These three former public servants who served the country meritoriously have since their stewardship been quiet despite the political activities in the country. ELEOJO IDACHABA asks where they could be at the moment.
Ibrahim Abdullahi
Not many people in Nigeria would still be able to place a face to this name, but he is someone that once played a crucial role during the military administration in the country. For instance, Ibrahim is the former Attorney General of the Federation and minister of Justice during the regime of late Head of State, General Sani Abacha up until General Abdusalami Abubakar between 1997 and 1999. Ibrahim was called to the English Bar in 1963 and Nigerian Bar in 1964. His career started when he served as legal adviser and senior state counsel in the defunct Northern Region. He was also a legal adviser and later chairman of New Nigeria Development Company Limited (NNDC).
In the military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari between 1984 and 1985, he was minister of education, science and technology, transport and aviation, respectively. He has also served in many capacities such as membership of the Nigerian team that negotiated the maritime boundary treaty between Nigeria and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and the unitisation agreement of the Zafiro/Ekanga Oil Fields. He was also the agent and later co-agent in the dispute between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroon at the International Court of Justice at the Hague. For a long while now, this Kogi state born lawyer has been out of public space, but he now lives in Kaduna where he is a principal partner of a law firm even though age is no longer on his side.
Dimeji Bankole
Rt Hon Dimeji Bankole was a former lawmaker in the House of Representatives before he was elected speaker of the 9th assembly to represent Patricia Etteh, former speaker in 2007. He is probably the youngest speaker the country ever produced having being elected at the age of 37. Before his election as speaker, he was chairman House Committee on Land Transport. He was at different times also chairman of committees on defence, internal affairs, banking, and currency.
In his acceptance speech after election as speaker, Bankole said, “I am taking over the mantle of leadership at a very difficult time, but we need to build confidence again and assure the populace that we are still their representatives. I want an independent house that Nigerians would be proud of; this is my first task.” Even though opposition was later mounted against his ascension, he was able to overcome such, for example he was alleged to have evaded his mandatory national youth service corps scheme, but he silenced them by producing his discharge certificate to that effect. Bankole was noted for many orders in the House, for instance, following unruly behaviour of some law makers, he suspended 11 of them indefinitely from sitting in the chamber. His tenure was also noted for the return of unspent funds by all government agencies which saw the returning of 450 billion naira to the treasury in 2007 while about 350 billion naira was again recovered in 2008. In total, the House of Representatives ensured the return of about 1 trillion naira unspent funds by MDA’s as part of the annual budgetary process under his speakership. These were unprecedented in the history of oversight in Nigeria’s legislature because until that time, it was business as usual. It was this novel approach to governance that led to the rumple in the Ministry of Health leading to the removal of the two ministers in 2009. Also, under Bankole, the 64 billion naira contract for the second runway of Nnamdi Azikwe Airport in Abuja was investigated and found to be grossly inflated, therefore terminated by the government. Under him too, the House Representatives passed 136 bills including the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The latter ensures that all revenue-generating agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Custom Service, NNPC, FIRS and others present their budgets for scrutiny every year in line with the Act. In 2018, he emerged as the governorship candidate of Action Democratic Party (ADP) in Ogun state, but that was after a prolong silence. Since then, nothing has been heard about him anymore.
Edem Duke
Chief Edem Duke is the former minister of culture and tourism and national orientation towards the end of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2015. Under him as minister with Sally Mbanefo as director general of Nigeria Tourism Development Commission (NTDC), there were conscious efforts to promote indigenous culture through dressing orientation. Chief Duke who was also the supervising minister of information for a brief period, at a point cleared the air surrounding the redevelopment of National Theatre Arts in Lagos, saying, “The ongoing plan to redevelop the National Theatre Arts and its surrounding fallow lands would not claim some of the tenants housed within the national theatre complex.” This clarification came in the heels of growing concerns regarding the fate of tenants in the complex. Following the exit of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from governance at the centre, Duke went into a private/quiet life until 2019 when he declared his intention to contest the 2019 governorship seat of his state on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC). He however could not proceed further due to the internal crisis within the party in the state. That was when he assured Cross Riverians of bringing back the state’s lost glory in tourism, if elected.
He said, “I’m working on a project called ‘Cross River State Renaissance 2020-2022’, a period where I will galvanise in order to reactivate the tourism sector of the state.” This was before the last election. Since then, no one has heard anything about this former minister again.
