Comrade Philip Shaibu: Redifining Unionism For Altruism.

By SSegun Alani Adeleye

There is hardly any human endeavour, mooted, conceived and overtly undertaken that does not come with a motive. It counts for zero whether the intention is self-serving or altruistic.

So is societal activism, under which umbrella the civil society organisations (CSO), community based organisations (CBO) and the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), the brand represented by the late Alao Aka-Bashorun, Olisa Agbakoba and the World Court Jurist, Omooba Bolasodun Ajibola represented fall.

So, for the societal activism of the incumbent Deputy Governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shaibu, which was anchored even from his secondary School days up untill his days as Accounting Student of the University of Jos, it is activism redefined.

His genre of Unionism reminds one of the words of the Legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti when the gadfly Afrobeat maestro said: “I want peace. Happiness. Not only for myself. For everybody”

Shaibu, as a Student who was yet to complete post-admission formalities of proper registration had no qualms identifying an important need of his classmates that will eventually be to the benefit of all Accounting students in the department. Like Fela, he wanted and still wants happiness for all in a peaceful ambience. Lectures had started while freshers, including himself were still going about with registration files.
“While we were busy doing registration as fresh students of Accounting at the University of Jos, we had started receiving lectures. There was this Course ACCT 101 being taught by a Professor whose identity I want to reserve. The course was not dealing in figures and therefore not relating to Accounting. In the reckon of a great number of students of our department, the course was this xyz course which is Physics-like or Engineering. It was making students to have carry-over and extra year. So, after gathering and researching through all the facts, I began to mobilise, as a fresh student to lodge a protest to the Vice-Chancellor as at that time. The man looked at me, the arrowhead of the complainants (I don’t want to call it a protest) sighting my clugged file, wondered aloud “ You, a jambite, leading students at all levels of the department when you are supposed to be busy with your registration to settle down for serious study.”
“When he landed, I began to reel out the researched figures of students who had either failed the course woefully or had carry-over. The VC, who was well known for his Liberal disposition buckled and cancelled the seeming Engineering course masquerading as Accounting course to every student’s relief,” the former member of the Edo State House of Assembly and House of Representatives obliged this writer during a meeting that was near-happenstance but not totally unscheduled. The young Shaibu later exploits in welfarist activism after this baptism of emancipation actually finds alliance of expression in the motive of a renowned right activist, Aisha Yesufu, when She writes thus: “ Whatever I am doing today, I am fighting for that little girl that I was, that yearned for help, that begged to be helped with a textbook so that I can read and pass my exams. If I ever give up that fight, I will be giving up on myself,” the Lawmaker-turned Executive man has not given up, like Yesufu, untill he bargained and got Julius Berger to construct a bypass road in front of the University of Jos when the construction giant got the contract to construct the Jos- Bauchi Road from federal government. The winning formula for squeezing the job off the tables of the German company operating in Nigeria was Shaibu’s lobbying and persuasive skills of engagement, even with the federal government authorities under the Works Ministership of Chief Tony Anenih. All this progressive activism were accomplished at various times as Welfare Secretary of the UniJos Student Union after relinquishing the Class Rep baton to Sunday Hassan, who, by his admission, is now a financial expert with the banker to the bankers’ banks.
It’s hard to decipher which was the icing on the cake of the performance of the Deputy Governor as the handler of the Welfare department of UniJos SUG and as NANS Big Boy that Shaibu later was. Is it the facilitation of the inauguration of Plateau Riders with 10 buses or the seeing to the reinstatement of 486 politically rusticated Student activists aftermath of the Abacha must go protest. This latest one earned him the excruciating honour of being a prison mate of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Shaibu ate that beans twice with the irrepressible human right crusader in two distantly separate Nigerian prisons. The facilitation of the Plateau Riders to convey students at hugely discounted rate caught the envy of indigenes who begged to be accommodated in that welfare scheme.
Because the Leopard can never change its skin, the old habit of seeking greater good for the greater number of the people manifested, once again, when Shaibu got elected to represent Etsako West in the 29-member Edo State House of Assembly after a stint with the Nigerian prison service. Providence shielded him from being harmed for drawing public knowledge to “constituency projects “ which a number of his colleagues wanted to see as extra bucks for the legislative Boys. If he had patented “Mr. Project” then, on account of his doing complete and extra blocks of classrooms as constituency project as a legislator, the current Niger Delta Governor who clings to the sobriquet would have thought otherwise. Shaibu will tag constituency project as appropriate and proper (being done with govt money) and tag his personal/extra ones as “donated by Hon. Philip Shaibu.” Of the 49 projects he executed before berthing in Abuja as federal Lawmaker, 32 were constituency projects while the balance of 17 were personal projects he donated.
UniJos prepared him for the politics. His Governor, Godwin Obaseki, who entrusted sports administration to him made him to supervise arguably the best national sports festival tagged EDO 2022, leveraging on the Governor’s Corporate world contacts and experience to drive the first ever and first of its kind PPP arrangement. A teaser on the compendium on the University of Jos Alumni. Watch out for details in the Black Heritage International Magazine hitting the public sphere soon.