Clement
Ofuani
THE point to begin the story of my political journey is unarguably my meeting with David Edevbie. I told my wife when I was leaving home for Ikoyi for that meeting that I would get on famously with this man.
The basis of that prediction could only have been divine inspiration as I knew practically nothing about him at that point in time beyond the fact that he had been recently appointed Delta State Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning and he was a brother to Matthew Edevbie who was my client as my audit firm was the external auditor of his group of companies.
I got to the venue and as soon as I was announced, this young man, roughly my age bounded down the staircase and received me with a very warm hand shake and introduced himself simply as David, which he had a unique way of pronouncing for emphasis. Then, we began talking. The discussions ranged from our perspectives of life, aspirations and public service.
I did not really know that the interview had commenced. The only pointed question that I recall him asking me was whether I knew how to do financial modeling using Excel spreadsheet and I answered in the affirmative. He then told me that he needed a special adviser or assistant to work with him in Asaba and asked me what I thought the nomenclature of the office should be and I thought to myself that an assistant would probably be more appropriate as he would assist in the work and also offer advice, so I told him special assistant.
He asked if I had any question for him and I said that I was worried about the relatively low pay for the office and would like to be left some free time to attend to my professional practice for supplemental income and that I would always tell him the truth in all circumstances but that it would be his responsibility to decide what to do with my advice.
On the first point, he promised that he would let me have time as much as was possible and on the second point, he affirmed that he needed an honest adviser who would always tell him the truth. It was at this point that he promised to speak with the Governor when he got to Asaba and to revert to me as soon as possible and we parted on a note of conviviality.
About two weeks later, my wife called me from home that I had a radio message from Government House Asaba directing me to come to Asaba immediately. It was on a Wednesday afternoon. I made arrangements for a quick trip to Asaba the following day, packing a few clothes.
When I arrived at the Commissioner’s office in Asaba the next day, he was away toBenin Citybut was expected back later that day. I returned the next morning and was in the office before 8 o’clock, shortly before the Commissioner arrived. This was our second meeting.
He introduced me to the secretary who turned out to be an Ijaw woman and the personal assistant, Alfred Ebreneyin, who turned out to be an Itsekiri man. He then showed me my desk and chair and I immediately started work as his Special Assistant or SA for short. Lunch time, he took me to his hotel suite and showed me to the guest room where I was to stay for the next month and half, sharing the accommodation with him.
David Edevbie is an Urhobo man from Delta Central Senatorial District and I am an Anioma man from Delta North Senatorial District and this was 1999. We had not worked for more than four months before he informed me that he had told the Governor that if he could not reach him and needed urgent advice on anything concerning finance, that the Governor should speak to his SA, Clem, and that whatever I tell him is what he would have told him anyway. He, therefore, warned me that this was massive responsibility on my shoulders.
I was dumbfounded by the vote of confidence and the open manner in which he freely gave it to me and promised to always bear it in mind.
Our relationship over the next four years undeniably became legendary. David never spared his compliments for me but he never shied away from correcting my mistakes and very firmly too. Indeed, I learnt a bit of my bluntness today from David. In due course, people came to me to tell me that I was his brain box and that I did all the work, but I knew better and corrected those I could, informing them that I learnt a lot from David and that he did far more work than they could ever know.
When the cabinet was dissolved at the end of the Governor’s first term, David asked me what I intended to do with my future as we were packing our things in the office and I said to him that I was going back to my accounting practice but that if he was reappointed and he wanted me, I would still be delighted to serve as his SA. He said he was proceeding to Harvard for an advanced management programme and we promised to keep in touch.
Later on, I was informed by a friend that my name had come up for appointment as a Commissioner in the new administration but that some people were kicking against it on the premise that I should not be in the cabinet with my ‘Oga’ who had been penciled down as Finance Commissioner and I was advised to reach out to him for his views. I told the person that I did not need to speak with David to tell them that he would endorse me but the friend persisted. So, I placed a call to David in Harvard and his reply was, “Clem, tell them that I will be delighted to have you as my cabinet colleague because you are competent to handle it’. That was the end of that apparent resistance.
