A journey of dreams, persistence, leadership, community Service and legacy
After the Love for God,another thing I love passionately is community service. I have spent all my life loving work,going to primary school from 1970-1976. From Primary School I went straight to Secondary School in 1976-1981. I held several positions of leadership in Government College Katsina-Ala and got awards during my graduation ceremony in 3 Papers, History,Religious Studies and English Literature. This is where my proven leadership skills began to be developed. This is where I also baptised as an NKST communicat member on the 1st of December,1979,by Pastor Baker,a Dutch,who was the Principal Of the NKST Bible School, Haarga. My communicant mates include,Pastor Alam of NKST Ado,Abuja,Prof Gesa Nengean who is based in the United State, John Umoor,retired permanent Secretary with The Benue State Ministry of Works and Housing. They can be reached directly to confirm this.
From secondary school i went straight to The School of Basic Studies in Port-Harcourt in 1981-1983. I was the Secretary-General of the Students Union,the first and only person from Northern Nigeria to hold such a position. I came first again in History and Religious Studies, I studied for GCE ‘ A’ Levels’.
It was Chief Melford Obiene Okilo as governor of Rivers State that took me to Rivers State through his long term friend,Late Chief P.V. Acka. P.V.Acka was a founding member and founding Organising Secretary of UMBC. He pioneered the effort to recruit J.S. Tarkaa who was a Teacher in Katsina-Ala Middle School into politics. Tarka refused. He led Kpum to Jato-Aka who intervened with Zaki Wanune Kibough before Tarka agreed to follow them to Jos, where his first Political baptism started. You can see that i come from a Politically active family since pre-Indepence. That is why all my actions are Political, as you can see from Secondary school to SBS and who trained me were all a political move predicated on family ties which is lacking now amongst our contemporary politicians. None can form such long term family alliances outside his state or has friends enough even to mentor thier siblings from outside thier States. J.S Tarka would later treat my Uncle with so much injustice,which is still unpaid for by his successors. With God, I intend to work assidiously after my retirement with Political Leaders in Benue State and Nigeria for the twin injustices to be corrected. Politics is too serious for me to be ignored after retirement, a love I have already re-established, which I will write about exclusively as I progress in this.
From the School of Basic Studies my life was changed completely following The Buhari Coup of December 1983 where i was detained in Bori Camp from December 1983 to July 1984. You may ask why was i detained for that long by the Military in Port-Harcourt’s premier Military establishment then and now?
Since i was sent to Port-Harcourt in june 1981 by My uncle P.V.Acka to be under Okilo, Governor of old Rivers State, i was put in government house to be with the Children as part of the family. Everyone around thought i was Okilo’s son,because he never showed preference to his children against me. To him i was his son since i used to listen to his instructions and teaching as a father would listen to a son. With such wealth and exposure at that early age, I never misbehaved in any shape or form, I never missed school in any day through out my 2 years and some months of my stay in Government House Portharcourt. Those who know about this story are still alive. I have never been a wayward child, this testimony can be received from my family, primary school mates as well as my SBS Port-Harcourt classmates, amongst which is a High Chierf from Anambra ,HRH, Godson Okoye etc.
So the coup caught us all at home in the wee hours of january 1st,1984. Infact, i had just returned from a trip in Benue state to inform my family about my admission to study Law at Oxford University following my good pass at GCE ‘ A ‘Levels. I was to leave January 20th to the UK and my ticket was already purchased by the protocol dept of Government House.
We were all herded into a Black maria and driven to Army Officers mess, Bori Camp, along Aba Road. We later on learnt Okilo was detained in government house and placed under house arrest. In the Presidential Wing.
But after 6 months, Gen Malu on a routine patrol to account for the number of political detainees in Rivers State as the Brigade commander, discovered us in the guest house. This followed a National and international outrage about the number of innocent people clamped in detention by Buhari. Since then i never liked Buhari either as a person or a leader.
Malu was with Mr Edzuwa who was head of Customs in Rivers State. Both had known me, because i used to visit thier homes regularly. Malu was even near the Government House, while Edzuwa was in Ogunabali Layout. Wonderful Tiv people that I cultivated a friendship with as Tiv men to keep learning from the Tiv famed hospitality despite my being embedded in the Ijaw culture and spirit, which I still have up to date. An injury to Tiv and Ijaw is an injury to me personally. This is my basic Political philosophy.
