As spokesman to President Goodluck Jonathan, my phones rang endlessly and became more than personal navigators within the social space. They defined my entire life; dusk to dawn, all year-round. The phones buzzed non-stop, my email was permanently active; my twitter account received tons of messages per second.  The worst moments were those days when there was a Boko Haram attack virtually every Sunday.

The intrusion into my private life was total as my wife complained about her sleep being disrupted by phones that never seemed to stop ringing. Besides, whenever I was not checking or responding to the phones, I was busy online trying to find out if the APC had said something contrarian or some other fellow was up to any mischief. A media manager in the 21st century is a slave of the Breaking News, a slave particularly of the 24-hour news cycle, and a potential nervous breakdown case. Debo Adesina, my colleague at The Guardian once said I was running a “one week, one trouble schedule”. There were actually moments when trouble knocked on the door every hour, and duty required my team and I to respond to as many issues that came up.

Top of the task list was the management of phone calls related to the principal. In my first week on the job, for example, one of my phones ran out of battery and I had taken the liberty to charge it. While it was still in the off mode, the “Control Room”: the all-powerful communications centre at the State House tried to reach me. They had only just that phone number, so I couldn’t be reached. When eventually they did, the fellow at the other end was livid.

“SA Media, where are you? We have been trying to reach you. Mr President wants to speak with you”

“Sorry, I was charging my phone.  The phone was off.”

“Sir, you can’t switch off your phone now.  Mr President must be able to reach you at any time. You must always be available.”  I was like: “really? Which kin job be dis?”

The Control Room eventually collected all my phone numbers. If I did not pick up a call on time, they called my wife. Sometimes the calls came directly from the Residence, as we referred to the President’s official quarters.

“Abati, Oga dey call you!”

If I still could not be reached, every phone that was ever connected to me would ring non-stop. Busy bodies who had just picked up the information that Abati was needed also often took it upon themselves to track me down. My wife soon got used to her being asked to produce me, or a car showing up to take me straight to the Residence. I eventually got used to it, and learnt to remain on duty round-the-clock.  In due course, President Jonathan himself would call directly. My wife used to joke that each time there was a call from him, even if I was sleeping, I would spring to my feet and without listening to what he had to say, I would start with a barrage of “Yes sirs”! Other calls that could not be joked with were calls from my own office. Something could come up that would require coverage, or there could be a breaking story, or it could be something as harmless as office gossip, except that in the corridors of power, nothing is ever harmless. Looking back now, I still can’t figure out how I survived that onslaught of the terror of the telephone.

Of equal significance were the calls from journalists who wanted clarifications on issues of the moment, or the President’s opinion on every issue. I don’t need to remind anyone who lived in Nigeria during the period, that we had a particularly interesting time. The Jonathan government had to deal from the very first day with a desperate and hyper-negative opposition, which gained help from a crowd of naysayers who bought into their narrative. I was required to respond to issues. Bad news sells newspapers and attracts listeners/viewers. Everything had to be managed.  You knew something had happened as the phones rang, and the text messages, emails, twitter comments poured in. The media could not be ignored. Interfacing with every kind of journalist was my main task.  I learnt many lessons,  a subject for another day.  And the busy bodies didn’t make things easy.

If in 1980, the media manager had to deal with print and broadcast journalists, today, the big task is the dilemma of the over-democratization of media practice in the age of information. The question used to be asked in Nigerian media circles: who is a journalist? Attempts were subsequently made to produce a register of professionals but that is now clearly an illusion. The media of the 21st Century is the strongest evidence we have for the triumph of democracy. Everybody is a journalist now, once you can purchase a phone or a laptop, or an ipad and you can take pictures, set up a blog, or go on instagram, linked-in, viber etc.

All kinds of persons have earned great reputation as editors and opinion influencers on social media where you don’t have to make sense to attract followers. The new stars and celebrities are not necessarily the most educated or knowledgeable, but those who with 140 words or less, or with a picture or a borrowed quote,  can produce fast-food type public intellectualism, or can excite with a little display of the exotic -Kadarshian, Nicki Minaj style.  But I was obligated to attend to all calls. The ones who didn’t receive an answer complained about Abati not picking their calls.

