A Deep Dive on David Edevbie

Allison Abanum

As ants scamper frantically towards crumbs of sugar laid bare, so does an enthusiastic journalist rush towards a ground-breaking story. Moreso, when such story embodies some of the numerous positive and glorious traits of humanity. Hear! hear! Although we live in a selfish world, there are people who have dedicated their lives to the service of humanity, transcending every race or tribal connections to leave indelible marks in the lives of many. Proving again and again that despite the apparent opposite, the human heart is capable of so much good.

“Do Davids of today still kill lions for their sheep?” a rather sarcastic question thrown at my friend Onoriode, who had earlier, with all conviction declared to me “Allison , I have seen our new Governor and his name is David,” I still wonder what was more captivating, the boldness with which he made this declaration or the answer to my sarcasm? “Come and see”, held by hand to see for myself, right there was my eureka moment. I knew I had stumbled on one of such ground-breaking and revealing stories.

As I promised in my last publication, I am excited to share our findings and experiences like the 12 spies marching into Cannan, albeit incognito. With high hopes of bringing back a good report. I and my two friends, Mr. Roland Ogbonnaya, Former Daily Deputy Editor of Thisday Newspaper and Currently Saturday Deputy Editor of Daily Independent Newspaper and Mr. Amos Oweifighe, News Editor at Radio Nigeria- Creek FM, embarked on an exciting and quite revealing investigative journey of the wondrous impacts of David Edevbie that was hardly spoken about. It is very rare to see a man that has traversed the corridors of leadership and politics for so long and is still being spoken about glowingly by the high and low of the society. Moving from Asaba to Abuja and a few other places gathering facts and experience of real life occurrences for over a month, left me more than convinced that my good friend Onoriode was spot on with his earlier declaration.

Landing in Asaba the stage was set and our minds prepared for the task ahead. So where do we start from? “As a past Commissioner of Finance, I am sure people in the Ministry would have a lot to say about this David and the lions he killed for his sheep” said Mr. Roland Ogbonaya. First point of call, Ministry of Finance. We met civil servants still in service whose names of course will not be mentioned (For Security Reasons) and who surprisingly despite speaking with strangers, spoke freely about David Edevbie and the impact he made while he was with them. I presume this is because good things cannot be hidden neither can testimonies be shut from the light by the feeble force of closed lips.

One worker went as far declaring that Mr David Edevbie was an unusual boss one that favors encouragement over and above criticism. He Described David Edevbie as a Man who has brought a lot of innovation to the Ministry with Modern Technology. The cherry on the cake for this part of our inquest was when we stumbled upon a couple of retired civil servants of the same Ministry present on some personal engagements. This was golden, we didn’t waste time to engage Mr  Ifeanyi Ebido who had offered long term service and retired honourably. He immediately cited a particular incident when he was talking casually albeit excitedly about his birthday with colleagues outside the complex, coincidentally the former Commissioner was coming in. Of course after respectful pleasantries was thrown his way, Ebido said he was amazed at how the boss himself weighed in to wish him a happy birthday and blessed him with “something that made me smile” in Mr Ebido’s words exactly.

This warmth and generous quality of Edevbie was also echoed by workers there who knew him well. One woman declaring that “he always had words of encouragement for everyone and knew a very large percentage of the staff by name, so he related with us on more personal level and this motivated us to give our best and serve our fatherland wholeheartedly”. At this point I could see the stunned look on my friend Amos Oweifighe’s face. Clearly this was already exceeding his expectations as a Bayelsan.

Mr Ebido, the retired civil servant was there with a friend, a quite elderly man who we later found out was a doctor at the Federal Medical Center in Asaba. He could not help but weigh into our enquiry of his friend. Cutting in abruptly at some point, Doctor Idika said David Edevbie as far back as he could remember and  till date has been paying medical bills of elderly people who are helpless in the hospital, “Even when he is not in Asaba, he will call and ask for cases of elderly helpless people  and would not want his name to be mentioned.” At this point even I had the stunned look on my face. “He gave the directive that we should not tell anyone that he paidthe bill but rather tell them to give Glory to God,”  the doctor added.

This revelation was like laying crushed crystals of sugar on the floor and it encouraged us to follow like ants not wanting to miss out on more of the sweetness that is to come. So off to FMC Asaba we went. There, we spoke to a couple of colleagues of our new doctor friend and they not only coroborated his story but one actually went as far as sharing a more personal story of how one of his patients that was well known to him on a personal level, had a severe case of cateracts and could not pay for the surgery.

He narrated how he stumbled upon the opportunity David Edevbie offered at the time and was blown away when he found out that the said patient was shortlisted as one the numerous people that would have their bills taken care of by a “knight in shining armor” as he put it. More intriguing was the fact that neither he nor the said patient even met this knight and also that they were both not from Delta State. I could still notice in his voice that after all these years he was still in awe of how such a charitable spirit that eclipses tribal divides and cements its place in the ever glad hearts of many.

It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “we need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice, not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.”  After what we experienced in Asaba, Amos my friend spoke about Mr David Edevbie in terms of the last phrase of the mentioned statement: “Surely there is more to this person” Amos Oweifighe declared on one of our strategy meetings and therefore off to Abuja was the decision.

