In the five years of Muhammadu
Buhari’s presidency so far, a name that kept ringing as a top confidant of the
president was Ismaila Isa Funtua. The government, it was alleged, was being
controlled by a cabal in which Funtua reportedly played an active role —
alongside Mamman Daura, Babagana Kingibe and Abba Kyari, the late chief of
staff to the president.
Rather than shy away from the now
popular cabal label, Funtua declared that he was, in fact, not a member of the
president’s clique but was the cabal himself.
At the time, Aisha, Buhari’s wife
had complained that some of her husband’s associates had hijacked the
government. But Funtua said the president had not committed any crime by having
his trusted friends around him.
“I’m not a member of any cabal,
I’m cabal myself,” he responded wittily to a question on Arise TV in January.
“What is cabal? In short I think
it means kitchen cabinet, people that you trust. People you believe will not
deceive you, that they can do things in the interest of the country.”
He said Nigerians were imputing
derogatory meaning to the word ”cabal” which he said has an innocuous
connotation.
The ”cabal himself” breathed his
last on Monday evening, and the news of his death came as a shock. Just three
hours before he reportedly died of cardiac arrest, he had spoken on the phone
with Ben Murray-Bruce, former senator, who said the late media colossus
promised to call again the next day.
SECOND REPUBLIC MINISTER WHO FOUGHT MILITARY RULE
In the second republic, Funtua
served as the minister of water resources under President Shehu Shagari.
The government was later toppled
by the military — and with Buhari, his kinsman, becoming the head of state.
Funtua founded the Democrat
Newspaper during military rule and at a time decrees were issued to restrain
freedom of speech.
His newspaper was at the
forefront in the struggle against dictatorship, especially in the 90s during
the regime of Sani Abacha.
Funtua was said to have been
marked as a target on Abacha’s purported hit-list for his consistent fight
against military rule.
He also was a member of the
1994-1995 constitutional conference.
HE DID NOT BELIEVE IN RESTRUCTURING
In an interview with Arise TV in
2017, Funtua said he was always amazed when Nigerians talked about
restructuring of the country.
There have been divided opinions
on restructuring governance in Nigeria, and for Funtua, attention should be
paid more on leaders at all tiers of government rather than on restructuring
the entity.
“We are not holding our leaders
accountable all along and why are we not holding our leaders accountable? Who
pays tax in this country? We aren’t doing our social responsibility so if we
aren’t really honouring our social responsibility our strength to fight our
leaders is very limited and today if everybody would pay his dues to a large
extent we won’t be crying so much; even at the state level, the local
government level they couldn’t pay salaries and when people are talking in this
country of restructuring I am always amazed,” he said.
“What do they mean by
restructuring? I am a Nigerian they shouldn’t turn us to educated illiterates.
They should come out and tell us to restructure what from what level to what
level? Now we have three tiers of government, local government was the third tear
but now it is only on paper because governors have turned local government to
their own personal estates, the monies of local and federal account go into
their pockets, they spend it the way and manner they want.”
‘GOVERNMENT CANNOT DO EVERYTHING’
When asked, in the same
interview, if the country was moving in the right direction, Funtua gave a nod,
but said things should not be left alone to the government because all citizens
have roles to play.
“When people talk of the
government, the government alone can’t do everything without us,” he said.
“If I know you are a thief and
you have stolen billions and you are sitting on it, we are all Nigerians we
know ourselves, we know what everybody has to a large extent and we are not
saying this person is dishonest and he has taken our properties. How do we want
the government to know everything?
“But you know the people that
have stolen, you do know people who steal money, buy private planes, buy all
types of properties and nothing is done to them.
“When you asked a question at the
beginning about $15 billion [power sector expenditure under President Obasanjo]
and the report is there, all what Nigerians need to do, instead of
demonstrating over nothing, they should demonstrate and ask or they should call
on the government to prosecute those people and collect their money because the
money belongs to them and not the government. What is the government about? The
people.”
‘THE ELITE ARE TO BLAME FOR NIGERIA’S PROBLEMS’
A member of the elite himself,
Funtua believed that his class are to blame for Nigeria’s problems.
Describing Nigerians as resilient
people who weather the storm under any situation, in the interview, he said:
“When you talk about Nigeria sometimes, we the elites should be blamed for what
is happening in our country for not rising up to make sure it is being
addressed and for our needs we are living above our means. Our needs are higher
than our income.
