Promotion as an instrument of warfare

Paper Aku: Governor Benue State

1979 - 1983

Ultimately, man is innately selfish. In Benue State, in 1979 in the Benue State House of Assembly emerged a young man from Oturkpo. His name was Audu Innocent Ogbeh.

The man to the Governor, Aper Aku was anything but innocent. He was

Deputy Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly.

He was very articulate. He was so articulate his Boss the Speaker was hardly known.

To make the young but Innocent man happy and give the governor and the Speaker a breathing space, Audu Ogbeh the big fish in a small pond had to be transferred to a bigger pond if you like a river to test his young lungs.

Thus Audu Ogbeh was plucked off his legislative duties as deputy boss unto the national scene this time as a Minister.

A Minister may have more visibility than a Deputy Speaker of a state legislature but make no mistake about it, in terms of security of office and tenure, the elected representative, in this case he Deputy Speaker has it.

In fact in the US, all Ministers, are addressed as Secretaries and not Ministers and all sign an undated Resignation Letter upon appointment.

The import of this letter is that as soon as the President likes, he dates the Letter to announce the Resignation of the Minister.

In Nigeria, if this were the case, Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment would not have been bold enough to call James Faleke a member of the House of Representatives, a 'Mushin Boy' within the chambers of the House of Representatives.

The idea is that Ministers act at the pleasure of the President as an appendage that can be dispensed with at will.

On the other hand the elected representative can only be recalled by his or her constituents.

To the murky waters of a Ministerial appointment the eloquent Deputy Speaker was thrust to work with Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the Nigerian. President.

With aplomb Audu Ogbeh took the job emerging as Minister of Communications. To his credit remains the divorce between Posts and Telecommunications in Nigeria, giving birth to Nipost and Nitel. 

It never ceases to amaze me how we trumpet issues in Nigeria. For every time in Nigeria, there will always be an issue that wears the toga of an Open Sesame. Today, it is Restructuring.

At that time in Nigeria, such was the elevation of the splitting of Posts and Telecommunications as a unit. It was paraded as the be all and end all of all communications issues in Nigeria.

Be that as it appeared, the resistance to it was out of this world but young Audu Ogbeh swung it.

The divorce surprisingly went smoothly and for a long time all was well.

For Benue State and Audu Ogbeh it was a win win situation. They were weaned of his dominance and the young man found national fame in an insecure job.

That young man later went on to emerge as a National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party. That too was not a secure appointment.

Obj separated Audu Ogbeh from.that Olympian but insecure job when he could no longer stand his activism.

From the ashes of that separation like a phoenix Audu Ogbeh went on to swing another insecure job as a Minister of Agriculture under PMB.

Today, the young Audu Innocent Ogbeh is an old Benue based farmer tending his farm.

I doubt if he ever had cause to regret his initial promotion from.Deputy Speaker to Minister. Today, even a Senator will wish to be made a Minister, without bating an eye lid.