I was born on August 6, 1966. Do the arithmetic. It is so simple; you cannot get it wrong. That makes me 58 years old today. A new year has just begun in earnest fidelity to the inimitability of God’s goodness. There is the consideration to roll out the drums in festivity, pomp and circumstance. Validation: in our part of the world where life expectancy is 56.05 years (this is 2024 information sourced from United Nations-World Population Prospects), I have a good reason to say “godiya” to the Almighty God.
But rather than roll out the drum, I would engage myself in obligatory introspection on the journey so far. In the last week, I have been ruminating on some incidents and experiences at certain intersections in my earthly voyage. At a point in the enterprise, I was overwhelmed with emotions when I took time off counting God’s blessings in my life and decided to take a count of the loved ones that had transited to the “hereafter” to borrow this usage for heaven by the late Professor Ali Mazrui in his book, “The Trial of Christopher Okigbo”.
Scottish poet, Thomas Campbell, once said: “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” I remember the great men who impacted my life positively, but who had since answered the final call, to wit: my biological father, Pa Isa Isu Ojeifo (the grammarian), and the troika of Chief Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi, Chief Anthony Akhakon Anenih and Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo. The tears have not dried and I don’t think they would dry-never, ever. This is confirmatory of the fact that they live in my heart and certainly in other hearts.
After I lost my father in 1992, I found a genuine father in Chief Awoniyi, a retired super Permanent Secretary, who was a director in Vanguard newspapers, and who deployed me while I was Abuja Bureau Editor of the newspaper in the management of his media affairs especially when he was contesting for the position of national chairman of the Peoples democratic Party (PDP) against Chief Barnabas Gemade. Gemade enjoyed the solid backing of then President Olusegun Obasanjo and ended up “winning” the party chairmanship election at the “transparent rigging” at the Eagle Square. I will, hereunder, shortly return to the Gemade angle.
I remember in 2000, when I was in far away Indonesia covering the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference, Chief Awoniyi took up the responsibility of going to the hospital to check and follow up on my wife at the birth of my second son. I was getting daily reports from him of how mother and child were faring. Only a loving father could do that.
There was a day, he called me on phone to thank me for a birthday tribute I wrote on him in Vanguard newspaper. Read what he said: “Oj! I have just read your beautiful piece on me. You have done what Napoleon could not do. You have surpassed yourself.” I learnt some values, like trustworthiness, from him. He was a good man who trusted me to support him all the way during his contest for the position of national chair of the PDP and during his chair of the Board of Trustees of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).
I recall the overture made to me by Chief Barnabas Gemade at a meeting in his Maitama residence in 2000 facilitated by Professor Biodun Adeniyi who was then Political Correspondent of the The Guardian newspaper, Abuja Office. Whereas it was true that Chief Gemade reached out to me on the possibility of being his Press Secretary as National Chairman of the Congress for National Consensus (CNC) under the Abacha junta, he, at the meeting, tabled the proposal afresh. He said he had been reading my repots and analyses in support of Awoniyi and reminded me that the position of Chief Press Secretary was still on the table for my consideration if I could shift my support to him in the media. The offer was tempting. I knew he was going to win, but I rejected the offer.
Chief Tony Anenih’s impact on my life was huge. I learnt from him the value of loyalty. He once said to me that he believed that loyalty to leaders and followers should be reciprocal, and that it should be 101 per cent. He had before then underscored this point circa 2005 at a meeting at the Aso Drive, Abuja residence of his nominee for the position of Minister of State for Internal Affairs, Joseph Itotoh who died in 2006. From 2010, when I resigned from THISDAY newspaper as Politics Editor (Abuja), to October 28, 2018 when he died, I had the rare privilege of tending to his media affairs. He was also a father indeed. I remember the incident that brought us together: in 2004, as Bureau Editor of Vanguard, I wrote a piece on Edo politics and his leadership role was robustly captured therein. He directed one of his aides to go get me for him. I could not be got until after two weeks. The day I arrived at his residence and I was being ushered into the living room, he was about stepping out. As he sighted me, the aide quickly told him who I was. He looked at me and asked: “which part of my country are you from?” I understood his question very well. I replied: “I am from Ewu-Ishan”. He then explained why he sent for me: “If someone does a good thing, he should be appreciated. I read your piece on Edo politics and my leadership role which you wrote and published in Vanguard. The piece was very good and I decided that you should be appreciated.” He there and then gave me a carte blanche: looking at me and to the hearing of his aides, he announced: “this is your house; you are free to come in and go out at any time.” That was how I became a part of the Anenih family. I was a beneficiary of Chief Anenih’s eleemosynary act. His compassion was great. His generosity was legendary.
