Idongesit Nkanga: A Shocking and painful passage
By Anietie Usen
This picture was taken on August 27, 2020, fifteen or so weeks ago, during the historic presentation of the first ever Ibibio language Bible. Otuekong Idongesit Nkanga, celebrated air force pilot and the first indigenous military governor of Akwa Ibom State, was the chairman of the occasion and I was one of the Guests of Honour. It was in the midst of the first wave of Covid-19.
I sat with him at the head table, all of us fully and doubly masked. We deliberately sat through the entire occasion, excited and feeling blessed to be eyewitnesses of the historic event. As the occasion began to approach a duodenum and the audience got distracted by the anxiety to lay hands on the historic Bible, our discussions veered from the Bible into Akwa Ibom politics.
He said jovially that he has been expecting me to return to the PDP, to join him in building a greater Akwa Ibom State, devoid of cultists in politics and governance. I told him how deeply I appreciate and support his campaign to sanitize and inject integrity and honour into our politics and polity. We scheduled a follow up meeting. When we met in his unbelievably humble abode, not far from my own house, we talked about a gamut of Akwa Ibom and national issues. I made jokes about his ‘museum’ residence and saluted him for his uncanny sense of modesty and selflessness.
We laughed out laud when I said in vernacular that he should not be like my village carpenter who make doors for others and has no door in his house. He promised me he would soon replace at least the roof of the house and operate from the village until the job is completed. Now, to wake up this morning and make a merry Christmas call and be confronted with this horrible news of his passage,leaves me in utmost grief.
My relationship with Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga dates back to September 1990 when he was appointed the military governor of the then barely three years old Akwa Ibom State. As a leading Nigerian journalist and an enthusiastic Akwa Ibom man, my excitement at his appointment meant assisting him in every way especially building the reputation of the toddler State and adding publicity mileage to his achievements. And he achieved a lot, clearly the first governor of the State that made visible, undeniable, sustainable and lasting impact.
He is the first governor, who shone the light and breathed a fresh air of infrastructural development in Akwa Ibom State, even with little or no money. One of them is the famous Akwa Ibom State Secretariat Complex, rightly named after him long after his tenure, which houses 26 Ministries in the State civil service.
At the tail end of Nkanga’s Administration, Obong Akpan Isemin became the governor-elect, and I was Isemin’s one and only personal aide at that point. The Government Guest House now named after Isemin was our residence, some three minutes walk to Governor‘s Lodge, where Nkanga lived. Most of the handing over preparations and meetings between the incoming Isemin and outgoing governor Nkanga had me in attendance. Two official vehicles were given to the governor-elect by Governor Nkanga: a Peugeot 505 and a Datsun Bluebird. Isemin rode the 505 and I rode the Datsun Bluebird. It was a seamless transition.
An officer and a gentleman, when he returned to the Air Force at the end his tenure as commander of the presidential Air Fleet, we kept in close contact both in Abuja and whenever he visited home, where I had become the General Manager Of Akwa Ibom Newspaper Corporation. When he retired from the military, his country home was a routine stopover for me and my wife. It was usually a privilege for me and many other Akwa Ibom people of my generation to rub shoulders with such a highflying Nigerian soldier, who had the rare honour, character and expertee to fly many Nigerian Presidents around the world.
I can never forget a Monday morning during Governor Victor Atrah’s Administration. I was a director of a major government agency in Port Harcourt and very close to the PDP government in Akwa Ibom. My driver and I were just leaving home in Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo, for Port Harcourt, when I got a call from Uncle Sonny Jackson Udoh, a respected PDP political leader. When I picked the call, his deep baritone voice came across with urgency. “Anietie, where are you?” I said “Uncle am on my way to Port Harcourt”. He said “come back now, if you have not gone too far…Come straight to Idongesit Nkanga’s house”.
The two nationally respected statesmen were waiting for me when I walked in and bowed to greet them. “Sit down”, Nkanga said as he motioned for me to take a simple single seatee in his modest and sparsely furnished parlour. Frankly, his house had always amazed me. In spite of his high profile positions and juicy opportunities, he had always led a very modest and contented lifestyle, residing in an old civil servant bungalow, in an Estate where his aides live next door in mansions and maisonette.
He began to speak in a low tone as he beckoned on an aide to serve me a drink. “His Excellency, the governor wants us to talk to you about representing our constituency in the House of Representatives”, he said. Uncle Sonny Jackson Udoh took over to elaborate, rationalize and justify their demand.
It was an unexpected ambush to headhunt me into active politics I was startled. Inside me I said an instant NO, even before they concluded. Outside, I thank them profusely and pleaded with them to allow me a few hours to pray and consider the offer. It was with difficulty that I called back Otuekong Nkanga and Otuekong Udoh, to decline the offer.
Nkanga, I dare to say, was one man that all Akwa Ibom people loved to love. It didn’t matter whether you agreed with him or not or whether you were in the same political boat with him or not. His politics was simple. He stood every governor and helped them pursue their goals.
What set him apart from other leaders was easily discernible: in spite of his rich credentials, he was such a meek, affable, accessible and sincere personality. There was never an air of superiority around him and he spoke always with grace, decorum and decency to all and sundry.
Sometimes, we tend to praise men only after they passed away to yonder and give them names they never earned and are not entitled to. The case of Air Commodore Nkanga is different. This is simply and truthfully the passage of a true national legend. He became governor at the age of 38 and died a hero at 68. He would have celebrated 69 in January 27, 2021. We delegate heaven celebrate his next birthday for us. We loved you good ambassador of Akwa Ibom people. Yourb chapter in Akwa Ibom history will be written in gold.
Fare Thee Well, Good Man😥.
