Atiku And Dokpesi: Two Heroic Trojans Of A Kind (Part 2) By Mike Ozekhome, SAN

INTRODUCTION

Last week, we commenced our searchlight on Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, as one iconic hero of our time. His story
is not one of “grace-to-grace”. His was one of
“grass-to-grace”, having been born to a petty
Fulani trader and farmer, Garba Abubakar, in Jada village, Adamawa
State. Today, we shall continue our discourse. Thereafter, we shall
focus on the media Czar, High Chief Raymond Anthony Ayaoghena
Dokpesi

ATIKU, THE POLITICAL TITAN

As Vice President under President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, Atiku
was on the reticent side, working quietly and holding on to the
technical side of government. He was not, and is not, the
voluptuous, flamboyant, or swash-buckling genre of Obasanjo. First
elected Governor of Adamawa State, Atiku was still Governor-Elect
when he was selected by the then anointed PDP Candidate, Olusegun
Obasanjo, to be his running mate. The duo were sworn in on
May 29, 1999, in a symbiotic relationship that was
to become stormy and acrimonious, because of what was perceived to
be Obasanjo’s overbearing inclination. Atiku weathered it all,
coming out victorious, up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Indeed, it took the Supreme Court’s decision in 2007 to allow
Atiku contest the election to succeed Obasanjo, on the platform of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), after INEC had brazenly
disqualified him because of Obasanjo’s non support. He came third
after late president Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari. He did
not bother to challenge the results of the election, which even
Yar’Adua himself conceded were flawed.

Frustrated by that obvious act, Atiku joined other PDP
stakeholders, including five state governors, in a political
excursion, to the then (and still) inchoate APC. Yet again, as if
history was bent on repeating itself, barely two years into the
ruling party, which he assisted to defeat his former party (the
PDP), Atiku noticed that President Buhari was only prepared to
congratulate himself from previous electoral reversals, by going
for a second term, whilly-nilly.

As he did after the ACN brief stay, the Waziri (then Turaki) of
Adamawa, decided to retrace his steps to his first love, the PDP.
With the deployment of swift political foot walks, he was able to
clinch the party’s presidential ticket for the 2019 election cycle.
All the way, before, during and after the elections, Atiku proved
that he was, indeed, prepared to do electoral battle with the
incumbent President Buhari. He did just that. And gallantly too. No
other Nigerian could have withstood the multi-dimensional, fierce
onslaught, obstacles and orchestrated intimidation, placed on his
way. Much to APC’s embarrassment and shock, Atiku not only visited
the USA from which he was said to be a persona non gratia, he even
stayed at Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, on January
17, 2019, barely one month to the presidential election. He simply
rubbed it in, literally saying, “you said I cannot step my
foot on American soil; here I am, not only in American, but in the
hotel belonging to the President, Donald Trump, situate in the very
heart of the US capital”.

On Wednesday, October 30, 2019, the Supreme
Court, the court of final arbitration in Nigeria, put a lid to the
former Vice President’s presidential bid in a most controversial
judgement. The summary of the apex court’s judgment, which was used
to temporarily stop Atiku’s search for a four-year presidential
mandate, was that most of the issues canvassed did not obliterate
the votes garnered by the winner, President Muhammadu Buhari, as
declared by INEC. Whether it is the name
“Muhammadu”, or “Mohammed”, is of
no consequence, said the apex court. Whether a candidate possesses
a certificate or not, is of no moment, for as long as he can read
and write, the Supreme Court ruled. Scholars, historians and future
generations yet unborn will discuss and interrogate this judgement,
as to its jurisprudential quintessence and justice-delivery
template. Happy birthday sir, Grand Commander of the Order of the
Niger (GCON).

RAYMOND ALEGHO DOKPESI

DOKPESI, THE TED TUNNER OF
NIGERIA 

This media mogul and Chairman Emeritus of DAAR Communications
PLC, took a curious path many Nigerians believed was impossible
when he launched DAAR Communications Plc, the first private
broadcasting company in Nigeria, pioneering the African Independent
Television (AIT) and Ray Power.

Obviously the Ted Tunner of Nigeria because of his fresh
insights and innovations in the highly competitive media industry^[1], Dokpesi is also a deep
researcher, humanitarian, avid reader, and philanthropist
extraordinaire. Not many people know that DAAR actually represents
the initials of his names read from the surname (Dokpesi Ayaoghena
Aleogho Raymond, or Dokpesi Anthony Aleogho Raymond).

Born 25th October, 1951, in Ibadan, Oyo State,
Dokpesi who hails from Agenebode, Edo State, attended Ebenezer
African Church School, Ibadan, for his primary school education;
Loyola College, Ibadan, and Immaculate Conception College (ICC),
Benin City, for his Secondary School education.

Dokpesi initially started his undergraduate studies at the
University of Benin, before traveling abroad for further studies,
where he acquired his Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate degrees from
Wyzsza Szokta Morska Gdynia and University of Gdansk Sopot,
Poland.