Chief Anenih, at an intersection, during the race for the 2012 governorship in Edo State, introduced me to Captain Hosa Okunbo, who would later relate with me as brother. Until he passed on August 8, 2021, Captain Hosa, as he was fondly called by associates, drew me very close to him and was comfortable to saddle me with the responsibility of some of his media affairs. He was always quick and happy to introduce me to his friends as Chief Anenih’s son and media adviser. I did a lot of media interventions for Captain Hosa. I was selfless in the enterprise. I would defend him in the media suo motu-without him asking me to do so. He was very impressed by my disposition. He ensured that we constantly stayed connected. He was very generous to me. I remember an emotional sms he sent to me around 2019 to express his appreciation for all I did for him in the media and how he encouraged me to always get in touch with him if I needed him to take off from me any financial pressure. I thanked him but I did not take the opportunity as many people would do. Somehow, he realized I was not and he decided on his own to always touch base. I liked how he always rounded off our telephone conversations: “Ojeifo, my brother, please text you account details to me.” His responses were consistently in seven digits.
When he was going on his last trip to London, he said to me: “Ojeifo, you are a great writer. I will get you a gift of a golden pen from London.” I never got the gift because he died in London. While in London, he sent to me a shattering sms to apprise me of the outcome of his medicals. He wrote: “My brother Ojeifo, I have finished my medicals and my doctors have diagnosed me with liver and pancreatic cancer….” The message shattered me. I wept. I prayed for divine healing. I could not call to talk with him immediately until the following day when he called me. We were able to talk. I offered some prayers and encouraged him. Then he requested that I should assist him to do a press release with which to clarify certain misconceptions about his health challenge in the contrived context of the outcome of the 2020 Edo governorship election in which he supported Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu against Governor Godwin Obaseki. He said his official media aide did not seem to understand what he asked him to do. I dealt with the release in about 15 minutes and sent it to him. He called and was shouting on the phone: “My brother Ojeifo, this is it. You got it. Please, circulate it in the media; give it wide publicity.”
He would later tell some of his friends that I was the one who wrote the statement. A friend of his whom I met after his death said to me that Captain told him that “you wrote that powerful statement that he issued from his hospital bed in London.” Yes, Captain was a great man. He fought the battle to the end and he was gallant in death, having conquered the air as a pilot; the sea with ownership of over 52 vessels and the land with his greenhouse farm. But to be fair to Captain Hosa, he called me one day when he read my piece and said he wanted to revise the aspect about him conquering the land. I asked how do you mean? Hi response was sublime: “After all said and done, the land will take you in, six feet under….” If there was one thing that was remarkable about Capt Hosa’s life, it was that God gave him a rare privilege to prepare for his final home call and to even arrange for his own funeral. He did it with a touch of caliber for which he was known. Samplers: his Wells Carlton Hotel and Wells Hosa Greenhouse Farms signature projects. His legacy lives. Hosa never dies. But my tears have yet to dry and I doubt if they will ever dry.
As I mark my natal day, two days after Chief Anenih’s 91st posthumous birthday and two days ahead of Captain Hosa’s third year remembrance, the voids occasioned by their transitions are somewhat difficult to fill. It is only God that can fill them the way He wishes.
Psalms 90: 12-14 says “So, teach us (me) to number our (my) days, that we (I) may apply our (my) hearts (heart) unto wisdom…. O satisfy us (me) early with thy mercy; that we (I) may rejoice and be glad all our (my) days.” The wisdom here is to always remember that no matter how long we live on earth, we will one day exit the stage. So, death is a debt. It is inevitable. The wisdom also is that we should fear and serve God for, as the scripture says in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, “this is the whole duty of man unto his Creator….” The wisdom further finds anchorage in the philosophical offering of a Quaker Missionary, Etienne de Grellet’s: “I shall pass this way but once: any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
Grellet’s postulation ramifies the string of losses that I have had in my 58 years-brothers, sisters, friends and colleagues who have died, having had the opportunities to play their parts and exit the stage, though in the prime of life. I remember them all in my introspection on this occasion. Apart from the closeness that I shared with my biological brothers and sisters who have passed, I remember the closeness I shared with my friends-Lawrence Taiwo Osabuohien and Ogunbayo Ohu with whom I shared a room in school. I cannot forget Olayinka Ilesanmi Jones, my late Customs Officer childhood friend whom I hosted in my house when he was transferred to Abuja by the Nigeria Customs Service. May the Almighty God continue to rest their beautiful souls in peace in His Bosom.
As for this birthday boy, the celebrator of today, I pray that the Almighty God will endow me with His grace to continue to be a pencil in His hand to write a beautiful story of His goodness and to berth, at the end of it all, on the glorious shores. Best wishes to me. See you all next year for an encore of this tribute in another dimension. Godiya to God and my well-wishers. God bless you all.
● Sufuyan Ojeifo, Member, Nigeria Guild of Editors, is publisher/editor-in-chief of THE CONCLAVE.
