In June 2013, I was among the EPF Delegation that visited Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia at his residence in Benin City. We sat beside him and listened as he recounted his achievements, intentions, and dreams for the people of defunct Midwest State. In particular, he expressed burning desire to see to the much desired unity of the Benin people. Brigadier General Ogbemudia told many untold stories about his groundbreaking efforts at uniting the people for greater geopolitical and socioeconomic efficiency and relevance. He spoke passionately about his great vision for development of Edo people across board, and he shed some light into some of the drawbacks, the frustrations, that he experienced in his tenure while he laboured to elevate the political and socioeconomic consciousness of his people. I will not go into further detail on that. I sat there quietly and listened to him attentively. I cannot tell what the seven or eight other delegates were thinking while General Ogbemudia spoke, but I was lost in thoughts. Specifically, I kept asking myself Why do we have these great men, icons, legends, around and we are still where we are as a people. It was not hard for the answer to come to me. I knew instinctively that We are a nation of wilful forgetting and hero killers. I knew Ogbemudia was definitely decades, if not centuries, ahead of his contemporaries in terms of vision and perception. We should have tapped from the rich reservoir of people like Ogbemudia who modernized and mechanized Benin City. If successive administrations had understudied iconic leaders like Alli, Ogbemudia and Imoudu, we would not today be celebrating the renovation of classrooms and construction of roads when that should have long been completed across Edo State and we should have moved up higher to building the people to becoming entrepreneural giants and happy populace because of avalanche of jobs, security and social welfare. We failed somewhere to build upon successes. Never too late to make amends. Permit me to run a quick profile review of this collosus that lives among us. Dr. (Gen.) Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia was born in Benin City on September 17, 1932. He was military Governor for eight years (1967–1975) of the defunct Mid-West State, later renamed Bendel State, part of which in turn became Edo State. As a youth, Ogbemudia lived with his elder cousin, Mr. F.S. Uwaifo, a Benin-based businessman. He attended Benin Baptist School (1941–1945), Government School, Victoria, (in the Cameroons) (1945–1947) for his elementary education. His secondary education was at the Western Boys High School, Benin City (1947–1949). Ogbemudia joined the Nigeria Army in 1957, training in Ghana and in England. He attended the officer cadet school at Aldershot, England in 1960, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in 1961. He attended the United States Army Special Welfare School at Fort Bragg, South Carolina in 1962. Ogbemudia served with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in the Congo for 16 months, and served in Tanzania in 1964. He was appointed as an instructor to the Nigerian Military School, Zaria in 1964. In January, 1966, a coup détat overthrew the civilian government of Nigeria. In July 1966 the military ruler Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was deposed and killed in a counter-coup led by Lieutenant Colonel Murtala Mohammed. Ironsis Chief of Staff, Yakubu Gowon, became Head of State. Major Samuel Ogbemudia played an important role in the counter-coup by disarming his troops in Kaduna at the suggestion of artillery commander Lt-Colonel Alex Madiebo. In August that year he was transferred to the area command, Benin City, fighting with government forces against the Biafrans in the Nigerian Civil War. Promoted to Lt. Colonel, Ogbemudia was appointed Military Governor of the Midwest state on 26 October 1967. A populist, dedicated to reconstruction after the war, he initiated improvements in the areas of sports, urban development, education, public transportation, housing, agriculture and commerce. Ogbemudia built the Ogbe Sports Stadium, now named the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, and in August 1973 he commissioned the three-story National Museum in Benin City. Other major projects initiated or commissioned by Ogbemudia included the Agbede Mechanized Farm, Rural Electrification Board that spread electricity to many cities in Edo and Delta states, Bendel Steel Structures, Bendel Pharmaceuticals, Bendel Boatyard, the University of Benin, Afuze Sports Village and the Bendel Line, among numerous others. In July 1975, when Murtala Mohammed became Head of State, he retired the twelve military governors who had served under Yakubu Gowon. The retirement of the governors found guilty of corruption were converted to dismissal. Among these was Brigadier General Samuel Ogbemudia, whom Gowon had appointed eight years earlier, and whom Murtala replaced by Colonel George Agbazika Innih. Ogbemudia was tried for abuses while in office, but acquitted. During a brief return to civil rule, Samuel Ogbemudia was elected governor of Bendel State in October 1983 as candidate for the National Party of Nigeria, replacing Professor Ambrose Alli of the Unity Party of Nigeria. However, he lost his position in December that year when Muhammadu Buhari became military ruler after a coup détat that overthrew democracy in Nigeria hitherto led by civilian President Shehu Shagari. General Sani Abacha, Military Head of State from November, 1993 until his death in June, 1998, appointed Ogbemudia as Minister for Labor and Productivity. After the restoration of democracy in 1998/1999, Ogbemudia was one of the founders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo state, and a member of the partys Board of Trustees. Ogbemudia and Chief Anthony Anenih between them controlled PDP politics in Edo State for the next decade, at first working well together but later coming into open conflict between 2006 - 2007. Dr. Ogbemudia will be remembered for his exploits at designing a development masterplan for Benin City, for founding University of Benin, for modernizing Benin City and many cities across Edo and Delta states, for transforming many former villages into industrial, agricultural and recreational centres, for giving quality leadership in his tenure, among others. While I sat down on that hot June afternoon, in his sitting room with the other EPF delegates, thoughts of the legend of this man who we do bot celebrate enough ran through my mind. I was proud that this great man was from my homeland, Edo State. I was truly proud to identify with him. Silently, I wished that successive administrations in Edo State should take the initiative to understudy visionary and missionary regimes like Ogbemudias and Allis and take a cue from. Particularly from their people-oriented Welfarist policies and thoroughness in planning, implementation and monitoring approach to governance and leadership. That way, we are on our way in the right way. On a day like this, which coincided with my New Midweek Series of celebrating our living legends, I wish to invite you all to join me to celebrate our Brigadier General, our Doctor of Philosophy, our Governor Emeritus, an illustrious Edo son and father, Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia as he celebrates 82 years of a worthy life. Join me to wish Ogbemudia a happy birthday even as another EPF Delegation visits him today. #Iselogbe! NEdo Ghaa Ma! #SME
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 22:09:38 +0000
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