MISSANG OYAMA
Veni, Vidi, Vici-I came, I saw and I conquered.
The above statement reportedly originated from a letter Julius Caesar wrote to the Roman Senate around 46 BC, after achieving victory against Pharnaces II of Pontius at the Battle of Zela.
The statement represents a fitting description of the personality of Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) at this auspicious time in our nation’s history.
In his first term in the Senate, in 2003, Ndoma-Egba had the unique honour of being the first senator to chair the media and publicity committee; clear indication of a man with the understanding and capacity to play for the high-stakes at the highest level in our body polity.
This saddled him with the responsibility of interfacing the Nigerian Senate with the Fourth Estate of the realm and by extension the entire nation as the spokesman. I daresay he discharged his duties so creditably that, today, his tenure is still a landmark on how to run the media committee in the Senate.
Unlike Julius Caesar, Senator Ndoma-Egba never engaged in a military battle but rose to the rostrum of the Nigerian National stage and has, now, acquitted himself an adept master of wits.
His engagements were on the platform of strenuous legislative and political sphere where he conquered with admirable degree of intellectual prowess. For keen followers of the parliament in the country, whenever there’s mention of Senate Leader, Nigerians immediately remember the enigmatic lawmaker from Kwara Central senatorial district, Senator (now late) Abubakar Olusola Saraki.
In the Second Republic, Senator Saraki’s image loomed large because of the adept manner he ran the Senate chamber. Today, I daresay that, in the Fourth Republic, Ndoma-Egba has raised the bar such that any mention of Senate Leader, the image that immediately comes to mind is that of the senator from Cross River Central senatorial district.
For 12 years, Senator Ndoma-Egba deeply invested in the business of law-making and nation building. As the Leader of the 7th Senate, his style and temper fostered the evolution of the Nigerian Senate into a vibrant regal institution with a cohesive bond; forged by commitment to the common good.
When he speaks in the chamber, or out of it, Senator Ndoma-Egba evokes imaginative flights and builds confidence in the minds of millions of Nigerians, young and elderly, to the creative contemplation that there is hope for our nation. It is trite to restate here that his engagement in the Senate has seen agitation for the liberation of the less-privileged and downtrodden in our society. This is evident in the Bills he has sponsored/ co-sponsored and got passed into law and Motions he has sponsored/co-sponsored on the floor of the Senate.
Senator Ndoma-Egba may be physically slender but, the Leader (as he is fondly called), exudes appreciable towering gait and carriage with an aura of magnetic influence. A man of prodigious intellect, he has shown capacity and dexterity in lawmaking, legislative advocacy and proficiency in building bi-partisan alliances.
In 12 years, he has set the pace as a congressman of immense consequence with thirty eight (38) Bills to his credit. Those who should know would boldly acknowledge that this is an unprecedented feat in the history of parliamentary representation in Nigeria. Victor, as his peers would call him, has become an undeniable revelation in Nigeria’s political scene. At the Senate, Ndoma-Egba worked to enlarge and enrich his people to the best of his ability. Through legislative advocacy, he attracted 76 quality projects worth over N7 billion to his senatorial district spanning six local governments in Cross River Central.
The Federal Specialist Hospital in Ikom, the Trans-African Highway through Etung axis, several erosion control projects from Abi to Boki Local Government Areas and others too numerous to mention. At the last count, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba-Egba has influenced 191 employment opportunities for his people, at both state and federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). Between 2003 and 2014, 685 indigent students across the Senatorial District have been awarded scholarships from undergraduate to Ph.D programmes in Nigerian universities.
The free computer training programme he initiated in 2003, few months after his inauguration as a Senator of the Federal Republic subsists till today. Through that scheme, 13, 450 are now computer literate. The CBN/Ndoma-Egba Entrepreneurial Training Program where more than 120 constituents have been trained in various vocations and empowered with start-up capital, is an eloquent testimony of the his commitment to better the lot of his people. An alumnus of the famous class of ’78 Law School graduates that has produced some of the best legal luminaries we have in the country today.
Names like Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen (JSC), former NBA presidents, Bayo Ojo, SAN, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, and Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN. Others are, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Paul Erokoro, SAN, Bala Ngilari (immediate past governor of Adamawa State) and others. At the age 27 he was appointed Commissioner for Works and Transport in the old Cross River State (now Cross River and Akwa Ibom States) at the time his father’s classmate was a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry. Unlike the ‘prophets’, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba’s contributions to nation building were recognized by the Federal Government with an award of Officer of the Federal Republic(OFR) and subsequently, Commander of the Order of the Niger(CON).
If parliamentary representation is about experience, the fact that millions of Nigerians find galling is: Why is a man of this calibre and standing exiting at this critical moment of our nation’s history? This is left to the Cross River State PDP apparatchik to answer. However, the consolation is that his life and work in the Nigerian Senate would stand out by any criteria; his vibrant legacies would bequeath posterity and his imprints imperishable.
Oyama, an Economist and a Social Commentator, wrote in from Lagos.
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