BAYELSA: Archbishop Winning Willy Bunting As The Man Who Saw Tomorrow

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I knew him only twenty four days ago, but he remains one Nigerian I hold in the highest esteem. His name is Commanding Archbishop Winning Willy, an Ijaw man of Bayelsa origin, a true man of God whose prophesies have always come to pass. But then he is publicity shy, the very reason his name may not be a household one across Nigeria.

In 2012, Hon. Seriake Dickson was contesting for the governorship of Bayelsa State for the first time. He was a member of the House of Representatives at the time, and I was editing a national newspaper. It so happened that my group politics editor, a fine guy called Francis Agbo was very close to Dickson, and he sought my support to promote the man free of charge, convincing me of Dickson’s agenda aimed at lifting tens of thousands of the people of Bayelsa out of poverty.

The people of the state that prides itself as the glory of all lands supported Dickson, and he won the election handsomely to become the fourth democratically elected Governor of the state. I did not seek Dickson until three years later, in August 2015 when he hosted the Nigerian Guild of Editors to its annual conference in Yenagoa, the state capital. After the conference, I kept my distance, and there was no communication between me and the immediate past governor of Bayelsa State until a few days to his handover of power, having rounded up two consecutive terms of four years each.

I was in the residence of a good friend, another illustrious son of Bayelsa, when he announced to me that a great man of God was visiting him the following day, and that I should strive to be around to meet the man. Though I am a Muslim, I readily welcomed the idea, and off to the residence of my friend I went, at the appointed time the following day.

Less than ten minutes after Commanding Archbishop Winning settled down in my friend’s sitting room, he asked whether I know Senator Duoye Diri, the person who contested the governorship election under the PDP in November last year. I answered in the negative. He then asked whether I would be interested in meeting the man who would be sworn-in as Governor of Bayelsa State on February 14th instant. I corrected him by saying that the man that would be sworn-in was Chief David Lyon, but the man of God interjected by telling me Lyon was not going to be Governor; that he saw the crown well settled on the head of Duoye Diri. I found the whole thing very strange.

Less than an hour later we were in the residence of Senator Diri. We met him all alone with his wife and son. I was introduced by the Archbishop as a journalist and a friend. After a brief prayer session, the man asked Senator Diri to fully get set to succeed Hon. Seriake Dickson.

In my life, I have heard all sorts of prophesies with most of them failing to come to pass. And in my heart, I thought that this man oozing decency and integrity at their highest was taking a big risk, as February 14 was only a few days away.

From that day, however, I became quite close to Senator Diri, so much that I also took the risk of predicting his victory in the Supreme Court, in this column of January 31, 2020. I wrote as follows:

“Whereas the PDP is complaining of injustice, it is very possible they will benefit from a future pronouncement of the same Supreme Court, in respect of its candidate in Bayelsa State that was unjustly edged out. That was an election that is openly known to have been marred with irregularities…”

I wrote these lines on the strength of my meeting with Archbishop Winning only three days earlier. Within a matter of few days, I came to find in Senator Duoye Diri a man of unimpeachable integrity, of deep intellect, a man who has a clear vision and is also desirous of lifting the state to unprecedented, higher realms. Owing to my friendship with Senator Diri, I became like a family member, meeting with him everyday and discussing his case in the Supreme Court.

Senator Diri clearly had a very solid case, but then this was Nigeria, and Diri’s opponent is a member of the political party ruling at the centre. So for me and many other supporters of the Senator, we were only at best cautiously optimistic.

But whenever we tried giving vent to despair, Archbishop Winning would whip us back to line, insisting Diri, and not Lyon, was going to be the next governor.

Then the d-day came. And off to the Supreme Court we went. And when the judges took a long break after hearing arguments from lawyers of both sides, I sent a note to the Commanding Archbishop expressing fear that Diri was going to lose. But he replied immediately insisting the Senator was going to win. And he won. Justice took its course when the apex court found that the running mate to Lyon was engaging in unwholesome practices with his name.

I learn that as far back as days to the PDP primary election in Bayelsa, Archbishop Winning had predicted Senator Diri’s victory, and also went on to add that the man was going to take over from Dickson as Governor. All that has now come to pass. And what is more, the man of God is not a politician. He only says it as it truly is. He doesn’t manipulate any vision, as some are won’t to do.

