By Michael BUSH
Nigeria’s honourable minister of housing and urban development, Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, was in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state penultimate Thursday and Friday. The visit was in continuation of his nationwide mission to jump-start second phase of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Estate (housing project). Partly because the Akwa Ibom prototypical site is right in my community, Ekpene Ukim, the Uruan local government area village that is the only gateway to Victor Attah international airport and partly because the minister is who he is, I got the opportunity to conduct a shock interview with him for television (Spectrum on free-to-air), radio (Planet 101.1 FM), online and newspaper (you shall soon read the full transcribed version in this paper).
For the foregoing reason(s), this piece is therefore not about the nitty-gritty of the interview but a human angle eyewitness account of events and experiences before, during and after it.
Former two-term member of Ikono state constituency in Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Victor Udofia, introduced me to the honourable minister about 3.45pm that Thursday. Instantly, I found the man -as are most northerner Nigerians in public office- quite available and affable and different and honourable and humble. He talked freely about how Akwa Ibom was his second home. He had been here, specifically on national youth service at Government Secondary School, Nto Nsek in what is today Essien Udim LGA.
That was in September of 1987. It was on the 23rd day of that month in that year that Akwa Ibom state and Arc. Dangiwa’s (Katsina) were created by then military President Ibrahim Babangida. The housing chief regaled me with how he joined Akwaibomights and Katsinans in the state in what was for him double celebrations. He told the story with such great gusto and memory.
He also narrated his elation at returning to the state during his 2017 to 2022 federal mortgage bank of Nigeria managing director heyday. He reminisced about that era of his; how he woke Nigerians up from mortgage banking slumber, mobilised them to take advantage of the goldmine subsector and indeed added monumental value during the five-year tenure. I remembered him vividly the moment he mentioned FMBN because his professional colleague and friend, Arc. Ezekiel Nya-Etok, my own elder brother, leader and benefactor, used to mention him always. It quickly dawned on me yet again that northern Nigeria (the geopolitical Nigerian envelope to which Katsina belongs) consciously grooms its people through the rungs of preparation; deliberately positioning them for national leadership.
Sadly, I cannot say the same of my own people. All they enjoy doing, from tenure to tenure, is Uyo-limited infighting. Sitting there, looking at the honourable minister, tears welled up in my eyes enough to dampen my heart and spirit but consolation came in quick succession thanks to inflowing thoughts of what Senate President Godswill Akpabio is doing for own people. Even more consoling is how the former governor of my home state currently partners the incumbent, Pastor Umo Eno; a first in every Akwa Ibom-Abuja political sense.
One only prays theirs doesn’t go the way of most, if not all, Akwa Ibom (previous) political alliances. Akwaibomights want to see and touch verifiable, not audio, dividends of the relationship. We want to see our people (not a segment) repositioned in Nigeria. Home is too saturated.
Really, Akwa Ibom and Katsina may have been created on the same day, but one has already produced two presidents. We know which, don’t we? The time is now for the less politically active twin to hit the sky flying. Their excellencies, senate president and state governor, having already done an excellent job of obliterating the everpresent and visible political divide in Akwa Ibom must now engage gear and deliberately work to accord our best political brains poll position in Abuja.
Until then, back to Katsina; back to the Katsina-born national political player who a fortnight ago was in Akwa Ibom on national assignment. Honourable Minister Ahmed Musa Dangiwa was really great company: relentless honesty, telling simplicity and uncanny warmth. You couldn’t but be awed by both his persona and presence. And, it was effortless; the man was himself; meaning that is the him even God knows.
That point is important, because in my country an alarming majority of especially political office holders are five-faced. A different side of them shows up in the morning, another in the afternoon and yet another in the night. The remaining two show up either when they need something or when they meet someone they hate. Most of them who lift up so-called holy hands every Sunday and Friday morning are neither known nor would they be rewarded by the same God they claim to worship.
So, it was extra exhilarating to see a Nigerian big man carry on like a human being all through his extended stay with people purportedly below him. He allowed everyone in that room to talk, every time someone had something to say. He listened, and responded, accordingly. He laughed when we all did.
Arc. Dangiwa’s minister of state, His Excellency, Engr (Dr) Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo, former deputy governor of Kano state, was also present throughout. It blessed my heart to see firsthand that not every political-boss-and-deputy-relationship in this country resembles that of cat and mouse. The mutual respect between both men is so palpable you could hug it. The minister of state, the way he carries himself, seems to understand the intricacies of power play -I should come back to this, presently.
Meanwhile, let us go back to Ibom Hotel & Golf Resort. Within just thirty minutes of meeting Honourable Minister Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, I request to interview him. There’s a nanosecond pause that seems like a minute. Then: “great idea, Mr BUSH, let’s do it”!
The time is about 4.15, when Rt Hon. Udofia whispers that the honourable minister and his entourage would love to visit the site of the project at 5.30. I tell the minister that we can squeeze in the interview the following morning before he leaves for the event to which he confirms that 9 o’clock is good. I hurry away from Nwaniba, where the hotel is, making my way to around the airport to be on the ground to receive the visiting minister. At the site, word is already out that he is on his way and those who had been doing nothing all day are suddenly all over the place busy like a bee.
