Major-GeneralCharles Ehigie Airhiavbere (Rtd) is
an Edo man, from an enlightened and disciplined Bini lineage. He is an
ardent strategist and a master planner. A team-oriented leader, with an
even-keel temperament, charismatic speaking skills and a knack for
consensus building. He's also a talented, introspective writer. His values are strongly
shaped by the fear of God and his military training, having successfully
held positions of huge responsibility at home and abroad. He is a
distinguished politician with a very pleasant and amiable disposition. A
man of the people and a proven achiever. While private by nature,
Charles mingles easily with others, but is most comfortable in the act
of service to humanity. Charles is humble, amiable, though known for
being unafraid to speak and hear hard truths when necessary. His
pedigree is indeed that of discipline and leadership.
Early Life & Education
Charles was born on 11th
October 1954 at Ekiadolor, via Benin City to the family of Late Chief
Peter Aisia Erhinmwingbovo Airhiavbere. His father, Late Chief
Airhiavbere, who was from Agbodo village, started his noble career as a
pharmacy dispenser at the then Ekiadolor Health Centre. His appetite for
further qualitative education drove him to a self-sponsored mission to
study at Birmingham Polytechnic in England. On the timely completion of
his studies as an accountant (ACCA), he joined the then Midwestern State
Government under Governor Samuel Ogbemudia. His experience later earned
him the leadership of the Health Management Board. GCA's Father Chief Peter Airhievbere and GCA and his mom at 2 years of ageCharles’ mother, Mary Orhue of the
Uzamere family was a student nurse when she had Charles. This was at a
time that post primary school education was not common, especially for
the girl child. She later also rose to the peak of her career as a
nurse in Derby Hospital, London. It is worthy to note that the then very
popular midwife Mrs. Esther Ogbe, who later became the proprietress of
Esther Maternity and orphanage, took Charles’ delivery into the world at
the Ekiadolor Maternity Home. From a tender age, Charles
was given a lot of positive exposure, having done his primary education
in Benin, Ibadan, Ijebu-Igbo, Lagos and Zaria. In 1968, he started his
secondary education at Eghosa Grammar School, Benin City, under the
strict tutelage of Mr.S.I.A Ayela Uwangue, who was the School Principal then.
Being aware, even at that young age of his burning desire to join the
army (early signs of his willingness to serve humanity), he sat for the
competitive entry examination and was admitted into the Nigerian
Military School (NMS) from 1969 – 1973. In the Nigerian Military
School, Charles displayed his outstanding leadership skills by rising to
the rank of Boy Sergeant and commanded Ibadan House. He later proceeded
to the Auchi Polytechnic, from where he displayed academic excellence
with an Upper Credit in Accountancy, in 1980. While in the polytechnic,
Charles’ leadership traits were again displayed when he was appointed
the Head of Man ‘O’ War and President of Professional Accounting
Students Association (PASA). In 1987, he bagged a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with specialization in Finance, from the University of Ibadan. Being a star student,
Charles won the Best All-round Cadet Award at the Nigerian Defense
Academy at the Direct Short Service Course 7. He was commissioned
Lieutenant in seniority of 01 June 1980 and was posted to the Nigerian
Army Finance Corps.
Military Years
During his military career,
Charles held various appointments in command, instruction and staff
positions. These included Staff Officer in Army Headquarters and
Command Finance Office (CFO) Apapa at different periods; Divisional
Cashier, 1 and 2 Mechanized Divisions at various times; Cashier,
Nigerian Army in Command Finance Office (CFO) Apapa; Deputy Defense
Attaché (Fin), Washington DC, USA; Director of Finance, NDA; Deputy
Commandant/Director of Studies, Nigerian Army School of Finance &
Administration (NASFA); Deputy Commander, CFO; Commandant, NASFA;
Commander, CFO; and Merger Coordinator, NigerianGCE and President Buhari in their military days Army Assets in the office of the Chief of Army Staff, Director Army Financeand Accounts, the nomenclature that later changed to the Commander Corps of Army Finance and Account. GCA(right) in a visit to His Royal Majesty Omo n'Oba n'Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Erediauwa I
In his over three decade
years of service in the Nigerian Army, he attended a good number of
professional courses and seminars in Nigeria and abroad, including the
Leadership Seminar for top executives in Manchester Business School,
Manchester University, United Kingdom and the National Institute for
Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos. Based on his
outstanding performance when he was a course participant at NIPSS in
2007, he was made Director of a Study Group.
Professional Portfolio & Experience
Charles is
a member of the following professional bodies: Nigerian Institute of
Management (NIM), and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of
Nigeria (ICPN). His military awards include DSS, mni, CMH and GSS. Major-GeneralCharles Ehigie Airhiavbere was
the People’s Democratic Party Governorship (PDP) Candidate in the July
14, 2012 gubernatorial election in Edo State. After being in active
politics under the umbrella of the PDP, Charles left the PDP for the All
Progressives Congress (APC), being fully convinced that the APC’s
manifesto actually articulated his personal vision for our great
country, Nigeria. His movement at this time is in the light of his
conviction and dogmatic belief that President Muhammadu Buhari, a proven
incorruptible leader has all it takes to deliver APC’s manifesto beyond
expectations, thus able to champion the desired change to make Nigeria
as great as it is supposed to be and the true giant of Africa.
Publications & Authorship
Major-GeneralCharles Ehigie Airhiavbere (Rtd) has authored a lot of papers. Some of his publications and presentations are:
“Accounting for Profitability” – DICON (Special Case Study)being
his thesis which is part of the requirements for the fulfillment of the
award of Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA), University
of Ibadan in 1987;
“Regimentation and Discipline in the NA: An overview of the Nigerian Army Finance Corps” being a paper presented during the Director of Army Finance and Accounts Conference in June 2005;
“Budgeting and Welfare Scheme in the Nigerian Army” being a paper presented during the CAT Week of Infantry Corps Centre and School, Jaji in June 2006;
“Reform Programme for the Optimization of NA Assets – The Way Forward” being a paper presented during the Chief of Army Staff Conference held in Kaduna in November 2006;
“Nigeria in Year 2020: Towards a Development Agenda in a Democratic Culture” being an individual paper presented at NIPSS in Jul 2007;
“Strategies for Internal Revenue Generation and Capacity Building in the Nigerian Army” which is his final project at NIPSS in Nov 2007;
“Nigerian National Budget and Funding of Security Agencies: Issues and Challengesin 2008”;
“The Challenges of Funding Security Agencies in A Democracy” in March 2009; and
“The Challenges of Funding Security Agencies: Planning and Management in A Democracy” in July 2010.
