BY OKPANI NKAMA JNR (MAN OF HISTORY)
An Igbo philosophy holds that “the IKORO calls a warrior twice in his lifetime. First, on his sunrise, day of birth, and second, on his sunset, dying day.
Ndigbo also believe that warriors don’t die. Their passages are seen as going to answer the esoteric summons to join their Ancestors for greater exploits in the great beyond. As they embark on this irreversible journey albeit drawing tears and stirring hysteria from family, friends and community, their names and legendary legacies abide infinitely after them in the hearts of surviving them in the land of the living.
For our Great DIKEOGU, Comrade UCHE CHUKWUMERIJE, senator of the Federal Republic, the Ikoro of his sunrise marking his birth into the great CHUKWUMERIJE family of NGODO ISUOCHI, in Umunnochi LGA of Abia State, sounded on January 11, 1939 at Ogoja, Cross River State. The Ikoro of his sun set sounded on April 19, 2015, bringing all his days on Mother Earth to 76 years, four months, and eight days.
Hmmm . . . Amuma egbe igwe! It is, indeed, very difficult to believe that as many as ten years have already passed since you bowed to this esoteric summon to join in swelling the rank of our ancestor-patriots in the great beyond.
In your windy exit ISIKARAKA, you drew rivers of tears and national hysteria thus proving the Shakespearean philosophy that; “When beggars die there are no comets seen, the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.” You were indeed our prince and our hero. We miss you greatly O iyi ukwu Ngodo!
Like Mark Anthony, Dikeogu D’Great! I have not come to praise you; I have not even come to re-bury you; for heroic burial was befittingly done on May 22, 2015. However, I’m here simply to reflect and share fond memories of you. Atimes, I often wish to transfigure into the witch of Endor, just to come to your grave and invoke you to life for the Igbo nation needs you badly at this point in time.
Yes, Oke nkwu puru na Isuochi! It is said that “a puppy that will make a great Bulldog is known from infancy.” Early in your life especially, in your school days as a brilliant student of ECONOMICS at the UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Ibadan, you exhibited focus, fearlessness, physical strength and strength of character that marked you out among your peers as a reliable leader of tomorrow. You made hard work, honesty, and self-discipline, the hallmark of your success. In your chauvinistic physicalities, you took to marshal arts after the Shaolin masters of Kunfu and specialized in Taekwondo, in which you excelled in as a black belt. You not only rose to become Chairman of Taekwondo Board in Africa, like Ti Lung, the immortal Kunfu Instructor, you trained all your children in the way of the Samurai sport, with some of them including your only girl Jaluchi, and Chika, the Olympian and Skipper of Nigeria’s Team Olympics, emerging medalists of the marshal Game.
You began your career in the media as a young Radio Reporter with with then NBC (FRCN) and was moved over to VON by legendary Chinua Achebe. You later moved on into the Newspaper and Magazine world as a reporter with the famous DRUM MAGAZINE. From there, you bloomed and blossomed into a publisher and founder of the Great AFRISCOPE, a pan African General interest Magazine.
In your line of duty as a journalist, Uche Nwa Sgt. Ogbonna, you crisscrossed Africa from the East to the West Coast, watching and reporting Africa in her liberation struggles against imperial domination of the European Colonialists. This not only inflamed a glorious sense of Pan Africanism but imbued in you this deep sense of socio-political activism in which you excelled as the sublime voice of propaganda in Africa. You proved this during the holocaust years of the civil war. Your tongue of propaganda thundered in Nigeria and potently echoed the Voice and tragedy of Biafra across the Globe rattling the conscience of the world.
Tongue of thunder! Oji ire egbu orji nwoke tegete! All Biafrans alive miss you. The Igbo nation fondly remembers you. It is generally believed that were you to be alive today, Nnamdi Kanu would have long known his freedom, for you would have dared the dreaded as you did to rescue Ralph Uwazurike, the MASSOB leader. Behold! Igirigi ogu nwa Chukwumerije! We are no longer sure we have men with patriotic balls like you left in Igbo land of today. Is it not a popular aphorism of our elders that; “agba ulo achoba ndi ogologo?” (The tall are needed when the rafters of the house are to be fixed). What a dilemma for a nation of people to be left with Lilliputs of political elites at such a time the rafters of their home steads are daily damaged and ravaged politically with open derision and ignominy. And these battered rafters need giant patriots and not dwarf sellouts and Lilliput political fortune chasers to fix and fortify them for the safety and survival of the people.
Lo! Odaa oburu uzo! I must acknowledge the only surviving prophet standing, Enyinnaya Abaribe. He is today the lone voice crying in the wilderness of the Igbo nation like an orphan without siblings. And pathetically, his lone voice is being drowned in the cacophony of perfidy and the raging ill wind of cash and carry politics of self-immolation. This is as the Igbo nation is systematically being excluded from the national schemes and invidiously encircled by killer herdsmen with ominous missions signifying imminent doom looming large over by the day.
Again, when in 1993 the military rulers of father land annulled a presidential election adjudged the freest and fairest won by the Onakakanfo of the Yoruba nation, Chief MKO Abiola, thus bringing the nation to the brinks of self-immolation, Tongue of Fire! You were drafted by the military juntas to do a job considered terrible and unacceptable, as the nation staggered towards the redline of an outbreak of another civil war. Behold! Isikaraka, it took your meteoric competence as Africa’s best propagandist and minister of Information to rescue the nation from the imminent catastrophe. Of course, you were castigated, vilified, and demonised.