My defence was that most editors in Nigeria have correspondents in the State House. Every correspondent had access to me. There was no way I could be accused of not picking calls, and in any case, there were other channels: instagram, twitter direct message, email, and media assistants who could interface with me. But this was the main challenge: while in public office, people treat you as if you are at their mercy, they threaten to sabotage you and get you sacked, every phone call was a request with a price attached, you get clobbered; you are treated like you had committed a crime to serve your nation. Relatives and privileged kinsmen struggled with you to do the job – media management is that one assignment in which everyone is an expert even if their only claim to relevance is that they once had an uncle who was a newspaper vendor!

The thinking that anyone who opts to serve is there to make money in that famous arena for primitive accumulation partly accounts for this. And that takes me to those phone calls from persons who solicited for financial help as if there was a tree at the Villa that produced money. Such people would never believe that government officials don’t necessarily have access to money. They wanted to be assisted: to pay school fees, to settle medical bills, to build a house, purchase a car, complete an uncompleted building, or link them up with the President. Everybody wanted a part of the national cake and they thought a phone call was all they needed.  If you offered any explanation, they reminded you that you’d be better off on the lecture circuit. Businessmen also hovered around the system like bees around nectar.

But what to do? “Volenti non fit injuria,” the principle says.  There were also calls from the unkind lot. “I have called you repeatedly, you did not pick my calls. I hope you know that you will leave government one day!”.  Or those who told you point blank that they were calling because you were in the position as their representative and that you owed them a living.  Or that other crowd who said, “it is our brother that has given you that opportunity, you must give us our share.”

The Presidential election went as it did, and everything changed. Days after,  State House became Ghost House. The Residence, which used to receive visitors as early as 6 am, (regular early morning devotion attendees) became quiet. The throng of visitors stopped. The number of phone calls began to drop. By May 29, my phones had stopped ringing as they used to. They more or less became museum pieces; their silence reminding me of the four years of my life that proved so momentous. On one occasion, after a whole day of silence, I had to check if the phones were damaged! As it were, a cynical public relates to you not as a person, but as the office you occupy; the moment you leave office, the people move on; erasing every memory, they throw you into yesterday’s dustbin.  Opportunism is the driver of the public’s relationship with public officials.

Today, the phones remain loudly silent, with the exception of calls from those friends who are not gloating, who have been offering words of commendation and support. They include childhood friends, former colleagues, elderly associates, fans, and family members. And those who want interviews with President Jonathan, both local and international – they want his reaction on every development, so many of them from every part of the planet. But he is resting and he has asked me to say he is not ready yet to say anything. It is truly, a different moment, and indeed, “no condition is permanent.” The ones who won’t give up with the stream of phone calls and text messages are those who keep pestering me with requests for financial assistance. I am made to understand that there is something called “special handshake” and that everyone who goes into government is supposed to exit with carton loads of cash. I am in no position to assist such people, because no explanation will make sense to them. Here I am, at the crossroads; I am glad to be here.

The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and make the guilty innocent, and that is power. Because they control the mind of the masses.

Malcom X

I can’t remember when last I penned down an article in my column on issues concerning my beloved Delta State or Nigeria, even when I have the urge to do so, and even I have been maligned, but due to various media engagement and consultancy, I have just been so reluctant to write. The need for this is due to the current negative news bedeviling the Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa led government in Delta State and the conspiracy to rope some of us in as the culprit.

This ought to have been an open letter to the governor, to tell him the mind of the media community and bloggers who form opinions that majority of Deltans agree with. It is the promise I made to a honorable lawmaker of the Delta State House of Assembly not to do an open letter that stops this from being the letter I planned it to be.

