Wakirike National Congress, WNC. A voice that beckons. Chf. Amb. Spiff Taribo Amgbara.

WAKIRIKE NATIONAL CONGRESS (WNC) AND ITS SINE QUA NON RELEVANCE

1.00: PREAMBLE.

UMBRELLA DESIGNATIONS have acted as expedient and viable instruments for rallying and integrating distinct communities of either homogenous or heterogenous societies. Such communities regard themselves bound under one solidifying canopy with a view to developing a corporate understanding, fashioning a corporate strategy, pursuing corporate goals and achieving essential objectives. This motive certainly gave birth to the vision of the initiators and facilitators of the renascent Wakirike National Congress (WNC). It is also believed that the Royal Fathers, the Local Government Chairmen, the Chiefs, and the mammoth crowd that assembled to witness the inauguration, as concerned STAKEHOLDERS, did so with optimistic enthusiasm. Participation at the event was euphoric, reception of the decision was spontaneous, and support for the declaration was unanimous. In the face of the foregoing clarifications and circumstances, only misanthropic propagandists and cynical commentators would vilify and undermine the promotion of W.N.C.

1.02: A SOCIETY’S INTELLIGENTSIA

A society’s intelligentsia must necessarily parade an array of knowledgeable, patriotic and impartial citizens whose ideals and suggestions should constitute a remedial guidance for unity, peace and progress. The KIRKE KINGDOM INTELLIGENTSIA OF CANADA cannot be an exception, unless the nomenclature is contrived by a faceless person that could not identify himself as either the president or secretary. Nonetheless, the labour expended by such, unnamed individual(s) is appreciated as the research either enriches our comprehension or deepens our misunderstanding of the Wakirike phenomenon. Therefore, we must warily take exception to many confusing contradictions in the widely publicized rejoinder to my inauguration address on Saturday September 30, 2023 at the Multipurpose Hall of the Okrika Local Government Secretariat. These include:

2.1 (a) AMBIGUITY OVER WNC:  The author(s) persevere in discrediting the image and personality of Chief Amb. Taribo Amgbara JP by alleging the mischievous claim at the beginning that 

“His (i.e. the chairman’s) intent and purpose were as clear as day light – to ensure that the Wakirike National Congress (WNC) met an untimely demise, orchestrated behind the scenes and destined to be still born.” 

But the same malicious accusers concluded the calumniation towards the end by urging that 

“all Kirike sons and daughters (are advised) to completely disassociate themselves from the Wakirike National Congress as it does not represent our collective interests but a Koniju interest in disguise (old wine in new bottle).”   

It is puzzling to reason whether Chief Amgbara was advancing Koniju preference or executing personal agenda!!

2.1. (b) EQUIVOCAL CITATIONS: The publisher(s) of the rejoinder cited a plethora of texts that scholars, administrators and pseudo-historians composed. They seem to have done so in order to validate their deliberate mission of vituperation and sabotage. The selected authors range from Talbot and Porter through Alagoa to Ven. Obuoforibo. The exclusion of our pre-eminent historian, Emeritus Professor Tekena Tamuno, is commendable as he wisely abstained from publishing a chronicle about OKRIKA in order to avoid being misconstrued or distorted by our local sophists. The other means that these detractor(s) employed to authenticate their villainy is the recourse to the interpretation of “Wakirike” in various Ijo and Sub-Ijo dialects. But let us restrict our focus on Ven. Obuoforibo’s “GROUNDWORK OF OKRIKA HISTORY (2012)” which I had the unique opportunity to publicly review at Abuloma in June, 2014. 

2.1: (c) The author’s scrutiny of the Wakirike tradition on pages 83-85 is at best educative, and at worst, freakish. He quotes several sources for its origin in Kirike, including one Owele, metamorphosed into Oputibeya at Ogoloma. He ends by confessing in one breath that “Wa Kirike, as name for Okrika Clan, is a most fantastic hypothesis ever proposed for the Okrika nation as it tells the Okrikans that they are all one and not different.......” and in another: “Wa kirike, on the other hand, is even much more elastic than ever.”