Personal Life & Interest
Major General Charles Ehigie
Airhiavbere is blissfully married to Ehiorose Philomena, his sweetheart
of over 30 years. They are blessed with 5 children who are graduates at
various fields of endeavor. His greatest sources of joy are his 5
grandchildren, still counting GCA and his beautiful family
He is widely traveled and enjoys playing golf and squash for leisure. He is a member of Ikoyi and IBB Golf clubs.
My Mission:
“To leverage my years of leadership experience in the military to lead
Edo State in such a way that it can become one of top three most
economically viable, safe and secure states in Nigeria. With its rich
intellectual capital, good nature and natural resources, I intend to
create an environment that will not only attract investment, strengthen
educational institution, enrich our cultural heritage and leverage
technology advances to enrich good governance but also one that can
enable the common man to find a place in the entire productivity chain
of a good government. In summary, an economically viable, safe and
secure state is my ultimate dream for Edo People.” GCA
My Vision:
“With sound understanding of my people and their needs, I will lead
them well and leave a lasting legacy. By this I mean that I will lead
and run the government of Edo State that will be not only encompassing
in its economic, social and political activities but one that will be
remembered for its lasting positive legacies in years to come". -GCA
Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi was born on the 21st day of March 1951 to
the family of Mr & Mrs Agbonkpolor Ogiemwonyi in Benin City, Edo
State, Nigeria.
Chris Ogiemwonyi attended Western Boys School, Benin City before
proceeding to University of Benin in 1969 where he eventually
graduated with a B.SC (Hons) in Applied Physics option in Electronics
in 1974. He then proceeded to the University of Ibadan where he bagged
the Post Graduate Diploma in Petroleum Engineering in 1976 through an
in-service programme.
Chris Ogiemwonyi is a great technocrat with a "father-degree"? of
experience in oil and gas industry, he has also attended several local
and international courses, he's also a reckon product of the Harvard
Business School. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers,
also a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and former
President of the Nigeria Gas association.
Chris Ogiemwonyi is a recipient of the Justice of Peace (JP) by Edo
State Government and Kwame Nkrumah Leadership Award, he's also a
patron to several bodies including NANS ??? National Association of
Nigerian Students, ACNPN ??? Association of Community Newspapers
Publishers of Nigeria etc.
Educational career
Chris Ogiemwonyi's educational qualification speaks volume, he got his
WASCE certificate in 1969, in 1974 he became a B.SC holder in Applied
Physics, Post Graduate Diploma in Petroleum Engineering in 1976,
became a Doctor of Engineering Ph.D (Honoris Causa) in 2008 and also
got the Doctor of Science Ph.D (Honoris Causa) in 2008.
Qualification Year
Doctor of Science, Ph.D (Honoris Causa) 2008
Doctor of Engineering, Ph.D (Honoris Causa) 2007
Post graduate Diploma in Petroleum Engineering 1976
B.Sc. (Hons) Applied Physics 1974
WASC 1969
Professional career
Petroleum Engineer II
Chris Ogiemwonyi began his career as a Petroleum Engineer II in 1975
with the Conservation Department and in February, in 1977 Ogiemwonyi
was seconded to SPDC (Shell Petroleum Development Company) Warri. This
secondment was enriched by a four and half month Advance Petroleum
Engineering Programme in SPDC Training Centre in the Hague,
Netherlands.
Exploration & Exploitation (E&E) - NNPC
In 1982, Chris Ogiemwonyi resumed work at the Exploration &
Exploitation (E&E) Division of NNPC and in 1985 he was transferred to
the National Reserves Evaluation as a Project Leader. While in office
as a project leader, Ogiemwonyi coordinated all efforts in Dallas, USA
in establishing a strong data Base for the Oil and gas Industry.
In 1988, he was moved back to the Exploration Division of the
Exploration& Exploitation (E&E) as Head, Petroleum Engineering
Department Company to nurture the newly created Petroleum Engineering
Department.
Petroleum Engineer - NPDC
In 1988, Chris Ogiemwonyi became the project leader (Petroleum
Engineer) of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in
Benin City. The NPDC, incorporated in 1988 had as its main objective
the mission to compete as an indigenous Oil and Gas producing Company.
NPDC was assigned four acreages including OML ??? 65 containing Abura
Field then producing at 980 bopd.
Ogiemwonyi championed the takeover of NPDC and he kept an up-to-date
reserves position of the company.
He was the field project leader in Abuja as his company had the major
takeover asset from defunct TENNECO. Ogiemwonyi raised the production
level from 980 bopd to over 4,000 bopd in 1990. In 1992, he served as
Oredo Field Project Leader which was a Greenfield project that
involved KELT ENERGY,UK and IP CONSTRUCTION, Calgary. The project was
an engineering, procurement, construction as well as operations of
10,000 bopd early production facility which has now being expanded to
process 30mmscf/d.
Ogiemwonyi also served as Oziengbe field Leader. This is another
10,000 bopd EPC facility at Oziengbe field.
General Manager, Operations - NAPIMS
In the year 1999, Chris Ogiemwonyi was promoted to the post of the
General Manager, operations and was moved to National Petroleum
Investments Management Services (NAPIMS) to oversee the Operations
Division. He also championed several projects as a general manager
most especially the Local content initiative of the Federal
Government, due to the hardworking service; Ogiemwonyi got appointed
as the Group General Manager NAPIMS in 2001.
While serving as the Group General Manager NAPIMS, Ogiemwonyi
supervised the whole industry including the Joint Ventures (JV) and
the Production Sharing Companies (PSCs).
