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Christie Essien Igbokwe-My sister
By Emmanuel Yawe Newsdiaryonline
Sat July 16,2011
About two years ago, Chief Edwin Igbokwe called me on phone,
requesting that I pick him up at a hotel in Abuja where he just
booked in. At the hotel he requested that I take him to Garba
Shehu’s office. That I did, not caring to ask what he was going
to do there. Something strange happened at Garba’s office. After
the exchange of greetings and jokes, an embarrassing silence
enveloped us. I had assumed wrongly that the two gentlemen had
known themselves before. Now, it was apparent they were meeting
for the first time. It was my duty to introduce them to each
other.
The mention of Edwin Igbokwe’s name got Garba excited. He had
done some beautiful write up in his column at the` COMPASS
newspapers in support of the Lady of Songs, Christie Essien who
happened to be Igbokwe’s wife. The lady had come under fire from
her home state government of Akwa Ibom over a printing machine
she supplied in fulfillment of a contract awarded her by Col
Yakubu Bako’s Akwa Ibom regime. In a frightening display of
legislative and executive tyranny, the Lady was stripped of her
citizenship of the State and then both she and her husband were
declared wanted people! An outraged Garba Shehu and Dr. Amanze
Obi of the SUN newspapers among other columnists used their
columns to lambast those behind the mindless use of power.
It was a meeting of good minds and great men – all of them my
friends but greater than me. I came to know them in the course
of this newspaper job and almost at the same time. In the mid
eighties I met Garba Shehu in Kano when as young men we worked
for the Kano State owned newspaper – The Triumph. I left him
there and he rose to the very top of the newspaper and then rose
to the very top of our profession as the President, Nigerian
Guild of Editors. We have always been friends since we met.
At about the same time, my path crossed with that of Chief Edwin
Igbokwe. By the time we met he was already a household name in
the Nigerian media. He played an immodest role in the early
period of The Punch newspapers. If Late Chief Aboderin and Sam
Amuka were the founding fathers of Punch, Edwin must be credited
with the role of the builder. At a very young age, he became the
Chief Accountant of the place and eventually its pioneer General
Manager and a Director. He also played a prominent role in the
Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria as General
Secretary; a position he took over from Aremu Segun Osoba and Dr
Yemi Ogunbiyi took over from him. With Chief Edwin too, we have
always been friends since we met.
At the visit Edwin and Garba spoke at length with what was
happening between the Igbokwe’s and the Akwa Ibom State
government. Garba received information that had not been
available to him when he set out on his self driven crusade to
defend Christie. As it turned out to his great relief, he had
been right to stand by the Lady. There was ample evidence before
him now to prove that the stand of the State government was
based on greed, pettiness and jealousy. By going headlong into
her defense without even taking time to get her own side of the
story, Garba had staked his own well earned reputation as a
journalist of note in Nigeria. It was a great relief to him (I
could see from his countenance) that he was vindicated.
“Christie has done more than anybody I know for Akwa Ibom. In
fact I cannot think of anybody from Akwa Ibom that has attained
her global fame”, he told the humbled husband. It was thoroughly
unfair for Akwa Ibom government to humiliate its most prized
indigene, Garba argued further. He said he never believed for
once the scandal stories that were coming out from Uyo gainst
the Lady.
My greatest joy of knowing Edwin is that I got to meet his wife
and we all became so glued together that I called her my sister
and she called me her brother. I admired her courage, strength
and creativity. To have risen from the disadvantaged background
like she did to the stardom she achieved is a once in a lifetime
achievement. To complement such achievement was her infinite
humility, generosity and commitment to family values. I
have met many great women in my life. She is one of the
greatest. This Lady brought up her four children, all of them
male, and almost all of them qualified professionals today. When
I lost my only sister in 2001, she called in sympathy.
In 1988, Christie came to Yola and held a Concert while I was in
the government of then Gongola State. She made huge money. On
the day of her departure, she shocked all of us by handing over
the whole money to David Jang, our Governor, as donation for the
home of the handicapped in Jada town.
Her husband Edwin is something else. His commitment to high
business ethical standards, friendship and family is very rare
in the Nigeria of today. When in 1988 I was saddled in Yola,
Gongola State capital with a problematic printing machine, he
stepped in. We bought a brand new machine from him at a giveaway
price of not more than one million Naira. That machine supplied
from its manufacturers in India is still working in top form
today and this can be verified.
In appreciation I took him to Maiduguri, Borno State where I
had a top friend in the government. They were also in the
process of setting up a newspaper. A director in the Ministry of
Information was detailed to meet us in our hotel room. There
must have been a communication problem because the Director was
ready to award us a contract for the supply of fire fighting
machines and not a printing press. An unscrupulous businessman
would have jumped at the offer - there was a lot of money in the
deal. Chief Edwin politely refused, insisting that he was into
printing machines and not fire fighting.
In 1999 I was shot in the head by gunmen near Benin. Chief
Edwin, my old friend Willie Bozimo and Austin Iyashere played a
role in my rescue. That I will never forget.
Edwin is still around, but I miss my sister.
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