Tivlumun Nyitse: From bartender to permanent secretary; celebrating grit and resilience at 61

I thought I could articulate a diamond birthday tribute to a longstanding, longserving classmate, friend, brother and confidant, Gabriel Tivlumun Nyitse, on his 60th birthday, July 23, 2020. The COVID-19 scourge, a global menace in its own right, however, upset not a few plans and projections, locally and globally, throwing more than a spanner in the wheels of several calculations and conjectures.

Indeed, he had planned to invite traditional artists to perform *kucha* and *bakka* from the rich repertoire of Tiv indigenous motifs, for his family and friends in his Makurdi home. Tiv performances have always been Nyitse’s strong forte, by the way. For his Bachelor of Arts degree in English programme at the University of Ilorin, he had written about Tiv Oral Poetry for his long essay, also called project in other institutions. The effort received positive appraisals from the Faculty because of the originality of the concept and content.

Four full decades ago, when I secured a place as a direct entry student at the University of Ilorin, my fellow entrants included Gbenga Ayeni (who started out as a journalist in (Daily Times, but is today a professor of communications at the East Connecticut University); Dapo Adelegan (entrepreneur and initiator of the *Lekki Sunsplash Carnival* of the late 1980s) and Blessing Wikina (who served as Director of Press Affairs to former Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi in Rivers State and has since retired from the Rivers State Civil Service). There was of course Bisola Oluwole (better known now as Segilola Oluwole, a dynamic and multitasking lady entrepreneur) and Ukeh Useh, amongst we new entrants into the institution.

We went through the mills of the registration,  orientation and familiarisation processes together in what then was the *Mini Campus* of Unilorin and formed a bond of friendship. Oluwole was the only lady amongst us, and so we knew we had an obligation to protect our sister. As we settled into our accommodation in the hostels and began to attend classes, we discovered classmates with whom we shared similar interests and inclinations, who got into the university before us as *Jambites* the way students who were admitted as freshmen, immediately after secondary school, into the first year, were called. Those of us who came in at 200 Level, actually carried ourselves with some haughtiness having survived the furnace, in my own instance and Ayeni’s, of Higher School Certificate Examination, moderated by the Cambridge University.

We soon discovered several intersections and commonalities between us and some older students, by year of admission, and not necessarily by seniority, and friendships and relationships blossomed between them and us. Gabriel Tivlumun Nyitse, Samuel Mopah Aileku, Tunji Bamishigbin, Kunle Sanni, were some of these new friends. I will come back to the others, but Nyitse is the focus of this tribute.

Nyitse started out as a *French major* in Unilorin, but made an about turn to English, the year we were admitted. Together, we took courses in English Language; Literature in English, and electives in Linguistics. Outside the classroom, we were both involved in the same extracurricular activity in some instances. Principal among these was the Creative Writers Group, mentored by Professor David Cook, one of the iconic figures in the evolution of Ngugi Wa’ Thiongo, the famous East African writer, when he, Cook, taught at the Makerere University, Kenya.

The group consisted of creatively-inclined students in the university, so it was open to enthusiasts, irrespective of course or seniority. Stephen Hesbon Lubega, Prayag Tripathi and Olu Obafemi, were the other lecturers, who shared perspectives with us at the meetings of the group. Cook, Obafemi and one of the younger members of the group, Wumi Raji, would later co-edit a collection of poetry, written by those of us who were members of the writer’s group. *Rising Voices: An Anthology of New Poetry Nigerian Poetry* (1991),  is the title of that collection. Nyitse and I were contributors.

Contemporary writers who have since evolved from the Unilorin Creative Writers Group, include: Sunnie Enessi Ododo (professor and General Manager of the National Theatre); Sola Babatunde (professor of English in Unilorin); Abdulrasheed Na’Allah (professor and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja); Mopah Aileku (a public servant) and this writer among others. Nyitse, Raji, Aileku and this writer, were part of that pioneering effort.

Upon our graduation, we were deployed to different states for the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps, NYSC. While he was posted to the Old Cross River State, I was deployed to the Old Imo State. Nyitse came ahead of our departure date and passed the night with me in my parents’ home in Ilorin, before we both travelled together. We boarded the same vehicle which took us to Onitsha, where we both continued our journeys to our respective destinations.

While Nyitse went back to his home state, Benue after the service year, I also returned to the Old Kwara State, my erstwhile abode. Coincidentally, our careers have followed the same trajectory. He secured an appointment, first as a classroom teacher in a secondary school in Markudi, while I also hired  by the Kwara State Education Management Board, to teach English. In 1987, Nyitse secured a new job in the erstwhile *Concord* newspapers, while I joined the *Daily Times* in 1990. From being the Chief Correspondent of the newspaper in Benue State, he was elevated to Zonal Editor, in-charge of seven states, including Benue, Plateau, Bauchi and Gombe, with his office in Jos. He left Concord for the Benue State owned *The Voice* newspaper in 1992, first as Editor, and then as Managing Editor.

Nyitse nearly got fired by Rev. Fr. Moses Adasu, who was civilian governor of Benue State between January 1992 and November 1993. He was deemed too independent-minded as Editor-in-Chief of *The Voice,* approving of the publication of stories and reports in the newspaper, which were deemed inimical to the interest of the state. He was twice invited to face the Benue State Executive Council, to explain why *The Voice* interrogated and criticised certain actions and policies of the administration.

