The Minority Question: Thoughts on identity, justice and politics of incorporation in Nigeria

THERE appears to be a feeling that a leadership is diminished when it recognises, honours and accords the rightful place in history to its predecessor. Nothing can be further from the truth, because, rather than diminish the leadership, such a recognition enhances its stature and public perception as it is seen to be confident and selfless! Evidence, however, abounds of the leadership honouring itself while in office perhaps out of the fear that once out of office no one will remember their contributions.

And so it remains a story of our life as a country that we fall into that trap of history which in the wisdom of the Sage, George Santayana asserts that “those who do not study the past (or ignore it) are bound to make the same mistakes”!

Today our history is replete with missed opportunities to celebrate our true heroes past and present who should serve as role models. Instead charlatans and mediocrity are celebrated in ways that assault our collective intelligence and distort our true values! Today, the number and spread of awards giving agencies are fast outpacing the number of desirable manufacturing companies that should be established to provide jobs and grow our economy! Most of these awards violate the basic caution by St. Francis of Assisi “You should never praise anyone until you see how he turns out in the end”!

Asdev ’81 Club of Asaba, by instituting this lecture series in honour of Chief Dr. Osadebay, has taken the bull by the horn and done the right thing by filling a long yawning gap. I congratulate and very sincerely thank the Club for this bold and desirable initiative.

Indeed by organising this event you have not just killed two birds with the proverbial one stone, you have indeed killed several birds with one stone! It has served as a wake up call to both the Federal and State Governments that in the matter of honouring a deserving Nigerian, Chief Osadebay, there is an unfinished business! Put point blank, Chief Osadebay deserves to have a befitting national monument named after him! Anioma is waiting, Delta State is waiting, indeed Nigeria is waiting to see the right thing done.

Secondly, the choice of the topic cannot be more apt! With our country reeling with instability and longing for the stability, peace and inclusive growth and development that only fairness, justice, equity and good governance can bring, addressing burning national issues such as the minority question, widespread injustice, identity and incorporation problems which have serious implications for our nationhood is most desirable.

Thirdly, what better choice to do justice to these vexed issues in our national life than a proven motivational speaker, a forthright, principled, objective and credible Nigerian, well respected across religions, regions, sectors, groups etc, a person no other than His Lordship, Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese.

But then it is not by sheer coincidence that Asdev was able to put this programme together. The Club has as its members very brilliant and active minds across disciplines and has been in the forefront of promoting projects and ideas that have over the years served to move Asaba their main constituency forward.

They have been good partners in progress to His Royal Majesty, the Asagba of Asaba and other Asaba governance structures.  Over and above this, the Club boasts of members who today occupy very important positions at State and National levels. From these vantage positions they pursue the Club’s ideals of excellence. Their organisations and indeed Nigeria as a whole have been the better for it!

I knew Chief Dennis Osadebay. It was always an awe inspiring experience for me to drive down Osadebay Way in GRA Benin City to my office as Deputy Governor, Bendel State. I regarded the name with considerable awe and respect. He was a conviction, forthright and principled politician who never spoke from both corners of his mouth.

I recall visiting  him at his modest home in Asaba in 1991 from Benin City as Deputy Governor with the then Military Governor of  Bendel State, Col. John Yeri. We were struck by the highly modest life he led and were very pleased and honoured to provide him and his family with some assistance. The relationship continued when with the creation of Delta State in 1992, I moved over to Asaba as the capital of the newly created Delta State.

Being the opening remarks of Chief John Edozien, OON, former Deputy Governor of Delta State at the 1st Late Chief Dennis Osadebay Memorial Lecture organised by Asdev 81 Club of Asaba