It is not certain where these personalities that once rocked public offices/life are and what they are doing presently; wonders ELEOJO IDACHABA.
Garba Duba
Garba Duba is a retired Army Lieutenant General; but before then, he was military governor of Bauchi state under General Olusegun Obasanjo as Head of State between 1978 and 1979. He was also the military administrator of Sokoto state from 1984 to August 1985, under Major General Muhammadu Buhari as Head of State.
He joined the army as a Cadet Officer at the Nigerian Military Training College Zaria in 1962, presumably a course mate of Ibrahim Babangida. At the beginning of his career, he was at the Indian Military Academy. Duba was one of the northern officers who participated in the Nigerian counter-coup of 1966 which led to the death of General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. During the Nigeria Civil War, he was a Captain, commanding a squadron of armored vehicles. As military governor of Bauchi state, he provided infrastructure in the form of residential accommodation and offices, including secretariats for the newly-created 16 local government areas.
During his tenure, Steyr Nigeria Limited, a tractor manufacturing company, was founded. He also established the Bauchi State Polytechnic, using one of the Teachers Colleges as a campus while the rector used the administrator’s Brigade Commander’s guest house as accommodation and other army formations for office. Under him too, a number of Teacher Training Colleges and School of Basic Studies were established. At one point, he was Commander 2nd Mechanised Division between 1987 and 1988) as well as Commander, 3rd Armoured Division and Commandant, Nigerian Defence Academy between 1990 and 1992.
In 1993, he retired from the military and went into private businesses where he held positions like chairman, New Nigerian Development Company (NNDC), chairman of SGI Nigeria Limited, director in First Bank of Nigeria, non-executive director of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc and chairman of the board of Leadway pension fund.
Bongos Ikwue
Bongos Ikwue is certainly one of Nigeria’s finest surviving music icons whose style of music has continued to attract both the young and old. A living legend, he made his entrance into the music scene at an early age while studying in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. His styled kind of country music equates him with the likes of Don William, especially with the deep, baritone voice with which he renders it.
The phenomenon called Bongos Ikwue, according to Idibia Ojabo, a writer, is singularly significant and unprecedented as to defy any known comparison. “With such a voice that has character and can command any song, Bongos Ikwue is a musical genre in its own right. With real music that always had something to say, Bongos’ songs are borne out of struggle that moved forward the whole time so that people can be in-tune with reality. The generosity of his spirit and songs are the cornerstones of what he has done and still doing for the betterment of mankind and the society.
Bongos’ records are a diary of all the important statements that reflect his belief. He not just talks moral, but lives it and this galvanises his fans.” While marking his 75 birthday celebration a few years back, it was widely reported that this country music crooner who never believed in any religion was said to have embraced Christianity in Otukpo, his home town, and changed his name to Evangelist Ebenezer Bongos Ikwue.
Confirming the development, a preacher in Makurdi, Abel Uloko, said, “This is the turning point. Ten days ago in the company of my wife, we joined hundreds of other people in a thanksgiving service in honour of Dr Bongos Ikwue as he turned his heart over to the Lord.
“My joy knew no bounds as the Methodist Arch Bishop of Otukpo Diocese, Most Rev Oliver commissioned him as an evangelist with a new name, Ebenezer. Interestingly, when I took to the stage to address the congregation at the reception and recount my 23 year-old relationship with him, he corrected me when I addressed him as Dr Ebenezer Bongos Ikwue; he charged at me for omitting his Ecclesiastical title. I had to address him correctly as Evangelist Ebenezer Bongos Ikwue. God is still in the business of changing lives and calling men to Himself. Friends, do not give up on anybody. It took 23 years after I preached Jesus to him for him to come to repentance,” he said. Among some of his hit tracks are ‘Mariama’ in Tear Drops, Otachikpokpo, Cock Crow at Dawn, Amen, Still Searching and a couple of others.
An account of his life cannot be complete without a peep into one of his songs titled Mariama which many erroneously alluded to the amorous relationship he had with the late Mariam Babangida, wife of the former Nigerian leader; a fact he denied severally, saying he never had any romantic relationship with her. As a matter of fact, he said that he only met her once in his life.
Ojabo said further, “By and large, Bongos’ quiet, peaceful, productive life, a respectable life and most importantly God-honouring life brought him fame, wealth and a healthy life. Each record of his is a reminder that the paths Bongos explored were unknown then and even today, remains something of a mystery for most people.”
During his 75 birthday, he vowed to continue in music till his last moment on earth, but it’s not clear whether or not he’s doing that now.
Sam Oyovbaire
Professor Sam Ejite Oyovbaire is the former minister of information under former President Ibrahim Babangida during the military administration. He was appointed immediately after the late Tony Momoh served in that capacity. Oyovbaire is a professor of Political Science and was the president, Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) between 1984 and 1986. At the beginning of his stewardship with IBB, he was appointed as the political adviser to Babangida and later as information and culture minister. All these were prior to serving as special adviser to Admiral Augustus Aikhomu who was the second in command in that administration. In that capacity, he engaged in rationalising the regime’s political programme. In specific terms, he extolled the virtues of the Transition Programme, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Mass Mobilisation for Self-Reliance Social Justice and Economic Recovery (MAMSER), Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which was the home-grown version implemented by that regime without the standby facility of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In February 2002, long after he left office as minister, he along with Vanguard’s Chidi Amuta wrote in defence of Babangida’s programmes. Part of it reads, “The socio-economic reforms of the IBB regime created the enabling environment for a generation of Nigerian professionals who were self-reliant, confident and challenged to break new grounds in the Nigerian political economy.” He presented Babangida’s administration as the foundation of the modern Nigerian political economy. On the missing $12.2 billion Gulf War oil windfall, Oyovbaaire wrote in that defence that, “The IBB regime did what it had to do with the dedicated funds. Therefore, the divergence of opinions between the Okigbo committee and the IBB regime on this matter was essentially conceptual and not substantive.”
These confirm the perceptions of public commentators, including intellectuals and academics, about the success of Babangida’s patronage politics, the creation of several programmes and maintenance of steady incomes for many academics despite the allegations against those programmes. As at 2010, Oyovbaire became coordinator for the activities of then PDP presidential aspirant, Abubakar Atiku. Earlier when Babangida again nursed the ambition of contesting for the presidency in 2011, an ambition he later dropped, Prof. Oyovbaire was named his director of policy and strategy.
However, in December 2010 when Badangida was ruled out of the 2011 elections, that was when Oyovbaire reportedly became the head of Atiku’s campaign for the presidency in the South-south region following the harmonisation process of the Babangida, Gusau, Atiku and Saraki Campaign Teams in the region. Not too long ago, he turned 80 years old with accolades coming from far and near including from President Muhammadu Buhari who congratulated him on his journey of life.
It is, however, not certain where he is presently.
