STILL LOOKING FOR ANOTHER CHUBA OKADIGBO

        BY MAZI OMIFE I. OMIFE

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I have met Rt. Hon. Chuba Okadigbo three or four times in his life time. And each time, he was evergreen. Always young-looking and charismatic.

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I met him first in 1979 when I was a student during the time he was contesting in the NPN governorship  primaries along with Chief C.C Onoh, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Prof. Godwin Odenigwe, Dr. John Nnia Nwodo, Prince Orizu, and others.

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That was the first time I met him in his white and white agbada, wearing a heavy beard and holding a white horse tail (nza),which was his  trade mark attire and which gave him a unique charisma.

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I didn’t see him again after the elections because he left old Anambra State to join Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s  presidential campaign train. At the end of the day, Okadigbo was made a special adviser to Shagari, while his other co-contestants got other positions. Alex Ekwume became the Vice-President. Prof. Odenigwe became Special Adviser to the Vice President while Nnia Nwodo was made a minister.

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I met Dr. Okadigbo again when he became Senate President, on the day a delegation of Anambra residents in Enugu, led by Hon. Dr. D. A. Jideofor, comprising Chief Francis Akpamgbo, Junior brother of Barrister Clement Akpamgbo ( SAN), former Attorney General of the Federation, and myself.

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We were waiting at the senate lobby with a lot of other people, including a serving minister in Obasnajo’s cabinet when a loud shout of “Mr. President” rent the air of the senate chambers and everybody scurried to to watch the colourful procession of the Senate President and his retinue of officials into the senate chamber.

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The Senate president wore his characteristic smiling face and his trade mark flowing white and white agbada and nza. The only noticeable difference between in his looks from 1979 was his  beard which was all black then but now turned completely white, which made a beautiful spectacle with his white agbada, white nza and white shoes. The only thing that was not white was his red cap which was his Igbo identity. May be it was from Okadigbo that many people began to take pride in wearing white beard.

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A little drama happened during the procession when the minister who had been with us in the lobby moved to hand a letter to the Senate President while on the procession, which was a breach of protocol and which attracted a public disgrace of the Minister by Okadigbo, asking him if he could have done the same to Obasanjo on his way to national executive council meeting.

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This is one of the reasons I love Okadigbo. Fearless, smart, suave, courageous, blunt, daring, charismatic.

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When he was Senate President, he fought like a man, both for the country and for ndigbo.

When he was Special Adviser to President Shehu Shagari, he taught us how to be a good Nigerian and a good Igbo man.

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I can count so many things Okadigbo did in the interest of Igbos both as special adviser and during his tenure as Senate president.

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It was Dr. Okadigbo as special adviser to Shagari and Dr. Joe Asogwa and two other igbos that initiated and spearheaded the granting of amnesty to Gen Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu during his exile in Ivory Coast.

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It was Dr. Okadigbo as special adviser to Shagari and Dr. Joe Asogwa as well that facilitated Ojukwu’s return to the country.

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This was at a time when it was taboo for anybody to mention the name of Ojukwu in the public domain, worse still in the Nigerian political domain. Most Igbo politicians ran away and dissociated themselves from Ojukwu in a bid to avoid the Federal government tracing any link with him as none of them was willing to take that risk as they perceived it.

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It is the same with today’s so-called Igbo political leaders who are afraid to associate with Nnamdi Kanu or canvass for his release from illegal detention and oppression.

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None of our present crop of Igbo politicians will take the risk Okadigbo took in  marketing Ojukwu after he returned from exile.

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I remember during the second republic, just before the 1983 election, when the first son of Chief F.G.N. Okoye, Dr. Okoye, who was one of the NPN strong men died and after his burial a meeting of NPN leaders was held at Onitsha.

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Many NPN stalwarts were at the meeting, including President Shagari, Umaru Dikko, Adisa Akinloye, Takuma, Wayas, Ciroma,  Okadigbo and other NPN top notchers.

Okadigbo was seated beside the entrance to the meeting hall, apparently by design.

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About ten minutes into the meeting, Ojukwu walked in. As soon as Okadigbo sighted him at the staircase coming up, he stood up and shouted that everybody to stand up for his Excellency without mentioning the name of who was coming. And everybody stood up. When Shagari saw that it was Ojukwu coming in, he quickly sat down. But a great honour had been done to Ojukwu. This was how Okadigbo was promoting the Igbo war heroe in Nigeria and abroad.

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Unlike today’s Igbo politicians who will rather fight and try to disgrace fellow Igbo political heroes  to seek favour from the powers that be. Look at Peter Obi with national and  global acceptance as a presidential material. But it was his fellow Igbo politicians that were trying to destroy him instead of helping to promote him.