During his days in NAPIMS, Ogiemwonyi served as Chairman, Nigeria OTC
Committee between 2003 and 2004. Notably, he also championed and
surpervised several key projects which includes the EA field, Erha
field, Bonga field, Agbami field amongst others.
During his term, NAPIMS achieved zero cash call arrears by October,
2003. As GGM NAPIMS, the Oil Industry was encouraged on joint
utilization of assets such as offshore swamp rigs.
Managing Director - NPDC
In November, 2003, Ogiemwonyi was re-assigned to NPDC as Managing
Director[5] and his expertise helped in increasing NPDC production
from 20,000 bopd to 70,000bopd. He served as chairman, Project
Monitoring Committee (PMC) of Okono/Okpho Development Project, a
strategic alliance between NPDC and Agip Energy Limited (AENR). He
also served as Chairman, PMC of OMLs 64 and 66 Project, another
strategic alliance between NPDC and SINOPEC of China.
Managing Director - National Gas Company
Ogiemwonyi was again re-assigned to National Gas Company Limited as
Managing Director[6] in March, 2005. He was determined to to increase
gas supply to major customers like; PHCN, SNG, GSLINK, WAPCO, SHAGAMU,
and EWEKORO, NOTORE FERTILIZER PH,OBAJANA CEMENT COMPANY etc NGC is
coordinating 130mmscf/d gas supply (WAGP ??? West Africa gas Supply
Project) to Benin, Togo, Ghana and hopefully to Ivory Coast.
TSGP ??? Trans- Sahara Gas Project, the 2 billion scf/d supply from
Nigeria through Algeria to Europe was another portfolio under his
supervision as NGC???s helmsman.
Group Executive Director - NNPC
In September, 2007, Ogiemwonyi became the Group Executive Director of
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC, Exploration &
Production Directorate).[7?]
While he served as GED Exploration and Production, Engr. Chris
Ogiemwonyi was in charge of seven NNPC Companies and Subsidiaries
which included National Petroleum Investment Management Services
NAPIMS), Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), LNG & Power Division, Integrated
Data Services Limited (IDSL), Nigerian Petroleum Development Company
(NPDC) Crude Oil, Marketing Division and Local Content Division.
President - EETCLTD
Ogiemwonyi is currently the President of Energy and Engineering
Technology Consulting Group, a position he has occupied since May
2011.[8]
President - ESC
Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi served as the President, Energy Strategy Centre
(Esc) Abuja, an Energy and Consulting Group between September 2009
through April 2010.
Political career
Minister of State for Works
Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi was appointed Minister of State for Works in
April, 2010, an office he occupied till May 2011.[9]
Governorship Aspirant
Another story began in his career on the 28th day of November when the
city of Benin celebrates in grand style as Engr Chris Ogiemwonyi
crossed over to the All Progressive Congress (APC) from the People's
Democratic Party (PDP) where he was when was elected as a Minister. In
this revealing event, Chris Ogiemwonyi publicly renounce the People's
Democratic Party (PDP),[10] he emphasized on renouncing them forever.
This same event declared him as the party's Governorship Aspirant in
2016.
Godwin Obaseki is a threadmill betwen the young and old
generation of our time, belonging to, and in midst of these two
hegemonies.
A close contact with the man called Godwin Obaseki reveals a very high perplex of a visionary personality.
A man passionately and politically motivated to create employment and industrialization in Edo State,
thereby willing to server in a state in dare need of economic prosperity.
Government, Governance and Politics to Godwin Obaseki means selfless service to once father land and
he has proven it going by the development in Edo State the last 7 years.
He has paid his own way and made us all proud as Edo People. Since he is offering himself as to our
generation, in an attempt and effort with the help of us all trying to lay the groundwork for real
sustained and workable public delivery system,near those you find overseas.
Godwin Obaseki needs our support to achieve all these.
This period of economic down turn and global chaotic
financial instability in Nigeria, where Edo State is not
immune to it, its of necessity and vitality to support a
financial expert to pull us all out from this unforeseen
negative economics.
Unlike many that has come and gone, Mr Godwin Obaseki is directly working with progressives
in the state to hasten developments aiming to nurture a new political order, so that when
the transition comes “we don’t end up in the same place as we did in the past.
when the Soviet Union collapsed”,it was the lack of real leaders with economic experience.
As for what might bring about that change, Mr Godwin Obaseki does think it will be putting
the right pegs in right holes. Either Oshiomile or the party will anoint a successor or not,
Godwin Obaseki doesnt think or percieve democratic participation in that light.
Mr Godwin Obaseki is of the illusion that the most credible persons in our society should
be put forward for leadership and should not be a do or die illusion.
How long his vision might take does,nt mean much to him, as long as we just hit the road with action.
This is why he,s working with anyone who genuinely has the good interest of Edo State.
Godwin Obaseki thinks about the future of Edo State: “
My Chat with Godwin Obaseki has renewed my thinking and commitment that this gentleman
wants to have a seat at a virtual round table about the future of Edo State and the
return of Indutries to our dear state, and he,s prepared to work with anyone to achieve
this.He,s so passionate about what Edo State would look like after now .”
Mr Godwin Obaseki spoke so commitedly the return of our
lost values and the synergy between our old and young generation.
He wants many of the young people who might be thinking of leaving the country, to stay put
and lets all join hands to develop our state, so as to avoid brain drains in Edo State.
He nicknamed his vision an exodus to Industrial reawakening in Edo State.
Shortly before ending the chat, Mr Godwin Obaseki said he did wish to support
every hard working Edo State Indegene a Government of accountability, where the
most hard working persons are not ignored.
Hard work from my perception about Mr Godwin Obaseki simply is the story of
Eduard Uraskulov, a 30 year old, who was born in the small North Caucasus
republic of Karachavo-Cherkessia in Russia. He considers himself a Russian,
wearing his nationality as lightly as his German, French or Brazilian peers.
His road to London’s City started with a degree at Moscow’s prestigious New
Economic School, then headed by Sergei Guriev, one of the country’s top economists.
In 2013 Mr Guriev, who had advised Mr Eduard to study hard,now a professor in Paris,
he has just been appointed chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.)
