Melford Okilo

Okilo was born on 30 November 1933 at Emakalakala, Ogbia, Bayelsa State, and was of Ijaw origin.{{Cite web |date=2020-07-09 |title=REMEMBERING MELFORD OKILO |url=https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2020/07/10/remembering-melford-okilo/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250403142055/https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2020/07/10/remembering-melford-okilo/ |archive-date=2025-04-03 |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=THISDAYLIVE |language=en-US}} He qualified as a lawyer, but entered politics at the age of 23.{{cite web

|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200807160607.html

|title=Melford Okilo (1933 - 2008)

|work=ThisDay

|date=15 July 2008

|access-date=2010-03-31}}

Okilo was a member of parliament between 1956 and 1959. In December 1959, he was re-elected to represent the Brass constituency on the Niger Delta Congress platform.

The prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, later appointed him parliamentary secretary and minister.{{cite book |author1=Ikein |first=Augustine A. |title=Oil, democracy, and the promise of true federalism in Nigeria |author2=Diepreye S. P. Alamieyeseigha |author3=Steve S. Azaiki |date=2008 |publisher=University Press of America |isbn=978-0-7618-3928-6 |page=73 |language=en}} He played a significant role in the enactment of the Niger Delta Development Board (1961), which sought to address problems of the neglected Niger Delta region.{{cite web

|url = http://www.nationalnetworkonline.com/nnetwork/VOL6/N016/news.html

|title = FOR THE RECORDS :CHIEF MELFORD OBIENE OKILO: A Tribute

|author = Senator Ibiapuye Soala Martyns-Yellowe

|work = National Network Vol 6 NO 15

|date = April 27 – May 3, 2009

}}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

While visiting New York in 1965, he came across a book about Walter Russell, The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe, which had a profound influence on his thought. Walter Russell's University of Science and Philosophy later published his books, and in the late 1990s, he served as president of the university.{{cite web

|url=http://www.washingtoninternational.com/personality.html

|title=You Are the History Makers

|author=Patricia Keegan

|publisher=Washington International

|access-date=2010-03-31

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610060135/http://www.washingtoninternational.com/personality.html

|archive-date=2011-06-10

}}

During the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon, Okilo served in the Rivers State government, first as Commissioner for Education, and then as Commissioner for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Natural Resources, from 1971 to 1975.

During General Olusegun Obasanjo's regime, he was a member of the Constituent Assembly (1977–78) leading to the Nigerian Second Republic.

He was chairman of the Rivers State branch of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) (1978–1983), and was elected on the NPN platform as governor of Rivers States in 1979.

As governor, Okilo established the Rivers State University of Science and Technology. He opened the Independent Power Plant at Imiringi in Ogbia local government area, now in Bayelsa State, a major gas turbine power station.

He created fifty development units for the much neglected rural areas, introducing a policy where local people were given the responsibility and power to govern and develop their local communities. He undertook programs to reclaim land, control erosion, construct roads and canals, and build rural housing scheme and industrial estates.

President Shehu Shagari awarded him the honour of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1983.

He was re-elected on the NPN platform in 1983, losing office when General Muhammadu Buhari took power in a military coup in December 1983.

Soon after taking power, Buhari established military tribunals to try public officers from the Shagari era who had been accused of embezzling public funds.{{cite web

|url=http://www.ngex.com/news/public/article.php?ArticleID=1022

|title=The Babangida Years - Part 4

|author=MAX SIOLLUN

|date=August 4, 2008

|publisher=NigeriaExchange

|access-date=2010-03-31}}

In July 1986, he was acquitted of the charges against him and regained his freedom following a judicial review of the tribunals and later freed by Ibrahim Babangida.{{cite web |date=1986-09-05 |title=Sub-Saharan Africa Report |url=http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA352441&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605010121/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA352441&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf |archive-date=June 5, 2011 |access-date=2025-05-19 |work=New Nigerian |language=en }}

In June 1989, Okilo was a speaker at a conference on World Balance: Action to Save our Planet held in Aspen, Colorado.

Writing in 1992 on the question of oil revenue sharing, Okilo referred to traditional morality, saying that "when an individual kills or finds a big fish or animal, the villagers or community expresses their appreciation ... by first giving him or her the best part of the animal or fish before the rest of the meat or fish is shared."