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Again during the second republic, the Federal Ministry of Housing and Environment  initiated a low cost housing scheme for low income Nigerians. For some reasons, about fifty Igbo contractors, were excluded from the contract applicants for the project. When some of the Igbo contractors reported the matter to Okadigbo, he tried severally in vain to reach the President before the Federal Executive Council ratified the list, reason being that a day ot two before every Federal Executive Council meeting, Umaru Dikko was always in Shagari’s house to shade him in favour of  some vested interests.

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 It was such that even when anybody phoned Shagari, it was Umaru Dikko who receive the call on behalf of Shagari. There was no GSM then, only land phone.

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As the day approached for the final approval of the contractors list by the Federal Executive Council, Okadigbo devised a strategy of getting  the President not to approve the list until justice is done.  On the day of the meeting, knowing that President Shagari was a chain smoker, Okadigbo, whose seat at the Exco hall was always two or three seats next to the President, perfected his deal which he kept to himself alone, two automatic cigarette lighters in his breast pocket, keenly at alert, watching Shagari’s every movement.

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Soon after the meeting commenced, Shagari needed to light a cigarette, and before Shagari reached his pocket to bring out his lighter, Okadigbo had literally jumped like a cat to light the ciga for him, and used that momentary opportunity to whisper into the president’s ears, why the contract list approval should be put on hold until he got further briefing on it.

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When the Secretary to the Government called the contract list agenda, the president asked him to step it down for next meeting. Before the next meeting, Okadigbo had discussed with Shagari after which the contract list was amended accordingly.

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As comic as this story sounds, as told by Okadigbo himself in an interview with Newswatch magazine then, that was typically Okadigbo’s idiosyncrasy, which undercores his way of going to any length to protect the interest of Ndigbo and ensure that ndigbo were not shut out of government throughout his political career.

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Today, all Igbo political leaders know how to do, with the exception of very few, is to secure political positions for themselves and their immediate relations at local, State and Federal levels.

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After Okadigbo’s release from detention following Buhari’s coup of 1983, he floated a magazine called Platform based in Onitsha with Emma Adike as editor. At a time, the magazine ran a paid advertorial on how Customs illegally confiscated goods worth thousands of naira then belonging to Igbo traders. No other media in Nigeria carried the news.

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When Okadigbo read the advertorial, he immediately directed the Platform management to refund the advert fee to the traders involved. He did not stop there. He invited the traders involved through their addresses and led them to the office of the comptroller-general and tabled the complaint to him. The comptroller was furious and immediately ordered for the release of the seized goods to the Igbo traders after he apologized to the traders profusely for his men’s action.

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Today, Igbo politicians look the other way as customs men line up every road in South East with scores of check points where they harass and extort Igbo traders indiscriminately, even when the law restricts them to the borders. No other region in Nigeria do you find such a thing happening.

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Throughout his political career till he died, Okadigbo, more than any Igbo politician gave Igbos a sense of belonging and brotherhood and  maintained open-door policy for Igbos in all political offices he served, especially as Senate president. Once you mentioned you are an Igbo man or woman, he will instantly ask his staff to let you in to show face if he is very busy or sit down if less busy.

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I remember when  a delegation of Anambra State Development Union (ASDU), Enugu went to the National Assembly when Okadigbo was Senate president to invite him and other Anambra  legislators to the launching of our welfare programme.  He received us very cordially and brotherly and assured us that he would come for the programme.

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On the day of the event, he flew to Enugu and arrived Zodiac Hotels Enugu venue of the event at exactly the time we told him for the commencement of the programme. None of the Igbo legislators came.  After we told him some of our needs, in his reply, he asked us to articulate these points and send to him. He did not fail us.

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How many Igbo politicians of today would spend his time and money to travel from Abuja to Enugu just to see members of a non-governmental  Association?

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 Few other Igbo politicians displayed the spirit of courage and audacity in government and politics as Okadigbo. As Senate president, Okadigbo showed that Igbo man is not a coward who withdraws to his shell at the slightest threat of  the Federal government or any of its agencies or licks the shoes of politicians from other tribes.

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We can recall what transpired during his tenure as Senate president when a group of his colleagues, including some Igbo senators conspired to impeach him  for what they termed” anticipatory contract approval”.

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 One day,  Okadigbo had just left the premises of the National Assembly in his convoy for his official quarters at the end of the day’s business. Along the way, he got a phone call that some of his colleagues had reconvened the House after he left for another senate proceeding for the purpose of impeaching him.

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On receiving the information, Okadigbo immediately ordered his convoy to turn back to the Senate. On entering the senate chamber, the Igbo senators that were part of the conspiracy tried to cover their faces from press cameramen attached to the senate president. Okadigbo did not utter a word to the senators. He ordered the sergeant-at-arms to carry the mace and follow him to his official quarters. And that ended the illegal session.

