Kimse Okoko (1940-2020)

TRACKING_____IN the demise of Professor Kimse Okoko on September 13, the Niger Delta region lost a genuine and patriotic advocate. His voice was strident in the campaign for restructuring of the country that would give a pride of place to the ethnic nationalities, restructuring of the fiscal structure of the federation that would accommodate resource control by the federating units, and promotion of politics of inclusion for all. As a Professor of Political Science at the University of Port Harcourt, he is known to have devoted his energy and resources to researching and proclaiming what is generally known today as “true federalism”.

Going through the compilation of his copious works aptly titled Crisis and Development in the Niger Delta: selected works of Kimse Okoko, one could feel his pains at what the people have to endure despite the rich resources with which the region has been endowed. He traced the history of the people, the evil effect of colonialism on the area, its governance and economy, as well as the distortion that the invasion of the polity by the military has visited on the Nigerian governance structure.

Professor Okoko was not just a scholar propagating theories on the Nigerian state and peoples, he was an activist who found accommodation for a united Nigeria where the rights of the component parts administered largely along the ethnic nationalities are recognised and protected. His sterling qualities were appreciated by his people who made him President of the Ijaw National Congress, and from there became President of the Conference of Ethnic Nationalities. It was his activism that recommended him as a member of the 2005 National Conference that sought to work out a formula by which the country could be held together to the satisfaction of all. As a prominent member of the Gamaliel Onosode-led Niger Delta caucus at the conference, Professor Okoko was vociferous in canvassing a more equitable distribution of the national resources. Despite the heat generated, and the perceived attempt to blackmail the caucus into silence, Okoko granted interviews that showed he would not trade the interest of his people for anything. Both parties had to settle for the middle ground of a raised derivation to oil producing states. He continued the advocacy at the 2014 National Conference.

Out of the classroom and in retirement from teaching, he took interest in university development and administration. He was first appointed Chairman of the Governing Council and Pro-Chancellor of the Bayelsa State-owned Niger Delta University where his contributions are acknowledged till date. He is recognised to have continually advocated transparent leadership. In the position, he saw himself as a bridge between the gown, being a professor to whom academic leadership was not strange, and the town, being prominent in the civil society campaign. The university was the major beneficiary of his approach.

His performance at that level recommended him for appointment as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Uyo by the Federal Government. His experience and success in the Niger Delta stood him out in the Association of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities and he was appointed the chairman. He used the platform to canvass for greater autonomy and increased funding for the universities. When the Seriake Dickson government in Bayelsa State decided to establish the grandiosely named the University of Africa, Okoko was opposed to the plan and, when the governor would not heed his voice of reason, he headed for the court room to canvass his views. He contended that the government had no right to establish another university, having poorly funded the existing one. He equally objected to the plan on the ground that the pubic private partnership by which a group from Cyprus would partner the state in establishing and running the university was a mere ploy by the governor to corral it to private use after his term of office, a claim the state government denied.

The works, life and times of Professor Kimse Okoko are already frozen in the records, but the best tribute that the government and people of the Niger Delta region could pay to the man is continuing the struggle for a more equitable federation.