So then Brigadier Malu Ordered for our immediate release. The children were taken by Military escort to thier home in Port-Harcourt, while another escort drove me to Port-Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa where i joined an awaiting Military plane to Airforce Base Makurdi.
All efforts and pleas by me to go to government house for my personal effects after 6 months and retrieve some of my things and documents that gave me admission to read Law in Oxford University failed. Malu said, I could not see anything there and I should not delay one minute. That bright future ahead of me took a drastic reversal.
What an irony. This is the same Airport that i left for the first time on a Nigerian Airways flight to Port-Harcourt to begin a new life in june, 1981. I was returning to the same Airport on a military plane 2 years and 8 months later not a succeful Lawyer but with nothing in my hands, because all my personal effects were looted in Government House. My future was as bleak as i left the Airport. That is how I lost even my admission to Oxford which fees were already paid for by Chief Melford Obienne Okilo. A major shift has began in my life. Very sad one indeed. Yet God gave me the grace to cope.
Arriving in makurdi in High-Level i learnt My uncle who was the Special Adisor to the Government on Chieftaincy and Political Affairs, an inflential member of the EXCO, was also arrested and detained in the Government Guest House Lobi Quaters,Mkd. I proceeded there to inform him of developments from my end. I saw him, down cast but healthy. He was there with Orkar, whom we have just lost and Attanisius Angereke.
As i briefed him in the presence of his detention mates what i went through at that age,they both broke down and cried. So did i, realizing that there was no immediate future for me . Such cries too hard a life for such good men was not good for me and them. Reminiscence of the life I would imbibe,I immediately wanted to inform Malu of thier continued incarceration in Makurdi.
It dawned on me that Malu and John Edzuwa gave me thier direct land lines on thier complimentary Cards. No mobile phones were in Nigeria then. Since the Government guest house in Lobi Quaters had a telephone number i asked if i could call Malu. The soldier in charge, a Yoruba man agreed perharps sceptically, not believing I had Malu’s number. I called and got him after several other interviews. I told him where i was and that the Political leaders under Aku were forgotten in detentions in Makurdi. He told me to give the officer in charge. It dawned on this officer that i knew Malu. He spoke with him and took his instructions to NASME. I kept on coming for a response and within one week my uncle and many other politicians were released.
In September 1984 i proceeded to The Federal Polytechnic Mubi, where my In-Law and former Protocol Officer to Aper Aku, John Ajiva Aji ,now late, was lecturing in the present day Adamawa State. I was admitted to read Diploma in Law there in 1985. I never finished it.
In Mubi in August 1985 I was struck with a mysterious left knee sickness. So mysterious that my left knee without prior pains got swollen to such an extent of excruciating pains that I was rushed to the General Hospital Mubi the same night. I was admitted in the General Hospital, Mubi from August 1985 to March 1986. The left knee was deteriorating. I was moved from Mubi to Katsina-Ala by an Ambulance, treated locally in Katsina-Ala from August 1986 to April 1987. The left knee was deteriorating. I was again moved from Katsina-Ala to my martenal home,Tse-Igbakaa Kunya Shagba in Kpav area near Abaji from August 1986- June 1987. The left knee was getting worse.
Infact the entire leg became black and I had become like a walking corpse. Upon my persistent request to be taken to hospital and apparently giving up for a traditional cure, my Martenal father asked his son to use his pick up and take me to Mkar. They arrived with me at the main Mkar Hospital in the wee hours that night where I was lying straight on the floor of the Peageot 4o4 pick-up Van and were directed to take me back to Mba-amandev, which dealt with and still deals with Orthopaedic cases. They drove me back there where I was immediately placed on admission,which would last for over a year. I visit this place annually and will be doing so from my village trip where iam penning this down.
From August 1987 I was moved to NKST Rehabilitation Hospital, Mkar where I was operated on the left Knee for the first time by Dr Osterhuise, a Dutch Orthopaedic Doctor. Mkar was still working closely with the Dutch unlike in recent times and iam looking foward to being in a position to re-open the Mkar-Dutch relationship,God willing.
