In July, Olabode George, a notable chieftain of the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), declared that the PDP chairman must be on the same level with Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, National Chairman of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), not some bambino.Coming from an opposition politician, the foregoing comment is certainly a clear testament to the high pedigree of the APC National Chairman. In many standards, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has over the years distinguished himself as an administrator per excellence; political tactician; visionary; true progressive and democrat.Born August 12, 1939, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun attended St. Patricks College, Asaba, and then went to the University of Ibadan, where he studied Economics, graduating in 1963 with flying colours. He joined the federal civil service and rose to the peak position of Permanent Secretary at the age of 36 years, making him the youngest in his generation. He joined politics after retirement and was elected the first executive governor of Edo State, serving between 1992 and 1993, during the aborted Nigerian Third Republic. He was removed from office after General Sani Abacha seized power. Chief John Odigie-Oyegun thereafter joined National Democratic Coalition of Nigeria (NADECO) in the grim battle for the restoration of democracy.On June 13, 2014, the Benin-politician was elected as the first substantive National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress. As National Chairman, he led the APC to the decisive and historic 2015 electoral victory that resulted in the establishment of the first elected progressive government at the federal level. Just as he led his party to victory, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has worked tirelessly to confront the initial challenges the party faced shortly after the inauguration of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. Several fence-mending measures undertaken by the party under the supervision of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun have yielded positive results. He has remained solidly committed to playing a fatherly and unbiased role towards the resolution of all party issues and bringing cohesion to the party to enable it effectively support the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in the delivery of its promises to Nigerians.An August 18, 2015 report described Chief John Odigie-Oyegun thus: Beneath the soft-spoken gentleman with a smiling face and easy-going outlook is a dogged, determined, principled and hard-hitting politician whose optimism knows no bounds. He never sees any assignment as too difficult to handle neither does he fear challenges. Oyegun will rather confront his fears than run from them In politics, he carries with him, the same dogged attitude which he exhibited during his civil service days and he is not known to support oppressive policies. Many have described Oyegun as an exceptionally talented politician, sincere leader, a man of wisdom and vision.Humble BeginningsBorn to a man who was an only child, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, in a rare peek into his private life in June, recollected his growing up years in Benin. He said: Growing up was lovely. It was a beautiful large family with a well-educated father who worked with white judicial officers at the early stages, went on tours with magistrates at the time and all that. He was a court registrar, and whenever he was coming back, we were always happy because there would be lots of chicken and those little, little things. So it was fun because there were many children. We were 26 at the peak and that went relatively well.Looking back, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun recalled that even though his father was a well-educated man who had a job, meeting all the family needs was not an easy task. He narrated how he had to seek menial work to make ends meet.He said: It was good even though there was not always enough to meet all our needs. He (father) paid our fees religiously and our mothers took care of the slack. You know, when you are going to school, the garri, sugar and all those things, you take along.It was a beautiful time, and since there was not enough to meet all our needs, most of us the older ones took to supplementary occupations now and then just to earn some pocket money. Sometimes, we worked at building sites.In those days, the scarcest commodity in Benin was water. With just a few taps in the city, you had to queue for a long time to get water. What we did was to work at building sites, more often than not filling drums with the water they used to mix concretes.Occasionally, we hired trucks to carry things for market women. The third thing a lot of us did was selling. I sold soap. We put them in trays and went round town hawking. But it was quite a wonderful experience.Change AgentAnti-corruption war remains one of the topmost priorities of the APC-led administration which swept into power on the back of its well-received Change mantra. As a strong campaigner against corruption and impunity, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has continued to actively back President Muhammadu Buharis hugely-successful war against graft, despite moves by the opposition to discredit it.January 25, 2016, Odigie-Oyegun declared in one of his most celebrated statements: Let me say this clearly, if we want to clean this country, then we must be serious about it. Wherever the train goes, we must be ready to go there. The attempt to divert attention from the reality will not just work. The mere fact that the current leader [Buhari] is investigating what happened before his time is a clear indication that he is unlikely to repeat the same mistake as the next government will investigate the current administration too. We must be ready to put up with the inconveniences in the process of working to get our dear nation out of the moral decadence it has been plunged into. When people start to make diversionary statements, I just laugh because this is not the time for that. We are investigating yesterday, let tomorrow investigate us that is how this country will get out of this rot.On March 24, 2016, he said: On the fight against corruption, the gains are clear. The era of impunity is beginning to disappear from our land. Even from reading the papers, social mediacritical as they may be, virtually every Nigerian today now accepts that corruption is perhaps, the worst affliction that this nation has ever suffered fromChief John Odigie-Oyegun has severally called on Nigerians to put aside any differences and join with President Muhammadu Buhari to design and lay a strong foundation for a new economy that assures self-sustaining growth and shared prosperity for our people. He said on March 24, 2016: Yes, it is true, these are hard times, but hard times create challenges. Challenges call for men and women in leadership to agree to be united, focused, passionate in the policies that they stand for, which means that this party must rediscover itself, which means that this party must stand as one behind the success of our president and for the policies that we stand for and for the promises he has made to the Nigerian people.Chief John Odigie-Oyegun says he is a fulfilled man. In an interview granted prelude to his conferment with the University of Ibadan Alumni Association Alumnus of the Year Awardthe Associations highest honouron June 11, 2016, he said: As a human being, God has been generous to me. So, I am totally fulfilled. Many years ago, I looked at the lives of Awolowo, Zik, Papa Ajasin, Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and the rest of them who contributed to the development of this country, but who, on their death-beds, felt a lot of frustration that the vision they had for the nation, we were not even yet on the road to realising them, and I said to myself, God, I want to be on my death-bed knowing not that all the problems of this nation have been solved, but knowing that we are finally on the right path to greatness.
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