My Father, Ezeamaluchi WO Muo (KSM) transited seamlessly to the great beyond in March,1993. He did not even have the luxory a ‘brief
illness’; he just died after muttering ‘may your will be done’. However, before
then, he ‘died’ three years earlier, when his best friend, Ichie Julious Mmaduka
died (1990). They were so close that they discussed everything and anything,
and did most things in common. They named their younger brothers Cyril, such
that we have Cyril Muo and Cyril Mmaduka. They planned to build the same house
by size and design though it did not quite work out as they planned. WO (that
was what we called our father, behind him of course!) came home that day, sat
on a wooden chair with his hands on the expanssive center table supporting his
chin.
That center table was buit in 1966 to commorate the ordination of Fr.
Raphael Anasiudu, the first Catholic Priest from IgboUkwu. Then, it was a BIG
thing to have an indigenous priest and so, a large party was thrown in our
house for all the teachers from Osumenyi, Ezinifite, Ebenator, and other
communities where my father, the ideal village headmaster was simply known own
as HEAD! That historic table is STILL there. Anyway, I digressed. So he went
upstaris, sat there and was just sobbing, with tears and all sorts streaming
down from all the openings in his face:Julius; Julius, O Julius . It was a long
while before he tearfully announced to us that Julius had died. It was by Gods
grace that he survived the death of Ichie Mmaduka. Now in this year of our
Lord, 2019, I faced the same predicament. Onyenkuzi Antony LongJohn Mmaduka,
the first son of that same Ichie Mmaduka and who had been my friend for the
past 40 years+ and unarguably, my best friend, died on 30/9/19.
I received the
shocking news from Felix Afuzi, an extended family member who is married to
Anthony’s younger sister. He just called, told me that all was not well and
informed that ‘Anthony is dead’. and when I asked which Tony, he responded
‘That Tony you know’ and hung up. I was writing my BusinessDay weekly article for 2/10/19 when
that call came through and and I included in the article ‘I thank God for
making it to October 2019. My friend of 40 years, Anthony Maduka, a jolly good
fellow, who was so tall that I named him ‘Long-John’ and who distributed
happiness, under all circumstances, to all around him, could not make it. He
died on 30/9/19 after 48 hours of sickness. However bad things are, lets thank
God for life because once there is life, there is still HOPE’( Cashless
banking: So far how far and at 59, we are being gang-raped, BusinessDay,
2/10/19). It was much later that the weight of the news hit me and I wailed
uncontrollably. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was nobody around and so,
nothing restrained me for giving vent to my sorrow and anguish.
Tony did not become my
friend because his father was my fathers friend. By an act of God, both of us
were posted to Bauchi for our NYSC, and both of us were also posted to the Azare axis for our primary
assignment. Tony was always noticeable because of his height, cheerful
disposition and his limitless armoury of
jokes.
In the early 80’sTony,
the tallest, at the middle
He was a wholsale dealer in happiness, joy and laughter,
which he received freely and distrubuted
freely generously and effortlessly everywhwre he went. If he had gone into comedy then, Ali-Baba would
have been a poor imitation. How LongJohn combined this trait with being a discplinarian-teacher is still one of
the questions I will ask him whenever we meet on the other side of the divide.
And because I also had a good dose of natural jocularity and given our similar
backgrounds, we hit it off since then. Tony joked about everything and anything
and I gave it back to him in kind. I
named him LongJohn because of his height and all my relations and friends knew
him as LongJohn (That was the name used in a local song by one of our minstrels
called 7-7) and when I was in a hurry, I just called him Longus!For instance I
told him that given the laws of division of labour and comparative advantege(
my First degree is in Economics!), his parents should not have wasted time
givin birth to the him and his brothers; they should have ‘manufactured’ only
ladies because his sisters were beautiful! One day when he visted me at Enugu,
the floor of the bed on which he slept caved in( there was no extracurricular
activity) and I accused him of eating so much food to the extent that the
weight of the food weighed down the bed. It was an accusation I always raised
whenever I saw him eating including during my 60th birthday(1/1/18), my
entrepreneureship book launch, wherer he was the MC ( 11/11/18) and our 30th
wedding anniversary( 11/8/19).