Nancy
Reagan, the influential and stylish wife of the 40th president of the
United States who unabashedly put Ronald Reagan at the center of her
life but became a political figure in her own right, died on Sunday at
her home in Los Angeles. She was 94.
The cause was congestive heart failure, according to a statement from Joanne Drake, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Reagan.
Mrs.
Reagan was a fierce guardian of her husband’s image, sometimes at the
expense of her own, and during Mr. Reagan’s improbable climb from a
Hollywood acting career to the governorship of California and ultimately
the White House, she was a trusted adviser.
“Without
Nancy, there would have been no Governor Reagan, no President Reagan,”
said Michael K. Deaver, the longtime aide and close friend of the
Reagans who died in 2007.
President
Obama said on Sunday that Mrs. Reagan “had redefined the role” of first
lady, adding, “Later, in her long goodbye with President Reagan, she
became a voice on behalf of millions of families going through the
depleting, aching reality of Alzheimer’s, and took on a new role, as
advocate, on behalf of treatments that hold the potential and the
promise to improve and save lives.”
Mrs.
Reagan helped hire and fire the political consultants who ran her
husband’s near-miss campaign for the Republican presidential nomination
in 1976 and his successful campaign for the presidency in 1980.
She
also played a seminal role in the 1987 ouster of the White House chief
of staff, Donald T. Regan, whom Mrs. Reagan blamed for ineptness after
it was disclosed that Mr. Reagan had secretly approved arms sales to
Iran.
Behind
the scenes, Mrs. Reagan was the prime mover in Mr. Reagan’s efforts to
recover from the scandal, which was known as Iran-contra because some of
the proceeds from the sale had been diverted to the contras opposing
the leftist government of Nicaragua. While trying to persuade her
stubborn husband to apologize for the arms deal, Mrs. Reagan brought
political figures into the White House, among them the Democratic power
broker Robert S. Strauss, to argue her case to the president.
Mr.
Reagan eventually conceded that she was right. On March 4, 1987, the
president made a distanced apology for the arms sale in a nationally
televised address that dramatically improved his slumping public
approval ratings.
His
wife, typically, neither sought nor received credit for the turnaround.
Mrs. Reagan did not wish to detract from her husband’s luster by
appearing to be a power behind the presidential throne.
In
public, she gazed at him adoringly and portrayed herself as a contented
wife who had willingly given up a Hollywood acting career of her own to
devote herself to her husband’s career. “He was all I had ever wanted
in a man, and more,” she wrote in “My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy
Reagan,” published in 1989.
He
reciprocated in kind. “How do you describe coming into a warm room from
out of the cold?” he once said. “Never waking up bored? The only thing
wrong is, she’s made a coward out of me. Whenever she’s out of sight,
I’m a worrier about her.”
In
truth, she was the worrier. Mrs. Reagan wrote in her memoirs that she
sometimes became angry with her husband because of his relentless
optimism. He didn’t worry at all, she wrote, “and I seem to do the
worrying for both of us.”
It
was this conviction that led Mrs. Reagan to take a leading role in the
Regan ouster and in other personnel matters in the White House. “It’s
hard to envision Ronnie as being a bad guy,” she said in a 1989
interview. “And he’s not. But there are times when somebody has to step
in and say something. And I’ve had to do that sometimes — often.”
She
did not always get her way. Mr. Reagan ignored her criticism of several
cabinet appointees, including Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger.
In 2001, seven years after her husband announced that he had Alzheimer’s disease, Mrs. Reagan broke with President George W. Bush and endorsed embryonic stem cell
research. She stepped up her advocacy after her husband’s death on June
5, 2004. “She feels the greatest legacy her family could ever have is
to spare other families from going through what they have,” a family
friend, Doug Wick, quoted Mrs. Reagan as saying.
Years on Camera
Born
Anne Frances Robbins on July 6, 1921, in New York City, Nancy Davis was
the daughter of Edith Luckett, an actress, and Kenneth Robbins, a car
dealer who abandoned the family soon after her birth. Ms. Luckett
resumed her stage career when her daughter was 2 and sent the child to
live with relatives in Bethesda, Md. In 1929, Ms. Luckett married a
Chicago neurosurgeon, Loyal Davis, who adopted Nancy and gave her the
family name.
Almost
overnight, Nancy Davis’s difficult childhood became stable and
privileged. Throughout the rest of her life, she described Mr. Davis as
her real father.
Nancy Davis graduated from the elite Girls’ Latin School in Chicago and then from Smith College
in 1943. Slender, with photogenic beauty and large, luminous eyes, she
considered an acting career. After doing summer stock in New England,
she landed a part in the Broadway musical “Lute Song,” with Mary Martin
and Yul Brynner. With the help of a friend, the actor Spencer Tracy, her
mother then arranged a screen test given by the director George Cukor,
of MGM.
Cukor,
according to his biographer, told the studio that Miss Davis lacked
talent. Nonetheless, she was given a part in the film she had tested
for, “East Side, West Side,” which was released in 1949 starring Barbara
Stanwyck, James Mason and Ava Gardner. Cast as the socialite wife of a
New York press baron, Miss Davis appeared in only two scenes, but they
were with Miss Stanwyck, the film’s top star.
After
her husband went into politics, Mrs. Reagan encouraged the notion that
her acting interest had been secondary, a view underscored by the
biographical information she supplied to MGM in 1949, in which she said
her “greatest ambition” was to have a “successful, happy marriage.”
But
this was a convention in a day when women were not encouraged to have
careers outside the home. In his book “Reagan’s America: Innocents At
Home,” Garry Wills disputed the prevalent view that Miss Davis had just
been marking time in Hollywood while waiting for a man. She was “the
steady woman,” he wrote, who in most of her 11 films had held her own
with accomplished actors.
The
producer Dore Schary cast Miss Davis in her first lead role, in “The
Next Voice You Hear” (1950), playing a pregnant mother opposite James
Whitmore. She received good reviews for her work in “Night Into Morning”
(1951), with Ray Milland, in which she played a war widow who talked
Milland’s character out of committing suicide. Mrs. Reagan thought this
was her best film.