When I came through I was shown a full bucket with smelly black puss that was supposed to be my blood and explained to me that the black puss was full of bacteria which damaged my left knee because of lack of immediate medical intervention. I was devastated telling my parents, if only they had listened to me to forget the traditional medicine part but take me directly to hospital upon my arrival from Mubi. I was very upset daily for so long. My parents, religious devotees for decades, preferred to believe some witches and wizards were after my life because I had a brilliant spirit from birth, according to them my actions are always good since birth. Thier belief delayed immediate action to cure me. That is why despite all efforts by Chief Okilo to remedy this, I would later become disabled.
I stayed in Mba-amadev as it was and is still now referred to from August 1987 to May 1988, where I was ambulanced to the National Orthopaedic Hospital Dalla, Kano, but again professor Mbamalli, head of the hpspital again refered me to Orthopaedic Hospital Berlin, Germany where I underwent 2 separate surgeries in July and August 1988. The surgeries and rehabilitation took me from August 1988 to March,1989.
My Godfather thought this was where the knee could be cured. But the German Doctor agreed with the opinion of the Dutch doctor, and that of the National Orthopaedic Hospital Dalla, Kano. Professor Mbamali, had ruled that the knee had damaged completely with no ligament but only a fused bony ankloysis which became beyond repairs and a knee replacement surgery at that age would give me more complications in the future. A letter of transfer was earlier done and signed by Dr Oosterhuise, the Dutch Doctor in Mba-amandev to Dalla National Hospital, Kano, where upon inspection by Professor Mbamali again, I was quickly refered to Orthopaedic Hospital, Berlin, Germany, thier referral center for such cases at that time.
I returned to Nigeria on crutches with a permanently fused left knee in March 1988. This upset never influenced me from thinking of my future. I had gone through so much in life and i developed a very resilient spirit of never giving up on life at an early stage in my life, due to the unfolding circumstances in my life.
So i immediately with no one advising me , proceeded to prepare for JAMB which I sat for in 1988 in Tilley Gyado College, North Bank, Makurdi on 2 crutches. JAMB used to make provisions for disabled people to be moved from thier homes to the exams venue and put in front of the hall. I was the only one in that center with disability. I passed well.
Instead of admitting me for my first course, Law in Unical, I was given History in the same university. I rejected it to the consternation of my parents and friends who thought I was not serious. But honestly I have an incredible spirit of knowing what I want and going for it, with a canny belief that God will do it. I still have this spirit as I pen this incredible journey of my life today in 2025 January, Long after these events occurred. I want those who know me to know me completely as I prepare to fully join politics because politics is too important to be left in the hands of those with less experience as I have.
I had decided on my own to read Law and become a Lawyer, after watching all the episodes of Crown Courts then aired on NTA, weekly. No one at home then was interested in such programmes and it used to be aired for one hour from 11-12 where NTA would close with National Anthem. They left me alone to watch ‘that programme’, wherein I used to even jot down some legal terminologies. Every member of the family thought I was very odd.
It became my daily task and so on many occasions it was me who ushered in my uncle from his daily activities, collect his brief case and all Nigerian Newspapers then and take them to his room. He would tell me to read the papers and tell him what was important in Aku’s government and NPN. He was such a nice person to me, knowing I was brilliant and not dubious. This is the first person that had complete confidence in me in my life. The second would be Melford Obiene Okilo.
So it was only me alone in upstairs palour and was the one who would close the TV and the main door and go to the boys quaters and sleep daily. We were then In Lobi quaters and became the first occupants of Commisioners village, the house where the Chief of the Airforce occupied after we left.
I rejected History and applied for Direct Entry in 1989 for Law in Unijos. I was admitted in 1989 and began my studies for Law in the Faculty of law, University of Jos in December 1989 and finished in December 1992. I never had a resit,so there was no need for any carry over.
