By Sufuyan Ojeifo
We are about the time of the year-December 27- when family members, associates and loyalists roll out the drums in festivities to honour a man whose public service engagements and political voyage have positively impacted the destinies of men and women. For those who have been beneficiaries of the large heartedness, expansive and expressive good nature, generous spirit, and sense of fairness of Senator George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), attaining the significant and Biblical three scores and ten years, in a clime where life expectancy for men is 52.89 years as of 2020 (World Bank report), is worth celebrating.
The contextual signification of the celebration of the man derives from his character portrayal as a public servant par excellence, strategic mobiliser, and taciturn afficionado of Benue politics, largely referred to by many of his loyalists as the “Just George”. I had once admitted that this unique moniker had, at a recent intersection, become for me a subject for deconstruction. At the end of the somewhat difficult enterprise, I had resolved to look at him, more advisedly, from either of two prisms, to wit: from the prism of his proclivity and capacity for being fair in all his dealings with others; or from the prism of his simplicity, relating with all and sundry without airs-and this is very natural.
The virtues of fairness and simplicity would appear to have been the hallmarks and bulwarks of Akume’s relevance in the politics of Benue, which he plays with so much sagacity within the context of national politics. In demonstration of political wisdom, the Just George has characteristically been open to, and accommodating of the interests of his loyalists and associates. Altruistic, there are no limits to his eleemosynary acts. He simply lives for others. It is not that he has a war chest. Not at all. What he enjoys is a socio-economic and political bank of goodwill that he draws from at different times.
Indeed, a success story of his entry into and participation in politics from a civil service background in Benue State, where he retired as a Permanent Secretary, finds anchorage on his inimitable trust capital. As governor of Benue State for eight years from 1999 to 2007, he demonstrated fidelity to the social contract. He left behind the imprimatur of his remarkable administration and management of public finance in the governance architecture of the state.
A man of great equanimity, sedate but highly fecund, and with penetrating brilliance to boot, the Just George is not your run-of-the-mill politician. He is imbued with gravitas and combines it with panache, which he deploys in consummating political processes and ancillary activities. Like a journalist, he knows something about everything and everything about something. He is especially at home when the subject matters are Benue politics and governance at all levels. He can drive conversation around wide-ranging issues. Avuncular in his disposition, the Just George straddles the political terrain of Benue State, and his positive effects draw people closer to him. That explains why he has been able to maintain a productive and result-achieving political structure in Benue State since leaving office as governor.
As he turns another year around the sun on December 27, it is apposite to celebrate an outstanding personality who completes a significant cosmic course. Of course, there is even more reason for genuine gratitude and merriment. Although, this celebrator, a down-to-earth, uncommon thinker, cares little for mundane gaiety, the biological and political families have set out to celebrate him.
But, defined by his sheer kinetic energy and depth, Akume enjoys pushing new frontiers. These ingrained traits remain the central depiction of an intrepid politician, adept stabiliser; and, inimitable administrative and governance guru. Incidentally, beyond the algorithmic calculations that go into farming out appointments in the Nigerian political space, certain appointive positions demand utmost circumspection because its occupants represent key drivers of the appointer, in this case, the President’s broad governance vision.
The office of the SGF is considered the engine room of the executive arm of the federal government because of the enormity of the functions and responsibilities associated with it. In effect, when President Bola Tinubu, a consummate administrator and politician himself, picked Akume for the SGF’s position, it clearly was not a lightly taken decision.
Akume, indisputably a nimble, visionary political strategist who has remained in power since 1999, has his job cut out for him as SGF, unlike in his last role as minister of special duties and intergovernmental affairs under former President Buhari, where little was known about his official duties, hindering an objective and fair assessment of his performance in government.
By all relevant, conventional parameters, Akume is in no way a rookie in the political terrain, for he has been in power in one form or another, either by appointment or election, since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999. A former civil servant, Akume is both a circumspect political leader and a pragmatic warrior, all rolled into one, given his numerous political conquests and far fewer losses.
For over two decades, he has consistently won several political battles as one of the few durable power brokers in the North-Central state. He also has some proud scars, which testify to his tough engagements during his peregrination as a political operator at the subnational and national levels. But vintage Akume always finds a way to prominence again whenever he suffers a setback.
He was elected the governor of Benue State in 1999 on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), where he was a foundation member. Before his ascension to the top political job in the state, he had previously worked as a civil servant, rising to the top of his career as permanent secretary before venturing into the challenging quicksand of politics.
He won his reelection as governor in 2003 on the same party’s ticket and completed his second term in office in 2007. At the end of his tenure, he facilitated the emergence of his successor, Gabriel Suswam, who was then a member of the House of Representatives, while he joined the Senate to represent Benue Northwest, on the platform of the PDP.
But due to a clash of interests, a common feature of Nigerian politics, his relationship with his “godson,” Suswam, hit the rock. As a planner who thinks far ahead, he allied himself with the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), a political creation of Bola Tinubu, who founded the party to advance his political interests and those of his allies.
This critical intersection with Asiwaju Tinubu at that point was what eventually cemented his relationship with the president, despite both being members of Class 1999 of Nigerian governors, though of different political parties at the time. Against the run of play, Akume found his way back to the Senate in 2011 on the platform of the ACN. He also served as the minority leader of the 7th Senate.
By 2013, the political atmospherics had changed significantly with some opposition parties teaming up to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) in February 2013, which challenged for power at the federal level and won in the 2015 presidential election, ousting the then President Goodluck Jonathan
Being the leader of the ACN in the state, naturally made Akume transmute into the leader of the APC in the state. Akume, according to key stakeholders in the state, offered the party’s gubernatorial ticket to Samuel Ortom, who triumphed to become a two-term governor of the state – decamping from APC to PDP midway. Some internal rift broke this relationship and willy-nilly, Ortom lost his more recent senatorial bid.
Akume, now 70, boldly regained the political control of Benue State in the 2023 general elections. Though not on the ballot, he is credited with being the driver of how APC bounced back as the ruling party in the state, demolishing the PDP in almost all the elections – from the House of Assembly to the House of Representatives and Senate to the governorship seat.
The APC hurricane in the state also ended the ambition of errant Suswam who craved return to the Senate for a second term. Ortom also could not fulfill his ambition of retiring to the Senate, just like his predecessors, in the election.
Akume also backed Alia, notwithstanding the cleric’s popularity, to win the ticket of the party against other formidable candidates in the primary election. A great son of Wannune in Tarka Council Area of Benue State, Akume’s trajectory in life has been eventful. Born 27th Dec. 1953, he is happily married to Regina, now Reps member representing Gboko/Tarka Federal Constituency of Benue State in the 10th House of Representatives. Their union is blessed with children.
At 70, Akume the intrepid politician and adept stabiliser clearly has a lot more to offer a troubled nation in search of socio-political and economic redemption. Happy birthday to the “Just George”.
● Mr Ojeifo is publisher of THE CONCLAVE.