Mr.
Wills wrote that she was underrated as an actress because she had
become most widely associated with her “worst” and, as it happened, last
film, “Hellcats of the Navy” (1957), in which Ronald Reagan had the
leading role.
Photo
The Reagans at a premiere party for the film “Moby Dick” in 1956.Credit
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
How They Met
As she so often did in life, Nancy Davis took the initiative in meeting the man who would become her husband.
In
the late 1940s, Hollywood was in the grip of a “Red Scare,” prompted by
government investigations into accusations of Communist influence in
the film industry. In October 1949, the name “Nancy Davis” appeared in a
Hollywood newspaper on a list of signers of a supporting brief urging
the Supreme Court to overturn the convictions of two screenwriters who
had been blacklisted after being found guilty of contempt for refusing
to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Such
newspaper mentions could mean the end of a career, and Nancy Davis
sought help from her friend Mervyn LeRoy, who had directed her in “East
Side, West Side.” LeRoy found it was a case of mistaken identity:
another Nancy Davis had worked in what he called “leftist theater.” He
offered to call Ronald Reagan, president of the Screen Actors Guild, to
make sure there would be no problems in the future. Instead, Miss Davis
insisted that LeRoy set up a meeting with Mr. Reagan.
The
meeting took place over dinner at LaRue’s, a fashionable Hollywood
restaurant on Sunset Strip. Mr. Reagan, recovering from multiple leg
fractures suffered in a charity baseball game, was on crutches. Miss
Davis was immediately smitten.
Mr.
Reagan, though, was more cautious. According to Bob Colacello, who has
written extensively about the Reagans, Mr. Reagan still hoped for a
reconciliation with his first wife, the actress Jane Wyman, who had
divorced him in 1948.
After
dating several times in the fall of 1949, Mr. Reagan and Miss Davis
drifted apart and dated others. But they began seeing each other again
in 1950. Miss Davis had been accepted on the board of the Screen Actors
Guild, and she and Mr. Reagan began having dinner every Monday night
after the meetings, often with the actor William Holden, the guild vice
president, according to Mr. Colacello.
Mr.
Reagan and Nancy Davis were married on March 4, 1952, at a private
ceremony at The Little Brown Church in the Valley, in Studio City. Mr.
Holden and his wife, Ardis, were the only witnesses.
After
their marriage, the Reagans bought a house in the Pacific Palisades
area of Los Angeles, where their daughter, Patricia Ann, was born — “a
bit precipitously,” Mrs. Reagan wrote in her memoirs — on Oct. 21, 1952.
She is known as Patti Davis professionally. The Reagans also had a son,
Ronald Prescott, on May 28, 1958.
Besides
her son and daughter, survivors include Mrs. Reagan’s stepson, Michael
Reagan, and her brother, Dr. Richard Davis. A stepdaughter, Maureen
Reagan, died in 2001.
At
the time of their marriage, Mr. Reagan’s film career was, as his new
wife put it, at a “standstill.” Although Nancy Reagan had vowed not to
be a working wife, she made a low-budget science-fiction movie,
“Donovan’s Brain” (1953), with Lew Ayres. Her working was “a blow to
Ronnie,” Mrs. Reagan observed in her memoirs, “but quite simply, we
needed the money.”
The
money worries ended early in 1954, when Music Corporation of America,
the entertainment conglomerate, offered Mr. Reagan a television contract
for $125,000 a year to be the host of “General Electric Theater.” It
had a long run, broadcast on Sunday nights until 1962, and Mrs. Reagan
herself acted in a few of its episodes.
Indeed,
when her film career was over, she continued to work sporadically in
television, in episodes of “Zane Grey Theater,” “The Dick Powell Show”
and, as late as 1962, “Wagon Train.”
A Loyal Supporter
By
then, Mr. Reagan had changed his partisan affiliation from Democratic
to Republican and was giving political speeches. In Hollywood, Mr.
Reagan’s shift toward the right was often attributed to Mrs. Reagan and
her father, Loyal Davis, a staunch conservative. Both the Reagans denied
this; she was barely interested in politics at the time, they said.
Ironically, when President Reagan began to negotiate with Soviet
leaders, conservatives accused Mrs. Reagan of pushing him in a liberal
direction. Evidence is lacking to support either suspicion. As Mrs.
Reagan put it: “If Ronnie hadn’t wanted to do it, he wouldn’t have done
it.”
Though
Mrs. Reagan was not at first keen on her husband’s entry into politics,
she loyally supported him. His career took off when he made a rousing
nationally televised speech for the Republican presidential candidate
Barry Goldwater on Oct. 27, 1964. The following year a group of wealthy
people from Southern California approached Mr. Reagan about running for
governor of California. He was interested.
From
the first, Mrs. Reagan was part of the campaign planning. “They were a
team,” said Stuart Spencer, who with Bill Roberts managed the Reagan
campaign. New to politics, she said little at first. But Mr. Spencer
found her “a quick learner, always absorbing.” Before long she was
peppering Mr. Roberts and Mr. Spencer about their strategy and tactics.
Mr.
Reagan won a contested Republican primary and then a landslide victory
in November against the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Edmund G. Brown. For
the Reagans, that meant a 350-mile move to the state capital,
Sacramento.
Mrs.
Reagan was not happy there. She missed friends and the brisker social
pace and milder climate of Southern California. And she hated the
governor’s mansion, a dilapidated Victorian house on a busy one-way
street. So she persuaded her husband to lease, at their own expense, a
12-room Tudor house in a fashionable section of eastern Sacramento. Mr.
Reagan’s wealthy Southern California supporters later bought the house
and leased it back to the Reagans.
The
mansion episode, and Mrs. Reagan’s unalloyed preference for Southern
California, aroused parochial resentment in Sacramento. She in turn
disliked the city’s locker-room political culture, which required her to
socialize with the wives of legislators who had insulted her husband.
She bristled at press scrutiny, which became more intense after Joan
Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, wrote an unflattering
article, “Pretty Nancy,” in The Saturday Evening Post in 1968. The
article described Mrs. Reagan’s famous smile as a study in frozen
insecurity.
