By Idang Alibi
When I heard Senate President David Mark speak at the Nigerian Guild of Editors Conference which held from September 12-15 in Uyo, a forum where the word uncommon was in liberal use, I told some of my friends later that Mark was an uncommon man. The word uncommon was in much use because it was frequently employed by almost every speaker who had something to say to qualify the high performing governor of Akwa-Ibom, Obong Godswill Obot Akpabio, who has so dramatically transformed Akwa-Ibom from a sleepy state to a ” happening” one within a short space of five years. Akpabio, who is an astute marketer of himself, calls what he has done in Akwa-Ibom uncommon transformation, hence its becoming a catch phrase at that elite gathering of wordsmiths.
My friends, Bonnie Iwuoha, John Ndukauba and Victor Idem, in whose company I was most of the times in Uyo, asked me why I thought Mark was uncommon. I told them that here is a man who spent the formative and most productive years of his life in a profession that brooked no argument at all but instead insisted on unquestioned obedience to command. This same man at a later half of his life decided to join another profession whose tenets were the very antithesis of those of his earlier profession of his formative years.
The basic tenet of this new profession is a love for arguments. This ambidextrous man has risen to near the very pinnacle of that new profession of his old age by presiding over an arm of it whose mode of operation is arguments on every conceivable issue before it. Here in that place the tradition is that the fool can talk as long, if not longer, than the wise.
Yet this same man has schooled himself very well to sit through all that and stoically bear it all. He has held unto this job and has done it admirably well enjoying the confidence of his peers and the respect of others in the polity. I told them that Mark was indeed a fit and proper person to aspire to the presidency of the nation as it is rumoured because he is simply uncommon and Nigeria is in dire need of uncommon men and women.
All this warm affection and admiration of mine for Mark however expired or evaporated when the conference came to an end and it was time for me to head back to Abuja. I chose to come back by road in order to do an observational research for an article on the state of our roads I intended to do. I used the Uyo-Umuahia-Enugu-Obolla Afo-Otukpa-Otukpo-Makurdi-Keffi-Abuja
road. The patch of the road from Uyo through Umuahia to Enugu is very bad, almost impassable at some portions. But when we entered Otukpa in Idomaland, the constituency of David Mark, that was when the real zaga-zaga dance steps started. From Otukpa through Echumoga to Otukpo, the ancestral capital of Idomaland and the home place of Generals David Mark, Chris Abutu Garba and Geoffrey Ejiga, the road is a disaster.
When I came to Otukpo, I saw a very old town that is in very much need for urban renewal. The buildings were wearing the roofs of corrugated iron sheets that have been so much corrupted by age. Some of the buildings may have been roofed in the early 19th century very shortly after Lord Lugard amalgamated the north and south protectorates into one united Nigeria.
And I wondered to myself whether this was indeed the town that has produced for Nigeria those eminent citizens aforementioned.
I immediately downgraded Mark from a viable presidential material to a politician who plays politics for its sake and not for the sake of service to the people. i did so because a politician, especially one like David Mark who has risen to the position he is today who fails to cater for his immediate constituency, is worse than an infidel. These harsh words are not from me. I am merely paraphrasing the Bible book of 1Timothy 5:8 which says that ‘But if any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith , and is worse than an infidel’. I believe in a concept I have chosen to call locational tribalism. It is a philosophy propounded by me which holds that if any man or woman rises to a certain level in society, it is his duty and responsibility to use his position legitimately to uplift the community from whence he commeth. Perhaps it is for that purpose that God has seen it fit to propel that one to that position. If all who have risen to high positions in this society have lived according to this Idang Alibian philosophy, I am sure that Nigeria would have developed reasonably well because there is hardly any community that has not produced important persons at the local, state or federal level.
When I eventually reached Abuja and shared my disappointment in Mark, a man I had formerly held in high esteem with an Idoma friend of mine who shall remain nameless, he said a lot of unprintable things about Mark.
The summary of what he told me was that if the David Mark forces do not use Nigerian political performance enhancing drug called R, Mark will not win any election in Idomaland because he and other prominent Idoma sons have not done anything to earn the affection of Idomalites.
It was then it dawned on me why a certain upstart Idoma politician called Young Alhaji time and time again gives David Mark such a run for his money in spite of Mark’s stature and national prominence. I used to say that the Idomas were not very wise in deciding to back an unknown quantity like Young Alhaji against a man like Mark who, in a democracy, is better place to take the dividends of democracy to Idomaland. Now, I can understand the depth of anger and disappointment of the Idomalites and their seeming preference for a young or infant Alhaji. I used to wonder that if a Young Alhaji can so give Mark the political scare of his life each time he goes back to the electorate in Idomaland, what will an Old Alhaji do to him if given the chance.
I want to say here that I have not been hired by Mark’s political enemies to run him down and ruin his ambition. I say this because our politicians, ever fearful for their very lucrative positions, see conspiracies everywhere where none exists. Rather, I can describe myself as a lone-ranger crusader for public good who is here lamenting the type of politics most of our politicians play. It is politics for self advancement and not one for service to the people. If for example a man like Mark cannot use his enormous influence to get Federal roads traversing the whole of Idomaland tarred and get Otukpo, the ancestral as well as modern capital of Idomaland and his own very town to wear a modern look, what sort of politics is he playing? As I said earlier I believe that, to paraphrase another verse of the Bible again, it is for a time like this that many of us find ourselves in the positions we occupy.
I also want to counsel Mark’s handlers that instead of troubling our colleague Kola Ologbodiyan to put up a write-up in reaction to this piece defending the clearly indefensible, they should advise the Senate President to quietly heed the humble observation contained in this very well-meaning piece and commence immediate action of letting his position become beneficial to Idoma people on whose strength he got to the Senate. Such a step will endear him to his people and make his dream of presiding over the affairs of this nation one day become a reality. If Mark makes restitution, he will regain my affection which may not mean much but remember that in politics one vote counts!
Perhaps David Mark needs to be reminded that in Ameh Ebute and now in him, the Idoma nation has produced two Senate President of this country. With the Tivs, the Idomas may complain of marginalisation in terms of the governorship of Benue state which they have not produced since the creation of the state. But at the national level, Nigeria has done very well for the Idomas. They have had a score of ministers and during military rule they produced several governors. If the road to their place is deplorable and their main town Otukpo looks like the ruins of an ancient civilisation, the blame does not lie with Mother Nigeria but with the elite of that community.
From what I saw of Idoma roads and the looks of Otukpo, I couldn’t help but tell myself that I can now understand why several of my Idoma friends have not one day invited me to their villages when they are giving their daughters out or taking other people’s daughters as wives for their sons.
If Otukpo is the way it is then their villages must be something else, I told myself.