Dear Governor Douye Diri, allow me to wish you compliments of the season, and a happy new year to come. Even so, I have cause to send a personal condolence message to you again, only a few weeks after doing so on account of the demise of my elder brother, Chief Walter Feghabo-Amain, a retired Captain of the Nigerian Navy and two-time Military Administrator of Ebonyi and Delta States.
It is a great pity that the state is yet to recover from that colossal loss, when news broke to the utter consternation of everyone that the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpor had collapsed in his office, and was confirmed dead at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.
You did the right thing by ordering the national flag, and our own symbolic state flag, to fly at half mast all over Bayelsa, if not in all of Nigeria. The passing of a high ranking government official of his caliber deserves all the honour that can go with a man who gave his all to his state and country, and died in active service, right in his office. You also did well to authorise an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death.
Your Excellency, the sudden passing of Senator Ewhrudjakpo brings a few inevitable cogitations to mind, and I dare give them expression, if only to relieve my personal pain at the loss of a man who was on his way to becoming my good friend. I can afford to tell you that, in recent times, I have been in touch with Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor, Doubra Atasi. I had sent a request to the Deputy Governor, beseeching him to be the special guest of honour at the unveiling of my new book on Alamieyeseigha billed to mark the sixty-second birthday anniversary of me and my twin sister. I was yet to send a copy of the book to him when that terrible news broke.
As two gentlemen in our 60s, as public servants and labourers in the vineyard of the Lord, I was hoping that he would grace the occasion. What’s more, given the fact that Bayelsa was still recovering from the mournful funeral of an effervescent gentleman, an open-hearted giver, and a law maker of repute, Hon Foingha Jephthah, former Deputy Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, given this dismal reality, it was completely unexpected to hear of the loss of Ewhrudjakpo, a man whose sheer vitality of spirit cannot be denied.
Bayelsa has been blessed with qualitative Deputy Governors, Your Excellency. They have largely been men known for their humility of spirit and readiness to serve. These were the qualities for which Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was known in his days as Deputy Governor. Even Alamieyeseigha went so far as to say that he was fortunate to have Jonathan as his deputy.
Peremobowei Ebebi was also a loyal deputy until he had a clash with his boss. So severe was the difference of opinion between Sylva and Ebebi that the Governor reportedly yanked off the roof of the Deputy Governor’s official residence. Ebebi was compelled to move out of Government House and resume the altercation from outside.
Werinipre Seibarugu seemed to have calmed tempers down somewhat.
Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah, in his days as Deputy Governor, restored dignity to the office and discharged his duties with military despatch for all of eight years. His stentorian baritone was almost always certain to quell hostilities of any kind, and his charisma showed during his tenure of office. As far as diplomatic negotiators go, John Jonah qualifies to be named as one.
Then came Dr Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo to the office of Deputy Governor, and a brand new workaholic spirit came into play. I noticed this spirit in action when Ewhrudjakpo was Commissioner for Works under the famous Restoration Government of Henry Seriake Dickson. My first surprise came when I watched Ewhrudjakpo on television and heard him speak. He was as fluent as a running tap, and his grip on facts, figures and statistics left me enamoured of his person. I looked forward to meeting him, and the occasion I had in mind was this book unveiling ceremony.
In the light of his steadfast resolve to stay with the party that brought him to office as Deputy Governor, I was hoping, frankly, that the story of Alamieyeseigha and his faithful commitment to the Peoples Democratic Party would come as a comfort to Ewhurudjakpor, the Deputy Governor who refused to defect to the ruling party with his boss.
We can only wonder what was going through his mind in his moments of isolation and quiet contemplation. Perhaps only Senator Seriake Dickson can articulate the dilemmas that may have confronted the late Ewhrudjakpo, and assess the degree to which they might have tormented the psyche of the Deputy Governor at his most deflated point in life.
Come to think of it, the whole thing must have come to him as odd, that the privileges and appurtenances of office he was used to were withdrawn or restricted. It must have been terrible to be sidelined in a government in which you rank as second in command. He must have felt like the outcast in that famous novel by Chinua Achebe.
It is only human, Your Excellency, to put oneself in the shoes of another and consider their plight at the level of fellow feeling. Ewhrudjakpo was a good man, and it is terrible to speak of him in the past tense. He had a strong sense of service that I admired from a distance. I still count him as a fellow workaholic. The common testimony is that he worked long, unrelenting hours, which may well have taken a toll on him. And, O, what a loss.
In the days leading to his 60th birthday, I had the privilege of posting an exhaustive profile on him, having published it earlier in a special edition of my paper, _Coastline News Network_ , to mark the fifth anniversary of the Diri-Law government in Bayelsa. I am tempted to add, at the bottom of that script, that it must have come to him as unholy that, even before his second tenure was over, he would have to file a court action against his possible impeachment from office on grounds of partisan disloyalty, pitted as he was, against his own fellow compatriots.
We mourn the loss of an everyday philosopher. We mourn the end of a productive intellect. We mourn the untimely departure of a soul on assignment, a soul who came to teach us how to be upright, how to stand solid on the hallowed ground of propriety and principle. We mourn the loss of a man called The Law.
