By Philip Agbese
Femi Adesina, the presidential aide is a fantastic and affable fellow. Nothing else has glued me to him like bees on honey more than his present role as a presidential spokesman to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Adesina is one person it will take me a long time to forget in the history of strategic presidential communication and publicity. I have seen and read his predecessors in the same office over the years; but certain things make him a unique human being on the job; one of which is his prose style. It’s doubtful whether Adesina has any known enemies or foes when he pens down anything.
He has a peculiarly friendly way of disarming his traducers without striking a war. To me, Adesina is an equivalent of an armless Military General who goes to war. He is not combative in his writings, but coasts home with victory without firing a shot. He is calculative and philosophical.
He sometimes decides to be comical or whimsical even on the hottest of issues. He could also be difficult and in many cases, but very factual. Whichever way one sees Femi Adesina, he is just that man even his enemies love to read and hate to despise for whatever reason. I have echoed it several times and I hate to miss his columns any day!
It was on Mr. Femi Adesina’s page recently that I saw an old-time friend, Professor Godswill Obioma. It stirred fresh memories in me. I met him during his tenure as the Executive Secretary, National Education Research Development Council (NERDC) sometime in 2008. The Abia state-born, thorough bred educationist, academic don, innovator and Professor of Mathematics and evaluation has redefined educational policies, monitoring and evaluation in Nigeria.
He has raised the bar to unimaginable heights! Prof. Obioma’s uncommon imprints in the development of Nigeria’s education sector whilst he served the nation as NERDC boss attracts standing ovations anywhere his identity is disclosed. He is a perfect model of a team player and those who have worked closely with him in the numerous places he has served the nation are usually euphoric each time his is sighted.
His impacts in NERDC were mostly felt in redefining curriculum development, upgrading the quality of teaching and learning materials, policy formulation and re- structuring for the overall development of the Nigerian child from basic to tertiary education. They are reference points to date amongst education specialists.
I have a penchant of getting glued to people I perceive as knowledgeable, intelligent and hardworking to also learn something from their wealth of endowed wisdom. So, having heard so much about Prof. Obioma’s spectacular performance in NERDC, his deeds naturally courted my attraction. On a good day, I decided together with a few colleagues to pay a visit to meet this rescuer of Nigeria’s education sector and also salute his lauded efforts in this agency.
Prof. Obioma’s impact and footprints in the agency astounded and marveled to infinitum. Because of limited space, I cannot touch on all that beseeched our eyes in the course of the visit. But the varsity don was the major architect and backbone of the current National Policy on Education (NPE) officially adopted to remodel our educational system in consonance with the dynamism of our socio-economic and political realities.
It’s a wide gamut of amazing innovations and reforms, which have reshaped, articulated and repositioned guidelines, objectives, standards, structures, strategies, and management patterns for attaining the national goals of education in a developing country like Nigeria. I think, he who deserves an applause should be given and Prof. Obioma is one such person.
He did a lot more by venturing into virgin or obscure areas like giving a formidable boost for the quest for education of Nigerians. He pioneered and raised a platform for indigenous educationists to consummate their full potentials through what NERDC tagged the National Book Policy (NBP) where books of indigenous authors are brought on stream in a special manner to embolden local creativity.
The NBP as crafted and implemented endorsed investigation and research into book development, the production of books in specialized areas; for example Braille for the visually impaired; support for the establishment and growth of libraries at all tiers of the educational system and promoting and rewarding local authorship of educational books in the country. And it is working even after his exit from NERDC.
Outstanding both in academics and administration, Prof. Obioma worked in several other establishments and later joined INEC. His talents and perfections were sighted and he was elevated to the position of Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Ebonyi state. While serving in this capacity, Prof. Obioma sustained his evangelism on merit, hard work, honesty and commitment to duty. He is a public servant who abhors corrupt acts. He also brought his peculiar stamp of incorruptibility to bear on all INEC staff in the state office of Ebonyi state .
Therefore, when a few deviant staff under his supervision were fingered in collecting bribes to alter the results of the 2019 presidential elections, Prof. Obioma did not play the usual Nigerian game of godfatherism and cover-up of alleged offenders.
He believes, if Nigeria must become a great country, all bad eggs must be flushed out. He won my heart when he testified against indicted INEC staff for collecting N300 million bribe to manipulate results of the presidential elections in certain areas when he appeared at the Special Investigative Panel (SPIP).
Obioma’s strictness on discipline of subordinates and with eyes fixed on the dais as the Ebonyi state REC, the state and Nigeria ended up better for it when general elections were conducted. His good job was evident in the smaller number of post-elections petitions which emanated from Ebonyi in the last elections. The state had the least cases of post-election disputations in the election’s tribunal, a rarity in Nigeria. This is Obioma’s peculiar midas touch.
Those yet to decode President Buhari’s leadership idiosyncrasy, may not understand. But Mr. President endears himself to any Nigerian who demonstrates uprightness, selfless service and honesty in public office. I know, Mr. President has keenly monitored the impeccable antecedents of Prof. Obioma and knows, he is a suitable candidate to come on board of the train to the #Nextlevel.
Therefore, it never surprised me, when the President sought the golden fish, Prof. Obioma and appointed him the Registrar of National Examinations Council (NECO) in May last year. I discerned the NECO boss assignment as cleansing the cesspool of filth and maladministration which have become a defining character of that examination’s body. The NECO boss is on a familiar path. And in less than a year, Prof. Obioma is proving his mettle, by launching several innovations and reforms to standardize the operations of NECO.
The Coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) hardly hail appointments of people into public offices; but that of Prof. Godswill Obioma as the National Examination Council boss was applauded because of his wealth of experience in educational sector. And the signs have started manifesting. Nigerians are aware of how he has shaped NECO in the last few months since taking over office.
Certainly, Godswill Obioma is a man destined for greatness as symbolized by his name and NECO is damn lucky to have him as its boss. It’s the beginning of its regeneration. Even a blind man needs no soothsayer to know that President Buhari is blessed to have some of the best hands in the various sectors, as today epitomized by Prof. Obioma.
With the likes of Adesina, Obioma and several others, it will indeed be a mission fulfilled and a legacy secured for President Muhammadu Buhari. Those seeking to frustrate his laudable policies and programmes might soon become frustrated themselves because there are competent gatekeepers and sentinels mounting the city gate to wade-off saboteurs and subverts. #
Agbese is a UK based human rights activist.
