24052019 = May 29: Tribunal declines to stop Buhari’s inauguration
vanguard Newspaper 24 May 2019
vanguard Newspaper 24 May 2019
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
22—Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2019<br />
Edited by<br />
OSA MBONU-AMADI<br />
08070524223<br />
osaamadi@yahoo.com<br />
Pati<strong>to</strong>’s Gang, the<br />
risks and close<br />
brushes with death<br />
YESTERDAY...<br />
Pat U<strong>to</strong>mi explained the philosophy behind his creation of the<br />
erstwhile popular Pati<strong>to</strong>’s Gang, a TV program on NTA which<br />
many Nigerians looked forward <strong>to</strong>. Today, he tells the challenges<br />
he encountered keeping the incisive program on air, the risks he<br />
<strong>to</strong>ok, and many close brushes he had with death:<br />
HOW <strong>to</strong> create a new<br />
moral tribe of citizens<br />
with a social and political<br />
consciousness of the freeborn,<br />
in human solidarity and<br />
encouraging of the work ethic,<br />
the spirit of enterprise and the<br />
principle of subsidiarity or the<br />
decentralization of authority<br />
<strong>to</strong> levels closest <strong>to</strong> the people<br />
would be a two-decade<br />
enterprise I would persevere<br />
on.<br />
The Delta decision was in<br />
some ways a chance <strong>to</strong> give<br />
teeth <strong>to</strong> ideas. But the trouble<br />
with the hijack of politics by<br />
people who close out the<br />
democratic process through<br />
political party control is that<br />
the issues had <strong>to</strong> be<br />
submerged below the process,<br />
which they forge and form as<br />
they go along.<br />
Today it will be Direct<br />
Primaries, <strong>to</strong>morrow it will be<br />
Indirect, and the third day it<br />
would be a combination of<br />
both or a Consensus decision<br />
by Party bosses.<br />
A few months later I created<br />
a 90 minutes Television talk<br />
Show. It had seven segments<br />
from the core that gave the<br />
show its name.<br />
There was a panel of quicktalking<br />
people passionately<br />
taking on a current subject<br />
either from politics, the<br />
economy or the society. The<br />
style of the segment borrowed<br />
experience in major TV<br />
markets in the US who had<br />
come <strong>to</strong> Nigeria as part of a<br />
team <strong>to</strong> restructure the<br />
Nigeria Television Authority.<br />
But the commercial model for<br />
the show was challenged. Not<br />
only did we have <strong>to</strong> produce<br />
the show at very high cost, we<br />
also had <strong>to</strong> pay the television<br />
stations <strong>to</strong> air it.<br />
That was the model in<br />
Nigeria. Absurd as it may<br />
seem, the reality was that<br />
instead of being paid by the<br />
stations for purchase of<br />
content, the producer paid the<br />
station <strong>to</strong> air the content it cost<br />
him much <strong>to</strong> produce. The<br />
logic was that he was free <strong>to</strong><br />
attract advertising and profit<br />
from the difference between<br />
his cost and revenues.<br />
The day after the first<br />
episode aired, the pioneer<br />
Direc<strong>to</strong>r-General of the<br />
Nigerian Television Authority,<br />
NTA, Vincent Maduka, saw<br />
me at the Hil<strong>to</strong>n in Abuja. He<br />
was full of praise for the<br />
programme content and<br />
quality of production but<br />
warned that we could not<br />
sustain the programme. The<br />
level of quality, in his view,<br />
was <strong>to</strong>o ambitious; it was not<br />
sustainable, he thought.<br />
I had faith that it would<br />
attract eyeballs and that a<br />
model dependent on<br />
advertising revenues would<br />
To be fully honest, I am also driven by guilt;<br />
I feel guilty that if I had made a different<br />
choice in 1998, Nigeria may not be in the<br />
disaster zone where it is currently domiciled<br />
some elements from Capital<br />
Gang and McLaughlin mid<br />
Co in Washing<strong>to</strong>n DC in the<br />
United States. A third<br />
segment was a Vox pop from<br />
the street on the subject of the<br />
episode.<br />
The final segment <strong>to</strong>ok the<br />
form of a parliament in which<br />
the 20 <strong>to</strong> 30 participants who<br />
were younger people, often<br />
undergraduates, vented on<br />
the issues.<br />
The show would capture the<br />
imagination of the nation. I<br />
was host and executive<br />
producer. We aimed for world<br />
class quality. The direc<strong>to</strong>r was<br />
an American of long<br />
keep it going. Besides, the<br />
object was the promotion of<br />
the common good and I could<br />
not see why it could not attract<br />
patronage on its own merit.<br />
That expectation lasted only<br />
until after the third episode. I<br />
got a call from my old friend<br />
and banking mogul, Jim Ovia.<br />
He was calling <strong>to</strong><br />
congratulate me on the show.<br />
I seized the opportunity <strong>to</strong> tell<br />
him we would be banking on<br />
him for advert support.<br />
He paused for a moment<br />
and responded with candour,<br />
“You know you guys are so<br />
candid on that show. I would<br />
not want someone in<br />
government <strong>to</strong> think I am the<br />
one sponsoring you. Just let<br />
me know when the subject is<br />
sports and I will pay twice as<br />
much.” Pati<strong>to</strong>’s Gang would<br />
be a financially crippling<br />
initiative, but I refused <strong>to</strong> give<br />
up and 19 years on Pati<strong>to</strong>’s<br />
Gang is still on air every<br />
week.<br />
It had gone from 90 minutes,<br />
<strong>to</strong> 60 minutes and then 30<br />
minutes, shedding all the<br />
other segments but for the<br />
core panel borrowed from<br />