Tony, ;extreme left,
at my 60th BD celebration
We were so close that if his parents wanted to tell him
something, they would tell me directly or just made sure that I heard it. He
also used me as his mail-runner with his parents. In our post NYSC days, we
used our mothers’ ‘Honda50’ motorcycle, then nicknamed Nwanyi
Nnewi(The ‘Nnewi woman’ because almost every Nnewi wife had one then) to
scavenge our entire environment. I still
remember how we rode from IgboUkwu to Ukehe( across 4LGAs) to see the man who mysteriously took residence on top of a very ‘high-rise’ tree, with his bed and all that. When I was
on relief duty at Cooperative & Commerce Banki, Atani, I stayed with Tony
and Pat at Nkpor for the two months even thoughI could have stayed at Atani
where the bank was located
There was a funeral song
by our women folk that both of us enjoyed. The song was ‘O di ka ono
n’igwe na eziokwu’( It appears that he( the dead) is truly in heaven). So we
analysed and made a joke of that song, saying that probably somebody had told
the women that the dead was in heaven and they were then saying that it
appeared that she was trully in heaven. And we would ask ourselves: who gave
then the initial information that the dead was in heaven? Two of us would sing
and dance that song, saying that a given
dead person would likely be in heaven, and we did so pointing at heaven.
Tony was born in 1954 and had a degree in
English/Education from Jos and lived his life as a disciplinarian teacher,
hostel master, VicePrincipal and Principal
at several schools in Anambra state and Chief Examiner in English for WAEC and NECO. He was aa
throughbred professional and expected the virtues of commitment, hardwork and
excellence from his teachers and students at all times. He was a community
leader and served his Akama kindred, the IgboUkwu community and the Catholic
Church in various capacities.
Well
Onye-Nkuzi(Teacher), LongJohn Anthony Maduka is gone. He will be burried
at Igbo-Ukwu today, 7/11/19. I was not that fleshy but I know that I have lost
some flesh since his death 5 weeks ago.
As I say this irreversable goodbye to
him, I would request the women folk to sing that our song( o di k o no nígwe
néziokwu) but I will not make a joke of it this time. I will also charge him
for a breach of contract. He was older than me but for what ever reason, I
believed that he would outlive me. I therefore saddled him with the
responsibility of collating all my articles and publishing them as he deemed
fit anytime I died. That was about 35 years ago. But I will ask the judge to
have mercy on him because I now have somebody who will do that, even better,
for me! He was a friendly friend, who stuck closer than a brother( Proverbs,
18:24).
When Jesus died, he said ‘it is finished’. But that did not absolve
us of the irredeemable debt of death. Tony has paid his own debt. He was once
like us. We shall one day be like him when we pay our own debt. His death,
without even a brief illness, is a lesson
for those of us on this side of the divide. I comiserate with Pat, the
wife, children and sibblings but most importantly with the old mother who in effect is burrying her second ‘husband’.
Thankfully, she has born her grief with philosophical calmness.
Other Matters: Still on STD
My last outing on STD (Sexually Transmitted Degrees) and my
finger-cap attracted wide and divers reactions, even from those who do not
usually react to my writings. I don’t know whether it was due to the title(
STD), or the content and the currency of the topic. I just wish to share two of
such reactions with my readers today. The first was from Stan Ukeje, teacher, economist, banker and a natural
philosopher, who has been classmate and friend since 1987(32years and still
counting). He argues that there is a difference between harassment and outright
EXTORTION! Behold his treatise.
Ndi Muo,
You have fallen into the web of the ignorant who are unable
to define terms properly. Any body who has a duty to perform Any Service and
who extorts customers, is not engaged in Harassment but a Malpractice of Extortion! Successfully awarding Fail to an Examination
Candidate who should earn a Pass can only occur where the Service Provider's
employer is complacent or has included the receipts from extortion as part of
employee benefits. Why do I say so?1. Examination Candidates should be made to
know they have a right to have their scripts checked if they are dissatisfied
with the score awarded. Terms and Conditions usually Apply.
2. Examination Candidates sign attendance on a sheet provided
and submit answer sheets at the end
of the examination. The Invigilator must report any candidate that failed
to return answer sheet, after
signing-in on the attendance sheet immediately. Situations where a candidate does not have a score
for examination sat because the script is
missing is administration failure. The Invigilator and Examiner should
be held accountable.
A number of Examiners take steps to stay ahead of the muddle
in the system. So it is wrong to declare that All Are Involved. You are however
right that legislation cannot solve the problem. It can be checked by the
concert of All Involved, especially, the business owners and managers.
The next was from a
doctoral student at OOU, Mrs Taiwo, who agreed that we are all guilty and went
on to define the various degrees of shades of guilt
Indeed, we are all guilty of SH one way or the other; either
by direct involvement, being an accomplice, turning the other eye, or
pretending not to know. Even the law could not be absolved of guilt in this
matter until maybe very recently. All hands must therefore be on deck to rid
our society at large of this scourge (worm) which has eaten deep into its
fabrics and set to destroy it completely. On the other matter: a Yoruba proverb
says: "To ba ba oju, a ba imu" which literarily means (when a part of
the body suffers, other parts are also affected). We however thank God for
healing and restoration.
Keep the flag flying sir!
My contention is that
we are all guilty and that as long as we treat it as a university-only affair(
as in the Omo-Agege bill), then we are far from solving the problem!
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