Sir Eddy Muoemenem (Eddy Santana, Ebekuodike ,Onwa etc…Tomorrow may NEVER Come! - Ik Muo, PhD

 

 The ONLY certainty about tomorrow is its UNCERTAINTY. Ik Muo, 2025

Saturday, 18/10/25 started without any foreboding signs. I woke up in high spirits, performed my AM rituals( prayers, checking my  WhatSapp & Email messages, updating my records), had my breakfast, started working on  my article on ASUU  and on the December edition of Ihuowelle Quarterly. However  everything changed when my  junior sister Azuka,  called me agonizing and  wailing profusely.  I immediately placed myself on red alert because I knew instantly that we were going to have an unusual sorrow-laced conversation. There were no greetings, no formalities and she told me straightforwardly that Eddy anwuona’!  Because we also have Eddy in our family, I asked her ‘ which Eddy? And she responded Eddy Muoemenem, and dropped the call!. I  gravely shouted  hei!, hei!!. Hei! Alu emee!!! To say that I  was chattered is to put it mildly!

 I immediately recalled his ever-smiling visage, his simplicity, humility, friendship towards all and his support for evangelism. I remembered his ‘performance’ at the  IDU Lagos ( 28/9/25) launching where he was an emergency Chief Launcher but still lobbied  Emma Umenwa  and  announced that both of them would donate the Generator, which was the major item on the  shopping-list. That was after he had made a soul stirring speech, advising us to leave the past and  focus on the future, imploring  parents of ALL villages to apply for the scholarship scheme of his foundation, advising IDU Lagos to upgrade the  road to IDU hall  as a way of improving its revenue potentials and to recognize the efforts of Chief AO Umeh in building the hall.  Had he just come to show us himself finally ? I wondered  how those who received his freewill offering of bags of rice  on 27 & 28 September,, some of whom might not have opened the bags, would be feeling.  I remembered how he attended  the June 2025  IgboUkwu Development Union General Meeting at Amaehulu, on the day the hall was turned into a battle ground of sorts and  asked us to forge ahead together rather than the dog-eat-dog mindset  and donated 1m for our refreshment. I recalled that  many people like him no longer attend IDU meetings because they have outgrown that. I recalled how he twice evaded the chieftaincy title unanimously bestowed on him by the leadership and people  Igbo-Ukwu.  I recalled  my last discussion with him when  he   called to apologise for his  absence from my brothers funeral and  followed it up by doing the needful. I still recalled my extensive  interview with him when I was writing my book on Entrepreneurship in a changing environment and my intention to discuss the sponsorship of the Christmas Edition of Ihuowelle Quarterly with him. All these ideas were running around my head within a few seconds, with the painful realisation  that I would NEVER see him again!.

Eddy,  at his best and FULL of life at IDU Lagos launching of 28/9/25

 I placed some calls, confirmed that he had died and was being ‘parceled’ to Igbo-Ukwu, I sorrowed in my own way and awaited for the official announcement after which I   paid this short, spontaneous tribute: Simple, humble, friendly to ALL, ever-smiling and a silent philanthropist, just the other day, he was appealing to people  to apply to his foundations scholarship and surprised us despite bthe short notice. May the good Lord grant him eternal rest and console the family. For those of us alive, lets imbibe the deep lessons from this unbelievable incidence. There is no gap between life and death. Eddy, fare thee well as you will be remembered by ALL that you have done. This was around 6.50pm on 19/10/25. I don’t know whether I should upgrade the tribute but there is not much to add except that he lived an IMPACTFUL life and shaped the course of events wherever he found himself. He never hid whenever there was need to  stand up and be counted: in physical presence, in ideas and in cash. I am also aware that he helped many of our people in business and I just heard that about 20 years ago, when Naira was Naira  he extended up to N600000000  credit to one- just one- of our compatriots.

 Our People at his Lagos Residence

Since then all sorts of tear-inducing tributes have been pouring in, with different people harping on different aspects of his known universal qualities; humility, simplicity, friendliness and helpfulness. Our people trooped to his house at Palmgrove Estate en mass, with some of them saying that we have never had it so bad. But the elders who were in Lagos as at 1997 will remember  that we have had a similar experience. That was when Chief Ochendo Okoye, Chairman of IDU-Lagos died  in a road accident at Ore  and it looked as if the world would  stand still or even seize to exist!

