Audu Abubakar tributes

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 passed on, 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 said 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 Inter­
national 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 Eco­
nomic 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.