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As the news of what happened reached  President Obasanjo, very early the following DAY, the Inspector General of Police dispatched a team of mobile policemen led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police to Okadigbo’s house at Apo legislative quarters, Abuja.

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As soon as he saw them arrive, Okadigbo  opened the door and asked what their mission was. After the ACP informed him they came to retrieve the mace, Okadigbo asked him and his men to pay attention. He began to lecture them on the history and significance of the mace as a symbol of democracy, which made it a sacred instrument that no military man or police is empowered to touch or lay hands on.

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At the end of the marathon lecture, the ACP gave him a smart salute, and asked his permission to leave and report back to those who sent him and come back. So he ordered his men out of the premises.

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When the pressure further mounted on Okadigbo to return the mace to the senate chamber, he told the police that the mace was not in his house. When pressured further on the whereabouts of the mace, he told them he took it to Ogbunike cave in his country home for safe-keeping where it was being guarded by giant pythons day and night and challenged anybody who can, to go and retrieve it from the pythons. Nobody dared.

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At long last when the impeachment move reached a boiling point, Okadigbo was asked by his colleagues to resign. He refused. They asked him two more times to resign. He insisted he would never resign. The atmosphere became charged. The senators waited for two more hours for Okadigbo to resign honorably. He remained admant. The whole nation stood still. The entire world  press was waiting.

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Meanwhile, Okadigbo’s deputy and some other senate officers had all resigned under pressure.

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But Okadigbo swore he would resign over his dead body.  Even Obasanjo shelved his meeting with foreign diplomats, waiting for Okadigbo to resign. No way. At long last, one senator  moved a motion for his impeachment and after it was seconded, the impeachment was consummated.

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That was Okadigbo. A true Igbo blood. Fearless, brave and daring. Unlike  latter-day Igbo politicians, most of them lily-livered cowards who melt like jelly in the face of slightest political harassment.

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Not the likes of Orji Uzor Kalu. At the beginning of the presidential  race for the 2023 elections, when Igbos canvassed for Igbo presidency, Orji Kau was one of the first Igbo politicians who came out and many Igbos were happy that such a frontline politician has the courage to join the race.

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But lo and behold, before oen could say JACK GOWON, nobody heard a word from him again about vying for the presidency. The next time we heard his voice was when he volunteered to be the chief campaigner for the presidential ambition of the Senate president Ahmed Lawal.

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Not the likes of Olisa Metuh who acquired an emergency wheelchair and a plastered neck the moment EFCC made to arrest him on a charge of N400 million fraud. I don’t know whether Metu is still going on a wheel chair.

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Not the likes of Rochas Okorocha. The day EFCC came knocking on the door of his  Abuja house, instead of opening the door and asking what they came for like a man,  Rochas fell down on his knees inside his parlour, crying like a baby and shivering like a lily flower, bible in hand, praying and shouting for help from God and whoever.

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The point I am making is that Okadigbo represented a true Igbo character of courage and guts to stand up to any circumstance, not cry-cry babies of today’s Igbo politicians that make the easy target of political intimidation and injustice.

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For all his legendary spirit of Igbo brotherhood and Igbo cause, Okadigbo was at the same time a consuming fire to fellow Igbos if you join other tribesmen to undermine or conspire against him.

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An example was when Hyde Onuaguluchi joined Obasanjo group in the Senate to fight Okadigbo. Okadigbo warned him and advised him to retrace his steps in his own interest because he has never done anything against him.  But Hyde would not listen.

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One day, myself, Senator Ben Collins Ndu, Chief Anike Nwoga and G.B. Onoh, former Enugu North local government chairman were chatting in front of Dr. Ken Ife’s office, MD of Ken computers at Ogui Road, Enugu. As we were discussing, the issue of Hyde Onuagulchi came up and Collins Ndu told Anike Nwoga to go and tell his friend Hyde that he would soon take over his seat in the Senate. We all laughed it off as a joke. Two weeks later, the court ousted Hyde Onuaguluchi from the Senate in favour of Collins Ndu.

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 Having obtained the judgement papers, Collins Ndu went to the national assembly to see Okadigbo and as he was entering into the National Assembly, he sighted Okadigbo’s entourage driving out and waved at the Senate President as his vehicle was passing. Okadigbo  saw him and stopped and the entourage was halted. Having read the court verdict in the papers, he asked Collins if he has got the judgment papers, and Collins said yes. Okadigbo asked him to come to the senate the next day to be sworn-in. And that was what happened.

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Chuba Okadigbo was one Igbo politician you can’t mess about with. That is why I am asking   question, can Igbos ever have another Chuba Okadigbo?

.May God bless Dr. Chuba Okadigbo wherever he is.

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OMIFE is the Mbuze Mbaukwu, Anambra State