I like the amusement that this gives my lungs. Strolling around a small cleared portion of the vast site, I smile and laugh, with many of the culprits smiling and laughing along sans knowing it is all about them. Strangely, one of the extraneous big men at the site starts whining about why the minister can’t wait until the day of the event. Alas, at 5.33pm to the minute, the minister and his small convoy arrive and the same man is pushing to beat the gathering crowd for a vantage point to welcome the housing and urban development boss.
My people say that the cat can stand upright and prance around only in the absence of the lion. Sssh, this is my village and I am free to communicate like a village boy -apologies, big brother Anietie Usen. This dovetails with what I have always known, namely that all big men are not equal; that some big men are bigger than others; which is why when some big men are around, most other big men decrease to small boys. No dulling: leadership and learning or teaching na five and six.
Of course, the minister is at the site, on the eve of the event, to see things for himself. Clearly, he doesn’t want on event day to be told stories that touch the heart. When his vehicle pulls up, and his aide in the front seat jumps out to open the door for him, the man is already making his way into the grounds. A woman tries to beg him to stay back in the car that nothing is ready yet but the man smiles it off.
Accompanied of course by his inevitable minister of state, Arc. Dangiwa spends about 30 minutes at the site. When he makes to leave, his special assistant on media, Mark, and I approach him to firm up time for the interview. I suggest that we could even make it happen that night. Surprisingly, the big man approves 9pm.
My 5-man technical crew arrive the hotel at 7.30 for set-up. Somehow, there are delays over inability to secure a conducive venue for the interview. At 8.30, the minister hears about the issue and instantly directs that his living space be used. I arrive about 20 minutes to interview, and both his minister of state and he are already right there chatting to the guys, spreading their camaraderie across the boundaries of age and class and education and religion and tribe.
A minute to 9, a call comes that Gov. Umo Eno is waiting to receive the minister and his team at government house. He apologises and hurries to leave, with all of his people in tow. I chip in that my team and I will wait outside, that he should ask someone to lock his room. “No, Mr BUSH: you all wait in here and please feel free”.
He gets back at 10.40 and straight to the set of the 90-minute session. I open the interview querying why he would in his absence allow people he hardly knows to access his private space and in a strange land. He quips back that relationships are begun with trust until the other person proves untrustworthy. I shall always remember that.
Thereafter, he spoke frankly and glowingly of President Bola Tinubu as well as minister of state Gwarzo. That was after I asked why the president would have two northerners as minister and minister of state in the same ministry and the first-ever southerner, His Excellency Nyesom Wike, as federal capital territory minister. These considerations may seem frivolous but not in Nigeria. Fortunately, he didn’t think any less of the question.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR is a great listener who shares ideas and has the political will to do what is best. He is an excellent chooser of quality and a visionary positioner of men; always puts round pegs in round holes, and is not given to political or ethnic reasoning. For instance, apart from ministry of housing and urban development, the president appointed in the ministries of agriculture and of health, ministers and ministers of state who are core professionals, and from the north. In the FCT, he needed an aggressive administrator and you can see results.
“In the ministry of works, he brought in an engineer who has a track record of having performed elsewhere. President Tinubu knows what he wants, he knows who can help him achieve it and he always goes for the best. As for my minister of state, as you correctly mentioned, having been deputy governor and being an engineer, he helps me a great deal. We are colleagues, we work together”.
When the interview ends at 12.25am, something quite heartwarming happens. The minister of state indicates intention to gift the almighty PR to the technical crew. He discreetly hands the package to the minister who in turn gives it to me and I pass it on to the guys on the spot. Then, when nobody is looking, the minister manufactures a smol nor bi sick package from nowhere and gives me.
Pure class, both men! Fast forward to the D-day. The 10am event kicks off at 10.10 and ends at 11. The small, beautiful event to launch out Akwa Ibom site of renewed hope estate, (what Nigerians call groundbreaking) saw the governor represented by head of service, Elder Effiong Essien, accompanied by honourable commissioner, housing, Otuekong Raphael Bassey, while Ekpene Ukim village head, Eteidung Effiong Asuquo Ekanem, led chiefs and other locals in their numbers.
First to speak is the minister of state, after SA, Media had set the tone. In a country where ambition and arrogance and impatience and rivalry and suspicion combine to steal the joy of political relationships, the federal ministry of housing and urban development teaches how to live and let live. Deputies are also human beings, let them breathe. Nigerian bosses should stop treating their seconds-in-command like good-for-nothing lepers since “nobody knows tomorrow.”
Conversely, Nigerians who find themselves, or accept to serve, as number two must realise that the role is not for everybody. It is meant for only people with an inexhaustible sense of contentment and humility and loyalty and patience and tractability. Such people must have next to no ambition, whatever that means. They must at all times await their turn, even when they know it will never come.
Finally, the event may have long ended but Honourable Minister Ahmed Musa Dangiwa’s calmness and friendliness and honesty and responsiveness and simplicity remain in our consciousness as a palatable aftertaste. He may not have known but he taught many young people, who encountered him during his two-day stopover in Akwa Ibom state, how to be minister or big man in Nigeria, different from what they always knew. His is a life lived in God and in gratitude and in love and in respect and in service; his is a life worth living.
It is not every day you meet a Nigerian big man and go away yourself feeling blessed or good, or human at all.
God bless Nigeria!
Akparawa Michael BUSH, Broadcaster, Journalist, and Columnist, is President-at-Large of BUSH HOUSE NIGERIA
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