Issues
It is Time To Redeem Nigeria – Ilagha
Only in Nigeria, I suppose, do we hear of a prize money so widely advertised and so orchestrated as having been set aside for literary productivity, only to be denied in the long run on truly fallacious grounds.
Here’s what I think about the NLNG non-event. A poet is a man of feeling, and if I don’t express my feelings on this matter, I will be failing in my duty. The fact of the matter is that the Nigeria Academy of Letters, NAL, was not listed among the nine frontline poets contesting for the prize. And therefore, the Academy should not be in a hurry to spend one dime of the 50,000 dollars in question. The Academy should do the right, proper and honourable thing by rejecting the prize money.
Let’s face it. My name is Nengi Josef Ilagha. I am the author of January Gestures. It is the first chapter of a 12-part diary of poems running through the entire calendar. The book was published in 2007 alongside February Fabrics. March Marbles through December Decibels are all awaiting publication. I dare say no poet, living or dead, has ever embarked upon such a grand and elaborate odyssey. I stand to be corrected. Mark you, I was not disqualified for the 2009 Nigeria Prize for Literature. I made the shortlist of nine out of 163 poets, and if anybody says I didn’t win, they should prove it.
As things stand, I will do well to invoke a court injunction against spending the money, and I believe the spirit of Gani Fawehinmi would see reason with me. There must be lawyers out there who will take up this case with great pride and readiness. Yes, I will go so far as to sue the NLNG for attempting to bring my father’s honourable name to public disrepute.
I will not stand back and fold my hands. I shall not suffer fools gladly. I will crow like a noon-day cock. I will sound my gong like a distressed town-crier. I hereby lay claim to the sum of 50,000 US dollars, being the amount advertised and orchestrated by the NLNG as having been set aside for the 2009 Nigeria Prize for Literature. Ogaga Ifowodo is a well-known Nigerian poet and lawyer. I hereby contract him to prosecute the case, in his own interest. I am in earnest. Enough is enough.
In fact, I am embarking on an international campaign against the entire event. I read on the internet that Ahmed Maiwada was the only poet that was present at the venue. That is not correct. I shudder to recall that I was stopped at the entrance to the event, and ordered by bouncers to turn back even after I had identified myself as one of the contestants, touting my book. I stood to my full royal height, and insisted on witnessing the event all the way. It took the intervention of Emeka Agbayi to let me and my well-meaning guests in. I feel truly wounded. Frankly, I feel bloodied.
Maiwada may have been the only poet with a formal invitation card, but I was there in person. Ask Maiwada. He came to my table, we shook hands, and he wished me well. Ask Emman Usman Shehu. Ask Chiedu Ezeanah. Ask Ike Okonta. Even Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu may jolly well be my witness. I am not an invisible man. In point of fact, I was very visible because I turned out in national colours suitable for an event of that magnitude. It is the first time in recorded Nigerian history when a poet would appear in patriotic green, white, green colours befitting of a king, and there are pictures to prove it. NLNG should check their photo file. Nigeria, I say, cannot afford to deny her own colours.
I insist that it is outrageous for a beneficiary to be decided upon, outside the ring of contestants. I never heard of a fight between boxers slugging it out on the mart and then, in the end, it was the referee who went home with the golden belt. The entire event was a charade, and it brings the Nigeria Prize for Literature to great ridicule. We are faced with a classic example of a lopsided value system with no regard for merit. In the end, Nigeria as a nation would be the worse for it. It is time to redeem Nigeria. It is time for worship.
If NLNG is not prepared to part with the prize money, and hand it over nicely to me, they should stop parading themselves as the foremost literary sponsor in Nigeria. Come to that, if the multi-national agency felt obliged to lend a helping hand to the Nigeria Academy of Letters, it could have done so under a different platform, and the world would applaud. This prize was specifically for the winner, or joint-winners of the 2009 Nigerian Prize for Literature, as the case may be.
The professors who constitute the panel of judges (four of whom are confirmed members of the Academy) parade sterling credentials. Perhaps they should write poetry as one man and enter for the prize as well, instead of practically awarding the prize to themselves. It is a great shame that, after all that rhapsody by Professor Ayo Banjo about the newfound maturity in content and style as evident in the works of the nine Nigerian poets, the panel of judges could not decide a winner, to say nothing of joint winners. Evidently, it puts the credibility of the judges to question.
The worst case scenario, in my opinion, should be that all nine poets should share the prize money, since the distinguished panel of judges even failed to announce the shortlist of three that was promised at the World Press Conference staged at Eko Le Meridian in Lagos much earlier. What’s the point selecting nine out of 163 poets, and failing to decide the best three, if not a clear winner? I need my money. I live by the words from my pen. All those who say a labourer is not deserving of his wages have read the Bible upside down.
After this, NLNG should be more comfortable sponsoring the next beauty pageant or the next Face of Africa event. I can see them readily parting with the said amount in support of football, for instance. They may jolly well sponsor anything but intellectual endeavour. For how long do we continue to despise the fruits of our own labour? As I see it, the primary purpose of the award has been defeated, but NLNG will not get away with this pointless jamboree.
Only in Nigeria, I suppose, do we hear of a prize money so widely advertised and so orchestrated as having been set aside for literary productivity, only to be denied in the long run on truly fallacious grounds. Even if a composite anthology, a selection from the books of the nine poets was conceived, or even a promotional tour around the West African sub-region was proposed, it would have made more sense than this precipitate slap on the face of Nigerian literature.
I feel particularly scandalized by NLNG. They did this to my wife at the maiden edition in 2004. Bina Nengi-Ilagha clearly won the 20,000 dollar prize with her first novel, Condolences, a novel that remains acclaimed for its originality. Yet they brought in two other novelists to share the prize money, and even at that it was 5,000 dollars apiece. NLNG went back to Bonny with 5,000 dollars. Can you beat that? No, you can’t. I have every reason to be grateful to Wole Soyinka for his timely intervention at that event. Alas, there was no Soyinka at the 2009 edition, but that is not to say NLNG should go scot-free. Enough is enough.
I suggest that an independent arbitration panel constituted by international critics of poetry revisit the works of the nine poets in question and come up with the winner, since the task is evidently too much for the panel of judges set up by NLNG. Please ask me another question.
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