Since the governor came on board, with appointment of about six media aides, he has faced opposition from some popular media, which Deltans and Nigerians sees as being credible in their news report. There is hardly a week that his name is not involved in one scandal, either financial or murder, which generates tension in the polity. If Sahara Reporters and The Will are not dealing with him, then Universal Reporters is on his neck. If these three don’t have a report against him, be sure to know that 247ureports have one bad report on him.

Now, I do not hide my displeasure on some of the media aides of the governor.  Apart from the duo of Charles Ehiedu who is the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) and Jonathan Onwuka, the Special Assistant on Community Media, the remaining five are what can be termed Delta Facebook Group media aides, whose activities do not extend past the Facebook groups in Delta State and their timeline that commands no following.

While they keep accusing me of being silent while my governor is maligned left, right and centre; the so called Social Media Special Assistant who was not aware of his appointment until three weeks later after I had blown the news, keep going about telling people who care to listen that the Principal Secretary to the governor, who is known to be close to me is not calling me to order when I speak my mind about the government and the media aides inability to do their paid jobs. But again, do you blame the SA who now has a Barney imaginary ‘office of the special assistant on social media’ for fumbling at such a big task? Certainly No! He was expecting to be given a Commissioner position which never came hence he denied my report of his being appointed and even demanded an apology from me for ‘defamation’ of his name.

As one who does not write by proxy, I’m calling on the governor to remove his current social media aide and give him another portfolio. The online community does not recognize him and won’t work with him; neither will the bloggers in Delta, Nigeria or Diaspora welcome him to the fold. As a Journalist and blogger, the appointment of a Dantes Odogwu of Deltans Diaspora, Okunbor Alex, Smart Ikem, Egwuyenga Ifeanyi Mike, Prince Wise and Okoh Willams would have been welcome, at least to a certain percentage. Of all the media aides by governors in the country, without an atom of pity, this is the most unfit among them, with none of them knowing what he stands for.

I make bold to say without fear or favor that Okowa will only have his hands burnt with the retention of his social media aide who is best fit as SA on library matters or SA on market and parks affairs. It is to the governor’s detriment that his appointees will organize some Facebook touts to keep hurling insults at those of us who wants his success and dare to tell him the truth. To keep doing so is to tear the bridge of social communication that exists between the media and the government, while they benefit from it.

With people like them, Okowa surely do not need an enemy as there are already some within. The governor who was made a political saint during the electioneering period cannot suddenly begin to be crucified just months into his administration and all will made to look like its normal when information filtering from the government house communication office shows that they want to find out why this negative publicity keeps coming.

Our conscience begins to die the day we begin to play eye service to the government of the day. Our political leadership begins to take us for a ride the day we begin to be sycophantic to their every move and action, even when it negates the moral principles we stand for. Those who seek government appointment do not tell them truth for fear of losing such, but as always the gap will be filled by those who can never lobby or seek appointments. Despite the massive support given to President Muhammadu Buhari by uncle Dele Momodu using his column; he still criticized him when he is failing. But this happens not to be so for the Delta State government and his media aides who feel that everyone who supported them during the election must be a bootlicker after victory. To them, we must never have a voice of our own, even if the governor derails and mortgage the lives of Deltans entrusted into his care.

To criticize the governor and his governance is to be seen as playing the opposition. Once it is done, they send attack dogs and avatars to descend on the critics. Lies are conjured from ancient caves and placed in their imagination to say that Fejiro Oliver was caught in government house lobbying some irrelevant aides who job is to go to government house with Ipads to snap pictures (Ossai Ovie Success not included among them), as if we are still campaigning. In their warped brain, they could not snap the Fejiro they saw in government house, but instead they posted a picture of him during a press briefing, a man that will walk past them and they will never recognise. The beasts in government do not even know that my last visit to government house was during the election, when fmr governor Uduaghan demanded to see Okowa and I went with the team there, and ever since then have avoided going there, despite being invited.

