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I first met President Shagari in 1973 or so, at Mosaic House, Tinubu Square Lagos when he was Federal Commissioner for Finance. A mutual friend had set up an appointment for me to meet him to discuss some personal problem. He received me very warmly and passed me on to Alhaji Shehu Musa who was then Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, whom I was also to meet for the first time. The problem was solved. Six years later we were all working together in the fist post-military civilian government in Nigeria with Alhaji Shehu Musa as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

I did not meet President Shagari again until December 1978 at the first national convention of the National Party of Nigeria, where he, who wanted to be a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic, was nominated as the party's presidential flag bearer and eventually became President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Curiously, I, who had been invited home from Scotland to become Governor of Anambra State ended up being Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

President Shagari has, in his autobiography, mentioned how well we worked together. For me, this is an opportunity to say publicly that it was a pleasure working with him. This was so because he is a fine gentleman, a man of candour, a man without a chip on his shoulders and above all a democrat and a "Nigerian" in the true sense of the word.

My simple analysis of the constant conflict between some governors and their deputies, which we witnessed during the Second Republic revealed that they arose from two main causes. Firstly, where a Governor showed signs of a lack of self-confidence or had a complex of sorts and saw his Deputy as a rival rather than as a partner or helpmate, then there was bound to be trouble. On the other hand, where the Deputy did not accept or did not operate within the basic principle that there can only be one captain in charge of a ship at one time, and that the buck must only stop at one table - the table of the Governor, then there would also be trouble. The most serious trouble would arise where a Deputy gave the impression that he could do better than the Governor and proceeded to show off and to put the Governor down privately or publicly. This would be a recipe for disaster and we saw a bit of this in our time.

I worked for 51 months with President Shagari. I cannot now recall any major action I took that was not covered by his authority or approval in writing. I never once had the feeling that the confidence he had in me was in doubt, in spite of possible suggestions from u uninformed observers that my influence in the government appears to be on the high side. For my part, I believe I did my best to manifest unstinting loyalty and to proffer advice as candidly as possible and without sycophancy, bearing in mind, as we used to joke occasionally, that I was the only member of the Council of Ministers whom he could not sack. He could sack the Secretary to the Government and all the ministers. He could sack the Special Advisers and Special Assistants but he could not sack me. And, in any case, although he selected me to be his running mate, I became (that is, was sworn in as) Vice President several minutes before he became President! So this was a relationship, a marriage so to speak, that admitted of no divorce not even of separation. It was therefore incumbent on both of us to do our best to make a success of the relationship and I believe we did. The crucial fact is that although advice may be given to a President from any source, no piece of advice can in fact, be imposed. The President must decide, in his wisdom, which piece of advice to take and which to ignore because, in the final analysis, he has to accept full and total responsibility.

You know, American political historians describe the office of the Vice President as the most delicate and difficult position in American federal government. They posit that where a particular presidential administration succeeds, the credit for the success invariably goes to the President who may then be described as "one of America's great presidents." On the other hand, where there is some misgiving or failure, this is attributed jointly to the President and Vice President. I believe that US Vice President A1 Gore's recent experience in terms of the economic success of the Clinton administration for which most of the credit is given to President Bill Clinton, and Clinton's alleged moral lapses which appeared to have been politically attributed to both of them, would tend to validate this thesis.

In this connection, I do remember, that after my presentation as vice presidential candidate to the National Executive Committee of the National Party of Nigeria on 24 January 1979, journalists asked the late Dr. K.O. Mbadiwe how it was that he did not clinch the position. In his inimitable style, "KO" asked the journalists how t hey ever imagined that a person like him would be a mere "repeater station." This was reminiscent of his counter to journalists about two decades earlier as to why they were raising questions about "chicken feed" when there was indeed the possibility of "elephantine income" which he patriotically forewent. Did "KO" have the American situation in mind when he claimed he did not want to be a repeater station.

Let me use this opportunity to acknowledge publicly that, under President Shagari, I was not a "repeater station." Nor was I a "spare tyre" - another phrase erroneously applied to Vice Presidents and Deputy Governors. I was, in the terminology of the 1979 Constitution (and also the 1999 Constitution), his "associate" not only "for the purpose of his running for the office of President" but also for the purpose of his carrying out his duties as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

I am particularly happy that this book is coming out at this time as it will, at least, throw some light on many of the ill-reported (and ', distorted) events of the Second Republic. About four weeks ago, on 27 January 2001 precisely, at the presentation in Kaduna of a book on the first twenty years of the New Nigerian, I-had occasion to emphasize the importance of the role of the media in nation building, its capacity for good or ill, and in particular its destructive capability if its powers are wielded maliciously and malevolently.

One of the greatest problems the Shagari administration had to contend with was the media, popularly styled "of the Lagos-Ibadan axis." The administration was the target of unremitting and unrelenting hostile attack. I shall cite only two examples:

Let us first take up the matter of the 1979 Presidential elections, the first under the 1979 Constitution and the 1977 Electoral Act. It will be remembered that in the First Republic, under the Parliamentary system, it was possible for Alhaji Tafawa Balewa to confine his political campaign to his Bauchi constituency and not visit any other part of Nigeria and yet at the end of the day be invited to form a government and become Prime Minister on the basis of parliamentary seats won in his region of Northern Nigeria by his party, the Northern Peoples Congress.