3. Let it be reiterated, to the end of emphasizing the knavery of the so-called Kirike Kingdom Intelligentsia, that the Chairman’s address at the event, never specified Opu Ogu, Opuoguloya and Bolo, as founders of their respective patriarchies. But it served their demonic imagination to elaborate on the coincidence of eponyms with settlements so as to flatter their chosen idol.

 

4.00: 1933 INTELLIGENCE REPORT ON OKRIKA: 

James Porter was verily a foreign administrator. As such, he must evidently and largely rely upon local raconteurs to compose his Intelligence Report, in addition to personal observations. Most of the native sources might not resist the temptation to canvas their basic preferences, with the result that some of Porter’s analyses, assessments, and prescriptions might proceed from fabricated assumptions rather than based on an objective knowledge of the Wakirike chronology and situation. Nonetheless, the Intelligence Report parades findings and conclusions that deserve due attention: inter alia –

4.01: KIRIKE OR OKRIKA TOWN: Neither Oputibeya nor Kirike was categorically identified by Porter to have founded Kirike i.e, Koniju and Tuboniju (Ngebiri fa Jei), In fact, Chief Alfred Abam JP, in his book, “THE OKRIKA KINGDOM: An Analysis of the Dynamics of Historical Events (1999)”, equivocates or quips that “Kirike was the pseudonym of Oputibeya,” following the survey of many versions about the nebulosity of Kirike (pages 24-28). Little wonder that the Tuboniju contestants easily accepted the seasoned advice of Barrister Nabo Graham Douglas, their lawyer at the 1962 Graham’s Commission of Inquiry, to substitute the mysterious issue of founder “and first settler” of Kirike for the more plausible alternative of founder of the Royalty and sequence of succession thereafter. Still, James Porter earns credit for recognizing that other Monarchies and Kingdoms existed outside “Okrika village” within the larger OKRIKA or Wakirike territory. This fact was later amplified in the Graham’s Commission’s Report and Recommendations.

5. The enunciation of the foregoing inconcongruities should not imply a trivialization or condemnation of the Kirike Kingdom Intelligentsia, even though “the devil can cite the Scriptures to fulfill his purpose”! The propagandists are only reminded that the patriotic egg-heads, who tirelessly endeavoured to crystallize their dream of creating an all embracing fraternity for the Wakirike homogenous community ought to be applauded instead of being aspersed and frustrated.

 6. IMAGE ASSASINATION:  

6.0: The patently anonymous Canda-based Kirike Kingdom Intelligentsia commenced the sinister campaign of vindictiveness by “researching’ into my background in the Ministry of Foreign (formerly External) Affairs. Unfortunately, the adventure has exposed no less the puerility of their intellect than the futility of their conspiracy. Had they not succumbed to the combination of these handicaps, their thorough investigations would have discovered the following facts”

6.1: (i) The Ministry of External Affairs comprised branches A, B, C, D, with “A” incorporating career diplomatic officers, “B” Assistant Executive Officers, Higher Executive Officers, Senior Executive Officers and Principal executive Officers (of General and Finance disciplines); “C” – Secretarial and Clerical Officers; and “D” – Messengers and Couriers.

6.2: (ii) I got transferred to the Ministry of External Affairs in July, 1967 as External Affairs Officer (EAO) 8/9 (Branch A) from the Ministry of Communications where I was promoted notionally to Executive Officer following my resumption there in 1966 after graduating from the University of Ibadan on Study-leave-without-pay! I never functioned as Administrative/Executive Officer in the Ministry of External Affairs contrary to the false assertion of the Kirike Kingdom Intelligentsia!    

6.2: (ii) My postings abroad included:

a) Vice Consul and Consul (Head of Chancery in the Embassy) to Fernando Po, Equatorial Guinea – 1968-1971;

b) In-Service-Training at American University, Washing D.C, USA – 1971 – 1973 where I studied Russian language despite my proficiency in French and Spanish in addition to English!

