Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, former Federal Permanent Secretary, Third Republic governor of Edo State and former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is 80 this week. He narrates the story of his life, his career in the civil service and foray into politics. TONY AKOWE reports.
At 30, when many of his contemporaries were beginning their life in the civil service, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was appointed a Federal Permanent Secretary. He was Nigeria’s youngest Permanent Secretary in what was to become a rewarding career, retiring before his 50th birthday.
Today, at 80, Oyegun who become the first elected governor of Edo state, on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) during the Babangida era, has every reason to be grateful to God. Looking back to how he became a Permanent Secretary and worked with Phillip Asiodu, Ahmed Joda and other veterans of the civil service, he said: “The story of my becoming a Perm Sec is an interesting one. When I was in service, Udoji report qualified everybody from Level 15 for selection. I was attending an NPA Board meeting when someone informed me about my nomination. I was surprised and thought it was a joke. Many people questioned my competence to the extent that the then Head of State, Murtala Mohammed, tried to find out who I was. My nomination caused a lot of dismay in the system. When the then Minster of Education was going on his annual three months vacation, I was drafted to act on his behalf. It was another job and experience. I sorted things out there and when he resumed, I was sent to the Ministry of Works where there were mundane issues like competition among professionals. I spent another three months there. I was in the Ministry of Works when the coup that cost Murtala’s life took place.
“From there, I was appointed the acting Perm Sec and deployed to Cabinet Office, an equivalent of the Presidency now, and was put in charge of the economic department. They were obviously satisfied with my performance because when there were difficult issues, I will be asked to take the minutes at Council Meetings. I spent another six months before they confirmed me as substantive Perm Sec and gave me a ministry when my seniors were yet to get one. It was such that whenever there was a problem, I will be deployed there. For example, when the Ministry of Communication collapsed, I was sent there for four years to resuscitate it. It was the same thing when passport became a serious issue. I was drafted to Internal Affairs. Whether that qualifies me for the name super Perm Sec, I don’t know. But, we all know that the Ayida’s, Asiodu’s and others were the real Super Perm Secs and if I am honoured to be in that group, so be it and I give God the glory. However, the people who brought me up in the civil service were the people I later joined on the same table of Perm Secs and the first time I was to say something, I was shaking because they were my bosses. Government took me to General Purposes and Economic Committee (GPEC) where everything in the civil service was decided, including promotion and budget.”
How did the young Oyegun find himself robbing shoulders with the great minds of the civil service to the extent to attaining the height of his career at such a young age? He said that he got into the service when Nigeria was a different world all together, with great potentials, but insist that being a good student gave him advantage over many others.
Oyegun said: “that was a different world from the Nigeria we have today. At the risk of been immodest, I was lucky to be a very good student. I read a lot from the elementary school. I was such a voracious reader. At Standard five, I was already reading Julius Cesar and most of Shakespeare’s works. I actually prepared myself. I went to the university and when I graduated, I was employed at and sent to Inland Revenue, but I rejected the offer and told them that I didnt want to work there because I did not apply for Inland Revenue. They arranged for another interview and subsequently redeployed me to this new ministry of Economic Development. It was there I came across people like Alison Ayida, Imi Ebong, Philip Asiodu, Abdulatif Ganchiga and ‘of course’ Ahmed Joda who is still very much alive.”
Oyegun has fond memories of these great Icons of the civil service. He said: “they were fantastic people that encouraged you to reason, to be critical ansd to speak, which helped me at the end of the day to acquire extra skill. Most importantly, I had to do my homework. Somebody like Chief Asiodu will come to meeting with a notebook and whatever the newspapers had, he must have read all and made notes. It influenced me positively because whenever I read papers, I make note too. We had people like Alison Ayida who was a bundle of common sense and very intelligent. He would dissent something you think it was impracticable and make everything look very normal. With that kind of tutelage, it was not surprising that I found myself in a lot of boards like Nigeria Airways, Nigeria Ports Authority, Nigeria National Shipping, among others. Before I attend meetings, I had already done my research on the subjects of the agenda. I contribute in such meaningful manner that even my worst enemy will know that I know what I am talking about. The truth behind the name Super Perm Sec is that I was more powerful before I became a Perm Sec. There were instances Permanent Secretaries delayed meetings for me to be part of them. There was a particular international negotiation in the then Yugoslavia. I was late by one day. They had reached agreements and signed the MoU. But, when I went through the documents, pointed out the flaws, we had to reconvene to sort out the issues I raised. I was just lucky that I usually do my homework.”
Oyegun in 2014 became the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress. He led the party into the general election and took over power from the PDP, thus ending its 16 years in power. How does he feel at 80?
He said: “I can hardly believe that 80 years have already rolled by because it all sound like yesterday. I am happy, praying to God every day to wake me up. I am really glad to see my 80 productive years, 80 fulfilling years and 80 good years. I remember celebrating my 70th birthday in Benin and I recall that Babagana Kingibe was the chairman at the reception. I celebrated it because 70 years is a biblical promise and between 70 and 80, the bible says if you are strong, you should give thanks to God. My prayer is to thank God that I am still strong at 80 years.
He stressed that the last 40 years of his life has been eventful.
He said: “I am lucky to have good fortune between 40 and 80. I have been specially blessed to the level of being the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) with a distinct honour of leading a campaign that uprooted an incumbent government.”
