A TRIBUTE FOR CHIEF D.S.P. ALAMIEYESEIGHA

Dei na mu DSP

In the mid-nineties, newly married and an usher at the Royal House of Grace International Church Rumueme, Port Harcourt where at about 10am on Sundays, a middle aged prosperous looking man (Chief Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha) will seek me out and take my seat at the back of the church despite been a very close friend of the General Overseer Apostle Zilly Aggrey (Close associates typically would want to be ushered to the front row even when the service is far gone).

My brand new wife decked in her Sunday asho-ebi will be grumbling that I give out my seat too easily to this man and denying her of an opportunity to show-off her husband. My response will point to his humility and his attempt to worship with us whenever he was in town.

Several months down the line, I was walking down the corridor of IPCO International Limited Onne and I heard a familiar voice behind me ask, ‘What is my ursher doing here? And I turned and it was DSP himself smiling. I informed him that I had supplied some items and was been over-owed by the firm. He asked for my firm’s name, refused to disclose his presence there and disappeared. I was pleasantly surprised when a mutual friend called me to come and collect my cheque a few days later… that payment solved a lot of problems for a brand new married couple without a job.

A few years later he indicated his interest to become Governor of Bayelsa State and assigned Abiye Carrie (Now Bishop) and me to furnish the office of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) in sleepy Yenegoa (a sleepy town that the only landmark I knew was Amaratta Girls School from my Secondary school days of Ebo). I kept wondering why this man wanted to waste his time for a process that will not be completed under General Sani Abacha and even it was completed, for him to come and live in a remote place like Yenegoa. It is obvious that I did not see tomorrow.

When the current political dispensation commenced and the People’s Democratic Party was born and as a member of our church, we all volunteered to support his ambition with prayers. His ambition was listed as prayer point in the gender fellowships, Prayer band, Outreach et.al by his numerous friends in the church like me and the cause was easily supported by members as our political terrain in Nigeria was not as divided as it is today. The precedence set by Archbishop Elkannah Hanson and Chief Ada George for the Rivers State Government House had emboldened churches to openly support political aspirants and it was not possible not to support your member.

I was opportune to listen to DSP on several occasions concerning issues like the ijaw cause and even how he single handedly reigned in a team of armed robbers that robbed his home. He came across as fearless, meek and humble and when we were opportune to socialize in his vicinity, he would insist on driving himself and mixing with the public as a Governor. Thus when he was turbaned as Ganiwu Katsina in Katsina State I was in attendance as I was proud to know and respect our Governor General who will stand for us Ijaws in the emerging Nigeria political terrain.

Nigeria and its politics evolved and all sphere and strata of our relationships and society was negatively impacted to the hilt then his travails commenced abroad. The rumor mills were agog that he will return to Nigeria and even the authorities dismissed this rumor with a wave of the hand until it happened and all the politicians who were gathered in Yenegoa to negotiate for the next dispensation scampered for safety and some of them we saw on national television. The nation was bedeviled with uncertainty as the authorities knew he was loved by his people despite his shortcomings and they might be willing to overlook his infractions.

When this sad saga was over, Chief Alamieyeseigha showed courage again and forgave all and sundry and lived as an elder statesman with his human shortcomings.

He was human,he had an infectious smile, he was imperfect but could be relied upon as his word was his bond

He was our Governor General…

Dei –na –mu

The Eugene Abels Clan