Prof. AKIN OSUNTOKUN Reveals More About Him In A New Book
Prof Akin Osuntokun, a professor emeritus of History and International Relations has written a new book on late 1st Republic Finance Minister, Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh. It is a very deep and revealing biography. Titled Festust Samuel Okotie-Eboh: In Time & Space (1912-1966). It is a compilation of materials on the late minister.
It is 50 years since Chief Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh, CMG, M.P., Federal Minister of Finance, was assassinated by a group of soldiers, rebelling against the constituted civilian government of Nigeria. One of the tragedies of countries in the developing world is the incessant overthrow of governments, as well as the branding of failing governments as ‘corrupt’, if not outright useless.
The dramatis personae of such governments are needlessly pilloried and condemned as villains. Chief Okotie-Eboh was a parliamentarian from 1951 to 1966. First in the regional house of assembly in Ibadan; from 1954 and later as a member of the federal parliament, he became a federal Minister of Labour and Social Welfare till 1957.
In 1957, when he became Minister of Finance. He was largely responsible for formalising labour relations with the Spanish authorities in Equatorial Guinea where a large number of Nigerians were working as labourers; and he was also important in fashioning out labour laws and regulations of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was responsible for the establishment of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the introduction of the Nigerian national currency following the withdrawal of Ghana from the West African pound sterling which had hitherto bound all the Anglophone countries in West Africa together. Chief Okotie- Eboh, among other things, was responsible for establishing the financial infrastructure of Nigeria, including the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He was a frontline politician and a member of the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC) delegation that negotiated the independence of Nigeria with Great Britain in 1959.
One of the remarkable things about Chief Okotie-Eboh was his grassroots politics. He was a bridge builder, connecting effectively with the conservative northern political elite, as well as an important stakeholders in the government of Nigeria. Though an Itsekiri man, he was comfortable in his relations with the Action Group led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who in turn saw Chief Okotie-Eboh as a brother because of the cultural relationship between the Yoruba and the Itsekiri. And they belonged to different political parties.
Many things have happened in Nigeria since the murder of Chief Okotie-Eboh on the 15th of January, 1966, and there has been much time to reflect upon the events of that date. It is a failure on the part of the Nigerian academia that no one has taken it upon himself or herself to do a full length biography of a colourful, imaginative, self-made man as Chief Okotie-Eboh. His contributions to Nigerian economic, educational and social life have been considerable and these contributions will become clear from perusing a book. Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh in Time and space (1912-1966) It is my considered opinion as editor of the book that his achievements within such a short time in public life will remain imperishable.
This book comprises a collection of essays and an anthology of his speeches, as well as correspondences with important historical personalities of the time in which he lived. Bringing these to public knowledge is the task of the present effort.
A previous book in this regard, edited by Lindsay Barrett, forms the takeoff for the current effort. I consider it important to broaden the scope of the book by an introduction on the political evolution of Nigeria in which Okotie-Eboh played some roles.
A book on him will be meaningless without an understanding of how Nigeria came to be what it was then and, subsequently, what it has turned out to be today. This is why the book is introduced by two chapters. One on the political evolution of Nigeria and the second on the Itsekiri people, the group to which Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh belongs. The chapter on the Itsekiri is largely an edited lecture by a legal luminary, Professor Itsay Sagay, an Itsekiri man.
The chapter on Chief Okotie-Eboh is based mainly on existing literature found in J. S. Ayomike’s books on the Itsekiri people, supplemented by information available on the Internet. The time available for writing the book is too short to allow for adequate field research and primary documentation; but the budget speeches of Chief Okotie-Eboh during his years of headship of Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance as minister and economic czar provide an insight into the workings of this astute businessman and practical economic guru. His personal correspondences with other leaders of the time give us an idea of politics of the time and presented Chief Okotie-Eboh as a bridge builder. His close rapport with the northern political leadership of the first republic was deliberate as he was following a directive of his party, the N.C.N.c., which, while maintaining its independence, was not prepared to jeopardize its vital and important relationships with the senior partners in a federal coalition government. In recent times, facts have also come to light that the British appreciated the business and economic acumen of Chief Okotie-Eboh such that, in spite of the British love and championship of the northern Nigerian cause, they were secretly preparing Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh for prime ministership of Nigeria.
Chief Okotie-Eboh must have made such an impression on the calculating British for them to have even contemplated such a scenario in post- independent Nigeria with which they maintained neo-colonial relationship.
The present attempt, therefore, puts on record Chief Okotie-Eboh’s contributions to the history and politics of Nigeria for the sake of posterity.
The book, hopefully, will help to assert the positive role of the man in Nigeria and dispel the error or notion of him being a man driven by personal financial aggrandizement. A definitive biography of Chief Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh will come in the future, but the time to begin to work on it is now.
It is not too late. In fact, the dust of history has just settled.
In most advanced countries, official documents are not open to the public and researchers until 50 years after the event. This is to prevent people from indulging in writing instant history which mostly is invariably subjective.
The format for this book is the placement of Chief Festus Samuel Okotie- Eboh in a context of Nigeria such that a short panorama of the evolution of Nigeria is presented, followed by an equally short account of the history of his Itsekiri people. The third segment is a biographical sketch of Chief Okotie- Eboh, highlighting his contributions to political party formation in Nigeria, economic development and fiscal policies of the federal government, as well as his role at the local level because, after all, politics is nothing but local. The final segment of the book, which is an anthology, contains useful documentation comprising letters, budget speeches, a bill in the parliament recommending an appropriate national recognition for him and other correspondences he had with several people which will all bring the man behind the study alive. It is, therefore, recommended that the book be read carefully along with the anthology.
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