After his ouster as governor of Edo state, Oyegun played a prominent role in the struggle against the military junta. He remember vividly his role the entire episode. He said: “I was active politically during the MKO Abiola presidential mandate and the NADECO days. When I read some criticisms today and I think how many times I have put my life at stake for the nation, it surprises me. I had to run away and become a fugitive, yet, they would say the man is too soft. I laugh at them because they don’t know that people like me will choose and fight. It is not my nature to fight and I don’t go looking for one and if it is possible, I avoid it. But if there will be a fight, then, let there be a fight. When I believe in something, I give it everything regardless of the attendant risk to my person.”
Oyegun said he considered what he called “One Pound” as the turning point in his life. But, what does one pound mean? He said: “I was very small when I gained admission into St Patricks Collage Asaba. In fact, my getting tall was towards the end of my college life. I had two teachers that everybody feared most, Latin teacher and one other. The Latin teacher would tell us to translate a passage into English and once you made mistake, he would punch you in the stomach. The two teachers terrified me and I always did poorly in the two subjects.
The tradition was that a student drops two subjects between class three and four and I decided to drop the two subjects, but resolved to pass them before doing so. I passed them well and in a class of 90 students; I took the third position in the transition of class three to class four from the previous 40th or 30th position. I had a good uncle, who also grew up with my father and I visited him during the holiday. He asked me about my exam by way of conversation and I told him I did very well. Previously, he would stop it at that. But he went further that day, asking me the position I took. When I told him third in a class of 90 students, he stormed into his room, came out and gave me one pound. I have never seen it or handled it before. That was in 1954 or thereabout. With that appreciation.
“I never looked back again, knowing that good thing is appreciated and rewarded. As a matter of fact, I am still planning to set up a one pound foundation in honour of that my uncle. There are too many children today that don’t get that kind of acknowledgement and recognition because the history of their lives is totally different. The history of my life would have been totally different and if there is a turning point in my life, that money and gesture was what I considered a turning point of my life. The money was a huge sacrifice and even when I later became a clerk in Lagos after finishing secondary school, I was earning seven pounds. But the share significance of that gesture and the magnitude of that sacrifice made deep impression that never left me.”
More importantly, up till this age of 80, I have never spent one day in the hospital. So, I believe that nobody should look back. When you make mistake, it is meant to teach you a lesson and to instruct you. One should benefit from it because nobody goes through life claiming perfection in everything he does. I made mistakes, learnt from the mistakes and moved on. I cried sometimes and smiled at other times and those are the realities of life.”
Oyegun said life has aught him not to engage in anything he cannot dedicate himself to. He said: “I don’t engage in anything that I don’t put myself into. I must do it to my satisfaction and in a way that makes me happy, gives pleasure and fulfilment. I want to think that it is the reason God made me reach the top. I did not go into any of them to just earn a living. I only liked and enjoyed what I was doing.
The Nigeria of today may not be what he bargained for. But, he said with the present leadership, there is hope for the country. He stressed that today, he can die knowing that the country is on the way to recovering its potentials. He said: “I will tell you something. I enjoyed the civil service of the 1960s. We were burning with passion. Olu Falae, Chukwuemeka Ezife and one or two others in the service then. We all enjoyed what we were doing, burning with that spirit of nationalism and part of the Independent celebration. At the time we were in the economic development, oil was virtually gushing out and the potentials, including all international reviews, tipped Nigeria as one nation that will break out of underdevelopment and developing nations. Nigeria had the best prospect to break out of underdeveloped ranks. We were ahead of Brazil, India where at that time, people was dying on the streets because of hunger. We were ahead of Malaysia and few other countries. We had the resources, good planning, we brought in the UN and the World Bank and it was a fantastic atmosphere with expatriates, professors and civil servants planning for the growth and development of this country. Seeing the bright future that was beckoning us, don’t ask me where it all went wrong. Whether it was the nosedive we took into military intervention, I cannot tell. It is difficult to explain the persistent, inexorable downward trend to the extent that we now leave it to prayer warriors. I have looked at the lives of the founders of this nation, Awolowo, Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello and the group directly under them,p. One by one, they have passed on. I have always asked myself a question. Take for instance, Awolowo, who we know how passionate he was, on his death bed, did he feel fulfilled? I cannot answer that question because he is gone just like others. I said to myself, Lord, we are not on the path yet to greatness because we have all the ingredients to greatness. But somehow, we have not been able to attain our destiny. I have told myself that we cannot solve our problems before my time is up. However, I want to be on my death bed knowing that we are finally on the path to true greatness.”
However, Oyegun is one Nigerian politician whose children are not in political lime light. Is this deliberate? Oyegun said: “I worked as a civil servant for many years after leaving school. I worked at a private industry a few years before I became an accidental politician. The worst attribute of politics is to have somebody going into political office either as a councillor or member of the House without any working experience and livelihood. This is the greatest bane of Nigerian politics today. I want my children to see what life is like. Let them struggle to attain and if they want to go into politics, they can do so knowing that they have something to fall back on. They have careers, beautiful professions. I am not going to talk them into politics, I will rather talk them into taking good care of themselves. They have to cut out path for themselves and politics will then become like a calling not a means of livelihood. Today, it is very difficult to quantify the percentage of those that use politics as livelihood and that is what is generating the do or die aspect of our politics.”
Who are his role model? Oyegun said: “I have mentioned some of them in the civil service. But if you are talking of politics, for me it ended with the Tafala Balewa administration with flamboyant people like Okotie Eboh, Akintola, Mataima Sule with his golden voice, Ajah Nwachukwu among others. Even up to my time, I will say that politics was still relatively not violent. I campaigned with no incident of thuggery and violence.”