In cabinet, we became almost like siamese twins in our views on issues such that once one of us had spoken, you did not need to hear from the other. David protected me like a mother hen by getting more senior political colleagues to accept my seemingly ‘rigid’ positions on certain issues referred to me. On one occasion, my colleagues had been having a go at me and it was not until he intervened by informing them that he too had been a ‘victim’ as I had returned his file rather than endorse it for the Governor’s approval that they relented with the argument that if I could do that to David, then it was alright.
Even after he had left cabinet and I remained, he continued to protect me. On one occasion, I was informed that the Governor was unhappy with a political stance I had taken and had voiced it out to some people. I called David and asked him to find out from the Governor if he wanted my resignation but he advised me to hold off and later called back to say that my resignation was unnecessary as he had spoken to the Governor. I later got in touch with the Governor to explain my side of the story and he told me that all of that was in the past and that I should focus on the future.
My story with David did not end with Delta State Government. When he was appointed Principal Secretary to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (PSP for short), I went to congratulate him and what he told me in his new office was ‘Clem, this office belongs to us’. This was despite the fact that I was at that point in time, the Economic Adviser to the new Governor of Delta State. He subsequently got in touch with the Governor to inform him that he needed my presence in the Villa and got his blessing which made it easy for me to disengage without acrimony from Delta State government to resume at the Villa as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Policy and the de facto second in command to the PSP.
As he did in Delta, it was not too long after that David also told President Yar’Adua when he was going on a short break and that he need not worry as Clem would be available to act for him. The day I went to the President’s office to act for the PSP, I just told Mr. President that I was from David and he asked me to carry on with the job. Our work at the Villa was once again the stuff of legends and probably will be left for my memoirs but suffice it to state that even on David’s departure from the Villa following the demise of President Yar’Adua, he was instrumental to my remaining behind to serve the new President.
I tell this story today so that fellow Deltans can learn of this incredible bond between an Urhobo man and an Anioma man and perhaps use it to gain a new perspective on our shared destiny and common humanity. It is a story of love and loyalty that defied the artificial political cleavages that some people have fed on in our state to ensure their political relevance and it is a story that can galvanize us to reach to new heights in our march of progress.
Mr. CLEMENT OFUANI,
THE point to begin the story of my political journey is unarguably my meeting with David Edevbie. I told my wife when I was leaving home for Ikoyi for that meeting that I would get on famously with this man.
The basis of that prediction could only have been divine inspiration as I knew practically nothing about him at that point in time beyond the fact that he had been recently appointed Delta State Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning and he was a brother to Matthew Edevbie who was my client as my audit firm was the external auditor of his group of companies.
I got to the venue and as soon as I was announced, this young man, roughly my age bounded down the staircase and received me with a very warm hand shake and introduced himself simply as David, which he had a unique way of pronouncing for emphasis. Then, we began talking. The discussions ranged from our perspectives of life, aspirations and public service.
I did not really know that the interview had commenced. The only pointed question that I recall him asking me was whether I knew how to do financial modeling using Excel spreadsheet and I answered in the affirmative. He then told me that he needed a special adviser or assistant to work with him in Asaba and asked me what I thought the nomenclature of the office should be and I thought to myself that an assistant would probably be more appropriate as he would assist in the work and also offer advice, so I told him special assistant.
He asked if I had any question for him and I said that I was worried about the relatively low pay for the office and would like to be left some free time to attend to my professional practice for supplemental income and that I would always tell him the truth in all circumstances but that it would be his responsibility to decide what to do with my advice.
On the first point, he promised that he would let me have time as much as was possible and on the second point, he affirmed that he needed an honest adviser who would always tell him the truth. It was at this point that he promised to speak with the Governor when he got to Asaba and to revert to me as soon as possible and we parted on a note of conviviality.
About two weeks later, my wife called me from home that I had a radio message from Government House Asaba directing me to come to Asaba immediately. It was on a Wednesday afternoon. I made arrangements for a quick trip to Asaba the following day, packing a few clothes.
When I arrived at the Commissioner’s office in Asaba the next day, he was away toBenin Citybut was expected back later that day. I returned the next morning and was in the office before 8 o’clock, shortly before the Commissioner arrived. This was our second meeting.
