OBITUARY: Mantu, the ‘born-again’ politician and ‘true hero’ of war against Obasanjo’s third term bid

It was Mary Ann Evans, the English novelist known by her pen name George Eliot, that said “our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them”. Ibrahim Nasiru Mantu who succumbed to the inevitability called death on Tuesday will never be forgotten. His deeds, feats, and legacy in the Nigerian political space will outlive him.

Mantu will be remembered as a tactical political operator and one-time deputy senate president, but before he got to that position, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain who died aged 74 had been active in Nigerian politics for decades.

EARLY LIFE

Born in 1947, Mantu attended Gindiri Demonstration Primary School and obtained the First School Leaving Certificate in 1966.

He went on to obtain a GCE and diploma in professional salesmanship and this enabled him to gain employment at John Holt Limited in 1973 as a trainee-manager. At John Holt, he rose to the position of deputy general manager, building materials division. He resigned in 1977 to join Plateau State Supply Company as a commercial manager.

Mantu later obtained a B.A. in political science from the Washington International University.

He was awarded honorary PhDs from the University of Jos, Plateau state, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue state, Madonna University, Okija, Anambra state, and University of Applied Sciences and Management, Porto Novo, Benin Republic.

FORAY INTO POLITICS

Two years after joining the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the dominant political party in Nigeria during the Second Republic, Mantu was elected chairman of the party’s Plateau state chapter in 1980.

During the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida, Mantu ran for the position of national chairman of the National Republican Convention (NRC) in 1990 — but he failed to win the election.

The NRC, established by Babangida, was disbanded by the regime of Sani Abacha, a former military ruler, in 1993.

But that did not stop Mantu’s journey to the top.

In 1998, he emerged as the publicity secretary of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) — one of the five political parties allowed by the Abacha regime.

The politician was later elected as a senator on the platform of the UNCP but that was truncated after Abubakar Abdusalami, a former head of state, took over power following Abacha’s death and dissolved the political parties.

Despite the seeming setback, Mantu remained relevant. He was elected on the platform of the PDP in 1999 when elections were organised by the Abdusalami government. He emerged deputy senate president in 2003 and held the position till 2007.

In recent years, Mantu became a bit controversial because of some of his utterances and revelations.

‘I HELPED PDP RIG ELECTIONS’

In 2018, Mantu dropped a bomb when he confessed to helping the PDP rig elections.

“Let me tell you one thing, yes I did. I am now confessing the truth,” the former deputy senate president said when he appeared on a Channels Television programme.

“What do I need? I don’t have to go and change elections… but you know, when you provide money; you give money to INEC boys to help you, if they see any chance, that they should favour you. You (also) provide money to the security.”

Subsequently, OurMumuDonDo, a civil society group, demanded the arrest and prosecution of Mantu over his shocking revelation.

The group had asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to sue Mantu “for subverting the free will of Nigerians” — but no action was taken against him.

‘BORN-AGAIN’ POLITICIAN

Before confessing to rigging elections, Mantu had declared that he was a “born-again” politician in 2017.

The former deputy senate president said the comments he made at the time were true, adding that PDP leaders should apologise for the wrongs they did in the past.

“I’m now born again, whatever I say now is the truth,” Mantu said.

“Some people came to the PDP with nothing and left with billions. We need to bring the party to the people now. We need to be sober and apologise for what we have done wrong in the past.

“After fasting and prayer, I fasted for 30 days and night asking God to show me who would lead the party.”

‘WORKED AGAINST OBASANJO’S THIRD TERM BID’

Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia state, said Mantu was the true hero in the efforts to stop the tenure elongation of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He said although Mantu was seen as spearheading the agenda in public, he actually worked hard to truncate it behind closed doors.

“I have seen a lot of people claiming credit for the failure of Obasanjo’s third term bid,” Kalu said in ‘My Life’, his autobiography released in 2020.

“If there is any credit for it, it has to go to Senator Ibrahim Mantu. He is the true hero of the third term war.

“The hero of what we did should be Mantu and nobody else, because he was the one who brought the strategy of how we will do it, he was the one who told me not to tell Ken Nnamani, the senate president.”