When Tam David-West publicly criticised the Muhammadu Buhari administration last year, he demonstrated that being the President’s friend didn’t mean he couldn’t speak truth to power. He was known as a social critic, and showed that his friendship with Buhari, who posthumously described him as an “ally” and a “friend,” wasn’t a reason to keep quiet about the administration’s faults.
He was quoted as saying: “I have said it before that the economy is not doing well. People are suffering. I told him to alleviate the suffering. Give greater happiness to the greatest number… I am a diehard Buharist, but I cannot close my eyes and my conscience to admit there is not a lot of suffering. And something should be done about it.”
That’s the stuff David-West was made of. He was an unapologetic crusader for a good society. He was an informed critic whose criticisms reflected a thinking mind. His scientific background aided his social analysis, giving his observations clinical objectivity. His death on November 11, at the age of 83, further depleted the small circle of Nigeria’s outspoken and uncompromising social critics.
Born in Buguma, Kalabari Kingdom, in present-day Rivers State, David-West studied at the University of Ibadan (1956 – 1958), and earned a BSc at Michigan State University, USA, (1958-1960). With a master’s degree from Yale University in America (1960- 1962), and a doctorate from McGill University in Canada (1964 – 1966), David-West was consultant virologist and senior lecturer at University of Ibadan in 1969, and became professor of virology in 1975. He was a distinguished academic.
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His brilliance attracted attention. He was commissioner of education in Rivers State (1975-1979); and a member of the fifty-person Constitution Drafting Committee formed by the Federal Military Government in the 1970s. He was Minister of Petroleum and Energy under then Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (1984 – 1985), a role that placed him at the centre of the administration’s controversial countertrade policy. He was also minister of mines, power and steel under Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (1986). But in spite of his positive sides, David-West played an unsavoury role in the June 12 debacle by campaigning against it abroad.
He got into trouble when the Babangida regime accused him of “trading off the country’s interest” for a cup of tea and wristwatch, thereby allegedly contributing to the “economic adversity” of the country. The accusation had to do with proceeds of a $157million offshore processing contract with a US oil company, Stinnes. The contract involved exporting crude oil for refining and sales outside the country.
David-West said in an interview: “In 1991, which was about five years after leaving the government, the Babangida government accused me that out of the $157 million, I accepted $100 million for Nigeria and got the remaining $57 million for myself. They said the company must have given me $57million as bribe. The government set up a tribunal…They jailed me for life.”
He eventually spent six days in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Lagos, and nine months in Bama Prison, Borno State, before his acquittal by a Special Appeal Court in August 1991. “All they said about the tea and wristwatch was a fat big lie and fraud. It was tagged $57million tea and wristwatch,” David-West said.
It was testimony to his integrity that the incarceration didn’t tarnish his public image. He spoke with courage, conviction and credibility against poor governance. Indeed, David-West was an exemplary public intellectual, ever-ready to comment on current affairs, particularly political issues. He was known for his essayistic interventions.
As a man of ideas, David-West had a wide appeal. It is intriguing that, apart from his stints under two military administrations, he stayed outside the power circle. “I have never joined any political party, but I support principles and persons,” he explained.
In the end, David-West demonstrated the importance of ideals and left a legacy of high principles.
‘He was an informed critic whose criticisms reflected a thinking mind. His scientific background aided his social analysis, giving his observations clinical objectivity. His death on November 11, at the age of 83, further depleted the small circle of Nigeria’s outspoken and uncompromising social critics’
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