c) Pioneer Charge’ d’ Affaires ad interim, Bucharest, Roumania – 1974 – 1976

d) Deputy to Ambassador and Head of Mission, Paris, France – 1976 – 1978

e) Pioneer Charge’ d’ Affaires ad interim, Caracas, Venezuela – 1980 – 1981

f) Minister II in Nigerian High Commission, London, United Kingdom, - December 1981 to February, 1982

g) Consul – General of Nigeria to Hamburg (then West Germany) – 1982 – 1984

7. May it be noted for reflection that I set the record of a Nigerian External Affairs Officer (Career Diplomat) who opened and operated two new diplomatic missions during period of service. I was likewise reputed to have enriched the government treasury by securing and “returning” money garnered from diplomatic discounts and cash payment-concessions for direct purchase of domestic and office furniture and equipment. One is tempted to conclude that such exceptional deeds emanated from either naivety or a developed mind! But a detribalized and perceptive leader, President Shehu Shagari GCFR, soon detected and admired the assets of talent, conduct and dedication in me. He particularly recollected my diligent and effective establishment of the new Nigeria Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela; my sterling contribution to his successful official visit to West Germany; the tussle over the change of my posting from London to Hamburg; and my Despatch on the controversial issue of the office of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)

8. NOMINATION AS AMBASSADOR TO AUSTRIA:  President Shagari determined that I should be elevated and accredited to Vienna, Austria to replace Ambassador Umar in 1984. He was accordingly encouraged and advised to nominate me as career Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Austria with which I was very familiar during my sojourn in Roumania, as well as when all Nigerian Heads of Missions in Europe (not ambassadors) held their annual conference at Salzburg in 1982. I also attended from Hamburg as Consul-General! after attaining the rank of EAO II (Minister), and awaiting promotion to EAO I. In fact, prior to the expansion of the MEA (now MFA), in was customary to witness the appointment of EAOs of levels VII and VI as career ambassadors. So when Mr. Godfrey Aniemena, the charge d’ Affaires ad Interim in East Germany, a colleague-friend, broke the news of my selection to me by telephone in November, 1983, as he probably learnt from Ambassador Umar in Vienna, I was little surprised though startled, even though he additionally accused me of hiding such a happy development from him.

9. MAVERICK AMBASSADOR LAWAL RAFINDADI! 

Ambassador Rafindadi’s rise in the External Service was as meteoric and phenomenal as amazing and catastrophic. He was initially recruited as Stenographer in Branch C, later converted to Administrative Executive Officer in Branch B, and finally uplifted to External Affairs Officer VII in Branch A. He functioned in the capacity of resident ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, and advanced sporadically to supersede his peers and seniors. Ambassador Rafindadi achieved these unparalleled feats, not only by virtue of comeliness and assiduity but by dint of articulating his roots from the Muslim Kastina and exploiting his membership of the Nigerian Security Organization (NSO), an outfit that was then housed at No. 6 Broad (Later General Gowon) street, Lagos, as the Research Department of the Ministry of External Affairs. Military President Ibrahim B. Babagingida was destined to expeditiously dismantle this omblical glue in 1985 when he overthrew the military government of General Buhari, Kinsman of Ambassador Rafindadi!

10. As Nigeria’s ambassador to West Germany, His Excellency Mr. Rafindadi, was reportedly instrumental to my controversial reassignment to Hamburg instead of the High Commission in London. Incidentally, my stay in the United Kingdom would have been the only occasion that I could have served in an Anglophone environment throughout my 17 year diplomatic career. But Ambassador Rafindadi mindfully thwarted the opportunity in pursuit of his premeditated design which I soon deciphered: he intended to partly utilize my renown ingenuousness to remedy the havoc that my immediate predecessor a woman consul-General/Ambassador, had wrought to the image of the country and finances of the mission. It was also his instinctive plan to demonstrate his nepotistic ascendancy over me and my ilk in the service who had protested about his unprecedented flight! I was therefore, expected to be absolutely loyal to him to the point of subservience and servility. But this obligation happened to be beyond my docility to absorb and accommodate! Yet, I exhibited reverence to his office and position by receiving him personally at the Hamburg airport whenever he randomly visited; availed him of the services of my official driver and representational vehicle, hosted him to repasts in my home; discharged sundry errands for him; and exchanged mutual knowledge of the strategies of espionage, diplomacy and war. But the bubble was predictably waiting to burst!

