How do I sum up 23
years in one page? I don't know. How do I describe you? I cannot. Not in any
depth. Not for anybody else - you were my husband, my brother, my friend, my
child. I was your queen, and it was an honour to have served you.
You were the lion
of my history books, the leader of my nation when we faced extinction, the
larger-than-life history come to my life - living, breathing legend. But unlike
the history books, you defied all preconceptions. You made me cry from laughter
with your jokes, many irreverent. You awed me with your wisdom. You melted my
heart with your kindness. Your impeccable manners made Prince Charming a living
reality. Your fearlessness made you the man I dreamt of all my life and your
total lack of seeking public approval before speaking your mind separated you
from mere mortals.
Every year that I
spent with you was an adventure - no two days were the same. With you, I was
finally able to soar on wings wider than the ocean. With you I was blessed with
the best children God in heaven had to give. With you, I learnt to face the
world without fear and learnt daily the things that matter most. Your disdain
for money was novel - sometimes funny, other times quite alarming. It mattered
not a whit to you. Your total dedication to your people - Ndi-Igbo - was so
absolute that really, very little else mattered. You never craved anybody's
praise as long as you believed that you were doing right and even in the face
of utmost danger, you never relented from speaking truth to power - to you,
what after all, was power? It was not that conferred by the gun, nor that
stolen from the ballot box. No. You understood that power transcended all that.
Power is the freedom to be true to yourself and to God, no matter the cost.
It is freedom from
fear. It is freedom from bondage. It is freedom to seek the wellbeing of your
people just because you love them. It is the ability to move a whole nation
without a penny as inducement nor a gun to force them. When an entire nation
can rise up for one person for no other reason than that they love him and know
he is their leader - sans gun, money, official title or any strange
paraphernalia - that is power.
To try to contain
you in words is futile. You span the breadth of human experience - full of
laughter, joy, kindness and sometimes, almost childlike in your ability to find
something good in almost everyone and every situation. You could flare up at
any injustice and in the next instant, sing military songs to the children. You
could analyse a situation with incredible swiftness and accuracy. In any
generation, there can only be one like you. You were that one star. You were a
child of destiny, born for no other time than the one you found yourself in.
Destined to lead your people at the time total extinction was staring us in the
face. There was no one else. You gained nothing from it. You used all the
resources you had just to wage a war of survival. You fought to keep us alive
when we were being slaughtered like rams for no reason. Today, we find
ourselves in the same situation but you are not here. You fought that we might
live. The truth is finally coming out and even those who fought you now
acknowledge that you had no choice. For your faithfulness, God kept you and
brought you home to your people.
You loved Nigeria.
You spent so much of your waking moments devising ways through which Nigeria
could progress to Tai-Two!!! You were the eternal optimist, always hoping that
one day; God will touch His people and give us one Vision and the diligence to
work towards the dream. It never came to pass in your lifetime. Instead, the
disaster you predicted if we continued on the same path has come home to roost.
You always saw so clearly. Your words are indelibly preserved for this generation
to read and learn and perhaps heed and turn. You always said the dry bones will
rise again. But you always hoped we would not become the dry bones by our
actions. Above all, you feared for your own people, crying out against the
relentless oppression that has not ceased since the end of the war and saddened
by the acceptance of this position by your own people. In death, you have
awakened the spirit that we thought had died. Your people are finally waking
up.
At home, you were
the father any child would dream of having. At no point did our children have
to wonder where you were. You were ever at their disposal, playing with them,
teaching them of a bygone era, teaching them of the world they live in and
giving them the total security of knowing you were always present.
In mercy, God gave
me a year to prepare for the inevitable. I could never have survived an instant
departure. In mercy, God ensured that your final week on earth was spent only
with me and that on your last day; you were back to your old self. I cannot but
thank God for the joy of that final day - the jokes, the laughter, the songs.
It was a lifetime packed into a few hours, filled with hope that many tomorrows
would follow and that we would be home for Christmas. You deceived me. You were
so emphatic that we would be going home. I did not know you meant a different
home. The swiftness of your departure remains shocking to me. You left on the
day I least expected. But I cannot fight God. He owns your life and mine. I
know that God called you home because every other time it seemed you were at
death's door, you fought like the lion that God made you and always prevailed.
In my eyes, even death was no match for you. But who can say 'no' to the
Almighty God? You walked away with Him, going away with such peace that I can
only bow to God's sovereignty. Your people have remembered. The warrior of our
land has gone. The flags are lowered in your honour. Our hearts are laden with
grief.
But I will trust
that the living God who gave you to me will look after me and our children.
Through my sadness, the memories will always shine bright and beautiful. Adieu,
my love, my husband, my lion, Ikemba, Amuma na Egbe Igwe, Odenigbo Ngwo.
Eze-Igbo Gburugburu, Ibu dike. Chukwu gozie gi, Chukwu debe gi. Anyi ga afu na
omesia.
No comments:
Post a Comment