My mates include people like Rodney Agbatar from Benue who was commissioner under Ortom, Innocent Daagba an Abuja based Legal luminary and, Abdul Usman also Abuja based very close confidant of mine since our Gboko days, Benue State High Court Judge Ukande, who is from my Martenal side, Shitile, Angela Gbasah now in the US and Meerna Gyoh now wife to the Chief of Army Staff Oluyede. Others were Rekiya from Kogi State, Eriki from Delta State, Ibiroma from Rivers State and Jude Ogbuku from Bayelsa State, whose father was a Commisioner under Melford Obiene okilo and who knows me since those days and my journey with the Okilos. Chief Ogbuku is now late. These are easily accessible for corroboration should such need arises,even though they too will be reading some of my revelations here in a surprised mode.
In December 1992 I was admitted to The Nigerian Law School, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. My accomodation was The Rivers State Liason Office Guest House, No. 1 Bishop Oluwale Street,Victoria Islands, Lagos.
This too was the handiwork of Melford Obiene Okilo who gave a note on his card after i asked for accommodation in lagos where I had never visited since I was born for 13 months, to go to lagos and give Governor Ada George who was Okilo’s SSG and had known me personally with Okilo.
Ada George approved and directed i be accomodated for 15 months to enable me round up everthing about law school and a driver to drive me to and from Law school also in Victoria Islands.
My Rivers State Liason Office Guest House mates and Law School Mates were Meg Onumbu-Ndukwe , Mr Alamina, late Ohochukwu, Praise Michael George. Very wonderful people who have become part my circle of friends from Rivers State. Saiyo,NBA president in Bayelsa State, Jude Ogbuku used to be regular visitors to the Liason Office and people I have relationship with up to date. Jude was always in company of former governor of Bayelsa State and now Senator Seriake Dickson. We were all Law School mates. But I was closer to Jude than him.
I was in Law School from December 1992 to December 1993 where I passed my Law Scool at first sitting. I did not fail any course and was the Group leader of Group B 5.
That was a heavy leadership position. When group leaders of the Law school of 1992-1993 was announced and i was the only one from Jos, i was shocked, because i never knew Ibironke,our DG nor any body in the Law school, so i took this position seriously as a’Child of God.
I became the chiarman of all Law school group leaders in that session making it impossible for me to miss even a single lecture in the Law School of the June 12 fight which started in Lagos. I used to go to school earlier and close late solving Law students’ many school problems in collaboration with the DG, Nigerian Law School then,Professor Ibironke,who’s dress sense I copied up to date.
From January 1994 I proceeded to National Youth Service Orientation Camp in Yikpata,Kwara State for the 2 weeks Orientation in the Yikpata Camp.
In February, 1994 I was redeployed to Rivers State from Kwara State on health grounds,because by then i left 2 crutches to one medically approved walking stick which i still use up to date, and posted to NAFCON, Onne, Rivers State for my service year on the insistence of Chief Okilo who said i needed to be there to help my people with fertiliser as they are great farmers. I loved this looking at the future to help Benue farmers with fertiliser. I resumed in NAFCON for barely 2 weeks. Fate again played a role in my life where my God father, Chief Melford Obiene Okilo was appointed Minister by Gen. Sanni Abacha and I was again redeployed to Abuja to the Minister’s office, Old Secretariat, Area one, Abuja.
I was petitioned that a Youth Copper could not be a personal Assistant to the Minister, when my God father announced my appointment. He said I was too young for him to fight for this and I should go and serve under CAC, a parastatal under him. I knew about CAC in Law School, where we used to call it KAK.
I was again deployed form the Ministry to Corporate Affairs Commission in the the same 1994 where I served the residue of my remaining Youth service.
After my youth service in CAC, which i never liked and was not happy serving there, I was employed as a Trade Atachee of the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Commerce ( now investement) to new York.
Okilo had raised a memo in council for this following his visit to the WTO in Geneva where it is mandatory for WTO members to have Commercial attaches in Embassies and High Commissions. The council under Abacha approved it and he was asked to recruit and train staff. I was one of 30 odd staff recruited. I came under Benue State. My Law School mate came under Rivers State.
And again fate played a prank against me and those of us so employed by the Ministry could not get Presidential approval and clearance as was required of such Diplomatic appointments to resume work in different places of posting, which mine was New York. My friend was Brussels. Gen Abacha died in his sleep.