11. The first crack occurred when the ambassador entreated me to remit N200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) to salvage the Embassy in Bonn, a demand that I stoutly rejected for two major reasons, namely: the Consulate – General prepared an autonomous estimate and maintained an approved budget like the Embassy,  and could not, therefore, augment the deficit of the latter; secondly, my resumption in Hambury and scrutiny of the accounts unfolded the embarrassing state of the mission’s bankruptcy and liabilities to the extent that debts were outstanding on office and staff quarters’ rents as well as electric bills. In fact, my predecessor had declined to indwell the degrading residence that the mission hired for her but opted to occupy two large suites at the costly and luxurious Inter-Continental Hotel! I had to plead passionately and successfully for supplementary subvention from headquarters as well as withingly absorb the allocation for the newly attached Information Section to revamp the account of the consulate-General. I stood my unassailable ground in total ignorance of the support that my recently appointed Head of Chancery had given to his fellow Research/Espionage agent and benefactor at Bonn until an admirer from Lagos confided in me with a warning!

12. The second incident that seemed to doom our relationship happened at Salzburg, Austria during the Conference of Nigerian Heads of Missions in Europe in May 1982. I had been scheduled to present a paper to participants in favour of restoring the office of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. My dissection of the significance of the office and proposal for the qualifications of the prospective occupant, fermented a pugnacious altercation between some Northern participants and Southern colleagues behind me during the breakfast before the session. The embattled Minister, Professor Shuaibu, mindfully advised the suspension of my contentious memorandum. This was the same document that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Albaji Shehu Musa, prompted me to submit to Mr. President in a recomposed form of a special Despatch. I did so and survived to witness the resultant positive outcome.

13. The climatic and most unnecessary confrontation surprisingly eventuated in the aftermath of President Shagari’s enviable visit to West-Germany. Mr. Patrick Brai, the Minister and Deputy to Ambassador Rafindadi, had been given a formal query by his boss. It concerned a protocol faux pas which Mrs. Janet Brai allegedly committed against Mrs. Ambassador at the Dinner in honour of the visiting President. The meticulous ambassador sent me copies of both the query and reply for my comments. I obediently reacted by acknowledging the remarkable contributions of the ambassador and his staff toward the success of the visit, and suggested the rational need to overlook wrong doings and mistakes at the end of such a resoundingly auspicious visit. A reliable informant intimated me that the ambassador resented my “diplomatic” response, and vowed to deal with Mr. Brai. The innocent deputy was reportedly rescued by his ethnic compatriots at the headquarter who, instead of demoting him as prescribed by the unforgiving master, reassigned him to Uganda as Acting High Commissioner. It later transpired that Mr. Brai was among the casualties of the notorious gale of “compulsory retirements” when the triumvirate of General Muhammed Buhari, Lt. general Tunde Idiagbon and Ambassador R. Lawal Rafindadi ousted President Shagari on December 31, 1983!!!

14. I was instinctively conscious of these factual episodes; I further saw Ambassador Rafindadi on Television sitting in the middle of the two triumphant leaders of the coup d’ etal that dethroned President Shagari, his fellow Emirate proselyte! It was the awareness of this background that aroused my clairvoyance to tell Ambassador George Dove-Edwin, my former ambassador in France, in succession to Ambassador Ukegbu, and then Director-General of European Affairs Directorate in the MEA, to forget my reassignment to Austria as he jubilantly informed me. I was returning to Hamburg through Lagos, at the end of my home-leave, and Ambassador Dove-Edwin was hilariously advising me to hurry back to prepare for movement to Vienna. Indeed, I shared the pain that he endured afterwards when he had the ill luck to discharge the unpleasant duty of signing the letter that conveyed my premature retirement in March 1984. Against Ambassador Dove-Edwin’s telephone advice for my immediate return to the end of rectifying the patently persecutory injustice, I stayed the permitted one month in Hamburg before returning to Lagos. In the face of the pertinent decrees of the dreaded Buhari-Idiagbon-Rafindadi regime, which outlawed the courts from jurisdiction over the whimsical and capricious compulsory retirements, Mr. G. Longe, the Head of Service, or the Federal Civil Servce Commission, seemed helpless against the dictates of the military junta. Such was the dismal state of affairs that the MEA drifted under the control of the dregs following the arbitrary retirement of most of the cream, a few of whom were polyglots like me!