He served as Minister of Commerce and Tourism during the General Sani Abacha regime.{{cite book

|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780253211972/page/277 277]

|title=Crippled giant: Nigeria since independence

|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780253211972

|url-access=registration

|author=Eghosa E. Osaghae

|publisher=Indiana University Press

|year=1998

|isbn=0-253-21197-2}}

In January 1994, he was a member of a ministerial committee that toured Ogoniland following disturbances by Ogoni protesters against Shell activities in the area.{{cite book

|page=167

|title=The politics of bones

|author=J. Timothy Hunt

|publisher=McClelland & Stewart

|year=2006

|isbn=0-7710-4158-6}}

Although the committee's report was sympathetic to the plight of minorities in the oil-producing areas, little was done.{{cite book

|page=61

|title=The changing forms of identity politics in Nigeria under economic adjustment: the case of the oil minorities movement of the Niger Delta

|author=Cyril I. Obi

|publisher=Nordic Africa Institute

|year=2001

|isbn=91-7106-471-0}}

Okilo was dropped from the government in July 1995 as the military consolidated their power.

Returning to the United States, he became president of the University of Science and Philosophy, which had earlier published his philosophical writings including his 1991 book The Law Of Life.{{cite web

|url=http://www.phoenixarchives.com/contact/1997/0297/021197.pdf

|work=Contact, Volume 16, Number 1, February 11, 1997

|title=Can God-of-Light be Copyrighted as Someone's Exclusive Preserve?

|access-date=2010-03-31}}

In January 1999, shortly before the return to democracy and while running for office, Okilo was briefly detained by the outgoing military government following disturbances among the Ijaw in the Niger Delta.{{cite web

|url=http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/imf/africa/nigeria/990624amnesty_action.txt

|title=NIGER DELTA UNREST - APPROACHES TO OIL COMPANIES

|date=24 Jun 1999

|publisher=Amnesty International

|access-date=2010-03-31}}

Okilo was elected Senator for Bayelsa East on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform, serving from May 1999 to May 2003, but failed to be re-elected in 2003.

As senator, he served as vice-chairman of the committee on natural gas and chairman of the committee on identify card.{{cite web |title=CHAIRMAN AND VICE CHAIRMAN OF SENATE COMMITTEES |url=http://www.onlinenigeria.com/government/senate.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104200720/http://www.onlinenigeria.com/government/senate.asp |archive-date=2016-01-04 |access-date=2025-05-19 |work=OnlineNigeria}}

He remained a director of the University Of Science And Philosophy, and became a director of the board of Vision In Action, an institute formed in 2003 to share and communicate experience on issues of leadership, creativity, visionary and strategic thinking.{{cite web

|url = http://www.via-visioninaction.org/html/okilo.html

|title = Senator Melford Okilo, J.D

|publisher = Vision In Action

|access-date = 2010-03-31

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110719032541/http://www.via-visioninaction.org/html/okilo.html

|archive-date = 2011-07-19

}}{{cite web |date=April 2003 |title=Newsletter |url=http://www.twilightclub.org/newsletters.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305113423/http://www.twilightclub.org/newsletters.html |archive-date=2012-03-05 |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=The Twilight club }}

In 2005, he read his own obituary following an erroneous story that he had died. Later he addressed a press conference, saying he was in a coma for four days and was mistaken for dead.

Speaking in July 2006, in Brixton, London, Okilo called on leaders of the Ijaw to take their case over sharing oil and gas revenue to the International Court of Justice. At the same time, he asked youths of the area to give up violence, and seek peaceful means to address their grievances.

After a prolonged illness, Okilo was moved back to Bayelsa from his Abuja residence by his administrator, Hauwa Ogbeide-Ihama. Okilo died at the age of 74 in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on 5 July 2008.{{Cite web |date=2008-07-15 |title=Nigeria: Melford Okilo (1933 - 2008) |url=https://allafrica.com/stories/200807160607.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014094420/https://allafrica.com/stories/200807160607.html |archive-date=2012-10-14 |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=All Africa}}

• {{cite book

|title=Nigeria: the search for political stability

|author=Melford Okilo

|publisher=Riverside Communications

|year=1989

|isbn=978-30333-4-4}}

• {{cite book

|title=The law of life

|author=Melford Okilo

|publisher=University of Science and Philosophy

|year=1991

|isbn=1-879605-03-1}}

• {{cite book

|title=Art of government and the Okilo administration

|author=Melford Okilo

|publisher=Riverside Communications

|year=1992

|isbn=978-30333-5-2}}

{{reflist}}

{{RiversStateGovernors}}

{{State governors in the Nigerian Second Republic}}

{{Nigerian Senators of the 4th National Assembly}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okilo, Melford Obiene}}

Category:2008 deaths

Category:1933 births

Category:Governors of Rivers State

Category:Peoples Democratic Party members of the Senate (Nigeria)

Category:Senators of the 4th National Assembly (Nigeria)

Category:Members of the House of Representatives (Nigeria)

Category:Niger Delta Congress politicians

Category:Commanders of the Order of the Federal Republic

Category:People from Bayelsa State

Category:Ijaw people