Amazingly, young Raymond graduated with a distinction and was
decorated as the best graduating student in Marine Transport
Engineering after over fifty years of University of Gdansk’s
existence.

Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the then General Manager of the Nigeria
Ports Authority, was said to have sponsored Dokpesi’s primary,
secondary and tertiary education.

As a born leader of men and material, while in University of
Gdansk, Dokpesi served as the president of the following
Associations:

The Nigerian Students Union, Gdansk Poland (1972 – 1974);
African Students Union, Poland (1973); International Students
Association, Poland – (1974); Nigerian Students, Eastern Europe
(1974).

Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR),
Chartered institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), Nigerian
Institute of Shipping, Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM),
Institute of Transport Administration, and the Institute of
Directors (IOD), Nigeria, the Ezomo of Weppa-Wanno Kingdom later in
1978, worked with the Federal Ministry of Transport and Aviation as
Head of Water Transport Division on Secondment from Nigeria Ports
Plc (NTCC). He later served as the Chief of Staff to the Gongola
State Government in 1983.

RAYMOND DOKPESI’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP JOURNEY

In the 1980s, Dr. Dokpesi started the first indigenous shipping
line in Africa, known as African Ocean Lines, which was involved in
the formulation of the Nigerian Shipping Act (Decree) of 1986. He
later solely founded Baldok Shipping Lines Ltd and Ramat Properties
Ltd.

Raymond Dokpesi had been a lover of entertainment right from his
Secondary School days, where he pioneered a dance/drama group,
known as “Ozolua Play House”. However, he was
unable to start his own entertainment platform due to the
restrictive provisions of the National Broadcasting Commission
Decree. The Decree had only allowed government-owned broadcasting
companies to handle Nigeria’s broadcast. Remember sitting in front
of the black-and-white television, waiting for the Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA) to start its broadcast at 4pm, in those
days?

Fortunately, the then Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida,
issued another Decree that allowed private broadcasting in Nigeria.
Dokpesi grabbed that opportunity and started DAAR Communications
Plc, the first ever private broadcast station in Nigeria.

LAURELS

 Dokpesi established the first indigenous
shipping line in Nigeria; established the first privately owned
radio station, Raypower FM, in Nigeria, to which were later added
FAAJI FM. He pioneered Nigeria’s First global TV which was Africa’s
first ever Satellite TV station, and later DAARSAT; Established the
first TV station to run 24-hour broadcasting in Nigeria; and
Launched the African Independent signals in the United States. He
was Chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Association of Nigeria
(IBAN) and had earlier helped in the formulation of the Nigerian
Shipping Policy Act (Decree) of 1986.

POLITICS

 Aleogho Dokpesi also has his hands in
politics. One of his first political assignments was as a
political campaign^[2] manager for Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur, which saw Tukur into the then Gongola state
government house as Governor. He also assumed the same role during
Alharji Adamu Ciroma’s presidential campaign; and later Alharji
Bamanga Tukur’s presidential campaign in 1993. Likewise, during
Peter Odili’s presidential campaign, Dokpesi was one of the leaders
of the South-South People’s Assembly (SSPA), an organisation that
seeks to promote the South-South Peoples of Nigeria. In
2017, Dokpesi contested for the PDP National
Chairmanship position, but lost gallantly to its present
Chairman, Mr Uche Secondus^[3]. He was one of the few
who believed in the existence of the PDP, after its long-drawn
internecine factionalisation and fracture.

NOW THIS AWARDS AND
HONOURS 

Dokpesi has received numerous local and international awards and
honours to his credit and on behalf of DAAR Communications
Plc^[4], and has been conferred
with several Chieftaincy titles across Nigeria in appreciation of
his tremendous efforts towards re-engineering Nigeria. From his
hometown, he was conferred with two influential titles, the
Oghierumua and Ezomo of Weppa Wanno^[5] Kingdom
of Edo State^[6]. He is the Araba of
Osoro Land, Okpe. At the Dr. Kwame Nkrumah^[7] Leadership Award
ceremony in Accra, Ghana, and the Foundation for Excellence in
Business Practice, Geneva Switzerland, Dokpesi was praised for Daar
communications’ rise to the top in African broadcasting and
contributions to Radio and Television broadcast, all of which has
placed Nigeria globally on the world map.

AND
THIS PHILANTHROPY

Raymond Dokpesi has built schools for communities, offered
scholarships to hundreds of indigent students in tertiary
institutions, installed electricity and transformers for many local
communities, and empowered thousands of the poor and
vulnerable.

Happy birthday, Ezomo. Receive Philippians 4.7.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your
altitude.” (Zig Ziglar).

 LAST LINE

I thank Nigerians for always keeping faith with the Sunday
Sermon on the Mount of the Nigerian Project, by Chief Mike
Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb., Ph.D, LL.D. I enjoin you to look
forward to next week’s treatise.

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