“Why should we live as a nation
where ordinary toothpick we are importing into the country and that toothpick
is being imported with dollars? I was laughing and nearly hit my head on the
bed when I was reading one guy’s tweet that I was being given dollars and I was
making $1 billion every week and I said I wish they were giving me, I need it.”
‘IF IGBO WANT TO BE PRESIDENT, THEY MUST BELONG’
While there was a clamour for a
president of Igbo extraction, Funtua said the Igbo would have to step up their
game in politics to get this dream achieved.
In another interview in January,
Funtua explained how he worked for Alex Ekwueme in 1999 for the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket. He said Ekwueme lost the
presidential bid to Olusegun Obasanjo because he was not going to rub minds
with northerners.
“When Ekwueme contested again, he
was defeated in the contest for the nomination of the party by Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo. Why? His attitude had changed. I went to that constitutional
conference with my boss and we wanted him to be leading us and be holding some
caucus meetings in his house but he stepped back and did not want to have
anything to do with the northern or national caucus because he believed the
1983 coup was staged to prevent him from becoming president,” he said.
He continued by asking: “Since
when has politics in Nigeria become turn by turn Nigeria Limited?”
He said he was the coordinator of
the campaign of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1983 and
understood Nigerian politics.
“If the Igbo want to be president,
then they must belong. If you don’t belong, then you can’t be the president.
That is the issue and we have seen it with MKO Abiola of blessed memory. He
went out of his way, he cultivated people,” he said.
HE ALWAYS DEFENDED THE MEDIA
Funtua was largely regarded as a
bastion of the media. He was always on the front-line on any issue affecting
the industry.
In a tribute, the Nigerian
Institute of Journalism, Lagos, described the late entrepreneur who was the
chairman of the governing council of the institution, as a ”strong pillar of
support”.
”The Chairman was a committed and
passionate defender of freedom of speech, press freedom and democracy. In
pursuant of this commitment, he established the Democrat Newspaper during the
era of military dictatorship in Nigeria,” it said.
”Mallam Ismaila Isa was always
quick to rally the media community against any legislation or policy targeted
at stifling the media. In recognition of his astute leadership qualities and
investment in the media industry, he was first elected as Vice President of the
Newspaper Proprietors of Nigeria (NPAN) under the Presidency of the late Chief
M.K.O. Abiola. He was later elected the President of NPAN, a position he held
with dignity and honour, promoting and defending media interest in Nigeria,
Africa and the world. He was instrumental to Nigeria’s hosting of the
International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress and General Assembly in
Abuja, in 2018.”
Ifueko Omoigui Okauru, former
chairperson of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), also foregrounded
Funtua’s passion for the defence of his media constituency in her tribute to
him. She said the late NPAN patron came to her office when she was at FIRS to
protest against a letter, which though not from her, rankled media proprietors.
”He introduced himself as a life
patron of the International Press Institute and Newspaper Proprietors
Association of Nigeria (NPAN) (I had no clue of what that meant) and said he
had a matter to discuss with me. He brought out an official letter purportedly
written on my behalf regarding unilaterally imposing VAT on the newspaper
industry,” she wrote in her tribute.
”First, this was the first time I
was seeing the letter. Second, it was not my style. I didn’t and still don’t
take unilateral actions such as was suggested in the letter without
consultation even if that was what I wanted to do. I was shocked. He mentioned
the reason he came. That he didn’t know me but decided to meet with me.That
after reading the letter from the FIRS, the newspaper proprietors had met and
decided to fight the FIRS and its reforms on an action that was to cripple the
entire industry without even any engagement.”
UK-TRAINED ADMINISTRATOR
Born in January, 1942, Funtua
trained as an administrative officer at the Institute of Administration, Ahmadu
Bello University (ABU) Zaria.
He later proceeded to Manchester
University in the UK. He was the monitor-general of the course 9 at National
Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPS), Kuru.
For seven years, he served as an
administrative officer with the Katsina Native Authority. He served in
different ministries as an administrator in the defunct northern region.
He rose through the ranks to
become personnel manager of the United Nigerian Textile Company, Kaduna.
Funtua was the founder of Bulet
International Nigeria Limited, founding managing director of the New Africa
Holdings (publishers of the defunct The Democrat).
He later became the president of
NPAN, and until his death, he was life patron of the association.
In his condolence message, Buhari
said the death of his ally has created a huge gap.
Indeed, it is a seismic loss.
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