolled upwards to encounter mine, eloquent in their depth or bewilderment. Like Prof Wole Syoyinka, I asked what is happening to me. I pleaded. Help me up out of this pit; just help me emerge from this darkness. Emma’s eyes appeared to dissolve into a deep, endless tunnel; fathomless...I withdrew slowly, chilled to the bone, acknowledging that he had withdrawn himself from the world, even as my hands left his. For I knew, in that moment, that I had left Emma at the very end of the tunnel, within that fathomless space, that my elder brother who laid on that stretcher would not return home to Ehallen-Ewu in the form we knew, and cherished.
After the burial of Emma, frantic efforts were made by the family members to save the life of David. “Another death in the Omonhinmin’s family must not and should not happen; we decided in finality as if we were God who has the ultimate say about life”.
On Monday, November 12th, I left the village for Benin, and went straight to the Emergency Wards of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital to see how David was doing, what I saw at the hospital brought hopelessness to my mind. My brother requires a miracle to stay alive. I went away sucking and praying that David gives us the opportunity to save him.
On Tuesday, November 13 at exactly 5.30 a.m. I left Benin for Lagos a very depressed person to plan the next line of action. It was not a surprise, when I receive the text message from Conrad the youngest child in the family, “Don’t bury him, he is sleeping”.
Emma and David’s passage made me to begin to make critical inquire on the purpose of life and the meaning of death. The questions that came to my mind, was, is there such a thing as eternity or is this life that we know the only reality? The atheists are of the belief, that there is no God and no life beyond this sphere. They believe only in that which they can see, touch, hear, feel and smell. But if there is no life beyond the grave, is the essence of life not meaningless and purposeless? Why strive for goodness of justice or kindness or any other positive virtues if it all ends in the grave? What does it matter then if you kill or maim your neighbour or help yourself to his wife or rape his sister? Experience has shown, that “when there is no God, everything is permitted”. And if we believe that only what we can see and touch or feel physically exists, how come we believe that love exists when we cannot see love? We cannot see hatred. You cannot feel it, nor hear it. Yet it is one of the most powerful forces in the world. You cannot see, nor hear, nor feel thought, but you know it is a reality. You cannot see the imagination, yet it can take pictures of sense, knowledge and throw them upon a canvass, or can translate them into the most beautiful harmony. You cannot see the wind but you can feet its effect. You cannot see gravitation, yet you can feel it effect. You cannot see conscience, the voice of your spirit, but you can feel the effect.”
It is about a year now, since Emma and David decided to take their exit from mother earth. It has been a year of immense pain which has continued to endure unabated. The deaths of my two brothers’ are not in vain. Their death no doubt has helped those of us alive to draw closer to our creator God.
Their death has made me discover God’s purpose for my life. Life without a purpose is meaningless and mere existence.
I now meditate daily on God’s greatness, His grace and His love. From experience, I can say that major problems have become far less significant when measured against the greatness of an omnipotent God. Adieu! Emma. Adieu!! David. Rest in peace, until we meet to part no more.
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