Okowa cannot continue to keep this burden of three media aides, (excluding Charles, Jonathan and Jackson) to keep managing his image when they forget their main job but take on persons who shares in the governor’s prosperity agenda. Taxpayers’ money cannot be wasted on men who missed their priority and essence of being elevated. To redeploy name especially the Social Media blabber is the only alternative to stop the onslaught.

These little things matter…

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Fejiro Oliver, an Investigative Journalist, Media Consultant and Human Rights Activist is also the Co-Convener of Coalition of Human Rights Defender (CHORD) and can be reached on +2348022050733 (SMS ONLY) or secretsreporters@gmail.com. Engage him on twitter on @fejirooliver86.

It was the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo who in 1947 famously declared that “Nigeria is not a nation but a mere geographical expression.”  Likewise Yakubu Gowon, the then head of state had also in August 1966 declared that “there was no basis for Nigerian unity.” Of particular note is the attitude of the independence leaders; the duo of Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa who took over the reins of power at independence  both of whom in words and deeds never  failed to demonstrate their disbelief in Nigeria.  While Ahmadu Bello in his book and autobiography “My Life” published in 1961; famously derided the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria as “the mistake of 1914,” Tafawa Balewa who became the prime minister at independence was no different. In 1948 while addressing  the legislative council, he declared that  “Since 1914 the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people  themselves  are historically different  in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs and do not show themselves any sign or willingness to unite. Nigerian unity is only a British intention for the country.”

Fast  forward to 2005 and the  Central intelligence agency  (CIA) in the same vein broadly concluded  that “while currently Nigeria’s leaders are locked in a bad marriage that all dislike but dare not leave, there are possibilities that could disrupt the precarious equilibrium in Abuja and lead to outright collapse.” The conveners of PRONACO, notably the late Beko Ransome Kuti, and Chief Anthony Enahoro  amongst others had similarly premised their campaign for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) on preventing the inevitable scenarios of eventual violent collapse. As is evident, the expressions of even those who have been opportuned to steer the ship of state demonstrates the extent to which Nigeria was and remains  the mere geographical expression Chief Obafemi  Awolowo once called it. It is thus no accident that every profile or introduction of Nigeria from the CIA World Factbook, the Tony Blair Foundation, Encyclopaedia, BBC country profile, the International Crisis Group (ICG), books, journals and government publications all begin their introductory profile or description of Nigeria with a labelling that aptly depicts Nigeria as a nation with deep ethnic and religious divisions.

In reality, Nigeria has historically been so divided that not even the independence struggle could unite them as was the case in other countries. Many do not realise that much of the casualties of the independence struggle was suffered not at the hands of the British colonialists as would be expected but at the hands of Northern leaders who in expression of their opposition to the call for independence by Anthony Enahoro in the federal parliament unleashed the infamous 1953 Kano riots that killed hundreds of people. These deep ethnic divisions  also explains why Nigeria is the only country where nationalist pro-independence leaders could not win an outright victory in the post independence elections thereby making it possible for the Northern people’s congress that had opposed independence and severally expressed their disbelief  in the idea of Nigeria to ironically form the first post-independence government. Subsequently every Nigerian leader has operated within a tribal prism without paying any attention to nation building. This crude resort to tribal alliances and the attendant domination, marginalisation and exclusion of other ethnic groups alongside other injustices is at the heart of Nigeria’s fault lines and existential crisis.

One Nigeria for all intents and purposes has been a scam. Neither the leaders nor the people believe in it beyond the lazy desire to share oil money. While a civil war was fought on the fraudulent premise of   keeping Nigeria united, the war has been futile as the real reason behind the war was a desire to control the crude oil resources and not because there was any genuine desire to keep Nigeria united.  This informs the sustained oppression and exclusion that trailed the aftermath of the so called war of unity in place of nation building which should  have been the case had there been a genuine intention to keep Nigeria united without any ulterior motives. From a beginning that was marked by ethnic divisions Nigeria has continued on the trajectory of dangerous and increasingly violent divisions. In the absence of true federalism, justice/equality and abundance of leaders who abhor the necessity of nation building, Nigeria’s growing contradictions has birthed reactionary forces amongst which are MASSOB, MEND, OPC, Boko Haram and now Radio Biafra. These are all legitimate responses to a state that has failed to respond to its contradictions through nation building and other progressive policies of national integration. The vacuum created by the absence of nation building has naturally been filled by reactionary forces; some violent that has taken centre stage tearing at the fragile fabric of the nation.