Mrs.
Reagan, who thought she had made a good impression on Ms. Didion, was
crushed by the article. Katharine Graham, the longtime publisher of The
Washington Post and later a friend of Mrs. Reagan’s, said the article
set the tone for other unfavorable ones.
But
not all the press coverage was unflattering. A few months later, The
Los Angeles Times published an article whose tone was telegraphed by its
headline: “Nancy Reagan: A Model First Lady.” She also received
positive publicity for welcoming home former prisoners of war from
Vietnam and taking an active role in a Foster Grandparents Program for
mentally disabled children.
Governor
Reagan left office in 1975. With President Richard M. Nixon enmeshed in
the Watergate scandal, the Reagans had already begun planning their
next political move. In May 1974, they met with supporters at their home
in Pacific Palisades. Among them was John P. Sears, a Washington lawyer
who had worked for Mr. Nixon’s presidential campaign in 1960. Mr.
Sears, alone of those who attended the meeting, predicted the Nixon
resignation. That made an impression on Mrs. Reagan.
After
Nixon resigned and was succeeded by Gerald R. Ford, Mr. Reagan began
planning to challenge Mr. Ford for the 1976 Republican presidential
nomination. Mrs. Reagan recommended hiring Mr. Sears to direct the
effort, which Mr. Reagan narrowly lost. (Mr. Ford was then defeated by Jimmy Carter.)
Four
years later, as Mr. Reagan again sought the nomination, Mrs. Reagan
played a leading role in the firing of Mr. Sears. The campaign had just
won the New Hampshire primary, but Mrs. Reagan nevertheless came to
believe that Mr. Sears was a disruptive influence. She also had a hand
in the hiring of his replacement as campaign manager, William J. Casey,
whom Mr. Reagan later named director of central intelligence.
But
after Mr. Reagan won the nomination and got off to a flustered start in
his campaign against President Carter, Mrs. Reagan became critical of
Mr. Casey and urged her husband to bring in Stuart Spencer, who had run
Mr. Reagan’s first campaign for governor. Mr. Spencer was persona non
grata in the Reagan camp because he had managed Mr. Ford’s campaign in
1976. But Mr. Reagan followed his wife’s advice. Mr. Spencer joined the
campaign and ran it smoothly.
Not
all of her advice was equally good. For instance, she opposed Mr.
Spencer’s proposal that her husband debate President Carter. Mr. Reagan
decided to debate and did so well that he surged ahead in the polls and
won convincingly a week later.
Photo
Mrs. Reagan, wearing a dress by the designer Oscar de la Renta, left, in 1989.Credit
Bill Cunningham
A Sophisticated Turn
As
first lady, Mrs. Reagan was glamorous and controversial. The White
House started serving liquor again after the abstemious Carter years.
Mrs. Reagan reached out to Washington society. More sophisticated than
she had been in Sacramento, Mrs. Reagan also reached out to politicians,
Democrats as well as Republicans. She became friends with Millie
O’Neal, wife of the House speaker, Thomas P. O’Neill, who was a
political foe of President Reagan by day and a friend after hours.
During one period in 1981, when Mrs. Reagan was getting “bad press,” as
she recalled, Mr. O’Neill leaned across at a luncheon and said, “Don’t
let it get you down.”
Mrs.
Reagan’s critics said she had brought the bad press on herself. After
one look at the White House living quarters, Mrs. Reagan decided to redo
them. She then raised $822,000 from private contributors to accomplish
this. Another contributor put up more than $200,000 to buy a set of
presidential china, enough for 220 place settings; it was the first new
set in the White House since the Johnson administration.
With
a slim figure maintained by daily exercise, Mrs. Reagan looked younger
than her years and wore expensively simple gowns provided by Galanos,
Adolfo and other designers. One best-selling Washington postcard
featured Mrs. Reagan in an ermine cape and jeweled crown with the label
“Queen Nancy.” It touched a nerve with Mrs. Reagan, who had been
surprised at the press criticism of the china purchase and the White
House redecoration. But the rest of the country was kinder. In 1981, a
Gallup poll put Mrs. Reagan first on the list of “most admired women” in
the nation. She was in the top 10 on the list throughout the Reagan
presidency.
White
House image-makers, aware that President Reagan was generally well
liked for his self-deprecating humor, urged Mrs. Reagan to use humor as a
weapon against her critics. She did so spectacularly on March 29, 1982,
at the Gridiron Dinner, an annual roast by journalists, where, to
standing ovations, she made sport of her stylish if icy image in a
surprise on-stage appearance as “Second Hand Rose,” wearing feathered
hat, pantaloons and yellow boots and singing a parody of “Second Hand
Clothes.”
Mrs.
Reagan’s darkest memory was of March 30, 1981, when she received word
that her husband had been shot by a would-be assassin outside the
Washington Hilton Hotel. She rushed to the hospital, where her husband,
although fighting for his life, was still wisecracking. “Honey, I forgot
to duck,” he said to her, borrowing a line that the fighter Jack
Dempsey supposedly said to his wife after losing the heavyweight
championship to Gene Tunney in 1926. But Mrs. Reagan found nothing to
laugh about. “Nothing can happen to my Ronnie,” she wrote in her diary
that night. “My life would be over.”
After
the assassination attempt, Mrs. Reagan turned to Joan Quigley, a San
Francisco astrologer, who claimed to have predicted that March 30 would
be a “bad day” for the president. Her relationship with Ms. Quigley
“began as a crutch,” Mrs. Reagan wrote, “one of several ways I tried to
alleviate my anxiety about Ronnie.” Within a year, it was a habit. Mrs.
Reagan conversed with Ms. Quigley by telephone and passed on the
information she received about favorable and unfavorable days to Mr.
Deaver, the presidential assistant, and later to the White House chief
of staff, Donald Regan, for use in scheduling.
Mr.
Regan disclosed Mrs. Reagan’s astrological bent in his 1988 book, “For
the Record: From Wall Street to Washington,” asserting that the Quigley
information created a chaotic situation for White House schedulers. Mrs.