Gen Abubakar who succeeded him avoided to do so many good things Abacha started. This was one of them. Since then iam not sure Nigerian has Commercial Attaches in its Embassies and High Commissions spread around the globe. I loved Foreign Service perharps due to my study of Public International Law which I represent Unijos in International Law debates. I was the only Student in the Faculty who did International Law. My dream was to one day sit as a Judge in the International Court of Justice, ICJ. This was to be the route to that, that was being blocked right before me. I still have this dream.
Another area Abdulsalami Abubakar neglected to complete, was his abadonement of completing the process of allocating Gwarimpa Housing Estate to all civil Servants in Abuja from Permanent Secretaries to level one officers.
This policy inertia gave room to Obasanjo who Abdulsami removed from Jos prison, and with no rehabilitation foisted him on Nigerians through a well orchestrated Military leaders succession plan that played out in the PDP Convention in Jos. I was there with Okilo staying at Hill Station Hotel, Jos.
Obasanjo who was picked instead of Ekwueme won elections and immediately just started reversing everything that Abacha did whether good or bad. He would later sell the entire Gwarimpa to his cronies, rename Sanni Abacha barracks thus acdentuating the chronic accommodation problem in Abuja. Abacha had earlier given his Minister of Works Lateef Jakande marching orders to build massive houses from Maitama to Zuba on both sides of the road,which was one road then. I personally lost a house here where I had applied earlier, to Obasanjo’s Wife Stella who bought so many of the houses. Stella Obasanjo would later die from complications arising from a Tommy Tuck surgery in Paris,France. Very sad indeed.
Jakande began to deliver with Gwarimpa, earmarked as phase 1 until they confronted Abacha to release a Transition to Civil Rule programme during one of the cabinet meeting, which was very heated. These were patriotic politicians with love of Country first, taking on Almight Abacha at a time where all were afraid of him.
The meeting to do this was hosted by Melford Obiene Okilo in his Ministers Hill Residence, where I was staying with him and the children. First attendees were Okilo as host, Bamanga Tukur who was his neighbour, Lateef Jakande a very simple man who drove himself to Ministers Hill and Late Senator Uba Ahmed, an Okilo old friend who was his guest earlier. Uba Ahmed would later become a Minister after the sack of Abacha’s first cabinet who helped stabilise his regime, but were insistence on returning Nigeria to democracy which caused thier sack.
Uba Ahmed, Okilo’s friend would make sure later on that i stayed in The Minister’s Guest House in Area one to wait for my Foreign Servce emplyment which took a long time to come true and when it could not, he made sure CAC employed me as instructed by Okilo. This is CAC, that i actually did not like to work there at all. Fate conspired to make me work in CAC for 30 years.
With Okilo out, i could not even access my former place of service to find out about the employemnt. It was so bad that i had to go to Apo, where Uba Ahmed was staying and report to him. Uba Ahmed called Okilo with his Thuraya who had not left for US and was in Port-Harcourt to confirm my story . He immediately intervened and i was immidiately given a letter of employment and sent to Port-Harcourt office on a lower grade, Nigerian politics started with me in CAC upon my employment all the way. I did not take up the earlier employment in the Benue State Ministry of Justice as a Legal Officer, even when a file was already opened for me in Makurdi.
Mlezse take note that I was the one who took the minutes of the first Meeting of the Ministers in Okilo’s Maitama Residence, because I was the only one available to do that on a Saturday night after 12 midnight. After meeting ended in the wee hours of the next day, he instructed i give to his secretary the next day. And I gave his secretary Mr Ekate, when he came to the house the next day. Ekate who is now late, took the bulky minutes written on Okilo’s Ministerial memo pad to type and give him for approval in the office. This was done with no corrections but commendations from Chief Okilo and Bamanga Tukur after he went through the minutes. This was the Group that would later expand to form PDP.
That is what made Abacha to dissolve his first cabinet made up mostly of 2nd Republic governors of NPN, and other parties governors . They all did so much for thier respective states, Rimi, Okilo, Jakande, Nwobodo etc and helped to Stabilise Abacha’s regime.
It became clear that after the sudden dissolution of cabinet where Okilo was a Minister, things would take another bad turn for me. And like I still sense, my survival antennae began to blip.