With Diri now as Governor, better days are assuredly ahead for the whole of Bayelsa.

ABBA KYARI vs BABAGANA MONGUNO: Why The NSA Is At Fault
Growing up in old Kano State in the 1970s, one of the many virtues instilled in me by my grandfather, of blessed memory, is the sanctity of teamwork to achieve collective results. He would always remind me and my siblings that united we stand, divided we fall.

Seeing the altercation (permit me to describe it as that) between the Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari, and the National Security Adviser, Major-General Babagana Monguno, and knowing the things I very well do, one is amazed that one man’s gross inability to do his work properly is fast threatening cohesion in the highest echelon of the nation’s security apparatus and thereby rubbishing the unprecedented gains recorded by the Buhari Administration in the war against terrorism and insurgency.

In the course of my career as a journalist, I have come across Malam Abba Kyari, and have once written on these pages about his penchant for teamwork, and using that to achieve great results. He is also a man possessing unalloyed loyalty to his friends and bosses alike. In a similar vein, though I have never met Major-General Monguno, I have under-studied the man since his appointment as NSA, trying for years to figure out his personality, especially why, under his watch, the negatives are threatening to outweigh the positives.

I also have the good fortune of encountering at least one NSA, and saw first-hand how he leveraged on relationships to crack some of the most difficult security situations of the time. Permit me to cite this important example to drive home the point I am trying to make.

Almost eight years ago, I was very busy in my office as a title editor of one of the national newspapers when I got a call from a strange number. I picked rather reluctantly, and the caller introduced himself as General Andrew Azazi, the National Security Adviser (NSA) of the time. The date was Wednesday, May 9, 2012.

My heart sank a bit! Why in this world was the NSA calling me at this time of the day? I asked myself. But he was direct and straight to the point: “Editor”, he said, “I have informed your MD that I want to see you in my office. How soon could you make it?” It was then my turn to ask the question and I asked whether something was wrong, but the General assured me that nothing was amiss. I told him it was the heat of production when every editor worth the name could hardly venture out of the newsroom. I therefore sought for an appointment for the next day, which he obliged.

At the scheduled time the following day, I realized I was not the only editor invited to the meeting. There were three others, all of them of northern origin serving as title editors of different, prominent national newspapers. After the exchange of pleasantries, the General welcomed us and said he called us to seek a partnership with us individually and collectively, knowing that since we hail from the North, it was possible that we knew more than the intelligence services did, about the inner workings of Boko Haram, the terror group that was just spreading its tentacles beyond Borno State. Three months earlier, the group had launched into Kano with coordinated bomb attacks that cost tens of innocent lives. And security reports were indicative of the fact that the group’s ambition was to take over the entire geographical space called northern Nigeria and convert it to a caliphate under its brutal rule

Just when we were wondering whether the man was up to some mischief, Azazi made himself clearer, saying he was not in the least accusing us of having a hand in the activities of Boko Haram, but that since we are also purveyors of information, there could be pieces that they in the intelligence services could have missed, but which could be very significant in the unraveling of some of the activities of the terror group. We rose from that meeting, assuring the NSA that we were going to do our best for him.

A few days later, Abu Qaqa, the spokesman of Boko Haram called me on phone and issued all kinds of threats, directing me to stop describing members of the group as terrorists. It was the first of many calls to be made by Qaqa, before he was killed by the army at a checkpoint along Kano Western Bypass. But each time I received such call, I would always inform Azazi, and he will later call to tell me the location of the caller. Other colleagues that attended the meeting were also contributing in their own way, and we collectively helped in no small way in the counterinsurgency efforts of that time.

Up to the time Azazi was strangely removed as NSA by President Jonathan, he was always in contact with us, and we were always obliging him with very sensitive information on national security. I maintained a deep personal relationship with the man, up to December 15, 2012, when he died along with Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State in a naval helicopter crash in Okoroba village of Bayelsa State, while on their way back to Port Harcourt airport, from the funeral of the father of Chief Oronto Douglas, a prominent presidential aide of the time.

