BY AUGUSTINE AVWODE
Last Friday, the Fourth Estate of the Realm, nay the nation, lost a towering figure. Emmanuel Yawe, the amiable spokesman of the Arewa Consultative Forum, a northern socio-cultural group, passed away peacefully in his sleep.
Secretary-General of the ACF, Murtala Aliyu, was saddled with the responsibility of breaking the news to the public by the organisation’s Chairman, Audu Ogbe.
Accordingly, Aliyu confirmed Yawe’s transition on the ACF’s WhatsApp media platform.
He wrote, “It is with a heavy heart that I bring to your notice the passing away of our Publicity Secretary, Chief Emmanuel Yawe, this morning. I have intimated the Chairman, Audu Ogbeh, and he instructed that I should bring it to the notice of members.
“We will be visiting the family and will keep you informed about the burial arrangements. May his gentle soul rest in peace,” Aliyu said.
Yawe was elected spokesman of the forum in 2020.
His transition came barely 24 hours after he issued a condolence statement on behalf of the ACF to mourn the late former House of Representatives Speaker, Benjamin Chaha.
A 1979 Political Science graduate of the University of Ibadan, Yawe started his journalism career with the News Agency of Nigeria in 1980 and went on to be appointed Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of then Gongola State in 1983.
He held several top editorial positions in several media organisations. He was, at various times, Member, Editorial Board of Advisers, The Point Newspaper; Editorial Board Member, People’s Daily Newspaper; Managing Editor, New Sentinel Newspaper; and Editor, Crystal International News Magazine.
The renowned journalist was also Managing Director of Gongola Press Ltd between 1988 and 1992; Director-General, Governor’s Office, Gongola State, between 1987 and 1988; and Editor, Sunday Triumph Newspapers 1984 – 1987. Yawe was a member of the Editorial Board, New Nigeria Newspapers between 1982 and 1983; Managing Director, Gongola Press Ltd, 1988 -1992 and President, World Vision Communications, 1993- 1999.
Urbane, warm and ever so affable with a generous gift of the garb, Yawe was a reporters’ delight any day. His answers to questions, no matter how probing, always came with potential headlines. He would give you direct, unambiguous answers, brimming with huge historical and academic values.
It was never his style to fling the tasteless “no comment” response, often delivered with a dose of disdain by some classless spokespersons at reporters. He never shied away from any question. He would rather courageously state the position of his constituency on any issue, no matter how knotty it may be.
In an encounter with The Point’s Correspondents in July, 2021, Yawe addressed the vexed issue of agitation that seems to border on self-determination by some sections of the country and submitted that those pushing for a break-up of Nigeria should know that the North has ample resources to stand alone as a country in the case of an eventuality. He went ahead to state why the region was not at the forefront of agitation for a breakup of the country.
He insisted that the seeming calm in the North on the issue of self-determination should not be taken to mean that northerners were afraid of “standing outside Nigeria”.
He rather argued that the ACF position on agitations that seems to promote a break-up of Nigeria was mainly due to the fact that its leaders fought for one Nigeria, adding that oil had only made the region and others lazy.
“The North has enough resources. We are not afraid, we have enough resources and we can stand alone. This oil has made us lazy and it is as if without oil, we are all going to perish. No, we are not,” Yawe had said.
He stressed, “In the North, we were as good as a country before colonial conquest. If you look at the Sokoto Caliphate, how big it was, it even extended to some areas that were carved out of Nigeria. The North was as big as a country. It is not a question of being afraid, no. And you would discover that without the oil, Nigeria was a better-managed place. The oil has in fact aggravated our problems.
Without the oil, each of the regions was sweating and they were competing with one another. The oil has caused us much more problems.
“It was when the oil came with its easy money that everybody became lazy. At the end of every month, everybody is waiting for allocation. Nobody was waiting for allocation in those days. How do you get allocation when you have to produce your agricultural products before you earn a living? The North was earning very well from agricultural products – the Groundnut Pyramids; the East was earning very well, so also was the West.
“If it comes to the very worst, we go back to the working country that we were. We were much more productive than we are now,” the late ACF mouthpiece maintained.
Yawe believed that the various components and people of Nigeria have so integrated that a call for division or disintegration today would lead inexorably to war. Hear him: “We know the experience this country went through. We do not believe that you can sit on a dining table or on a conference table and share out Nigeria, hitch-free, and everyone goes his way. The way Nigeria has integrated; it will be very difficult to break up peacefully.
“There will certainly be a war; we have gone through this war before and we know we did not gain anything from it. The negative consequences are still with us; we are just trying to resolve them. So, why would you put yourself inside that kind of situation again?”
Sadly, that voice of courage and reason, apologies to the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo, has been silenced forever by the cold hands of death.
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Saturday condoled with the ACF over the passing of Yawe.
Buhari’s condolence message was contained in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.
According to Adesina, “The President commiserates with family members, friends and associates of Yawe, particularly in the media, where he served meritoriously as a reporter and editor of various publications for many years.
“President Buhari prays that the Almighty God will receive the soul of the departed and comfort all his loved ones.”
The ACF spokesman, who passed on at the age of 65, is survived by his wife and four children.
