Dead on arrival?

AgborTabi abandons his people on the doorstep

As a two-time minister in government, AgborTabi always perceived his job as leading his people. And he did a lot for them. AgborTabi knew where he was going, and he took his people along with him all the way. Whenever he saw an opportunity for his people AgborTabi fearlessly went all out for it. He had a dream for his people, and he was steadfast in his pursuit of that dream.  But like Moses in the Bible, he dies just now, when his cherished destination is believed to have come in sight. AgborTabi dies at a time he needed to make the least effort to arrive his destination. He dies leaving his people deflated and confused. What a shame!

By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde

Prof. NforAgborTabi led his people 

with vision and commitment

Prof. AgborTabi has died leaving the millions of people who believed in him and his vision helpless, confused and deflated.

                Since the confirmation of his death on Tuesday 26 April 2016, many of his followers have not stopped saying how devastated and emasculated they have become. This, they say, is because AgborTabi was not only their leader and torch bearer, he was also the one they looked up to for protection and guidance.

                “Prof. has abandoned us on the high seas. He has left us confused and not knowing where to go and how to continue. We are weakened, deflated, and completely emasculated,” lamented one of AgborTabi’s partisans, whose name we cannot mention here.

                Another of his followers simply said “We have lost a general in the death of Prof. AgborTabi. The war will become more complicated and difficult for us henceforth.”

                Yet many others have admitted that politics in Manyu and the South West will not be the same again, with the death of Prof. AgborTabi.

                But the questions that beg for answers are: why was AgborTabi so special to so many people? What made him tick? Where did his frightening strength and piercing aura derive from?

                Attempting an answer to these questions, CRTV’s AshuNyenty, who has been trailing AgborTabi ever since his days as Director of IRIC and later University Chancellor and Minister of Higher Education, until his recent death in active service as Minister, Assistant SG of the presidency, explained:

                “As a politician, AgborTabi was a leader par excellence, a born leader. He was shrewd, fearless and determined. AgborTabi was a fighter and go-getter. As  leader of his people, AgborTabi knew where he was going and what he wanted. And what ever he wanted he went out for it without fear or favour. AgborTabi used every means available to him to get what he wanted. For AgborTabi it was not how you got it, but that you got it, that mattered. To him, it was the end that justified the means. Perhaps that was why he inspired fear in many.”

                To this candid account on AgborTabi could be added that AgborTabi was also a politician of the modern cast. As a leader he has left standards that would remain indelible on the sands of time. AgborTabi has raised the bar so high for future aspirants to leadership of Manyu Division. His achievements stand so tall when compared with those of past and present political leaders from Manyu and the South West.

                And If AgborTabi achieved all this it was thanks in great part to his force of character. As a political leader, AgborTabi was painstaking, meticulous and uncompromising. He was that courageous Anglophone politician who publicly enunciated his principles and could hush down bigger personalities when it became necessary. Yet brilliant and cunning, AgborTabi could at times play the ‘good boy’, if only that would help him achieve his objective.

                But if AgborTabi was loved, revered and considered a man of the people it was because in all he did he perceived his duty first as leading his people. AgborTabi always identified himself with the aspirations of his people - the Manyu people of the South West region. He epitomized and was the embodiment of the very quintessence of the Manyu spirit and consciousness.

                Even though AgborTabi might have stepped on some toes in the process of leading his people, this mattered less to him. For him what mattered was whether he got to his destination. Though he attracted a vast amount of criticism, AgborTabi did not mind; he stood unshakably by what he believed, and by and for his people. AgborTabi knew that he belonged to his people, and he always proved this to them.

                AgborTabi was present at almost all funeral ceremonies of Manyu people in Yaounde, provided the departed identified with Manyu. He also attended graduation ceremonies, born houses and was an active patron of MECA.     

                AgborTabi had an agenda for Manyu, and had literally carved out Manyu Division as his niche and personal domain. He easily assumed leadership of the Manyu people. And his leadership was not by appointment. He took it by sheer force of character. And no sooner did AgborTabi become leader of Manyu politics than he positioned Manyu in the mainstream of politics in the South West and Cameroon. With him, Manyu easily became the “bully” of South West politics.

   The PM that might have been, but never was

                It is perhaps, for the above reasons that many believed, and still say it even after his death, that AgborTabi would have made the best Anglophone Prime Minister if he ever acceded to the Star Building.          

                Exceedingly courageous and equipped with a wonderful strenght of character, AgborTabi was believed to be the most psychologically prepared Anglophone for the post of PM, even as far back as the mid 1990s when he was barely in his early 40’s. That is why his followers will continually regret that he never had the opportunity to serve at that level.

                Though heavily criticized for generating much controversy, and for unnecessarily, and at times, even stupidly getting confrontational, AgborTabi remained true to himself and always acted true-to-type.  

                And this was perhaps because he always knew where he was going and what he wanted. 

                Suffice it to say that while most erstwhile political leaders from the South West were dreamers who only served the “establishment” and not caring about the needs of their people, AgborTabi elected to be a die-hard realist. He percieved his appointment to elevated political office to mean he had to use the position to empower his people. He believed in the adage that if your brother is on the plum tree you should have the ripe fruits.

                That is why even those who criticized him for being controversial and vindictive have never faulted him for helping his people.

                Yet, even if AgborTabi were controversial as some are wont to believe, who says controversy is a vice? After all, was it not the Harvard Scholar, our own Ambe Vincent Andoh (RIP), who posited that: “Controversy is reserved for the most intelligent; so, be controversial.”

                Even the war-time president of the breakaway republic of Biafra (now eastern Nigeria), EmekaOdumegwu-Ojukwu, also argued in his autobiography- “Because I am involved”, that: “Any society that calls itself democratic should be elastic enough as to accommodate eccentricity. If a society cannot accommodate eccentrics, it is that society, and not the eccentric, that is sick.”

                AgborTabi might have been controversial, vindictive and an eccentric like many say, but he used these character traits as his weapon to acquire sterling achievements for himself and especially his people. God bless his soul.