Hmmm! Dike Ogu. Do you know that the army General who put you on the villain path, to defend their mess, has confessed in his book that the Onakakanfo of the Yoruba nation, Chief MKO Abiola won that election they cowardly annulled in 19993? He even confessed that the revolutionary putsch of January 1966, by Major Kaduna Nzogwu and co. twisted as Igbo Coup to leash the holocaust you and your generation of Igbos suffered in this land Nigeria was never an Igbo Coup. Perhaps the evil genius general hopes to find rest of mind and peace in his remaining days here on earth, but how can this be? The collateral damages of those events are eternal, and one may ask; a broken bottle who can ever mend? Well, Nwanne ukwu Abia! My joy is that unlike them, you earned back your honour and respect through the senate. History had long vindicated you for. The tongues that uttered condemnation and vilification have long chorused commendation and eulogy of your heroism.
In politics, you were not ordinary. You looked beyond regional and ethnic interests walking the path of radicalism. In your youthful years adventure into politics in the second Republic, you aligned with the ideological drifts of Mallam AMINU KANO, the radical prince of the Talakwas of the North, the famous founder of the defunct Northern Elements progressive Union (NEPU), in the hay days of the first Republic and later, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) in the second Republic. It is common knowledge that you played politics without guile and never compromised on ideals, principles, honour, and integrity. You were never charmed by money; hence, your actions and positions as a legislator were never predicated on pecuniary interests.
As a Senator of the Federal Republic for three consecutive times (2003-2015) your carriage and contributions on Motions and Bills left no one in doubt that you were an ideal Senator, the pride and prestige of the Senate of your time. You were the voice of the voiceless masses of this country, the Alpha in the pride of the Eastern legislators and the Eye of the IGBO NATION in the Senate.
Like legendary LEONIDAS and the 300 Spartans, O ye Warrior defender of Nigeria’s Democracy! You led your 2007 MANDATE Team of Federal House gladiators to confront the THIRD TERM political Demon to the chagrin of the reigning King Xesxers of power at the time who sought to sow the seed of constitutional aberration in the land. Once more, you saved the nation from another round of political turmoil. But alas! O Dike Ogu! I am sorry to whisper to you that the voiceless masses you were their voice are in grave danger. Those glorious efforts you and your cohorts made to save this land Nigeria from the dictatorial dilations of power drunks have been utterly ruined by the O yes distinguished dishonourable dogs of democracy in the parliament. Nigerians sorely miss you and your ilk in the senate today.
My dear master and friend, you surely left infinite impressions and footprints. Ten years ago, when you made your windy exit, the tide of tributes that flooded in and the orchestra of encomia echoed and reverberated resoundingly. Just to refresh our minds, here are some of the tributes from the powers that were in the land then. As at 22nd May 2015, Chukwumerije was being buried, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was a president in waiting and was sworn in seven days after on May 29, 2015. Dikeogu, Gen. Buhari described you as “a man of his generation, a worker for national unity and a man of noble values.” He lamented that your passage was “a blow to the generation of true Democrats in Nigeria and the African Continent.”
For the outgoing President then, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, “you were a Patriot and Nationalist, an ardent believer in national unity, peace, political stability and progress. . .One who left behind an impressive legacy of discipline, honesty, integrity and hard work in public service.”
In the same vein, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, said you were; “very sartorial in style and in presentation and as a politician you were classy and as a Statesman you were exceptional.”
For the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, you were. . . “an astute politician of repute and a member of the 7th Assembly I respected so much for his contributions and dynamic debate in the Senate.” Also, another former Senate President David Mark said you “radiated intelligence and exemplary conduct, one of the brightest and fertile minds of the Senate, a consummate and passionate Nigerian who believed in the sanctity of the peace and unity of the Nation.”
The then Deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu described you as; “a Lion-Senator and a brave Comrade, a patriot who gave his best towards the peace, unity and development of Nigeria.”
Dikeogu Igbo! You were a prophet with great honour at home. Ndigbo remain appreciative of your giant strides in the service of home front. As Chairman Planning and Strategy Committee of OHANAEZE NDIGBO, you led Ndigbo to a grand success in the historic OPUTA PANEL of 1999, thus, repositioning and elevating Ohanaeze to its highest Peak of glory in history. Also, with this Committee, you championed the founding for Ohanaeze the Annual World IGBO DAY celebrated world wide September 29, every year. You were equally a major player in the founding of OBI IKENGA, the CENTRE FOR IGBO STUDIES at Abia State University Uturu.
Great ISIKARAKA! Your LEGACIES are endless. It is true that “when Warriors eat the palm kernel the shells make the statement.” By your life, we have come to learn that for warriors, heroes, and indeed all men of substance, life is a struggle from the cradle. Like the great Anthill of the savannah, you rode the rains and weathered the storms, sundering sleeps and enduring the odds for the good of others without guile. Ten years going, it will ever be well with your soul.
Dike Ogu Igbo! Isi karaka n’ebu ogidi! Nwanne Ukwu Abia! Ebube Abia North! Oke Nkwu puru na Isuochi! Uche Nwa Chukwumerije! May you be born over and over again to us.
Okpani Nkama Jnr.
(Man of history)
Is a multiple Award winning broadcast journalist, Novelist, Poet and playwright
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