TOAST TO THE PEOPLE’S GENERAL

 Iboro Otongaran pays tribute to

 Don Etiebet at 80

All too often traditional titles are thrown around as confetti to scratch egoistic itch. The title for Atuekong Donald Obot Etiebet, pre-eminent geoscientist and IT geek, came from a different kind of consideration. His chieftaincy title, Atuekong, which translates literally as the head of the people’s army, speaks to his amazing persona on the life stage, his fighting spirit for the liberation of his people from all manner of shackles, and the untameable hunger in his belly to make a difference wherever he is.

For these and more reasons I’m at one with the Petroleum Club and all people of goodwill in celebrating the people’s general, the Atuekong of Akwa Abasi Ibom State, a dream-maker, an epitome of excellence and a man of vision, as he marks three score years and ten plus ten on earth. A man whose heart beats with so much goodness, Etiebet has in the course of his illustrious career reached out and lifted countless homes and families with jobs and mentoring for their bread winners, laying out a huge personal fortune—through endowments, scholarships, prizes, donations and sponsorships—for the benefit of many across the nation. A personal fortune he built by dint of hard work through a business empire stretching across real estate, oil and gas, banking, education, as well as information and communication technology (ICT)!

For years his IT company, Data Sciences, was an incubator for skill acquisition and leadership training. So many people in leadership positions today in Akwa Ibom State and across the country learned at Etiebet’s feet in Data Sciences. Etiebet’s positive impact has graced my family—so I should know—just as he has impacted many other families around the country. There are therefore compelling personal reasons for a host of grateful folks to celebrate with him on this very happy occasion of his birthday. We celebrate and thank God that we have him as a blessing at a personal level, and even more so as a bigger blessing for the country.

For the country, Etiebet offers a luminous profile in exemplary leadership. This is not to be taken lightly. The question of leadership in the world’s most populous black nation, Nigeria, is just so elemental it deserves every shred of interest. I agree wholly with Chinua Achebe that the trouble with Nigeria is the problem of leadership. So when a man like Atuekong Etiebet comes along with a sterling private sector record as a business leader, and serves in the public sector as Petroleum Minister creditably, not singed by the sludge of sleaze, then we simply have a perfect case study in desirable and effective leadership.

For country, Etiebet’s outstanding achievements are many. He it was who cracked the conundrum that held back the consummation of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) project by nudging the Federal Authorities away from hankering after keeping the controlling shares in the investment, a policy stance that had proven to be the stumbling block to the realisation of the project for years. By his common-sense leadership and power of vision the nation built the NLNG which is today a bellwether for the national treasury. It was also during his tenure as Petroleum Minister that the Petroleum Trust Fund was established as a major interventionist agency used to address serious infrastructure and human capital deficits in many sectors of the society, particularly in tertiary education.

As Minister, Etiebet oversaw the roll-out of a range of other farsighted reforms in the petroleum sector that have since served as the defining features of the industry. They include deep offshore exploration and drilling—a slice of the sector that still retains the interest of relocating oil majors; introduction of the country’s first instance of monetisation policy in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); and the streamlining of operational processes in the then Department of Petroleum Resources to tame its unwieldy bureaucracy and optimise productivity and efficiency in that critical department in the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources at the time. He equally promoted the policy of local content to domesticate the oil and gas industry and integrate it with the local economy. The local content policy would later crystallise in the establishment of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board in 2010 during the Obasanjo presidency, a culmination of a policy articulation that has been a shot in the arm for local players in the oil and gas industry.

Etiebet’s leadership impact is not limited to his pathfinding work in the private sector; nor is it to his transformational policy initiatives and execution in government at the federal level. At the state level in Akwa Ibom and at the regional stage in the Niger Delta, Etiebet lived up to his stripes as Atuekong when he joined forces with his compatriots that include but are not limited to His Excellency Obong Victor Attah, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Obong Umana Okon Umana, Senator Effiong Bob, Senator James Akpanudoedehe, Senator Aloysius Etok, Senator Ita Enang and other champions of equity in the country to fight and win the resource control battle. The resource control victory against a most vicious asphyxiation of a region of the country has provided a source of much-needed development and sustenance for the Niger Delta—though there appears to be a consensus that in spite of the victorious battle against the plot of entrenched interests to deny the region the benefits due to it from its natural resources, the real war for the common ownership and equitable enjoyment of those resources delivered through the 13 percent derivation funds is still raging.

Etiebet is indeed a general leading the way for his people in many theatres of their struggle. His leadership does not show through only in interpersonal relationships and in business. It has been particularly demonstrated in politics. Etiebet’s footprints are unmistakeable in every political epoch and in every major political movement in the country in the last 30 years. During the efforts to disengage from military rule, Etiebet formed and funded the National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN) as a platform with which to rally like minds and steer a centrist path on a political rescue mission. But as it’s well known the uncertainties and duplicity of those times guaranteed that the NCPN faced no fate different from what befell all political efforts of that period.

In 1997 or thereabouts, there was another political sunshine moment on the tortuous road to freedom from a wearingly long military rule. Again, Etiebet huddled up with others to form the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that went on to win the 1999 general elections and formed the central government led by President Olusegun Obasanjo. The PDP also won the local election in his native state of Akwa Ibom. Etiebet was easily acknowledged as the kingmaker of that government which took over from the military in the state. But it’s an open secret that he was not accorded a godfather’s due. The uneasy relationship would only get worse until a rupture happened during the government that succeeded the inaugural 1999 democratic administration in the state. Etiebet then joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) where he has functioned since as an elder statesman.

As I write this tribute, I’m nursing a concern. It’s a concern that has enjoyed resonance among Nigerians late and living. I remember the late Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu honouring the late Obafemi Awolowo in his condolence register with the epitaph, “The best president Nigeria never had.” Ojukwu was here lamenting the road not taken, indeed the road not seen. It’s a statement that completes the Nigerian paradox when taken together with Achebe’s uncontested argument that the problem with Nigeria is a problem of leadership. So, here you have a situation where Ojukwu says, hey, this is a rare gem that would have perfectly met our leadership need. Etiebet and others like him abound, perfect samplers in leadership fits that the nation is in dire need of, yet we agonise over the lack of good leadership in the country.

Why is it that we don’t see, during leadership recruitment cycles, what we have in the best of leadership potential around us? To be sure, Etiebet has had good opportunities to serve his people and the nation, and has discharged his commissions creditably. But as I would ask regarding all other exquisite cases of the best Nigeria has on offer, have we made the best use of our ablest men and women? It’s time we began to have a different kind of conversation about leadership recruitment in Nigeria.

I’m sorry, I guess I digressed. This is not the day for gripes. It’s a moment to fill our glasses and join the toast to a great man, an outstanding intellectual, a man with eagle focus and of manifest achievements.

Happy birthday, Sir, and many joyous returns of the day!

Otongaran writes from Lagos