Although many Nigerians may be frustrated and disappointed by the activities and performances of our politicians, there are some exceptional politicians who have performed well and must be commended. One of such politicians is Victor Ndoma-Egba who once represented the Central Senatorial District of Cross River State for three consecutive terms.
Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), who early this year raked in three scores in his life journey, was a cynosure of all eyes when he was in the Senate and his Constituency would have been happier, had he been returned to the Eighth Assembly. Up till this moment, many Nigerians and political observers who know him as performers are aghast as to what happened at the primaries that shorted his return to the National Assembly to enable him continue his selfless service to the people and the nation.
I first met Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) in 1975 at the University of Lagos and by coincidence and good fortune, we were accommodated in Room 342. El-kanemi Hall. It wasn’t long after we had met that I also got to know Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) in the same University who later became Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
By instinct, I know that Victor Ndoma-Egba was a good man because even though I was about six years older than him, this age disparity did not discourage our relationship. He was studying Law and I taking a course in Mass Communication and often times both of us would engage in arguments on those aspects of law that concerned my study. He was a humble man who didn’t betray any conduct that suggested he came from a well respected family. I was not to hear about Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba again until when he became Commissioner in his state and when I sought a favour from him he never hesitated even though I do not come from the same tribe or state of origin with him.
Consequently, up to this moment, I have regarded Victor as a nationalist without stereotypes that many Nigerians suffer. I closely followed his activities in the National Assembly and was so proud of him and concluded that the stability which the 7th Assembly enjoyed was partly attributed to him. Even though he was among the youngest in the Senate he displayed majority and nationalism in his approach to issues of national importance and contributed to so many bills which were debated and passed for Mr. President’s accent. He was therefore, a great asset to his constituency, the Cross River Central Senatorial District, his state and the nation as a whole.
Many Nigerians and I dare add that people in his senatorial district were greatly stunned when he did not clinch the ticket to run for the Senatorial election in 2015. In fact, many people had taught that he was the rightful successor to former governor Liyel Imoke. This is without prejudice to whatever political arrangement that was in place at the time.
By Victor Ndoma-Egba’s stellar performance in the Senate and the development of his constituency, many Nigerians were most surprised why he did not returned to the Senate. A few examples of his activities and performance while at the Senate will tell the story. In the area of Bills at the National Assembly, he spoke in favour of the Nigeria Police Act, which came into effect on April 1, 1943 and has essentially been unchanged since that time and there where passed to former President Goodluck Jonathan for accent towards the end of that last Assembly.
There were some other important issues that were left inconclusive in the 7th Assembly which his presence in the Eight Assembly would have helped to resolve. These include some critical investigation such as the report on the probe of the immigration of fuel subsidy. The upper chamber also left behind the investigation of the mystery of the deed bodies found in Ezu River in Anambra State. The Malabo oil field transacts probe, as well as investigation of the management of funds in Nigeria’s embassies and foreign missions and a host of others.
Indeed, his constituency has been the hardest hit by his absence from the Senate. He was their man who never one day throughout his tenure in the Senate turned his back on them unlike others. He was always there for them. In the area of educations, for example, the Senator believed that apart from other resources, the human resource is the most significant. He, therefore, encouraged the development and the growth of education in his constituency, his scholarship scheme which was over N100m naira annually ran throughout his tenure in the Senate and indigent students who would benefited greatly from the scheme and remain ever grateful to him. When the students of Cross River State at the University of Maiduguri were almost stranded at the peak of the Boko Haram Insurgency, he quickly arranged transportation to evacuate them.
The other areas in which he contributed immensely to the uplift of the people of his constituency was in agriculture where he bought farm implements and distributed improved seedlings to hundreds of farmers to improve their yields and thus financially empowering them. Even those outside his constituency have attested to his magnanimity and altruism. Let it be said here that Senator Ndoma-Egba did not seek anything for himself when he wanted to represent his people in the Senate but to serve them selflessly.
At the age of 48 he had reached the apogee of his career, having been invested with the prestigious title of senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a flourishing legal firm in his state capital, Calabar.
Senator Ndoma-Egba cannot be said to belong to those group of law makers who Nigerians routinely accuse of indolence, hedonism and corruption who are solely in the National Assembly feather their own nests. Many people who know him believe that if he were to come from the right geo-political region in Nigeria, he would have a veritable candidate for the position of either the Vice Presidency or even the Presidency.
By not allowing him to return to the Senate his constituency may have unwittingly acted like the 19th Century Irish people whom Novelist, James Joyce, accused of behaving like an old sow that eats up it farrow, rejecting their best hand.
President Muhammadu Buhari, therefore, acted wisely when be appointed Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba as the Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) at a time that the region was in dire need of a man of his quality devoid of corruption tendency to pilot the affairs of the commission for the development of the volatile region. The Niger Delta indigenes should understand and corporate with this man because President Buhari meant well for the people by appointing a man who will not short-change them, who will not steal their money and who will work tirelessly for the development of the area.
Many people who know the senator’s antecedents have expressed the hope and belief that his tenure will see a great difference in the affairs of the commission. It is not an exaggeration to say that his former party the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River State mad a huge mistake by not returning him to the senate thereby providing him sufficient grounds to leave the party as it was clear to all and sundry that it was an injustice that could not be condoned.
I join all other well-meaning Nigerians to wish him success as he steers the titanic NDDC ship.
*Usman Adams wrote from Abuja.