By Dr. Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr.
Gus was exhibiting a sense of injured pride. He felt like a man who had accomplished his mission well and acquitted himself diligently and elegantly, and then, just in the last step and moment, was now being forced to experience an embarrassment that was totally avoidable.

Why the officials had not allowed the plane to land before rushing him out of the hotel so that the aircraft would wait for him and not him for it, I never got to find out. But I am sure that they too had their own unanticipated constraints.

Gus seemed quite happy or relieved to see me and allowed his annoyance to begin to effervesce. Not forgetting the officials outside the limousine who needed me to intercede for them, I chose to engage the Vice-President on important issues of mutual interest,  about common friends and about matters of state.

This was not so much to distract him as to use the rare private time productively. We talked very briefly about two friends we had in common, one each of whom had disappointed each of us.

Then the conversation turned to serious inquiry as to how each of us was doing, as friends must from time to time do lest they make wrong assumptions that overlook real personal concerns and anxieties that especially those in public office need to share with someone they trust.

In response to his inquiry, I assured  him that all was well with me and with The Third Press, as best any serious engagement with life could be. Then he turned to me and said, “You know we would have liked to give you an appointment.

But you have worked so hard to build your business and international reputation and prestige. If you joined our government now and we leave in a few months you would have risked it all for nothing.” I expressed gratitude for the thought while frankly agreeing with him. Gus and his disarming common sense!

Then it was my turn. “There have been some criticisms of you of late, especially with regard to promoting the interests of the South,” I stated, a bit matter-of-factly, leaning a bit towards him and looking softly straight at him. “How are you coping with that?” “I know.

It comes with the office. One day they will learn that the South would have been much worse off if I were not there.” He was neither defensive nor arrogant, simply forthright and in earnest.

By the time we returned to the airport and we said our goodbyes, I felt that the Vice-President had had a good visit to New York, enjoyed himself, and was happy to be going back home to continue his service to the people. He had also carried off his prime mission, namely to deliver Nigeria’s formal address to the 45th General Assembly of the United Nations and support Nigeria’s (and Africa’s) ongoing diplomatic interests globally and at the United Nations.

The world was in a rather euphoric state in the autumn of 1990, quite upbeat, in fact. Namibia had gained independence following a long hard armed struggle against apartheid South Africa and the new Republic of Namibia had taken its rightful place as a member-state of the United Nations.

Nigeria had played a major role in support of that struggle and final process, as she had done 10 years earlier when Rhodesia became the independent state of Zimbabwe. Nigeria had variously sponsored the liberation of southern Africa and, indeed, of all Africa.

Painting this background and context, Aikhomu, in his UN General Assembly address, remarked on the optimistic global environment but insisted that there was still much to be done. Although Nelson Mandela had been freed,  apartheid was yet to be conquered. Iraq was yet to pull out of occupied Kuwait.

The promise that free enterprise and economic growth in the advanced economies would accrue automatic benefits to developing economies had proved elusive if not outright unfulfilled. He addressed the asymmetry of the global economy extensively and with authoritative data.

He spoke about the need for global action to preserve the environment, reduce the spread of toxic waste and stem the huge global trade in arms and armaments. He declared Nigeria’s commitment to human rights worldwide and announced Nigeria’s support for the World Conference On Human Rights that was under consideration.

The Vice-President bemoaned the inadequate attention given by the major economic powers to the economic development of their less fortunate counterparts. He stated that it was “regrettable that the same concerns and commitment in global politics and security matters have not yet been extended to the economic well-being of most of the developing world.”

Aikhomu also underscored Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to her total, natural and almost sacred responsibility to Africa as her brother’s keeper. In this regard, a few months earlier Nigeria had deployed  troops as the main contingent of  ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) to keep the fragile peace in civil war-ravaged Liberia.

We would lose an unacceptable number of our troops fighting to keep Africa safe and secure. Aikhomu prayed for the support of the international community and  UN member-states in ECOMOG’s efforts in Liberia.

That was  21 years ago. Nigeria’s image abroad was still very strong and solid. Her prestige was very high and her influence and clout, especially regarding African affairs and interests, unmatched and unquestioned.  At the United Nations, African ambassadors took Nigeria’s leadership as a matter of course and relied on it, the occasional resistance, recalcitrance and even subterfuge of some notwithstanding. All was not always stellar.

We made mistakes, and once or twice even blundered inexcusably. But we were firm in our leadership of Africa and resolute and passionate in our commitment and generosity of material, intellectual, political and emotional resources in support of that cause.

Winning the election to one of the African rotational seats on the UN Security Council around that time had not been smooth and easy, and much of the blame lay squarely on Nigeria’s laps.

In a modus operandi of presumption and distraction that would increasingly become more the staple of the way we have come to do things, we had failed to declare our candidacy on time and to engage diligently and resourcefully in the campaign efforts that were required to assure us victory.

Another (and smaller) African country had taken advantage of Nigeria’s sloppiness and declared its candidacy.Our rear-guard battle to win, one that made us appear to throw our weight around and to bulldoze our way in what came to be seen as an opportunistic candidacy against a weaker fellow African nation, ruffled more than a few feathers. It also left behind some bitter tastes.

