Issues
A Night With A Music Legend
Rising from the South-South seminar of Real Estate Developers’ Association of Nigeria (REDAN) in Calabar on Thursday, February 15, 2018, a seven-man team of the Rivers State contingent decided to spend the night in Abak for the dual purpose of early arrival in Port Harcourt the next day and a musical pilgrimage to meet the legendary Emmanuel Ntia whose Solo Hit smashed the highlife charts in1962 and has remained one of the all-time greatest hits of the highlife genre. I was excited to be part of the team.
When we turned left at Itu junction, I called Goddy Oku (ex-postmen, silhouettes and hygrades) and confirmed the phone number of Emmanuel Ntia. A second call got him on the line and the direction to his abode was given. Our expectations were, indeed, high.
Eventually, we arrived at the home of the legend who, incidentally, was hosting two of his daughters and grandchildren. Igwebuike Francis Ifi, Emmanuel Ikata, Edmund Amaranjo, Israel Okenwa, Otuekong Goddy Jacobs, Barinua Zitte and I introduced ourselves. Ntia, on his part, introduced his daughters (Glory and Mabel), his son, Pastor Israel and Okuku Saaforo, his music “son” who is expectedly dexterous on the saxophone.
By 9.30pm, the impressive crowd had taken over a corner at the Tilapia Island Resort, which is only a yodel away from the Ntia residence.The presence of Ntia, who at 92 still reads without glasses, with eyes that still twinkle youthfully, and still struts with the rebellious arrogance of the swinging sixties, attracted many patrons of the Tilapia Resort to the corner where the music legend sat. This attests to his indisputable status as a living legend.
All settled in, I narrated the essence of the pilgrimage thus:In 1964, Emmanuel Ntia came to Omoku, in the present Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government of Rivers State with his Eastern Stars Dance Band to promote Solo Hit. The song commenced with a feverish and compelling guitar riff that forced people to the dance floor. At the commencement of the guitar interlude of Solo Hit, I sneaked through the palm frond fence that secured the venue, jumped on the dance floor and danced in the then popular highlife choreography known as ajasco.
Following the conclusion of Ntia’s saxophone segment of the interlude, I joined him on stage and sang Solo Hit with some dexterity and the appropriate body moves. After the performance, which was the grand finale of the show, Ntia tapped me on the shoulder and said: “Ol’boy, you’ll be a good musician.”
That casual comment struck me and stuck to my teenage mind as I read the word “Ol’boy” as peer approval:”Emmanuel Ntia says I will be a good musician,WOW!” I soliloquized. I was on cloud nine.
While the audacious act with Ntia made me talk of the town and the acclaimed hero of the youths, it thoroughly embarrassed my devout Christian parents. Again, the fact that there was an amatory innuendo associated with Solo Hit was a great outrage to the parson and laity of St. Michael’s Church, Omoku. Solo Hit was sung in what Ntia branded as “fish language,” which is a musical mumbo-jumbo coined as igenyem nwancholonwu in Igbo language by Mazi Ukonu, Nigeria’s pioneer TV impresario and comedian of blessed memories.
The Ukonu coinage translates as “would you give me nwancholonwu?” and Nwancholonwu, another formulation in Igbo, was mischievously inferred as the female genitals; this implicit erotism was the source of the controversy and, incidentally, the song’s success.
Furthermore, on the heels of the success of Solo Hit, a mischievously ingenious manufacturer produced an oval-shaped plastic purse that opened like the female organ and named it “nwancholonwu purse.”So, the song and the purse were very successful in the music and commodity markets, respectively. At this stage of my narrative, IgwebuikeIfi interjected with the confession that he bought the purse for numerous damsels who took the bait.
One year after the freak performance with Ntia, I was arraigned before the historic juvenile court sitting in Omoku for singing a love song to the numerouno Princess of Ogbaland. Discharged and acquitted at the court, I bought my first guitar the next year, at 16.
The following year, I co-founded the Hardnuts in Port Harcourt. Thereafter, I co-founded the Silhouettes (with Goddy Oku, Justus Nnakwe and Donatus Nwadike) and jammed with Osita Osadebe and Sunny Nwamama during the civil war. At the end of the war, I did a couple of gigs as a solo artiste, formed JP Duet with Peter OC Adiuku-Brown and flirted musically with Rex Lawson, Sony Brown and David Bull before JP Duet morphed into the Blackstones Band. During the Blackstones years, I jammed with the Strangers, Funkees, Hygrades, Geraldo Pino, Erasmus Jenewari, Founders 15, Aktions and Burstic Kingsley Bassey before family leashed me back to school.
Today, while I’ve found incomparable fulfillment professing development studies in a university, I still play the guitar every day conscious of the fact that music is my primary constituency. Doubtlessly, a major element of my mission on this leg of the eternal journey of atonement (at-one-ment) with the Divine is to make people happy through music. Will I still do that? My children insist and I intend to oblige them and, therefore, fulfill the Ntia prophesy. After all, life begins when you wake up! Yes it does.
Finally, in a previous newspaper article titled “Song for Unsung Sons of Songs,” I eulogized, Erasmus Jenewari, King Sony Brown and George Iboroma and bitterly lamented the fact that these worthy ambassadors of Rivers State were not accorded the recognition they deserved by the people and government of the State before their demise.
It is, therefore, my humble submission that Emmanuel Ntia, who effectively projected the language, culture and image of the area now known as AkwaIbom and Cross River States through his songs and won the Golden Gong at the 1977 Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC), should be treated as the living legend he is.
Therefore, I suggest that since Ntia is still very strong and still plays his saxophone, a tour of AkwaIbom and Cross River States should be organised by the Ministries of Culture and Tourism (or by whatever name) and the radio, television and newspaper corporations of both States. I hereby offer to bring along my guitar on the tour and I am certain the idea will tickle the fancy of the two state governments. Incidentally, there is a brand that will naturally sponsor the tour if it is captioned Weekend With A Legend.
Osai is of the Institute of Foundation Studies (IFS), Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.
Jason Osai
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
