Nigeria Now in the Hands of Prayer Warriors

In the next few days, former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John OdigieOyegun will be 80 years old. In this interview with select journalists, he reflects on his political sojourn and how he became a super permanent secretary at

How do you feel as you look forward to celebrating your 80th birthday?

I am actually holding my breath looking forward to it so anxiously. I can hardly believe that 80 years have already rolled by, because a lot of events you start recalling like when America went to the moon and they all sound like yesterday. I am happy, praying to God every day to wake me up, because I want to see that day. I am counting days to my 80th birthday. I am really glad about it and I can’t wait to see my 80 productive years, 80 fulfilling years and 80 good years.

I remember celebrating my 70th birthday in Benin and I recall that Babagana Kingibe was the chairman at the reception. I celebrated it, because 70 years is a biblical promise and between 70 and 80, the Bible says if you are strong and my prayer is to thank God that I am still strong at 80 years. My 70th birthday was good and it was the talk of the town and I had to give the testimony even though as a Catholic we don’t believe that miracle happens in life, like when a cripple is healed. However, we failed to realise that a miracle happens in our lives virtually every day of our lives.

My 60th birthday was nice but the first birthday I really felt something strongly about was when I was 40. I could not wait to clock 40 when I was 39. I was very anxious to get to the age of maturity. You are at zenith at 40 and after that age, one starts very gently and quietly on the downward slope. I am lucky to have good fortune between 40 and 80, specially blessed to the level of being the national chairman of APC with a distinct honour of leading a campaign that uprooted an incumbent government.

I am lucky to be active in the political terrain and I participated in all the Buhari presidential campaigns except when he was a candidate of the CPC. The reason is that I realised then that all these so-called minority parties were not going to get anywhere. It was then we started working on the coming together of the regional parties. I was 52, when I entered the race to be the governor of first old Bendel State, before the creation of Edo where I became the governor.

I was equally active politically during the MKO Abiola presidential mandate and the NADECO days. When I read some criticisms today and I think how many times I have put my life at stake for the nation. It surprises me. People pontificating now are the people busy sitting at home yet talking to you that they went into the trenches over June 12. I had to run away and become a fugitive yet they would say the man is too soft. I laugh at them, because they don’t know that people like me will choose and fight. It is not my nature to fight and I don’t go looking for one and if it is possible, I avoid it but if there will be a fight, then let there be a fight. When I believe in something, I give it everything regardless of the attendant risk to my person.

You became a permanent secretary at 30. Can you reflect on why you were called a ‘super permanent secretary’?

That was a different world from Nigeria we have today. At the risk of being immodest, I was lucky to be a very good student. I read a lot from elementary school. I was such a voracious reader. At Standard Five, I was already reading Julius Caesar and most of Shakespeare’s works. There was a library in Benin City, where I spent most of my time reading all those novels. I would be ‘consumed’ that the staff would tell me to leave when they wanted to close for the day. And I would be there the next morning waiting for them to open the office. I actually prepared myself.

I went to university and then the luck was multiplying. They first sent me to Inland Revenue when I was employed. People were astonished when I told them that I didn’t want to work there because I did not apply for Inland Revenue. They arranged for another interview and subsequently redeployed me to this very lucky new ministry of economic development. It was there I came across people like Ayida, Imi Ebong, Philip Asiodu, Abdulatif Ganchiga and of course, Ahmed Joda, who is still very much alive. They are fantastic people that encouraged you to reason, to be critical, to speak, which helped at the end of the day to acquire that extra skills.

However, most important, I had to do my homework. Somebody like Asiodu would come to meetings with a notebook and whatever the newspapers had, he must have read all and made notes. It influenced me positively, because whenever I read papers, I make notes too. We had a person like Ayida, who was a bundle of common sense and very intelligent. He would dissect something you thought was impracticable and made everything look very normal.

With that kind of tutelage, it was not surprising that I found myself on a lot of boards like Nigeria Airways, Nigeria Ports Authority and Nigeria National Shipping, among others. Before I attended the meetings, I had already done my research on the subjects of the agenda. I contribute in such a meaningful manner that even my worst enemy would know that I knew what I was talking about.

The truth behind the name ‘super permanent secretary’ is that I was more powerful before I became a permanent secretary. There were instances of permanent secretaries delaying meetings for me to be part of them. There was a particular international negotiation in the then Yugoslavia. I was late by one day. They had reached agreements and signed the MoU but when I went through the documents, pointed out the flaws, we had to reconvene to sort out the issues I raised. I was just lucky that I usually did my homework.

The story of my becoming a permanent secretary is an interesting one. When I was very young and a level 15 officer,