Twenty-one years ago when Aikhomu addressed the 45th session of the UN General Assembly, Nigeria House, the imposing and towering green glass edifice at the north-east corner of Second Avenue and 44th Street in Manhattan and just two blocks from the UN  headquarters, had not been completed.

Major-General Ike Nwachukwu as Foreign Minister had laid the foundation stone almost precisely a year earlier. That same year, in 1989, Major-General Joseph Garba, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, had been elected President of the 44th General Assembly and served a term that ended at the opening of the 45th.

Aikhomu acknowledged that service and thanked the member-states of the world organisation for the support they gave  Garba and Nigeria during the tenure.

All of the contemporary human deficits notwithstanding, Aikhomu ended his address to the General Assembly on a positive note. “Nonetheless,” he said, “as we peer into the future, we are full of hope. We are confident that we shall reach our collective goal of a peaceful world devoid of man-made injustice.

The government and people of Nigeria will not only dream, but will continue to work tirelessly for an Africa that is socially at peace, economically developed and politically plural and democratic.”

Twenty-one years later, Nigeria finds herself in a political and socio-economic condition that appears to have defied or undermined that eminent dream and hope that Aikhomu so eloquently articulated and extolled.

At home, the atmosphere was quite positive and hopeful. Babangida as President and Aikhomu’s boss enjoyed substantial support  though many Nigerians took exception to what they considered to be his “strongman” approach to governance. The overall prognosis for the future of the nation and the well-being of the people was good and positive.  Nigerians were nonetheless not starry-eyed about their leadership.

Political skepticism has always been a landmark of Nigerian public disposition, and desirably so, and it was not in short supply in October 1990.

Nigerians have always wanted civilian democratic governance. It was no different at that time. In fact, only five months earlier, there had been a daring attempt to overthrow the regime. Most probably shocked and traumatized by this, the government accelerated its plans to hand over to a freely-elected civilian government.

Aikhomu gave the world community present at the General Assembly a sober but optimistic account of Nigeria’s progress in this regard, stating that elections to the National Assembly were planned for only a couple of months away.

There was also disaffection and dissatisfaction with regard to public services. Most dramatic of them at the time was the traffic nightmare and corresponding hardships visited  on workers in Lagos many of whom spent up to five hours after closing still waiting for public transportation to get home.

The responsibility for ensuring the resolution of this problem also rested on Aikhomu’s shoulders. We had discussed this earlier in his office at Dodan Barracks in Obalende, Lagos, the then seat of the military government. We revisited this again briefly in our discussion in the limousine at  JFK Airport.

As Vice-President, Gus served his country at a time when an awful lot of major decisions were made and critical changes in the very structure of Nigeria instituted. By far most significant among these was his supervision of the creation of a number of states, including Delta.

During this process, Aikhomu tried to get the Itsekiri people to settle their internal squabbles and the Itsekiri and Urhobo to do likewise. They did not, and the administration proceeded to do what it felt it had to do.

Aikhomu was distinguished by human qualities that would seem today to be alien to Nigeria’s elite. He was modest, discreet, and deeply committed to his duties and undertakings which he executed with neither exotic flare nor boisterous bluster.  True to his proper classical military training,  Aikhomu saw leadership as a duty, not as power.

In many ways than one, looking at where we are today and how much we must do to right all that is wrong with our country, Aikhomu’s departure is like the passing of common sense in Nigeria’s public conduct at a time that we most need his brand of leadership.

As we reflect on the passing of our friend, we are compelled to think of Aikhomu and his legacy in contradistinction to those of some of his surviving contemporaries and the conduct and style of many of our present leadership. Knowing when and how to take a curtain call and bow out when the public play is over and the curtain closes on power is an important rite of passage from political leadership to statesmanship.

It is something that few Nigerian leaders have understood or embraced. Against this tapestry, Aikhomu’s ability to know when and how to take a bow when the curtain was drawn on his tenure as an active political leader stands in profound contrast to some whose unwillingness or inability to do likewise has seen them hugging the public space at all cost, and in the process undermining the prestige and honour of the legacy of their public service.

That is also why it is ironic that Aikhomu would pass on within a day or two of when two former heads of state, both erstwhile senior military officers, one his boss and the other his superior officer, were engaging in cantankerous public disputation of each other’s legacy in a manner unacceptable.

The problem lies in their doing so with language and conduct unbecoming and unacceptable, and frankly embarrassingly un-exemplary.

The conduct of Nigeria’s leadership and governance, however imperfect or less, was at least decent, respectable and reasonably elegant when the likes of  Aikhomu were at the controls of Nigeria’s ship of state. In the boisterous cacophony of today’s political conduct and style, his passing leaves a vacuum that those who would seek to lead in the future should aspire to fill.

Aikhomu served Nigeria well and a grateful nation and a bereaved family have a lot to be proud of, and thankful for.

Concluded

*Okpaku, Sr. is  President and Publisher of Third Press Publishers and Chief Executive of Telecom Africa International Corporation.