Navy Captain Olubolade’s distinction as an administrator may well be that he accomplished in one year what some governors cannot achieve in four years. Even more remarkably, he worked with a budget that counted in humble millions, at a time when billions had not become fashionable in government circles. Yet the structures he built survive till date, and his goodwill for Bayelsa State has been enduring.
The sports complex has proven to be his most prominent legacy project, precisely because it has not been replicated by successive governments. That one and only sports complex, named after the state football legend, Samson Siasia, was built by Olubolade. It could jolly well have been called Caleb Olubolade Stadium, but the man did not find it necessary to name anything after himself.
In like manner, the cultural centre he built had played host to several troupes and festivals before first civilian Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha amended the structure. The traditional rulers council survived three sons at the helm of authority before Governor Seriake Dickson built a replacement. What’s more, top civil servants and retirees, like I. B. Theophilus still live in the three-bedroom housing estate built by Olubolade.
In the estimation of Okpoitari Diongoli, Olubolade was a parable to the people of the state. In his unpublished book, The Journalist as King, Diongoli records his remembrance of the days when he served as Government House correspondent for Radio Rivers. He had interacted with the captain repeatedly, and was familiar with his mindset. The impressions of the journalist are abiding, even as he records in the following encounter between Olubolade and his successor, Edor Obi. As he puts it at length:
“Navy Captain Omoniyi Caleb Olubolade assumed duty with the mindset to hurriedly develop the state. He acknowledged that the state had lost valuable ground and there was need to fast-track development projects and programmes. Olubolade was seen as a lone player. Though he had his full complement of commissioners, he worked virtually alone.
“He awarded contracts without following proper procedures or consultations with his commissioners. More often than not, the contracts were awarded even before the paper work was perfected. His commissioners disliked him for that and called him all kinds of unprintable names. They criticised him and swayed public opinion against him. They made his policies and programmes very unpopular before the people.
“The truth, however, remained that Navy Captain Olubolade laid the foundation upon which Bayelsa State was built. His style may have been unconventional and he may have been eccentric in character, yet he did his best under the prevailing circumstances. With the very lean monthly allocation from the Federation Account, he was able to build the Civil Servants Estate adjacent the Federal Medical Centre, constructed the present Sports Complex, the old secretariat building, the fire service, and a few other structures.
“I recall vividly when the foundation stone for the Civil Servants Estate was laid. The Administrator used his walking stick to sketch a building plan on the sand, and asked me if it was fine. I responded in the affirmative. Captain Olubolade immediately ordered his ADC to give out some money as mobilisation fee to the individual contractors, and directed the release of two hundred bags of cement from a ware-house (now demolished) directly opposite Government House gate for them to commence construction.
“In much the same way, he awarded most of his contracts through direct labour while the relevant ministries and agencies were confined to mere supervisory roles. By awarding contracts through direct labour, his administration was able to eliminate over-inflated or over-invoiced contract values, checked the abandoned project syndrome and curbed the diversion of contract funds for social needs. It also ensured that more people were engaged in the execution of projects.
“However, because he concentrated virtually everything around his person and office, his commissioners and some influential Bayelsans who survived mainly on government patronage through contracts, ganged up against him and sought for his removal when the Military Administrators were to be reshuffled after the death of General Sani Abacha in 1998.
“When it became apparent that the Military Administrators would be reshuffled, rumours became rife that he would be redeployed to Osun State. Surprisingly, when the names of the new helmsmen were announced, Olubolade’s name was conspicuously missing. Incidentally, when he was leaving Government House, Yenegoa, I was one of the last persons that escorted him to the helipad. He was crest-fallen. He said to me: ‘Your people (referring to his commissioners and other elite) are wicked. They don’t like development. They petitioned me to Abuja to stop my re-appointment because they were not allowed to fritter away the resources of the state’.
“He also told me a few personal things he would have done for me but could not. I wished him well and we both went our ways. Since then, we have been relatively close, especially when he visits Bayelsa State”.
In later years, Diongoli was to serve as Press Secretary to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, who rose to become Governor and was summarily uplifted by an inscrutable hand of fate to become Vice President, Acting President and, finally, President and Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Diongoli’s notes overlap to the period of Olubolade’s handover and Edor Obi’s successive months as Military Administrator of Bayelsa State. His perception of history as it unfolded honours the memory of a journalist who enjoyed a wholesome respect for objectivity and forthrightness. Again, Diongoli reports as follows:
“The era of Lt. Colonel Paul Edor Obi was the most uneventful administration. It lacked development initiative, focus and creativity. The only legacy it was known to have left was the destruction of houses, killing and maiming of innocent citizens, including the Amananaowei of Kaiama in the aftermath of the Kaiama declaration of 1998. At a reception held in his honour when he assumed duty at the Yenagoa Sports Complex built by his predecessor, Lt Col Obi made vain-glorious promises.
“As if lampooning the administration of Navy Captain Olubolade for under-performing, Colonel Obi told the huge crowd that there was no reason why Bayelsa State cannot be developed if more difficult terrains could be developed. He assured the people that he would ensure rapid transformation of the state capital. The crowd applauded him. Colonel Obi became an instant hero.
“Little did we know that it was just for the moment. In the end, he descended from hero to ground zero when he was leaving in 1999 with the birth of democratic governance. The positive legacy he bequeathed to Bayelsans was the successful conduct of the election which ushered in the first elected indigenous government led by Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha.
“Ironically, in the course of his eight months reign, Obi never embarked on any project of note. David Nyongosi, a youth activist from Yenagoa Local Government Area, captured vividly the reign of Colonel Obi when he asked the Administrator a question at a public forum to show one project he executed. Nyongosi sought to know why, in eight months, Colonel Obi’s government could not excavate even a shovel of sand or mud anywhere in terms of project execution.
“Colonel Obi had no answers and the forum came to an abrupt close because he was quite upset by the bitter pills he was forced to swallow, or the inconvenient truth he was told. For me, that was the sum total of the assessment of the administration of Colonel Edor Obi which nose-dived from the sublime to the ridiculous.
“However, the history of Bayelsa State will not be complete without reference to Colonel Edor Obi’s reign as Military Administrator of the state whether for the right or wrong reasons. That ended the spell of military regimes in the state and opened a new vista in the history of Bayelsa with the emergence of democracy and a civilian government led by Alamieyeseigha”.
At a colourful ceremony on10 May 2014, the journalist attained a new status as His Royal Majesty Okpoitari Diongoli, Opu Okun V, paramount ruler of Kolokuma-Opukuma Clan. As a royal father, he spoke with candid fervour about the state at every occasion to which he was invited, bringing his experience as a journalist of many years standing to bear on his new role.
Okpoitari Diongoli broke into broadcast journalism without a conscious intention to do so, and became a household name on Radio Rivers. His news commentaries were as frequent as they were varied in subject and content. With the creation of Bayelsa State, and the formal inauguration of Radio Bayelsa on 22 September 1998, Diongoli rose through the editorial ranks of the newsroom to be at the helm of the radio station.
In a career spanning three eventful decades, through military and civilian times alike, Diongoli brought his lenses into focus as a journalist who walked the corridors of government in Creek Haven, and did well to record events by the day. In this book, The Journalist as King, His Royal Majesty Okpoitari Diongoli, Opu Okun IV, proved himself a close watcher of political developments in his home state, offering a faithful account of his rise from the news desk to an exalted place in the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council. He passed away on 21 November 2018, four years after ascending the throne of his forefathers, at the age of 53.
