Tam David West: A toast to a committed patriot

Tamunoemi…’There is God.’ That is the meaning of Professor Tam David West’s native name. If you had met him, he would tell you, he is a happy man and a proud Nigerian.

The irony, however, is that he is not happy with the Nigeria he left behind to the great beyond on November 11, 2019 at past 11 am.

Of course, he had every reason to justify his emotion.

He was a student at Yale university when Nigeria got her independence. He was, then, the president of International students in Yale. “When we had independence, the international students in Yale held a party for Nigeria. I was very proud of Nigeria.” He said.

Till death, he remained a proud Nigerian, unfortunately, not as proud as he used to be because everything he never thought would happen is happening, even till date.

Nonetheless, he found happiness in his body, spirit and soul. Even, Ibrahim Babangida sent him to jail, he said “I may be in prison physically, but my spirit is free…”  His capacity to build his mind with the eternal joy that sustained him till peaceful passing, found residence in the personal routine and soul-lifting regime.

At 83, the age at which he passed on, if you had met before the last week in October/November, he would be quick to let you know he didn’t feel old at all.

He tried as much as possible to stay healthy by taking his medical check-up seriously and the result had always been good and normal whenever he had it. He never missed his morning exercise, jogging and stretching myself.

Formerly, he used to do his medical check-up in London but he soon discovered a Lagos based hospital, which services the American Embassy. “The hospital is fantastic.” He would say. His eyes were in good condition but used glasses only when he needed to write.

He was a happy with himself because he never found himself in a situation where he had to depend on people for help. Not that he had everything, but God has made him to be self-sufficient. All he needed to make life successful and interesting were with him.

Blessed with great children, Tamunoemi was contented with just having lunch as his only meal for the day, not eating in the morning nor in the evening or night. He believed eating twice daily, would make him lazy and disrupt his ability to work. He slept four hours a day, although, for a man his age at the time, it was against medical advice that adults should sleep for at least seven or eight hours in a day. Defiantly, this strong aged Kalabari man would tell you “there is no common law for everybody…”

Born in Buguma, Kalabari, in what is now Rivers State, David-West was a Nigerian academic, social critic, and federal minister.

He received his higher education at the University of Ibadan (1956–1958) and earned a BSc degree at Michigan State University (1958–1960), an MSc degree at Yale University (1960–1962), and a PhD degree at McGill University (1964–1966). David-West was consultant virologist and senior lecturer at the University of Ibadan in 1969 and was subsequently promoted to professor of virology in 1975.

David-West served in Nigerian government as commissioner of education and a member of the Executive Council of Rivers State (1975–1979), as a member of the fifty-person Constitution Drafting Committee for the Federal Military Government of General Murtala Muhammed (1979), as federal minister of petroleum and energy under General Muhammadu Buhari (1984–1985), and as minister of mines, power, and steel under General Ibrahim Babangida (1986). He was eventually removed as minister and arrested by the Babangida regime for allegedly contributing to the economic adversity of the country; He was discharged and acquitted of these charges by Nigeria’s Special Appeal Court on 8 August 1991.

David-West was an outspoken and controversial critic of Nigerian government policy since his purge and arrest under the military regime of General Babangida. He criticized the unconstitutionality of the advisory council established by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010, and he voiced caution against government unreservedly opening its doors to United States intelligence. Although he was not affiliated with any political party, David-West supported Chibuike Amaechi of the right-wing-leaning People’s Democratic Party for reelection as governor of Rivers State.

He is the author of academic papers in virology that have appeared in scholarly journals such as Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology (1966), Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (1973), Intervirology (1974), and Journal of Hygiene (1974). He also wrote the book Philosophical Essays: Reflections on the Good Life (1980), in which he describes himself as a follower of British analytic philosopher and social critic Bertrand Russell. David-West’s lecture in philosophy “God, Nature and the Universe” (1981) was delivered at the University of Ibadan.

As Petroleum Minister under Mohammadu Buhari, he laid a solid foundation for the Nigeria Oil and Gas industry which Babangida dismantled with policies that damaged and plunged the nation into the mess the industry has become till date.

So, it was a paradox of a sort, when the Prof was arrested by the Babangida regime for allegedly contributing to the economic adversity of the country.

Since his release, the Buguma Academic has become a critic of bad governance. Ironically, he was the fiercest critic of Goodluck Jonathan’s government. A government headed by a man from his side of the country, one expected he would indulge Jonathan, but he could not stand the naked lies, he believed were being told and managed by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who was, then the Coordinating Minster and Minister for Finance.

He was really outraged, particularly with the issue of fuel subsidy as managed by the Goodluck administration.

