SENATOR GNS PWAJOK: A REMINISCENCE OF INTELLECTUAL ENERGY

BY IWELUNMOR PATRICK

“The world will remain as it is, unless philosophers become kings or kings become philosophers”.
- Plato

Twenty years ago, I was under the intellectual tutelage of an erudite History teacher during my secondary school days. He was the very strict and no-nonsense type, yet the energetic inclination with which he discharged his duties made him a friend even to his student ‘enemies’. By this time, I was in SS 2 in Zang Secondary Commercial School Bukuru, one of the most popular and historically significant secondary schools in Plateau State. His romance with intellectualism was constantly exhibited in the elevated style of his teachings. He was passionate about the subjects he taught. For those of us who were not taking Government as a required subject, we were inundated with tales of his intellectual bravura. As our History teacher, he made a mark with a great difference. His teaching style was such that engaged the minds of his students; he was not the ‘let my people go’ type of teacher and this was responsible for his preference to the other History teacher, one Ms. Alamba. With due respect to Ms. Alamba, she put in her best, but Mr. Gyang Pwajok made impressions on the minds of most of us beyond the classroom. The impact of his pedagogical orientation transcended the limits of the ordinary. His interpersonal associations were equally enriched with the caliber of friends he moved with. There was Mr. Yakubu Taddy, then my English teacher, who was very sound in Phonetics and served as the Patron of the Drama Club. Mr. Taddy was in love with his culture as a Berom man and exhibited this during cultural dance festivals. While observing my NYSC as Welfare Officer at Jos Prisons in 2000, I had run into Mr. Taddy at PRTVC. I had gone there to see another former English teacher, Hassan John, who was presenting a programme tagged Business Foundation on the radio arm of the corporation. Mr. Taddy rose from a Presenter to become General Manager of Plateau United Football Club, a position he later resigned to pursue nobler passions in broadcasting. There was Mr. Dadu, my Literature teacher. Though physically challenged, he was one optimist that had no limitations in his dictionary. He played football better than those who were not physically challenged; he was a handful for anyone who was not cerebral. His famous phraseology of “a recalcitrant mish mash” kept us in constant communion with our dictionaries. As at the time of writing this piece, I have completely lost contact with him, though the good news is that he is with the Nigerian embassy in France. With this set of friends, Mr. Gyang Pwajok was able to unleash a remarkable intellectual milieu on the memories of some of us.
Mr. Pwajok’s deliveries on the Kanem-Borno and the Benin Empires were some of the most intellectually engaging teachings one has received as a student and it is worth proclaiming that these have had a great and progressive impact on one’s life till date. Those times are only comparable to the flamboyant era of intellectual effervescence with the crafted word, under the philosophical eloquence and guidance of Professor Benedict Ibitokun of the African Drama fame at OAU, Ile Ife. Those times opened one’s eyes to the concept, foundations and exigencies of power in ancient African kingdoms and in all honesty, it seems those historical treatises have significant roles to play in the comprehension of Africa’s socio-political questions. For instance, his love for the transformation brought to Ngazargamu through Idris Alooma’s transparent leadership was conspicuous each time he visited the subject. Mr. Pwajok was very passionate about positive change, and to some of us who had premonitory flashes of his hallowed intellectual odyssey, we knew he was just a comet waiting to explode in the Milky Way. One had been privileged to follow his exploits at the Plateau State Polytechnic and at the University of Jos, through updates by friends who kept me abreast of his heroics, while I was thousands of miles away at Ile Ife pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the Department of English Studies of the Obafemi Awolowo University. At the University of Jos, he attracted the attention of the Plateau State Government, which offered him various roles, the most important being his tenure as Chief of Staff to the Governor. Becoming a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not the issue. The issue is that an intellectual became a Senator. The overall value and credence this added to the political landscape is immense as it afforded the Nigerian nay Plateau ‘worlds’ the rare opportunity to move in the direction of positive change.
When Mr. Pwajok taught us the history of ancient Benin Kingdom, one episode that one may never forget is the Benin Massacre during the eventful reign of Oba Ovoramwen Nogbaisi. As if coincidental, some of the issues which he said led to the British punitive expedition are still raising their ugly heads in post-independence Nigeria. Irrespective of all the narratological surgeries done to this saga, especially by western Historians, the truth remains that Britain under Queen Victoria, framed the Benin Oba into their grand plot to annex the rubber-rich kingdom into the so-called British ‘protection’. And because the Benin tradition forbade the welcoming of foreigners during the sacred Igue festival, Ologbosere and company had to defend the territorial as well as cultural integrity of their kingdom by decollating the arrogant intruders, who had rebuffed several warnings. Happy that Ologbosere and company have played into their grand design, a thieving expedition was sent to raze Benin, while dozens of her artifacts of inestimable value were stolen. Most of these artifacts adorn major western museums today.
Britain reluctantly granted Nigeria independence. Before this was done, she had inflicted a great injury on the geography of the nation and called it amalgamation, a marriage of dissident mentalities! Fifty-three years after independence, Britain still controls Nigeria, at least mentally. Most of the proceeds of money laundering find their way to Shakespeare’s country. Most Nigerian leaders are condemned to invest our petro dollars in ventures abroad, when industries are dying in Nigeria. There is an occidental conspiracy to leave things in a state of disarray so that Nigerians, especially the elite may never do without traveling abroad for holiday, medical check-up and so on. Oba Ovoramwen refused mental slavery and suffered the consequences. Notwithstanding the horrible human rights records of his regime, the only Nigerian leader who spearheaded a departure from occidental to oriental foreign economic policies was the late Sani Abacha. Abacha refused to dance to the tunes of Britain and the USA to drive home the point that Nigeria was as significant a force as they were in the comity of nations. Abacha’s mentality was devoid of any form of colonialist influences in terms of the sovereignty of the nation and one thinks such is commendable.
My amiable Senator GNS Pwajok has experienced humble beginnings and has been able to get to where he is today as a result of hard work interspersed with an intellectual orientation which seeks to liberate the human mind and broaden the horizons of the psyche. It therefore becomes expedient that we urge him to replicate his contagious intellectual charm in the corridors of power. As a Senator, he has done creditably well much to the admiration of the Senate President, David Mark. He remains a very great gift to the good people of Plateau State who must not miss the opportunity of supporting him to victory in the forth-coming gubernatorial elections. I believe Senator Pwajok has not blinded his eyes to “putrefying carcasses in the market place, pulling giant vultures from the sky” to make a caricature of his people. It is expected that his rise from the classroom to the corridors of power will guide him in his quest to add value to the lives of his people. I know him to be a lover of reggae music, especially of the Bob Marley stock, and I have decided to leave him to ponder over the semantics of this parting shaft: don’t forget your history, know your destiny. In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.