A recent reminder of Nigeria’s deepening cleavages came from no other than the Oba of Lagos who threatened a section of the country with drowning in the sea if they didn’t vote for his preferred candidate, while Muhammadu Buhari as President has started off with appointments that clearly demonstrate sectionalism. Buhari himself later alluded to giving preferential treatment to those who voted for him during a question and answer session in the course of his visit to the United States.  Not minding that we are in a democracy, this is a president who campaigned on the idea of changing Nigeria for the better yet has retreated to undemocratic practices and blatant sectionalism. It is no surprise then, that Radio Biafra has gained more popularity riding as it is on Buhari’s divisive policies that is further weakening the already fragile state. Radio Biafra is therefore a creation of Nigeria’s contradictions, exclusion, oppression, tribalism, born to rule system, injustice, inequality, apartheid and internal colonialism. In that regards, Radio Biafra is a legitimate reaction to Nigeria’s falsehood as a nation and successive bad leaders that has only made things worse.

Unlike some others, I don’t subscribe to the idea that Radio Biafra and its adherents are incapable of violence or war. History does not support such assumptions. Nothing in life has ever been written in stone and the lesson from Boko Haram and the near daily suicide bombings it now undertakes in a country where we once assumed that fearful Nigerians would never want to die for anything is a reminder that the truism ‘never say never’ is very true. Just like Boko Haram, Radio Biafra and its adherents could become radicalised enough to wage war and be successful at it. All through human history, the fear of death has never prevented or stopped warfare. Neither has it even stopped armed robbery here in Nigeria. War is a spirit and those who are sufficiently inspired or motivated would be willing to give their life for what they believe in. Millions across the world fought against colonial masters with vastly superior weaponry in the struggle for independence. Hundreds of people die daily in the Mediterranean crossing from Libya to Europe but that has not deterred those desperate enough to seek a better life from embarking on the perilous journey.

At independence, no one could have imagined that Nigerian would descend into tribal war in a few years, but when the conditions made war necessary, the war was fought with an unbelievable tenacity of purpose and resilience by the Biafrans who resisted Nigeria’s onslaught for almost three years with practically bare hands.  Lesson is; no group should be pushed to the wall on assumption that they will not or cannot wage war. It would be a costly mistake as there is no precedent of any nation that survived a second civil war and Nigeria will not be an exception. Besides self determination from colonialism of all forms is a fundamental right enshrined in the United Nations charter. In this day and age the world is trending towards the use of democratic referendums to decide the quest for self determination and not war as the Scottish referendum recently demonstrated. In that regards it is entirely lawful to allow any region or regions that seek self determination to have a United Nations supervised referendum. In other words, if Radio Biafra succeeds in mobilising a critical mass of its target audience for self determination through for example a signed petition of up to half a million people, the Nigerian government would be bound by international law to let them have a referendum and in case of refusal, Radio Biafra would be within its right to wage war having exhausted all peaceful and legal means.

Truth is; Radio Biafra will not go away as far as the many injustices that birthed it remains. It will continue to grow and haunt Nigeria up to the possibility of open warfare except and until there is extensive dialogue between all Nigerian nationalities and an inclusive nation building constitution and leadership is constituted to aggressively initiative an all encompassing project of nation building. That is in the least, the only chance of permanently burying Radio Biafra and others like it. The alternative will be Nigeria’s inevitable disintegration sooner or later as even the Bible and the Koran in their divine wisdom did declare that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Those who have ears let them hear!

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Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

Email: lawrencenwobu@gmail.com