The fuel subsidy issue brought the Professor back to the national limelight when he vehemently stood his ground against the campaign to remove fuel subsidy by the Goodluck Jonathan Administration.

He was never convinced with the explanations by the so-called Experts brought to convince Nigerians on the need to remove the subsidy from the pump price of petrol. He was ready to take them all on. In the heat of the controversy, that almost brought the whole nation to her knees, a televised Town Hall of a sort was organized by the Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Team but excluded him. To Nigerians who were eager to see the Prof spar with the government Teams and Experts to get the truth concerning the fuel subsidy malady, were disappointed that he was excluded and this got some convinced that indeed the Prof was saying the truth. It was within the period Labor was agitating for an 18k minimum wage and the time Government was toying with the idea of removing fuel subsidy.

In his interview on October 21, 2011 on Channel television’s Sunrise Daily, where he threw the challenge, he was emotional about the naked and blatant rip off of Nigerians by those

who claimed to be serving their interest:

Subsidy is a fraud, he said, challenging the government and the Minister of finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at the time. “Now, how is it a fraud?” he asked.

General Buhari was Oil Minister before he became a Head of State. He appointed Tam, Oil

Minister, 18th January, 1984. “General Buhari has repeatedly said there is no Oil subsidy. It is a fraud. We cannot be irresponsible to be saying same thing for fifteen years. No one has controverted us. Garri is a staple commodity in Nigeria. Let’s assume garri sells N100 per bag in Nigeria under normal circumstances, to feed all of us. A time comes, when because of bad harvest, they don’t have enough garri to feed Nigerians. So, Nigeria goes across a neighboring country where garri is in surplus and buys garri for N110 per bag… bring it to

Nigeria and still sell at N100 per bag per citizen. The ten naira on top of it is subsidy… because, government must do that… to government, it is a contrivance of human wisdom, to take care of the people.” He said.

That is not the same thing in the petroleum industry. “Now, we have four refineries…” He continued.

The first was built in 1965, the Port Harcourt Refinery, about 60,000 barrels a day. The next was built in Warri, in 1978. During the civil war, the Port Harcourt Refinery was badly damaged. It was rehabilitated in 1970… in 1980, Nigeria built the Kaduna Refinery. 1984, as minister, he signed the contract for the new Port Harcourt Refinery., 150,000 barrels a day. It was rated by world authorities as one of the best in Africa…” And Experts tell me when you build a Refinery, it takes 20-30 years before it begins to have major problems.”

He said.

According to him, the total refining capacity of all Nigeria’s Refineries is 445,000 barrels a day. “We need 300,000 barrels a day. No subsidy. God has given us petrol under our soil. We have refineries on land, we have petrol stations on land.

But Nigerians have been told those refineries are not working….  “because they sabotaged it. I have been vindicated. So, what is happening, they go abroad, they sabotage our refineries. I spoke about this…in 1995.

When they asked Abdusalami Abubakar about the refineries, he said ‘I don’t want to open the pandoras box of Nigeria’s refineries…’ so, they deliberately sabotaged our refineries so they can be importing fuel from abroad and be selling it to Nigerians… to charge Nigerians.

That’s not subsidy. That’s fraud. Subsidy is organized fraud by government. Orchestrated by government. I feel emotional about this because it is a lie. During Buhari’s time, petrol was selling 10 kobo per liter… we never talked about petroleum subsidy in Buhari’s time.

There was none. “Said Prof.

The damage to the refineries and the eventual destruction of the downstream sector of the Nigeria Oil and Gas industry actually began under the Ibrahim Babangida’s regime when Nigeria began to import fuel for the first time.

No. Because petroleum was managed properly in Buhari’s time. Every head of State after Buhari, has perpetually played a role in directly or indirectly, in ensuring the refineries never worked.

He was convinced that the refineries were sabotaged to open the window for the saboteurs to continue to import the product into Nigeria and justify recurrent fuel importation.

At the time, during his tenure as Oil Minister, Nigeria operated the oil processing arrangement. “Oil processing is this: when we have a short fall in product, we send our crude, not through touts, through our Joint venture partners to refine abroad and bring the product back to us. We use the ones we need, to fill the shortfall and ask them to sell the rest for us and remit proceeds of the sale to our account. We never imported a liter. I asked them in vision 2010… how come, during Buhari’s time, Nigeria was not only self-sufficient in petroleum product but exporting? The answer is simple… In today’s arrangement, fraudulence took over. Why are we importing fuel, its unnecessary?  “He explained.

For him, the amount used to import fuel in Nigeria would build eight refineries.