So I went into a panick mould and informed Okilo, who believed Abacha would approve the process of me going to New York. He left for US and handed me over to Tukur Mani his permanent secretary who allowed me to stay in the Ministers Hill until another minister was appointed and I was moved to Area 1 Minister guest house to wait the Abacha approval which never came.
I was then given the option to take up a job where I served, CAC or Ministry of justice Makurdi, where I also had an employment letter. I chose CAC. This is where I served the country as a Public servant from 1995 to 2001.
In 2002-2004 I was selected out of thousands of Nigerian Lawyers to proceed to The Fiji Islands as a Technical Aid copper where I was a Legal officer in the office of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice on the 7th floor of Suvavou House, Victoria Parade, Suva, Fiji Islands.
I underwent the mandatory process and passed my Fiji Bar exams and was admitted to the Fijian Bar by The Fiji Council for Legal Education. So i have two liscenses to practice Law ( Nigeria in 1993) and The Fiji Islands ( 2002) My residence was no. 1 Veuito Road, Norman, Suva. Very rare but useful which I intend to leverage on the experience especially in Benue State, my home State.
My residence would become the meeting place for all Nigerians in Fiji where I was made the president for 2 years. I doubled as the Technical Aid Corp President in Fiji, where I dealt with the Fijian govt and Nigerian High Commission to Australia with con-Current Accreditation to Fiji and other South-Pacific Islands.
This position made me to travel extensively to Australia and these Islands. I am a natural diplomat, the Nigerian Albassador to Australia who had con-Current Accreditation to Fiji and other islands in the South Pacific, Ambassador Soule with his staff Counsellors Sydney Moneke, Charles Onenewa, Desmond Akawo and others at that time can testify to this.
My Fiji co-Nigerian Technical Aid coppers that can also attest to this are Mr Nathan Yohana from Kaduna State, who returned to take up employment with the University of Abuja and is still there. Mr. Orji Ornyeaghana, from Enugu State who incorporated a Redeem Christians Church branch in Suva but returned to private Practice in Abuja, Dr Nnopu from Imo State and Dr Phillip from Delta State, who jappaed to Australia and are still based there. Mrs Elsie Hudson tarried a while working in The Solomon Islands but returned to his former place at The Nigerian Law School, where she was posted to The Kano branch.
I still maintain phone contacts with my patriotic Nigerian colleagues on TAC. They are part of my vast network of contacts both in Nigeria and abroad. So large a network I have. You can consult me for anything in Nigeria and abroad. Be rest assured you can get results.
I did not Jappa but returned to Nigeria in 2005 upon the advice of Chief Melford Obiene Okilo where I was reabsorbed back into CAC. In CAC, as a Public servant, I served in different states. I was the brain behind the setting up of CAC office in my home state, Benue and pioneer Head of the office in 2001. The pioneer staff of CAC in the Makurdi office now still based in CAC makurdi and other state offices can testify to how I worked ceaselessly to actualize this.
I worked with governor Akume and Late Mr Biam, Ajene Ogiri Deputy governor then and Theophilus Azaagee, Head of Service then, to accomplish this monumental succeess. In all my life from Primary school in 1970 I have never rested for more than one month in all these years. My work has been serving God, where iam a communicant member of NKST, from 1st December 1989 in Katsina-Ala up to date, Public service and community Service.
This is my Story.
These are my Ugba Town, Headquaters of Logo LGA., community service achievements which I went to inspect and renovate. Others are in my village, Tse-Ackaa in Mbamaar, Yonov ward of Logo LGA. Katsina-Ala Town, headquarters of Katsina-Ala LGA. Makurdi and Abuja, where I live now.
This story was heavily edited and updated due to several calls I received from Classmates, senior Judges and friends to update and edit the story for futher reference. I never knew it would buch anhit within just a day. As at 19th January 2025, over 300 people have either read the story or contacted me personally. So even if you have read the story, please go back and read the updated and edited version, which took me another 4 hours to accomplish today, 20th day of January, 2025. If there are still errors, please bear with me as i continue to lay myself bare for the future, in God’s directions.
( C ) Barr Reubens Ordughga Acka
Iam writing this from my Ugba Town residence.
20/1/2024.