Reagan said that no political decisions had been made based on the
astrologist’s advice, nor did Mr. Regan allege that any had been.
But
the disclosure was nonetheless embarrassing to Mrs. Reagan; she and
many commentators saw it as an act of revenge for the role she had
played in forcing Mr. Regan out after the Iran-contra disclosures. Mrs.
Reagan’s low opinion of Mr. Regan was well known; she had said tartly
that he “liked the sound of chief but not of staff.” In fact, however,
Mr. Regan’s resignation had also been demanded by powerful Republican
figures, and the president had agreed to it. When Mr. Regan saw a report
of this on CNN, he quit and walked out of the White House.
Within
the White House, Mrs. Reagan was known as a meticulous taskmaster. Some
staff members feared incurring her disfavor. The speechwriter Peggy
Noonan was wearing walking clothes in the White House the first time she
passed by Mrs. Reagan, who looked at her with disdain. “The next time I
saw her I hid behind a pillar,” Ms. Noonan wrote in the book “What I
saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era.”
Other
staff members found Mrs. Reagan more approachable than her husband. One
of these was the speechwriter Landon Parvin, who worked with Mrs.
Reagan when she was engineering her husband’s recovery from the
Iran-contra scandal and drafted the apology in the president’s televised
speech.
Photo
The first lady with students of the Second Genesis drug rehabilitation agency in Upper Marlboro, Md., in 1981.Credit
Charles Tasnadi/Associated Press
Her Own Causes
As
first lady, Mrs. Reagan traveled throughout the United States and
abroad to speak out against drug and alcohol abuse by young Americans
and coined the phrase “Just Say No,” which was used in advertising
campaigns during the 1980s.
In
speeches about drug abuse, Mrs. Reagan often used a line from the
William Inge play “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs,” in which a mother
says of her children, “I always thought I could give them life like a
present, all wrapped in white with every promise of success.” Mr.
Parvin, in an interview, said she had become emotional when she read
this line, “as if it had a power that went back to her own childhood.”
On
Oct. 17, 1987, a few days after cancer was detected in a mammogram,
Mrs. Reagan underwent a mastectomy of her left breast. Afterward, she
discussed the operation openly to encourage women to have mammograms
every year.
After
the presidency, the Reagans returned to Los Angeles and settled in a
ranch house in exclusive Bel Air. In 1994, Mr. Reagan learned he had
Alzheimer’s disease and announced the diagnosis to the American people
in a poignant letter, which Mrs. Reagan had helped him write.
For
the next decade, Mrs. Reagan conducted what she called a “long
goodbye,” described in Newsweek as “10 years of exacting caregiving,
hurried lunches with friends” and “hours spent with old love letters and
powerful advocacy for new research into cures for the disease that was
taking Ronnie from her.”
At
Mr. Reagan’s funeral, at the National Cathedral in Washington, she
remained in tight control of her emotions. Then she flew west with the
coffin for a burial service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in
Simi Valley, Calif., where Mrs. Reagan will also be buried. At the
conclusion of the ceremony, at sunset, soldiers and sailors handed Mrs.
Reagan a folded American flag. She held it close to her heart, put it
down on the coffin, and at last began to cry.
Lou Cannon is the author of
five books about Ronald Reagan and was White House correspondent for The
Washington Post during the Reagan administration.
Following the failure to secure a safe
landing for Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct
Tribunal penultimate week, members of the upper chamber of the National
Assembly appear to be closing in on a successor in case the inevitable
happens, SUNDAY ABORISADE reports.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his army of supporters across
the two main political parties in the red chamber, the Peoples
Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, would definitely had
wished that the cup of this week should pass over them. The Code of
Conduct Tribunal has fixed March 11 to start the trial of the number
three citizen of Nigeria who is the head of the federal parliament.
The Code of Conduct Bureau is prosecuting Saraki for alleged false
declaration of his assets. Virtually all legal and political steps taken
to stop Saraki’s trial by the Danladi Umar-led trial appeared to have
hit the rocks.
For instance, a last-minute hope of securing a judicial remedy
through an Abuja Federal High Court after a devastating blow from the
Supreme Court which allowed the CCT to continue with the trial, was
dashed penultimate week, when the court failed to heed a fresh prayer
seeking to stop the trial.
The Senate President had sought an order quashing his trial before
the CCT on ground, among others, that he was denied fair hearing in the
course of investigations leading to the charges preferred against him.
While necessary judicial solutions were being explored by the
Saraki’s team of legal experts, his friends and political associates
within and outside the National Assembly had equally intensified efforts
to lobby the presidency to prevail on the CCT to stop the case.
Part of the thinking of Saraki’s lobby team was that since an
outright dismissal of the case would generate serious public outcry,
especially when the case involved an alleged act of corruption, a
deliberate delay through long adjournments of hearing dates could make
Nigerians and the international community lose interest in it, while the
Senate President enjoys his tenure. But feelers from some heavyweight
politicians involved in the lobby showed that major political actors in
the presidency claimed that their hands were tied on the matter because
all facts were already in the public domain.
A senator who claimed to be privy to the lobby option told SUNDAY
PUNCH on condition of anonymity that Saraki’s emissary to the presidency
said attempting a political solution at this stage would cause a
setback for President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade.
A presidency source had said, “If Saraki’s hands were not tied when
he rejected the party’s nominations for the principal offices of the
National Assembly, perhaps the rope would not have been tied tightly on
our own hands at this moment too.”
Saraki’s loyalists in the Senate, however, saw an opportunity to save
their colleague when Umar appeared before the Senate Committee on
Judiciary to defend the 2016 budget of his tribunal penultimate week.
A senator, who would not want his name mentioned, confided in our
correspondent that the Senate committee raised some issues in Umar’s
budget and gave him a date to come back to defend the queries.
The senator however said the plan failed when Umar refused to show up
for the budget defence until the deadline for the submission of
committee reports on MDAs budgets lapsed last Monday.
Since the grand plot to bring Saraki and Umar together at the upper
chamber failed, Saraki’s loyalists at both chambers are now allegedly
mounting pressure on the House of Representatives’ Committee on Ethics
and Public Petitions to intensify its probe of the alleged bribery
allegation against Umar.