15. The foregoing reminiscences are too detailed and elaborate in narration. They must inevitably overtax the sobriety of patient subscribers. But they have been so recounted in order to emphasize the point that Chief Amb. Taribo-Amgbara failed to exercise the privilege of Career Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, not because of lack of competence, experience and diligence: he was denied the position on account mainly of the toxic hostility and prejudicial complex of an advantaged upstart! Had the self-styled “Kirike Kingdom Intelligentsia of Canada” appreciated this fact, the members would have likely sung a different tune! They might have also been misled by the chief’s known besetting folly, to wit: inability to “suffer fools gladly,” a flaw that has seemingly dogged his life and circumstances throughout his public and chieftaincy services. But several Nigerian Heads of State, Military and Civilian Governors, Foreign Ministry henchmen and officials as well as knowledgeable stalwants, have recognized his ambassadorial aura!. Moreover, the rise of Ambassador for Peace has popularized the banality of the sacred institution into which the chief has been voluntarily inducted and exalted to the pinnacle of “Crown of Peace”! Against such a background, will the Kirike Kingdom Intelligentsia of Canada not be pursuing a cynical agenda when they dramatize the injustice so callously inflicted on their own compatriot rather than censure his arbitrary victimization. But the clique still deserves pardon in so far as it demonstrates incapacity to distinguish ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary from meritorious ambassadors in situ!

16. Chief, Amb. Taribo-Amgbara JP has, since his premature retirement about 39 years ago, reintegrated into the Wakirike society. He has exerted effective and positive influence in the following State and Federal Organizations:

a. Member, Rivers State Civil Service Commission where he doubled as speech writer to Military Governor Fidelis Oyakhilome;

b. Member, Editorial Board of “Sunray” publications (now defunct); 

c. Chairman, Editorial Board of “Wakirike Trumpet” (now defunct);

d. Member, Rivers State Hospitals Management Board;

e. Member, representing Rivers State in Federal Inter-ministerial Committee on Piracy at Sea and Armed Robbery Against Nigerian Ships;

f. Member, Federal Character Commission;

g. Member, Rivers State Advisory Council;

h. Member, Okrika Community Peace Committee;

i. Member, Rivers State Elders Committee;

j. Member, Rivers State Golden Jubilee Committee

His modest but noticeable contributions in the above-enumerated bodies could testify his faith in the image and prestige of Wakirike. It smacks, therefore, of genetical hypocrisy to project Okrika as the umbrella designation for all automous and distinct OKRIKA-PHONE communities, as the bigoted cabal of detractors in Kirike Kingdom Intelligentsia of Canada seem anxious to advocate, in place of WAKIRIKE! Does such histrionic wisdom not harm the overwhelming preference of the monarchs and progressive citizens as well as the parabolic conclusion of Ven. Dr. Obuoforibo in his cited compendium? 

17. It is categorically denied and dismissed that the Chairman, Chief, Amb. Spiff M.K. Taribo Amgbara JP was goaded by the lure of monetary incentive into presiding over the inauguration ceremony, as wickedly insinuated by the Kirike Kingdom Intelligentsia of Canada! The Chief’s character and philosophy are above reproach in this respect. Only the twisted minds of the malicious propagandists and their lackeys could imagine such malfeasance for the purpose of robbing the chief of his precious name. But such acts hardly enrich the malefactors! In like vein, I choose resolutely to ignore the harmless coincidence of Mr. Ibanichika as a young friend and vocal admirer on one hand, and the disseminator of the vitriolic propaganda on the other, This guru of the Social Media in Wakirike, had openly protested to me in the hall on the day of inauguration, that I failed to recognize him in my speech as the prominent promoter of the WAKIRIKE concept. I apologized for the omission, and later did so through the network that he has adroitly invented. As he is not perceived to have reacted to my “belated” acknowledgment, I could not fathom the judgement of his busy mind!  

18. CONCLUSION

A preacher of unity, integration and co-operation should not deviate from their constant and consistent practice. In similar manner, a seeker of peace, stability and security shall always manifest a visible mindset to sustain these valuable necessities. The WAKIRIKE concept and terminology have entered and been entrenched in, the psyche of all Wakirike Folk. Let nothing be done by either individuals or concocted cabals to impede their active operation for the general and higher benefit of the components!. 

Chief, Amb. S.M.K. Taribo-Amgbara JP

November 24, 2023.