However, when the Presidential system was introduced, the emphasis shifted to the search for a "national leader" as president. The provision was made that not only should the winner of a presidential election score the highest number of votes cast in the election, he should also have, in addition, a national "spread" by winning at least 25 percent of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of the states. The specific mischief which this provision was intended to cure was the possibility of a person becoming President of Nigeria on the basis of votes cast for him by only a few states, especially states inhabited by his clansmen. Put shortly, the 1979 Constitution did not want a tribal leader to be elevated to the status of a national leader or President without the reasonable concurrence of Nigerians from other ethnic groups.

Prom the results of the 1979 presidential elections, the following facts were self-evident and attracted common ground:

I That Alhaji Shagari won the highest number of votes cast at the election; over a million votes more than his closest rival;

II That he was the first choice of the voters in nine states, the second choice of the voters in nine other states and the third choice of the voters in only one state, Lagos state.

In short Alhaji Shagari was the first or second choice of voters as their President in eighteen out of the nineteen states in Nigeria at that time.

III That he obtained at least 25 percent of the votes cast in 12 out of the 19 states of Nigeria. What was in dispute, if there was a dispute, was the interpretation of the legal implication of the votes he received in a 13th state, Kano.

Notwithstanding the above clear contrasts, the runner-up candidate who in other ordered societies would have conceded victory to the winner even before the results were announced, nevertheless decided to challenge, up to the highest court in the land, the election of a candidate who was the first or second choice for President in eighteen out of the nineteen states of Nigeria.

If the Supreme Court had found in his favour, the election would have had to be decided by an electoral college consisting of all Nigerian legislators. Given the voting pattern summarised above, how could the runner-up have won the election except perhaps by surbonning or improperly influencing the legislators on a "cash and carry basis"? And the result would have been to endorse the precise mischief, which the 1979 Constitution was so laboriously calculated to cure.

In the event, by a 5 to 2 majority, the Supreme Court endorsed the election of AIhaji Shehu Shagari as President of Nigeria as already announced by the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO). The crowning infamy was that this 5:2 majority decision of the highest court in the land was at the time being challenged on a day to day basis on the pages of newspapers by people who professed a belief in the rule of law. The very people who were intent on "stealing" the presidency against the popular wish of Nigerians were the same people who turned round to accuse the winner of holding on to a "stolen presidency." The refrain of "stolen presidency" rent the air and was chorused by newspapers and news magazines, by the electronic media and by analysts and commentators including, curiously, supposedly experienced senior lawyers and political scientists. They all sang in unison "stolen presidency." Even some of the international media lapped up the propaganda. It was a very sad situation for Nigeria and in particular for Nigerian media and Nigerian "intellectuals."

The second example I would like to address is the question of corruption in government. Corruption has been with us for a long time and is still with us even today. Now, during the Second Republic, it was the same media organisations that trumpeted the "stolen presidency" that took up the new swan song of alleged corruption in the Federal Government, especially by "Shagari ad his ministers" as they would put it, and presumably in contrast to the allegedly "clean" and "corruption free" record of the state governments run by the "Opposition" group if one might use the r word "opposition" in a presidential system. When the military came on board on 31 December 1983 and combed the records of federal and state government activities, what did they find and where? For the second term, President Shagari had laid the foundation and set the ground rules for minimising whatever acts of corruption were discovered.

Now, sometimes I sit down and ponder the fate of some of the ministers who served with us in the Second Republic, many of them honestly and selflessly, and who have passed on to the great beyond; and I do feel mightily sorry that their contributions have not been recognised and appreciated. They are all lumped together by the hostile media in the group of so-called "Corrupt Second Republic ministers." I think of John Jatau Kadiya, the first minister of the Federal Capital Territory in the civilian dispensation and Chairman of the Federal Capital Development Authority. I think of Adebisi Ogedengbe, Paulinus Amadike, Chief Bamgboye and others? What did they leave behind.

I think especially of Barrister D.C. Ugwu, Minister of Health for four years. His house at Nsukka was the one he built as Parliamentary Secretary in the First Republic. When he fell seriously ill, the illness that finally took his life, he could not raise the funds with which to travel overseas to receive recommended treatment. The situation was so bad that, in desperation, I had to bring it to the attention of the then Head of State, General Babangida, through the then -Secretary to the Government of the Federation, late Alhaji Aliyu Moharnmed. The Head of State approved release of funds with which "D.C." travelled to London. But then it was apparently too late.

And what about the living? To take two examples only, what of Mr. Isaac Shaahu and Dr. Sylvester Ugoh, both ministers for all of four years? But I must stop so far. I think I have digressed enough.

In sum, I think that politicians and the media should at all times, especially in our current renewed experiment at democracy, do everything possible to build and not to destroy. The nation, rather than our personal interests, should be the focus of our commitment, our service and our life.

It is a good thing that President Shagari has put pen to paper. He has written his autobiography. I hope I will be able to write mine some time in the future, perhaps when I am 70 (God willing). Whatever we write may, of course, be regarded as self-serving since we were directly involved and are directly concerned. I only hope that there will arise, in the future, true scholars who will out detailed and objective research, unencumbered by political and ethnic considerations, into the performance of the various dramatis personae in the federal and state governments of the Second Republic and pass appropriate judgement.

Dr. Ekwueme is former vice president