Both chambers of the federal parliament had asked their ethics
committees to investigate an allegation contained in a petition by the
Anti-Corruption Network that the CCT boss allegedly demanded and
collected a N10m bribe.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public
Petitions, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, told our correspondent last week that
his panel would await the outcome of the House committee, which had
already started work on the petition.
But the spokesperson for the camp loyal to Sen. Ahmad Lawan, Saraki’s
main opponent for the senate presidency seat, Senate Unity Forum, Sen.
Kabir Marafa, said in an interview with our correspondent that the trial
of Umar was politically motivated.
He therefore reiterated his call for the resignation of the Senate President in order to enable him to attend to his case.
It was learnt that part of the strategies of the SUF members was to
constantly attack Saraki’s leadership, using the proposed purchase of
exotic cars at a time when the Federal Government was finding it
difficult to pay theN5, 000 meant for jobless Nigerians.
But the Special Adviser to Saraki on Special Duties and
Intra-Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Moshood Mustapha, described the public
outcry over the reported purchase of some vehicles by the National
Assembly for security operatives in the convoy of principal officers of
both chambers of the legislature as “unnecessary.”
Mustapha said critics of the project vehicles were not being fair to
the federal parliamentarians, arguing that nobody was raising eyebrows
when the political office holders in the executive arm of government
were allocated at least two vehicles each.
He said Saraki, for instance, had been using his personal cars since
he was inaugurated as President of the Senate. He also cited instances
where some of the vehicles he inherited in the convoy of his predecessor
developed serious mechanical faults.
The pro-Saraki lawmaker said the car transaction was purely between
the National Assembly management and the beneficiaries of the vehicles
who are not even lawmakers.
Mustapha said Saraki was entitled to two vehicles but that only one
was replaced in his convoy and that he chose so, on his own, because of
the economic situation of the country and to minimise government
expenses.
Mustapha also said Saraki saved the country N5bn when he rejected the
N6bn put in the budget of the Federal Capital Territory to build his
official residence and reduced it to N1bn just to exhibit prudence.
“Left to other people, they would have allowed it to go. As an
individual, he doesn’t believe in that project but because a lot of
money had gone into it; he believed that having N6bn in his official
residence is a waste and decided on his own to take away N5bn from this
project and put only N1bn.
“So, what is the N200m used to buy vehicles for security personnel
and protocol compared to the N5bn he had saved the nation. I wonder why
people are talking as if the vehicles are his personal property or for
his children.”
He also said no form of bribery took place at the upper chamber
during the screening of the ministers, contrary to insinuations in
certain quarters. He added that no form of corrupt practice took place
during the recently concluded budget defence by federal government
agencies.
Mustapha said, “Bukola Saraki had created the most democratised,
participatory and rigorous budgeting process as we have all seen, this
is perhaps the most disciplined senate since 1999. We have ministerial
screening and budget approval process without bribery and other forms of
corruption. It is a scandal free budget process. Nobody has ever said
anybody brought money or anything.
“Everybody has been busy doing his work and it was through this
painstaking process that we were able to discover errors in the budget
and even the president himself had said it that there are errors and
that he would hold the culprits responsible.”
Neverthless, having considered the sensitive nature of the case
before the CCT, some senators were said to have been making frantic
efforts to shop for Saraki’s successor.
Findings by our correspondent showed that members of both the SUF and
pro-Saraki senators under the aegis of Like Minds Senators had started
making contacts on how to agree on an acceptable candidate.
Some senators were also said to have agreed that the Deputy Senate
President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, would not be affected by the change as
he would be allowed to continue in office.
“However, senators from the anti-Saraki’s SUF group were advocating
the change of the principal officers to reflect the position of the
leadership of APC,” one of those privy to the plan had told SUNDAY
PUNCH.
If the SUF members should have their way, the implication is that
Lawan would take over from Sen. Ali Ndume as Senate Leader, while Sen.
Bala Ibn N’Allah might lose his Deputy Leader seat to Sen. George Akume,
who has not been attending activities in the Senate for some time. The
newcomer from Edo State, Sen. Francis Alimikhena, might also be asked to
vacate his seat as Deputy Whip for Sen. Abu Ibrahim.
It is still not clear how the issue of principal officers would be
resolved but one of the Like Minds Senators said Saraki’s successor
might come from his state or from the neighbouring Nasarawa State.
He said, “Both the SUF and Like Minds Senators had agreed to support
the emergence of somebody from the North-Central geopolitical zone, a
Muslim, who will be a bridge builder and acceptable to every senator.”
He also said the Saraki loyalists, who were in the majority at the
upper chamber, had insisted that his successor must also be a member of
the ‘New PDP’, a breakaway faction of the PDP which joined the APC at
its formation.
The lawmaker said, “This issue had gone beyond SUF or LMS. We are
coming together as one to ensure a rancour free arrangement that would
lead to the emergence of a new senate president. Most of the people that
we have consulted agreed that another senator from Kwara North should
take over the mantle of leadership.
“It has been agreed that with this, the people of Kwara would not
feel too bad, while the current arrangement in the red chamber will
remain as it is. ”
Close watchers of the development at the senate were of the opinion
that the resumption of Saraki’s trial at the CCT this week will
obviously shape the nation’s political history.
Saharareporters
During his military career,
Charles held various appointments in command, instruction and staff
positions. These included Staff Officer in Army Headquarters and
Command Finance Office (CFO) Apapa at different periods; Divisional
Cashier, 1 and 2 Mechanized Divisions at various times; Cashier,
Nigerian Army in Command Finance Office (CFO) Apapa; Deputy Defense
Attaché (Fin), Washington DC, USA; Director of Finance, NDA; Deputy
Commandant/Director of Studies, Nigerian Army School of Finance &
Administration (NASFA); Deputy Commander, CFO; Commandant, NASFA;
Commander, CFO; and Merger Coordinator, Nigerian GCE and President Buhari in their military days Army Assets in the office of the Chief of Army Staff, Director Army Finance and Accounts, the nomenclature that later changed to the Commander Corps of Army Finance and Account.