So, how about if we remove the money, we use in subsidizing fuel to build the refineries?

“I won’t say remove, because it doesn’t exist. Stop your profligacy. Stop your corruption” He charged.

So, was he saying government has not been putting money, really, in subsidizing the fuel?

“No. they are not. It’s the common man that is subsidizing rich man. They are not. If what they are doing is right, why are they spending millions to pay consultants to campaign! And they are talking rubbish. During Shonekan’s time, a particular local consultant got N20 million to campaign to remove subsidy.

Why is the minister (Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) interested in Nigeria’s economy now?  When Obasanjo employed her, she was paid $247,000… Barack Obama’s salary is $400,000. Okey Ndibe in one of his columns said a Nigerian Governor’s salary can employ Obama five times over.

How about the argument that subsidy is benefitting the rich and not the poor? Faulty logic.

“That’s what the Finance Minister said. I call it convoluted logic! So, if you say the subsidy exists according to you and you meant it for the common man and it’s not going to the common man… so, when you remove it, how will he get it? Convoluted logic. The President (Goodluck Jonathan) said it that if you remove fuel subsidy, we will build more refineries.

So, you kill us first before you build your refineries… when you remove subsidy, prices of everything in the country will increase. Let them repair the refineries and sell oil cheap… I told Obasanjo go on television and tell Nigerians that fuel is N50 per liter and see what happens… yes. Obasanjo, himself, dictates the price of fuel… even if you pay… if every

State pays Labor N18,000 Minimum Wage and you remove fuel subsidy, their take-home from that money would be N8,000 because the price of everything would increase.” He concluded.

The next time he would return to national attention was during the preparation for the 2015 Elections. Now, Buhari, his friend had entered the race. Prof then resumed his anti-subsidy removal rhetoric and went further to say, in a Buhari administration, Nigerians may start buying fuel at N40-N50 per liter.

So, Nigerians were eager to see him return as the Oil Minister just as Buhari did when he was military Head of State, so the Prof could bring all his ideas back to life. Unfortunately, however, Buhari neither appointed him a minister nor did he bring Tam’s promise, made on his behalf, of a N40-N50 fuel paying Nigeria, to fruition.

Lots of Nigerians were naturally disappointed at his non-inclusion in that government and it became one of the early signs of a disastrous first term of the Buhari civilian government.

Despite his disappointment with the way things have turned out under the watch of Buhari, now as a civilian President, Tamunoemi still believes in his former boss because according to him, Buhari is still a man of integrity and he is not corrupt, unlike the larger body of Nigerian politicians.

Each time the Prof talks about corruption, politicians and how they have continually dealt with the country, he is always emotional and in tears, anywhere he finds himself talking about the state of the nation.

His knowledge and conviction about the potency of the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry have made him informed enough to give a value judgement on those who ran the industry or under whose watch the industry progressed or retrogressed.

His interview with the The News magazine which was published in its edition of August 25, 2018 and titled Nigerians now more divided than in 1960: David-West’s last interview, gave a vivid insight into the depth of Tam’s heart for a nation that had allowed corruption to corrode her values and corrupt politicians to pull down her potentials as a prosperous nation.

His perspective about those who rig elections is more dire as he saw them as mass murders. “An election rigger does more harm than an armed robber. If an armed robber attacks me, God forbids, my family suffers. But if an election rigger attacks our election, the whole country suffers.

His solution to the problems he lived with till he died was “Government should be transparent to the people. They should not lie. Lies destroy a nation. Truth elevates a people.” He counselled.

If you had met Tamunoemi, he may not want to tell you how deeply hurt that all the prospects of a nation he foresaw under a Buhari’s Presidency and promises he made on behalf of his friends were dashed right before his eyes.  But he would simply sum it up by saying:

“I feel very bad. However, until we have our refineries, it will be difficult to have reasonable price for petrol. One major mistake that Buhari made is that he delayed in the appointment of his cabinet members, his ministers, for six months. When I was a minister, somebody came to me and said if you can’t get your bearing within six months, you can’t get it again. This is true. The delay in appointing his ministers within the first six month is unnecessary. Within a month he should have gotten his ministers. Some people are determined not to make things work for Buhari and I believe that some people gained from the delay in the appointment of the ministers. Most of the things we are suffering now have a root in the delay of his ministers. I have told him that some people who are working with him are working against him. They are fifth columnists. They are working for themselves. I still have confidence in Buhari…”

In the end, the Professor of Virologist, this Buguma-born Nigerian and committed patriot was, though a happy Nigerian but died not happy with Nigeria because it was not the country, his friends at Yale University threw a party to celebrate when she got her independence.