Leaps of Legacy or guide to Nigerian politics?
By Sylvester Odion Akhaine
Leon Edel, the biographer of the great American novelist, Henry James, recalled the latter’s reflection on biography to the effect that biography is “a questionable honour to men of tranquillity” that furnish poor materials unless they were involved in great public events. The subject of The Leaps of Legacy, His Majesty, King Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru, has traversed great times, that are worthy of a biographer’s endeavour. Charles Ogan, the biographer, weaves commonplace genealogy, and analysis of Nembe’s history into the oil industry and the related diplomatic forays that come with public office and the non-republican role of traditional institutions into a single narrative. This he does in thirteen chapters with stylistic duality, namely, textual and pictographic illustration. They both tell the story.
Four thematic areas in the 438-page biographical work, namely, King Daukoru’s roots and growth, the oil industry, and politics of public office, Daukoru‘s reign as king are worthy of attention. Like all great men of history, Daukoru was born and bred in the City-state of Nembe in Nigeria’s Niger Delta and fully acculturated into the daily life of the community. The prioritisation of education by his parents was a good starting point for an illustrious career in the private sector and public office.
His educational career took him from St. Luke’s Primary School, Nembe to Government College, Umuahia, and subsequently to Imperial College, United Kingdom where he was doctored as a geologist. His life as a Christian must have been foreshadowed by his forebears, King Josiah Constantine Ockiya (1863-1879), Mingi VII, who invited the Christian missionaries into his domain. Little wonder, his search through the Rosicrucian order, Grail message to find an anchor in Pentecostalism and its charismatic inclination.
Daukoru joined the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, now Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) in 1970. His disciplinary focus would prove useful in his job. Earlier on, he had conducted a seminal study and mapping of the overpressures of the Niger Delta. He co-authored with Koon Weber, a technical paper on the sedimentary and structural evolution of the Niger Delta. John Ehi Addeh, a Director with TotalEnergies E&P Nigeria Limited underlines Daukoru’s hypothesis of cyclical delta depositions that took on theory. In his words, “Edmund Daukoru predicted that below the extant 3000 metres apparent limit on Niger Delta sand depositions, there would be another deeper series of deltaic sand depositions”(p.21). Upon testing, Addeh further notes that “TotalEnergies’ Amenam/Kpono Field, in classical offshore Nigeria, was the first exploration well to test that hypothesis, found deep thick sand sequences below 4000 metres after drilling through a 1000m-thick shale deposit” (p.21) thereby validating the hypothesis as theory.
In his organisation, Daukoru oscillated between exploration and operations. From Team Leader, Senior Production Geologist, Chief Geologist, General Manager and Head of Western Operations, Director, Exploration, Deep Water, and New Business to related inter-departmental transfer, Daukoru would be sent on an international assignment at The Hague. There, he was engaged with the production geological re-interpretation of the Forcados-Yokri field ahead of a drilling campaign. He returned to Nigeria as Chief Geologist. In Shell, his motion and rise through the structure of the organisation made Rob Platerink describe him as an acrobat who kept showing up at different jobs while simultaneously rising (p. 36). However, the Bonga well discovery is to his credit. As the biographer rightly notes, “Bonga remains the biggest discovery in Nigeria, on and offshore, with reserves in the billion bracket. The other giant fields, onshore and shallow water, such as Forcados-Yokri, Nembe Creek, Imo River, Okan, Odidi, Obiafu/Obrikom, Jones Creek, etc. all falling far short by comparison.” Last February, Bonga attained the one billion barrels of oil export mark. Also, he minded the construction and the commissioning of the Utorogu Gas Plant, the largest stand-alone gas plant in the country that supplies the Egbin Power Plant which generates 1, 320 megawatts. For Daokoru, it was not a rosy affair all the way; he faced challenges that bordered on litigation, antagonistic relations with some oil-bearing communities, and workers’ industrial action, mostly in SPDC Western Operations.
Daukoru’s transition to public space began first with his appointment as Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime in 1992. In Nigeria, political appointments come with a great deal of uncertainty. The June 12, 1993, political impasse and the consequent renewed authoritarianism under General Sani Abacha, and contractual intrigues saw him off NNPC. However, he left his footprints evidenced in the establishment of Mega stations for downstream petroleum products and the bringing about of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) in 1993. Subsequently, he was ushered into the world stage with his appointment as Special Adviser to President Obasanjo, and later Minister of State for Petroleum. From this time forward, he would be embedded in the politics of oil under the toga of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). He served this organisation as Alternate president, Secretary General, and President respectively. His role in the organisation culminated in the hosting of the 143rd of OPEC in Nigeria.
It should be noted, however, that through Daukoru’s presence in public office, we get a glimpse of the dynamics of the unbroken web of fuel crisis. He embraced the Belgore Judicial Panel report to the effect of closing down of mushroom stations that were been used for smuggling of fuel and the decentralisation of the NNPC Headquarters Procurement Desk. It is also revealed that poor technical oversight and industrial actions of workers in his time rendered Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) impossible. He tried to arrest the fiscal recklessness in NNPC but his efforts were frustrated by the fleeting nature of appointed public officials that undermined policy continuity. The establishment of the National Strategic Reserve to arrest fuel shortage with the associated rent of decommissioned ships, so-called VLCCs became in his time the subject of huge intrigues and the impropriety of payment of 42 million dollars to Lutin Investment, over which he claimed ignorance brought Daukoru face-to-face with the law, his unlawful detention and his eventual exit. The lesson of his ordeal as public official is that Nigeria’s development is hobbled by identity politics and self-interest.
In and out of Public office, Daukoru ventured into the business world: from marine services, and telecommunications to farming. He was not spared the vicissitudes of entrepreneurial endeavours in Nigeria. Beyond the tears of a hostile business environment, he minded the development of a Master Plan for the Niger Delta.
Ever before his ascension to the throne of his ancestors, Daukoru helped to modernise his traditional institution by compacting a constitution for administering the Nembe kingdom. As Mingi XII, he has worked with other traditional rulers, especially to foster peace and stability in the South-South geopolitical region. He has also championed advocacy for the engrossment of constitutional role for traditional rulers given their fundamental role in ensuring law and order in their respective domains. Ogan, the present biographer affirms his royal role since his ascension to the throne of Nembe kingdom. As he puts it, “a visionary King, His Majesty, Dr. Edmund Daukoru is one of the champions of a new spirit of collective wisdom among Nigeria’s traditional rulers, aimed at solving the challenges of nation-building at different strata of society” (p. 22). Equally, His Eminence, Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto, underscores his contribution to the national development, especially the production of a comprehensive report on national security.
This piece of work has a phenomenological deficit. There are issues concerning the subject that ought to have merited detailed analysis. His loss of his first child overseas in 1969, and his detention and subsequent efforts to beat the dragnet of the security are insightful but missing is the element of shared experience. By a stretch of the imagination, the biographer should have attempted to unravel his state of mind during this period, apart from his disposition to acknowledge the power of his creator and his realisation that we are “a pencil in the hand of God”. Also, there is a sticky side to the order of presentation. Chapter Nine and aspects of Chapter One could have formed Chapter One of this story. Above all, the biographer failed to regale us with any foible of His Majesty as a contrast to the larger narrative. This in no way vitiates the value of this great piece of work, a worthy tribute to His Majesty, King Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru, Mingi XII, the Amanyanabo of Nembe Kingdom.
Professor Akhaine delivered this review essay at the launch of the Leaps of Legacy,abook in honour of King Daukoru, Mingi XII, Amanyanabo of Nembe Kingdom, Transcorp Hotel, Abuja, October 12, 2023.