McLaughlin & Co and<br />
Capital Gang in the United<br />
States and the Vox Pop<br />
segment.<br />
Had I invested the personal<br />
fortune I spent keeping it on<br />
air, I could have been a fairly<br />
well-off person. But I made a<br />
choice on the social purpose<br />
for the investment. This was<br />
impact investing. Better that<br />
the kitchen of ideas, was out<br />
there, in the public space,<br />
than that I fly around in a<br />
private jet.<br />
It was a choice I made<br />
willingly at the cost I was<br />
willing <strong>to</strong> incur without it<br />
bordering on my primary<br />
commitment <strong>to</strong> giving my<br />
family a decent roof over their<br />
heads and my children a<br />
decent education.<br />
Many times, though, that<br />
willingness <strong>to</strong> sacrifice for<br />
what I like <strong>to</strong> think is the<br />
common good, actually came<br />
close <strong>to</strong> crossing from the<br />
hen’s contribution <strong>to</strong><br />
breakfast, <strong>to</strong> the pigs.<br />
As the joke goes about the<br />
conversation between the hen<br />
and pig regarding their<br />
commitment: The hen who<br />
was complaining about her<br />
high-level commitment <strong>to</strong><br />
breakfast with all those eggs<br />
men eat, was reminded by the<br />
pig that for him <strong>to</strong> supply<br />
bacon, his death was<br />
acquirement. So, she was<br />
making a partial<br />
commitment while he was<br />
making a <strong>to</strong>tal commitment.<br />
The struggle for social<br />
justice in Nigeria has claimed<br />
many heroes. A good number<br />
of them perished in<br />
au<strong>to</strong>mobile mishaps on<br />
Nigerian roads as they ran<br />
around <strong>to</strong> rally the people.<br />
The civil rights activist, Chidi<br />
7, 2005 and escaping at<br />
least two assassination<br />
attempts as authoritarian<br />
regimes tried <strong>to</strong> silence<br />
voices of dissent, I should<br />
have had enough reasons <strong>to</strong><br />
gently step aside and avoid<br />
the kind of troubles that come<br />
from running in a wild<br />
terri<strong>to</strong>ry like Delta State.<br />
Instead, my desire <strong>to</strong> make a<br />
difference made me overlook<br />
all the past problems and I<br />
asked <strong>to</strong> myself: why not, who<br />
will save us if we do not risk<br />
it all?<br />
To be fully honest, I am also<br />
driven by guilt. I feel guilty<br />
that if I had made a different<br />
choice in 1998, Nigeria may<br />
not be in the disaster zone<br />
where it is currently<br />
domiciled.<br />
One unspoken truth about<br />
why I am motivated <strong>to</strong> fight<br />
for real change is the guilt I<br />
feel for current reality. I like<br />
<strong>to</strong> take responsibility for the<br />
mess Nigeria has become. It<br />
is guilt from omission rather<br />
than commission – it is an<br />
offence all the same.<br />
This sin goes back <strong>to</strong> the<br />
days of euphoria when the<br />
military beat a hasty retreat<br />
following the death of Chief<br />
Moshood Kashimawo Abiola<br />
whose vic<strong>to</strong>ry in the<br />
presidential election of 1993<br />
brought out the soldier in<br />
some of us, and the maximum<br />
ruler, General Sani Abacha,<br />
Jim Ovia was calling <strong>to</strong> congratulate me on<br />
the show; I seized the opportunity <strong>to</strong> tell him<br />
we would be banking on him for advert<br />
support; He paused for a moment and<br />
responded with candour, “You know you guys<br />
are so candid on that show; I would not want<br />
someone in government <strong>to</strong> think I am the one<br />
sponsoring you<br />
Ubani and Festus Iyayi in the<br />
University Teachers Union<br />
Movement, ASUU are some<br />
examples. I had a few closecalls<br />
in my various crisscrossings<br />
across Nigeria.<br />
The 2018 Delta campaigns<br />
when I criss-crossed the state<br />
in<strong>to</strong> remote nooks and cranny<br />
of the badly maintained roads<br />
in the State is worthy of note.<br />
They were risks I managed<br />
with faith in the goal of the<br />
reasons I accepted <strong>to</strong> run.<br />
But I was always mindful<br />
that I had been in an accident<br />
that nearly claimed my life on<br />
one of those roads years<br />
before.<br />
My life leading up <strong>to</strong> 2017/<br />
2018 experienced several<br />
near-death events, from a<br />
1991 au<strong>to</strong> crash near Asaba<br />
where I arrived the operating<br />
theatre in a state of shock<br />
with no observable breathing<br />
or evident pulse, <strong>to</strong> two nearplane<br />
crashes, one of which<br />
was two burst tyres at takeoff,<br />
escaping a terrorist bomb<br />
on the London Underground<br />
near Edgware Road on July<br />
who held Abiola captive,<br />
showed he was ready for a<br />
fight.<br />
In some ways my group<br />
and I could take some of the<br />
credit for the military<br />
becoming uncomfortable with<br />
staying on in power. Our<br />
campaign as concerned<br />
professionals and my own<br />
personal lead on the public<br />
lecture circuit, weekly<br />
newspaper columns and<br />
television appearances had<br />
earned me the prize of<br />
various assassination<br />
attempts and the great<br />
survivor label.<br />
When the Abdulsalami<br />
Abubakar military council<br />
decided <strong>to</strong> withdraw, we<br />
called a meeting <strong>to</strong> discuss a<br />
way forward. At that meeting,<br />
Waziri Mohammed proposed<br />
that we found a political party<br />
and implement the ideas that<br />
we had been propagating in<br />
those adver<strong>to</strong>rials that we<br />
published so frequently and<br />
which ultimately upset the<br />
Abacha government. The<br />
Continues on page 23