For the avoidance of doubt, though, Nyitse who ran for election as Secretary General of the Unilorin Students’ Union in 1984, had demonstrated the radical streak in him in a few instances. He once sided with the students against the authorities of the university, who were opposed to the hosting of a zonal conference of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, in 1985. The military administration of Muhammadu Buhari at the time, resented opposition of any kind and NANS was considered an adversarial body. Nyitse was temporarily sent away from school while official inquest in the matter proceeded. He was subsequently vindicated by the investigative panel set up by the school authorities and was recalled in time to write his final exams.

With the ouster of the Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government, ING, by General Sani Abacha in November 1993, the newly appointed Military Administrator of Benue State at the time, Joshua Oluyemi Omoniyi Obademi, appointed Nyitse as his Chief Press Secretary. It is a measure of Nyitse’s professional competence and the confidence reposed in him, that the two successors to Obademi, Aminu Isa Kontagora and Dominic Oneya, retained his services and even deployed his expertise in administrative capacities. He was, for instance deployed to Gwer West local government area as Caretaker Chairman, by the administration of Brigadier General Oneya in 1998.

Following the dawn of democratic governance May 1999, Nyitse returned to his original duty post in *The Voice.* In 2001, he was appointed Permanent Secretary by the administration of George Akume. He was first deployed to the Office of the Head of Civil Service, Benue State, where he functioned as Permanent Secretary in-charge of Service Welfare. He was subsequently deployed to the Ministry of Information and Culture, in the same capacity. Following the election and inauguration of Gabriel Torwua Suswam as governor in 2007, Nyitse was redeployed to Government House as Permanent Secretary in-charge of Administration. He served creditably in this capacity for seven years before retiring early 2014, to contest for the governorship of Benue State.

Nyitse ran a very well received issue-based campaign across the 23 local government areas of the state, on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP. He co-opted me into the think tank for the project and I temporarily relocated to Benue State, to offer as much support as I could. He had perhaps, the most profound manifesto and mission statement of all the aspirants, articulated by intellectuals, technocrats and bureaucrats after several sessions of retreats and workshops. He envisioned a state which will leverage, maximally on its infinite agricultural potentials, to rewrite its narrative of poverty and backwardness. He was equally going to emphasise education, healthcare, youth empowerment and infrastructure, in his developmental plan.

He was very easily, the topmost contender for the position. This was until all gubernatorial aspirants were advised to step down for a particular anointed aspirant, on the eve of the primaries. The decision proved calamitous for the PDP as it would subsequently impact negatively on the performance of the PDP at the polls. The party was roundly trounced by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Samuel Ortom, one of the few PDP governorship aspirants on that occasion, who refused to step down and instead, moved over to the opposition APC at the time.

He remained undaunted and simply moved on with his life. Armed with a doctorate degree in Mass Communication from the Benue State University, BSU, he secured a contract appointment as a lecturer at the Bingham University, Karu, Abuja, in 2016. Last year, he was elevated to the position of Senior Lecturer in Mass Communication in the institution.

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, Nyitse’s constituents once more, brought pressure to bear on him to run for the governorship of Benue State on the platform of the PDP. Once again, he began consultations and subtle campaigns for the top job. Following the defection of Governor Samuel Ortom from the APC, to the PDP, however, all aspirants to the position of chief executive of the state, were advised to withdraw from the race and to join forces with the incumbent. For the second time in five years, therefore, Nyitse was compelled to jettison his political aspirations, against his wish.

Tivlumun Nyitse has evolved from that secondary school leaver in 1979, who served as a bartender in Benue Hotels, Makurdi the premier hospitality resort the Benue State capital, to one of the major opinion leaders in his state, and indeed in the North Central. He clobbered the obstacles on his path with uncommon grit and resilience. The journalist-technocrat, was born July 23, 1960 and hails from Utyondu in Guma local government area in the state. His pursuit of knowledge has taken him around Nigeria from Benue, through Gombe and then Kwara States. This is not forgetting his eye-opening one year stint as a youth corps member in present day Akwa Ibom State. He belongs to several professional groups and associations, notably the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA; the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ and the Association of Communication Scholars and Practitioners Nigeria, ACSPN.

Those who know Nyitse and I have always chosen to label us “five and six,” the numbers usually emblazoned behind the jerseys of the two central defenders in a football team. Both players must function as a unit, to keep invaders at bay and to keep their team in the game.

We are almost always together, attending conferences of professional media associations or creative writers’ summits, across the country. We were together at the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE Conference in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State in 2015 for instance. We holidayed in the US, UK and Turkey, during the summer of 2015. We participated in the 2017 annual reunion of the Unilorin Alumni Association, in Chicago. Back in Baltimore on that visit to the US, we enjoyed the *Amtrak* train ride to visit our old friend and brother, Gbenga Ayeni in Connecticut. He is as much of a very well known face in Isanlu, my hometown in Kogi State, as I am amongst his folks in Benue.

He has been married to Mrs Helen Nguper Nyitse, incumbent Registrar of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, for about 30 years, and the union is blessed with children. He is well travelled and has visited the United States of America, USA; the United Kingdom, UK; United Arab Emirates; Germany, Turkey, Israel, India, Malaysia, among others.

Nyitse has authored many academic essays and articles, published in books and journals across the world. He has also co-edited a book on mass communication, (with Tyough Emmanuel Terlumun) titled *Introduction To Mass Media: An Introduction,*(2010). He has similarly edited a collection of poetry, *Dancing Naked,* (2011). He remains a connoisseur of literature, his primary academic course, and still desires to study for a masters degree in the subject. This is in addition to the educational attainments already in his pouch. He has severally attempted to develop his passion for farming by growing yams, melon and rice, back home in his community. Unfortunately, he has barely been able to make a success of the effort.

Tunde Olusunle (PhD) is a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).