It was as though Jesus Christ had returned to present a personal book to his twelve disciples in a modern setting. It was as though the audience was specifically selected in the realm of the spirit. The event took place at the Ernest Ikoli Media Complex, Yenagoa, ranking as the first book presentation ceremony to hold at the complex on 28 December 2025. The author, Mingi-Yai Nengi Josef Owei-ilagha, popularly known, called and addressed as Pope Pen The First, hosted the formal unveiling of his new book, Son Of The Tiger Killer.
Chairman of the occasion, immediate past Vice Chancellor of the Nigeria Maritime University, Professor Emmanuel Adigio, took the opportunity to call on the Bayelsa State government to respond to book events bordering on the history of the state. Intellectual property, he said, is cardinal to the growth of any state that aspires to greatness. For Bayelsa to be reckoned with, government must take notice of home-grown writers who have made a credible mark at the national level.
In like manner, Professor Ebi Yeibo of the Department of English & Literary Studies, Niger Delta University, commended the author for yet another book in a creative writing career that stretches back into the last century. He called on the author to sustain the example he has set for younger writers in Bayelsa State. Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Bayelsa State chapter, Ebi Robert Esq, equally lauded the remarkable strides made by Pope Pen, especially with regard to starting the Bayelsa chapter of the writers’ body.
In this new book, Pope Pen painstakingly wades through seven years in the life of Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, an interval that counts as his most active years in public service, bringing him to worldwide notice in disparate ways. Divided into five unequal parts running into almost six hundred pages, the first part of the book sets the tone as emanating from an authentic source, establishing it as the account of a credible first-hand witness.
As the author puts it, ‘Ten years after the passing of the Governor-General of the Izon nation, it is only fit and proper that a landmark publication of this nature should be in the public space. I saw it as a personal duty to document the story of the Alamieyeseigha-Jonathan government, primarily because I played a pivotal role in that government, even if I worked in the shadows, and because the template established by Alamieyeseigha is still being built upon by successive governments in Bayelsa State’.
In convincing detail, Son Of The Tiger Killer presents a faithful portrait of Alamieyeseigha that renders him recognisable in the mind of the reader. In words and pictures, this book brings Alamieyeseigha alive, consolidating his place as a leader who staged a brave confrontation against the inequities of the day, while negotiating a better future for the Ijaw nation.
The resource control fever for which the Alamieyeseigha government was known is relived in the pages of this book with apparent clarity. What’s more, it records the most heroic moments of the government, from Alamieyeseigha’s installation as Ganuwa Katsina, to the establishment of the Niger Delta University, the start of the Bayelsa airport project, and the relentless advocacy for equity and justice in an egalitarian Nigeria ruled by the tenets of federalism.
Alamieyeseigha’s broad inclusion of Ijaws in Diaspora is equally underscored in his repeated attempt to reach out to sons and daughters of Bayelsa abroad. One of the most revealing chapters of the book recounts Alamieyeseigha’s tutelage as a young man growing up under the watchful eyes of Isaac Boro when they lived as neighbours in Ajegunle, Lagos, long before the civil war.
The book also gives ample space to key actors in the Alamieyeseigha government, from Dr Goodluck Jonathan, Deputy Governor, to Chief Thompson Okorotie, Political Adviser, and Steve Azaiki, Secretary to the State Government, as well as principal staff who ran errands from day to day.
Taking its title from the exploits of the Governor’s father, Salo Alamieyeseigha, who was reputed to have killed a tiger in the wild bush of Wilberforce Island in times past, the book gives a spell-binding account of the adventurous pioneer civilian government in Bayelsa, and situates the history of the state in proper perspective for future generations.
The bottom line is clear. Son Of The Tiger Killer is an exclusive portrait of a foremost political leader by one ardent admirer. It tells the Alamieyeseigha story from the viewpoint of his Speech Writer, and throws an illuminating light on the inner recesses of the first civilian government in Bayelsa State. Chapter after chapter, the book underscores the crucial events, the political intrigues, socio-economic dilemmas, and the heroic moments that served to keep Bayelsa on the front page news for many years running.
As may be expected, the strength of this testimony is that Pope Pen writes with the candour of a primary witness, and the passionate involvement of a stakeholder. This book is not just for the bookshelves. It enriches the communal memory of the Bayelsa people.