He introduced me to the secretary who turned out to be an Ijaw woman and the personal assistant, Alfred Ebreneyin, who turned out to be an Itsekiri man. He then showed me my desk and chair and I immediately started work as his Special Assistant or SA for short. Lunch time, he took me to his hotel suite and showed me to the guest room where I was to stay for the next month and half, sharing the accommodation with him.
David Edevbie is an Urhobo man from Delta Central Senatorial District and I am an Anioma man from Delta North Senatorial District and this was 1999. We had not worked for more than four months before he informed me that he had told the Governor that if he could not reach him and needed urgent advice on anything concerning finance, that the Governor should speak to his SA, Clem, and that whatever I tell him is what he would have told him anyway. He, therefore, warned me that this was massive responsibility on my shoulders.
I was dumbfounded by the vote of confidence and the open manner in which he freely gave it to me and promised to always bear it in mind.
Our relationship over the next four years undeniably became legendary. David never spared his compliments for me but he never shied away from correcting my mistakes and very firmly too. Indeed, I learnt a bit of my bluntness today from David. In due course, people came to me to tell me that I was his brain box and that I did all the work, but I knew better and corrected those I could, informing them that I learnt a lot from David and that he did far more work than they could ever know.
When the cabinet was dissolved at the end of the Governor’s first term, David asked me what I intended to do with my future as we were packing our things in the office and I said to him that I was going back to my accounting practice but that if he was reappointed and he wanted me, I would still be delighted to serve as his SA. He said he was proceeding to Harvard for an advanced management programme and we promised to keep in touch.
Later on, I was informed by a friend that my name had come up for appointment as a Commissioner in the new administration but that some people were kicking against it on the premise that I should not be in the cabinet with my ‘Oga’ who had been penciled down as Finance Commissioner and I was advised to reach out to him for his views. I told the person that I did not need to speak with David to tell them that he would endorse me but the friend persisted. So, I placed a call to David in Harvard and his reply was, “Clem, tell them that I will be delighted to have you as my cabinet colleague because you are competent to handle it’. That was the end of that apparent resistance.
In cabinet, we became almost like siamese twins in our views on issues such that once one of us had spoken, you did not need to hear from the other. David protected me like a mother hen by getting more senior political colleagues to accept my seemingly ‘rigid’ positions on certain issues referred to me. On one occasion, my colleagues had been having a go at me and it was not until he intervened by informing them that he too had been a ‘victim’ as I had returned his file rather than endorse it for the Governor’s approval that they relented with the argument that if I could do that to David, then it was alright.
Even after he had left cabinet and I remained, he continued to protect me. On one occasion, I was informed that the Governor was unhappy with a political stance I had taken and had voiced it out to some people. I called David and asked him to find out from the Governor if he wanted my resignation but he advised me to hold off and later called back to say that my resignation was unnecessary as he had spoken to the Governor. I later got in touch with the Governor to explain my side of the story and he told me that all of that was in the past and that I should focus on the future.
My story with David did not end with Delta State Government. When he was appointed Principal Secretary to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (PSP for short), I went to congratulate him and what he told me in his new office was ‘Clem, this office belongs to us’. This was despite the fact that I was at that point in time, the Economic Adviser to the new Governor of Delta State. He subsequently got in touch with the Governor to inform him that he needed my presence in the Villa and got his blessing which made it easy for me to disengage without acrimony from Delta State government to resume at the Villa as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Policy and the de facto second in command to the PSP.
As he did in Delta, it was not too long after that David also told President Yar’Adua when he was going on a short break and that he need not worry as Clem would be available to act for him. The day I went to the President’s office to act for the PSP, I just told Mr. President that I was from David and he asked me to carry on with the job. Our work at the Villa was once again the stuff of legends and probably will be left for my memoirs but suffice it to state that even on David’s departure from the Villa following the demise of President Yar’Adua, he was instrumental to my remaining behind to serve the new President.
I tell this story today so that fellow Deltans can learn of this incredible bond between an Urhobo man and an Anioma man and perhaps use it to gain a new perspective on our shared destiny and common humanity. It is a story of love and loyalty that defied the artificial political cleavages that some people have fed on in our state to ensure their political relevance and it is a story that can galvanize us to reach to new heights in our march of progress.
Mr. CLEMENT OFUANI,
wrote
from
Asaba,
Delta Sate
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