By Gesikeme Akparakata
On 8th April, the Senate House Committee sat with hawk-like eyes, waiting for Engr. Kestin Pondi to address them. Ordinarily, they were prepared to put the matter to rest: the decentralisation of Tantita Security Services Nigeria. They were ready to hear the MD speak, or to yield to the voices calling for an end to the contract.
Surprisingly, King AtekeTom, Boyloaf, Shoot-at-Sight, and the self-ambitious IYC factional leader, Theophilus Alaye, had gathered to make an overzealous declaration of interest. Only recently, the Senate had entertained miscreants like Ofejiro Oliver and his “how-to-survive” allies from Warri, who petitioned that each man should guard his own pipeline in the Niger Delta.
With the sharp eyes of a dangerous fox, Engr. Kestin Pondi took the center stage. Like a hawk, he scanned through the room with a third eye, reading the dangerous terrain before him. He must know he was standing before the Nigerian Senate—deities in their own literary right, and that needs caution and accuracy.
Yet I saw in him a certain confidence—not the usual kind, but one edged with controlled anger and aggression. He was focused, determined not to miss a punchline. In the style of the legendary Muhammad Ali, he reached for the microphone and delivered his immortal lines, each one layered with meaning like Shakespeare. With the cadence of Barack Obama, he danced through words; the orator in him began to light up the room.
Like a colossus, he reeled off figures charting the rising index of the petroleum industry and Tantita’s input to the Nigerian economy. He hunted for words and numbers with absolute accuracy, leaving no room for doubt. In that moment, the committee wasn’t listening to a contractor defending a deal—they were witnessing a man reframing the entire debate, turning scrutiny into scoreboard.
Then like Ronaldo he dribbled the lisners to his killer goal punch:
“At Tantita we do not protect the assets from the people. We protect the assets with the people “. Like what Michael Jackson would say, ” This is it”. The power of oratory had hit its button. He has no doubt successfully destroyed his enemies and distractors.
The million dollar question is this, who among his distractors can face his presentation that day? Was it King Ateke, Boyloaf or Shoot at sight? Or those small warri rats like Ofejiro Oliver and his likes? Am afraid they wouldn’t.
When he finished, the lectrified Senate had to rise in ovation for the saviour of the Nigerian Economy, with absolute vote of confidence passed on Tantita as a Major Game Changer in the Niger Delta.
Gesikeme Akparakata is the author of the Oru Tribe.
08130032012