Edevbie had served as a Principal Secretary to former late President Umaru Yar’Adua and from our findings not only discharged his duty with utmost integrity but with glorious warmth and hospitality to all those who encountered him. One Farouk Danlami and Binta Galadima were some of the people we had used our journalist influence to speak to on our visit to the Presidential Villa.

Fortunately they both knew Edevbie and surprisingly well to some extent. They spoke in high regards of his deligence to work and how humble and warm a person he is. They equally spoke of David Edevbie’s innovative and modern technology skills. Pressed further, Mrs Binta revealed how she knew quite personally people that had met him for assistance one way or the other and never went back disappointed.

Explaining one unique occurrence, Binta declared: “Edevbie is one in a million billion,” seemingly lacking superlatives to describe the man. She recalled how two petty Villa staffs she knew had issues paying their children’s school fees. Both were in close proximity service to  Edevbie as Principal Secretary and had their bills sorted out by the man without announcements or even a chance to grovel back saying thank you. “he does things for God’s sake” declared Binta.

At this point my friend, Roland Ogbonnaya, a native of Abia State declared: “How I wish this man was from Abia.” Though, this statement was met with a chorus of laughter from us all, I could clearly see the deep wishes engraved in his eyes as those words fell off his mouth.

Our sojourn at Aso Rock also saw us chasing more leads to a motherless babies home. Rose of Sharon at AMAC somewhere in the Lugbe environs of Abuja. Founder and owner, Mrs Florence Abalaka a native of Kogi state, revealed to us upon inquiry, how Mr David Edevbie has been a chief donor to the running of the affairs of the motherless babies home and how this gestures are spread to other such establishments in Abuja, Lagos and other places which she mentioned hurriedly and in a very excited tone. Mrs Abalaka emphasised on the fact that as one would expect, majority of the kids in her care are from Central and northern Nigeria but it didnt matter as a charitable heart sees humanity and love first before any other thing.

Like Joshua and Caleb who returned with a positive testimony of the promised land, definitely I and my colleagues saw, heard and experienced enough to unequivocally conclude that indeed Edevbie is an unusual philanthropist, not doing all he does for politics but for Humanity. He is a man that doesn’t do things for eye service but working with his whole heart to achieve results. What about his life at points when he was out of service? I asked as we dissected our findings so far, weeks into our investigations.

 Edevbie had lived in and operated out of the ever bubbling Lagos therefore it was imperative that we get verifiable scoops from these periods in his life. Although we moved to Lagos knowing that our findings will be in no way different from what we have so far, we went anyways. Of course our instincts were spot on. Our investigation in Lagos only brought up more testimonies of people who had their lives touched by Edevbie one way or the other.

One striking similarity between all this experiences was the fact that all these profound works of impact was done without any fuss or publicity. This is a great divergence from the norms of our politicians. Indeed if one is privileged to enter into the living room of this great man I am sure boldly engraved in a painting or something on the wall would be Matthew 6: 3 which says, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” This is a mantra that surely guides David Edevbie.

Charity begins at home. In this case, home has been overtaken by impactful and charitable works. These works that are being spoken about in glorious terms by the Governor of Delta State himself, already echoing the trumpets of acknowledgement and praise from Deltans far and near especially those from his closest communities. Scattered all over are testimonies of young people he had paid their way through school and still so many in the payroll. He has indeed touched lives immensely. He influenced the dualization Ughelli Township Roads in 2006.

Under his watch, 16 streets were constructed in Afiesere in 2005. He provided all the transformers to Afiesere community in 2006. Alongside the 11kva line, he influenced a 33kva line to Afiesere with a stepdown located in Ogbovwa community that benefits 17 communities in Ughelli North. The stepdown was faulty in 2016, with support from a good citizen, he purchased the stepdown that is servicing the 17 communities now.

He influenced the reconstruction of Amekpa-Afiesere-Ofuoma road through Afiesere junction in 2017. He played a major role in the 13% derivation payment by the federal government to host oil communities. He influenced the building of Afiesere Skill Acquisition Center in 2008 that is still  being used by Technical and Vocational Studies Board to train youths in different skills at a very reduced rate.

 “This David Edevbie is indeed a national asset, it takes nothing to join the crowd, but it takes everything to stand out” said my friend Amos. “I wish I was a Deltan” he declared, with an undertone of utmost sincerity. Edevbie stands out like a red apple amongst a harvest of green ones. The man has shown that not everything should be done for selfish or political purposes. There is a greater impact felt when humanity and well-being are put at the forefront especially for anyone opportuned to pilot the affairs of the masses in any capacity.

I strongly believe that if given an even greater platform like; I dare to say it: “The Governor’s seat” come 2023, am sure it will be business as usual for Edevbie. Putting smiles on faces and empowering all and sundry to live life to the fullest but only that in this case, it will be on a stronger platform and able to make a wider and long lasting impact.

Abanum is the Senior Special Assistant on Strategic Communication and Documentation to the Governor of Bayelsa State.