When Prince Abubakar Audu died last Sunday, after the hectic campaign that preceded the Kogi 2015 governorship election, which he was well on the way to winning before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the poll inconclusive, his death naturally evoked an outpouring of emotions. Since his passage, more notable individuals like the APC chieftain, Niyi Ejibunu, an associate of the late Prince Audu, Mr. Ben Ndalayi Abel, Head of SERVICOM, Federal University, Lokoja and his younger brother, Alhaji Usman Audu, who interacted with him have continued to pour encomiums on the man Audu. Below, they express their opinions on a man many easily describe as Colossus in Kogi politics.
Prince Audu was a father of modern Kogi –Niyi Ejibunu
I knew him right from the creation of Kogi State, when he became the first executive governor of the state. Then I was in Social Democratic Party (SDP), while he was in National Republican Convention NRC). I later joined the Alliance for Democracy AD and later Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He joined ACN in 2011.
When he was to contest as the party’s standard bearer, I was part of his campaign team. A lot has been heard about him in the negative. Then I saw those things as real until I came close to him. It was then that I discovered that he was a man who did things with the best of his ability. He didn’t believe in half measures. In everything he did, he always immersed the whole of himself and that reflected in the infrastructure he built for the state. He gave attention to the state. In fact, he was the father of modern Kogi State.
Most of his critics were people who didn’t believe that what he was doing was the right thing – those who wanted him to share the cake, which he didn’t do. Unfortunately, he has died, but his legacies remain. Indeed, Prince Abubakar was the political liberator of Kogi State. His name has come to stay in the minds of many. He was here to liberate the people and that was what he did. Kogi people will be grateful to him.
For the records, if he had not died, he would have been the oldest governor to be elected in the country. He was 68 years old. He could have had the record of being the candidate that contested governorship seat for six times winning it on the sixth occasion.
Certainly for him not to be forgotten in a hurry, so many institutions need to be named after him, for he was the originator of those monuments.
He was such an influential politician. From my point of view, he was someone who believed in affluence. He loved to dress well, look neat and clean. Whatever was seen about him was perfection. He had this ‘I can do it spirit.’
I remember his brush with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which made allegations against him. Here was an anti-graft agency that made claims, but would only resurrect it each time the accused wanted to go into an election. Since 2003 EFCC has been dragging this matter and yet has not done anything about it. I see foul play in all of this.
Audu, man of his words – Mr. Ben Ndalayi Abel, Head of SERVICOM, Federal University, Lokoja
I first met the late Abubakar Audu in 1976 in Maiduguri when I was working with John Holt Plc. He was a bosom friend of my boss, Ibrahim Mantu. In fact, both men were inseparable. That was at a time he was honing his political career. From then, we became closer. When he became the Commissioner of Finance in the old Benue State, he came into the limelight. When he became governor of Kogi, we were still close friends.
Audu was a man of his words and a man of integrity. If he told you he was going to do this or that for you and then forgot, if he saw you a year after and you reminded him, he would do it. I knew him as a man of principle. He was honest too. He was prudent perhaps because of his banking background. He loved the best; he went for the best and wanted the best to be done at all times. He wanted his name to be synonymous with excellence. He was a man who wanted to count his blessing and name what he had done. That was why he was able to do some of the things he did.
With all honesty, Prince Audu would be greatly missed by the people of Kogi State. He was an illustrious personality, difficult to replace; only God will bring another like him.
His early beginning by Alhaji Usman Audu, younger brother of Prince Audu
Younger brother of the departed Prince Audu is a man of few words. The death of his elder brother has made the times more difficult. He is yet to come to grips that the man he looked up to is gone. First he declined to comment on the life and times of his brother. Whenever he spoke he was terse and incoherent. That was happening on the day the Islamic fidau (prayer for the repose of the departed) was being held. He stated his brother showed early signs that he was born to serve.
“When we were growing up, he was the one who usually took care of the compound. He ensured that everywhere was clean. He did that as early as he woke up in the morning. And we were all proud of him. He was much older than me then. People who saw the way he conducted himself then had cause to believe that he might be on his way to greatness because the greatest of men should serve. I was not surprised when he became a banker, and later commissioner in the old Benue State. Here was a man who kept helping people all his life,” Usman said, and added: “May his soul rest in peace!”
Born on October 24, 1947, into the royal family of Pa Audu Oyidi, Orego Atta of Igala land, his father was the paramount ruler of Ogbonicha-Alloma in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State.
Abubakar Audu began his elementary education at the defunct N.A. Junior Primary School at Alloma. Later, he transferred to N.A Senior School Ankpa and from there, gained admission to study at the Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha, Anambra State. He ended his secondary education at the Jos Commercial College, where he studied and obtained good grades in both the GCE Ordinary and Advanced levels.
After working in a bank for a while, Audu headed to London where between 1975 and1978, he studied Banking and Personnel Management and qualified as a certified secretary. He became a Fellow of the Association of International Accountants of London and Chartered Institute of Industrial Administration of Nigeria.
His career as a banker lasted for 25 years and First Bank Plc, formerly Standard Bank was the place. He rose to management level scoring a string of ‘firsts’, while his career lasted. He was appointed as Executive Director of FSB International Bank PLC in 1991.
In 1986, he became the Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning in the old Benue State, leaving in 1988 when the cabinet was dissolved. He returned to his office at First Bank of Nigeria Plc as a General Manager.
He became the first civilian governor of Kogi State in August 1991 shortly after it was created, on the platform of the National Republican Convention (NRC).
In 1998, when democracy was again re-introduced, he contested on the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) ticket and was elected as the second governor of Kogi State. He was credited with many landmarks in the state.
Sun