I did not have even one minute relationship with Colonel Sambo Dasuki throughout the time he served as NSA, but even then, the man was smart enough to engage many journalist colleagues, though I am not in a position to assess the impact of that collaboration, more so in the light of the financial scandal that trailed his tenure.

So when Muhammadu Buhari became President with a promise to deal with terrorism and insurgency, and appointed Major-General Babagana Monguno as NSA, one expected the man to also engage the media and civil society in the fight. Sadly, he chose to go it alone.

I served at the highest level in the profession of journalism in Nigeria, becoming the Deputy President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, a position I voluntarily relinquished nine months ago. With that position, I became the highest ranking editor in northern Nigeria. But not even for one moment did Babagana Monguno look for me or sought my guidance or assistance on anything. Of course it was not compulsory that he had to relate with me as a person, but I have since found out that he also did not care to seek any of our colleagues, either from the North or the South. In matters to do with the media, he was said to be dealing with someone who knew next to nobody in the top echelon of the profession.

A major part of the responsibilities of the National Security Adviser is media engagement, to ensure the government of the day as much as possible receives good mention in the press, as constant bashing by the media is deemed to have potential for distracting the country’s President and his team.

To the best of my knowledge, the current NSA has failed woefully in that direction. Little surprise, therefore, that the Buhari Administration, a government that was voted on the crest of deep popularity, is presently receiving some of the worst bashing in the history of the Nigerian media.

Courtesy of Monguno, reporters and editors are more often than not, left to speculate on matters of security, as there was no coordination on the part of the NSA to supply needed information that will facilitate support for the government’s efforts against terrorism and insurgency, especially on the part of the media and civil society organizations.

If there was one NSA that did his best in media coordination, it was Dasuki, even if, as I said, some of us played no role whatsoever. Of course that doesn’t matter since he was able to make some success out of it. It was to his credit that spokespersons of all security organizations were composed in a major committee that was meeting everyday to appraise the situation and issue press statements, giving update to Nigerians about the security situation in the country.

Obviously one of the key reasons President Buhari appointed General Babagana Monguno as NSA was because, having hailed from Borno State, the man had deep knowledge of Boko Haram and its inner workings, including those who still shield Boko Haram members in Maiduguri, the birthplace of the terror group.

Though the Chief of Army Staff is also from Borno State, a major responsibility of the NSA is intelligence gathering, and those who know one of the major reasons why the terrorists are intensifying in their attacks of late has to do with the failure of the NSA to ensure credible intelligence gathering that will have helped the armed forces crush them totally

Unfortunately, the man is mostly busy picking needless fights with the service chiefs that he was suppose to work in full harmony with. He was always happy writing memos and issuing directives, and calling the service chiefs to meetings even when they were busy fighting alongside the troops in the theatre of war. When they send representatives, the man would feel offended. In no time, he lost it all, seeing everyone as an enemy. To make matters worse, widespread allegations were made that the NSA, rather than helping the service chiefs, was busy sponsoring negative propaganda against some of them.

With too much distraction occasioned by poor handling of national security by the NSA, it was little surprising that setbacks started manifesting in the war against terror and insurgency. It was at that instance, when the whole inaction was getting too much, and sensing that the administration in which he is a key part is being rubbished, that the Chief of Staff to the President started intervening.

Now, if, as the NSA said in a leaked memo that has since gone viral, Malam Abba Kyari, is not a trained security expert whose brief include national security, and that he had no reason having anything to do with security management, what of President Buhari who rose to the high rank of major-general of the Nigerian Army, and who is serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? If Monguno could not properly coordinate national security, does he expect everyone to fold their hands and allow the country to continue to be endangered?

In my over two decades of career as a journalist, I have resigned my jobs in situations where I felt I could no longer fit in properly. Rather than destroy the system or throw the baby with the bath water, it is better one takes his leave and try one’s luck elsewhere. Sadly, with all due respect to the man, it may not aggregate to an exaggeration to say Monguno’s main interest is the high, sensitive office he occupies, not the work expected of that office.

If the NSA cannot work in peace and harmony with all his colleagues at the highest levels of our national security, and is more interested in needless ego-fights, would it amount to asking for too much if he is asked to resign to allow a more competent person to take over as NSA? Surely Nigeria cannot continue to be endangered because of the antics of one man.