Alabo Graham Douglas, Fidelis Tapgun: Where are they now?

Alabo Graham Douglas, Ebitimi Banigo, and Fidelis Tapgun were once prominent and held public offices but in recent times have been out of public space. ELEOJO IDACHABA asks where they are?

Alabo Graham Douglas

Chief Tonye Graham Douglas is a four-time minister.

He was first appointed minister of youth, sports and culture in 1989 by General Ibrahim Babangida and subsequently minister of aviation by and later minister of labour and productivity in 1990 under the same administration.

Chief Graham Douglas was also appointed minister of culture in 2001 under President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Prior to coming on the national stage he was the commissioner for youths, sports and culture in Rivers state. He is reputed to have initiated and completed the now popular Alfred Diete-Spiff Civic Centre in Port Harcourt as commissioner.

He also initiated the construction of the Liberation Stadium and secured approval to establish Rivers State College of Science and Technology.

What is today known as the robust cultural, scientific and educational relationship between Nigeria and China was also initiated by Chief Graham Douglas as minister of culture under Obasanjo. He headed a delegation that visited China in November 2000; here he signed the 2000-2002 Executive Plan of Cultural and Educational Exchange between China and Nigeria. This pact has been followed by every administration since then.

Also, in 1992 he became chairman of the Southern Minorities Movement, one of the groups that eventually merged to form the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He was presidential candidate in the PDP primary election in 1998 but lost to Chief Obasanjo.

As one of the founding fathers of the PDP Rivers, he pitched his support with the candidacy of Peter Odili as governor of the state.

A national newspaper writing about him stated, “Perhaps, if the federal government he served four times as minister had listened to him and taken his proposals as road-map for the development of the Niger-Delta region and, indeed, other parts of the country, maybe much of the pain the nation experienced and is still experiencing could have been avoided. That was not to be; the entire nation, especially its leaders could not see gold elsewhere except in crude oil. Today, a costly clean-up of Ogoni land is in the works and is estimated to cost a whopping US$1 billion.”

Similarly, a media report when he turned 80 stated: “Most persons who inquired to know what made 80 years a miracle to him were later made to know that he broke the chain that limited his brothers and members of his family never to reach or cross 60 years.

“So, when he got to 60, there was wild and widespread trepidation that he would go the way of his family. He broke it! At 80, he rolled out the drums to laugh Mr Death to scorn. A huge crowd joined him to do so in the Garden City.”

Ebitimi Banigo

Ebitimi Banigo is also a former minister President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was held sway in the ministry of science and technology between 1999 and 2000.

A foremost banker, he was the chief executive officer of the defunct International Merchant Bank (IMB) from 1981 to 1986 in the days when merchant banks boomed in the country.

Banigo and a group of investors also started the defunct All States Trust Bank following the deregulation of the banking industry.

The politician turned traditional ruler was named among Nigerians with choice property in London and reportedly one of the 130 foreign buyers in Britain’s tallest residential skyscraper. He is said to own a £2.7 million apartment in the residential towers where he barely resides.

The tower, St. George Wharf, dominates River Thames in Vauxhall area of South London with 214 luxury flats costing a minimum of £1 million.

Similarly, he has had issues with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the recommendation of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which audited the bank’s financial records and alleged Banigo and his associated companies were extended loan facilities amounting to more than 35 per cent of shareholder equity, a violation of the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act.

However, not much has been heard of him in recent times.

Fidelis Tapgun

Fidelis Tapgun is a former governor of Plateau state as well as former minister of industry under President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Prior to this appointment as minister he was Nigeria’s Ambassador to Kenya.

Tapgun won the governorship election of Plateau in 1992 on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP). However, following the coup that brought General Sani Abacha to power in 1993 the life of his administration was aborted.

On return of democratic rule in 1999 he pitched his tent with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and was eventually appointed Nigeria’s Ambassador to Kenya.

Tapgun was also the director general of Obasanjo-Atiku Campaign Organisation in the 2003 Presidential Election which was won by the PDP. He was very prominent in the administration even as he, alongside other Plateau state indigenes threw their weights behind the declaration of state of emergency by Obasanjo on the in 2004.

He was subsequently appointed minister under the administration. Speaking in August 2005 on the issue of competitiveness of local products, which he said one of the administration’s major challenges, and announced the formation of two new standardisation bodies to help improve quality of products being produced in the country.

In July 2006, with the soaring price of cement prices as a result of scarcity, Tapgun headed an inter-ministerial committee to assess investors in the industry.

He was reported to have visited the site of a cement factory in Ebonyi state closed as a result of dispute between the state government and the company management. Despite reassurances that the plant would be re-opened it remained closed till November 2009.

He was subsequently redeployed as minister of state to the newly created ministry of commerce and industry in 2007.

Tapgun continued playing active role in the PDP-led government up till 2010. However not much has been heard about him for a while now.

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