Ojo Maduekwe, the ‘Nigerian Project’ personified bows out of time
There has to be a way to fathom death…and tame him. The way he comes, whether expected or unexpected, can be upsetting; he just sneaks in, or badges in and breaks up a whole lot of things humans hold dear to heart.
That the former minister of many affairs died at 71 is not so much why the nation is mourning his passage, but he could have edged closer a little to 85, 90 or thereabout, couldn’t he? After all, hadn’t the man most powerful governments of the world love to hate – the unrepentant Fidel Castro, clocked 90, and still kicking? He has even outlived people who tried more than 600 times to assassinate him!
But like the Awolowos, whose legendary Matriarch passed quietly away last September while the children busied themselves costing and ordering things in preparation for her 99th birth day celebrations, the household of the Maduekwes, in a similar scenario, were all set for the birthday ofChief (Mrs.) Ucha Maduekwe, with just three days to go, when death sneaked in and left unseen with the man God created in His own image in Ohafia, Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State – exactly 71 years ago.
Ucha’s birthday was due on Saturday July 2nd, a day God Himself set aside for celebration. With her, it used to be a double celebration because she has a twin sister, Mrs. Nnenna Anigbo, both of whom were born within minutes of each other 66 years ago, then death just badged in and took the anchor man away on June 29th. So, I ask you: if angel death had waited just a little while longer, would that had been asking for too much?
But there it is, folks; when he visits, in whichever way he chooses to, the fragility, emptiness and absolute nothingness of natural life, stare us all in the face.
The reason the living are uncomfortable about the angel of death is the manner he makes everyone realise that they don’t count. No matter how much importance people attach to you, or how deeply you are involved in the most important project on earth, when he badges in, it is curtains: someone else will continue where you stopped.
The beauty of living in the first place
So the way to make life count is live it to the fullest, in uprightness, integrity and fear of the God you do not see.
Ojo Maduekwe stirred happiness in a great many people across the globe, even as he caused some disquiet in governance, but above all, he is as missed as everyone is eulogising since his passage.
Madueke is mourned as a consummate politician, diplomat, legislator, activist, administrator, father to all, a good scholar and husband – and these are not for saying sake.
When he was appointed Minister of Transport in 2001, one of his ideas to tackle the country’s transportation problems was to sell the idea of riding bicycles to work to Nigerians. He had apparently seen millions of Europeans, Chinese, Indians and other peoples trying to save both the planet and fuel by riding bicycles to their workplaces and wanted it replicated in the country.
So he advocated greater use of bicycles, although critics said that the roads were unsafe for cyclists and Maduekwe himself was pushed into a ditch by a bus, while he was cycling to work.
He was in 1983 elected into the National Assembly, a short-lived parliament that was dissolved by the military coup d’etat by the then Major-General Muhammadu Buhari on December 31 of the same year.
The late ex-minister had a gift of bringing people together and building consensus on thorny issues. Indeed, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which had been paralysed by crises since it lost last year’s presidential election, deeply mourned the exit of Maduekwe. He was the secretary of the PDP Board of Trustees and was widely regarded as one capable of bringing the contending factions in the party together.
Nigerians will always remember Maduekwe for his forthrightness and his nationalistic approach to politics. His unshaken commitment to the Nigerian project often got him into trouble with his Igbo kinsmen for his failure to support their agitation for an Igbo president.
In him, Nigeria lost a true nationalist and patriot.
May his soul rest in peace.