 The summary is that the man died!!!  The man was Sir Eddy Muoemenem, Eddy Santana, Onwa, Ebekuodike, CEO of Edic Chemicals and Clarion Medicals, the  Maverick entrepreneur. He  died… just like that. His life validates one of the sayings of Joel Osteen that  When you focus on being a blessing to others, God makes sure that you are always blessed in ABUNDANCE. He was always joyful and cheerful but the secret of his joy was not that everything went right for him but that he found something right in everything as he kept on doing good deliberately. However, all that is over. A date will soon be fixed, he will be buried and that would be that. Those of us who believe that there might been some post-death purification( purgatorianism) will still be praying  for him but generally, it would be over with his burial and funeral ceremonies.

My concern in this intervention however is for the living. What lessons do we derive from this unbelievable,  shocking  and sudden demise of Eddy Santana?( VW Santana, which was few on Nigerian roads,  was once  his signature ride then). He went to prolong life by engaging in physical exercise and died on his way home. No goodbyes; no farewell briefings!  Well, there  are generally certified lessons like the FINALITY of death and the irrefutable reality that  we cannot leave this world alive; that death MUST come and it will come where, when and how we do not know but is known ONLY to  God of upper above, who charted the  course from the very beginning. Life also goes on for the living, even those most directly affected. There may also be other lessons  peculiar to different individuals and groups. However, I want to dwell on just one: life is short, its duration is uncertain and most important, Tomorrow may NEVER come.  Eddy left his house hale and hearty, in good spirits, with activities lined up for the day  and the following week but the tomorrow never came. That AM, he would have outlined what he would do that day, the following day and even the following week.  He would have planned after the exercise, to host some strategic business  colleagues , attend a wedding, visit a family or two and retouch his schedule for the upcoming week. But the tomorrow did NOT come for him. Death, as usual, came as a  thief  unannounced and unanticipated, and snatched the humble one. As  with ALL mortals, he did not know  the day or the hour( Mt, 25:13). I once had a scary experience. I went to school but was feeling somehow and so I went to the clinic straight and from there I was exported to the Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital where I was subjected to medical detention for two weeks. I did not even enter my office that day and all my plans and intentions (lectures, project supervision, meetings) were forcefully suspended! But luckily, the tomorrow and subsequent ones came for me. For all of us reading this write-up, the particular  tomorrow  of 19/10/25 and subsequent tomorrows materialized for us  but it will not always be so.

 The GOOD BOOK has always warned or advised us against taking tomorrow for granted. James(4:13-16) warned us against saying   today or tomorrow,  we will go to  such and such a city, spend a year there, and engage in business and make profit, yet you do not know what your life will be tomorrow. You are just like a vapour that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead. We ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do  this or that. We were warned  not  to  boast about tomorrow for  we do not know what the day may bring forth( Proverbs 27:1) and not to  worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own(-Mt.6:34). We are reminded that our days a mere handbreadth; the span of our years is nothing  before to God and that everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure (Psalm39:5)

So, whatever we are doing,  let us do so bearing in mind that tomorrow, yes, I mean tomorrow, may never come for us.  As Fr Blessed Njume opined on 22/10/25, life is the only bank where we withdraw from (every second, minute, hour and day  lived is a withdrawal) but we do not know the outstanding balance and he ended with this  long standing but difficult advice: live each day as if it were  your last. Since Eddy’s death has jolted us  into the reality that tomorrow may never come, we should do well to bear that irrefutability in mind in everything we do or want to do; we should do them TODAY and not wait for tomorrow which may not come. These include Love of God and man( Mt 22:37+),being  at peace with all men: ( Romans 2:8), being the  peacemaker so as to be called son of God( Mt5:9);being  the meek so as to inherit the earth: ( Mt,5.5), playing  the good Samaritan: ( compassion, empathy, generosity, selflessness) (Luke 10:25+),  validating our faith with  good works ( James2:26) forgiving 70x7( Mt, 18:21-22), living a life of empathy and compassion, being our brothers’ keeper, bearing in mind that our brother is EVERYBODY in need that  we have the capacity to assist; letting go of any hurt, treating any outstanding matter that we have KIVed( KIV: Keep in View) for weeks, months or years, reconciling( Mt5.25),   bonding positively  with family, kinsmen  and friends, sharing the peace and joy of God, being   good parents, loving spouses, collaborative colleagues and cooperative neighbors, taking care of ourselves,  dumping any destructive or  awful habit,  adopting any adorable habit, letting go off any heavy   burden, undertaking that new project or that holiday should be done TODAY because that is the only day  we have, and are sure of because  yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come. NOW IS THE TIME; and the time is on our side. Of course if there were any evil we are planning, any vengeance that is in the pipeline, any war with family and friends,  we can leave them for  tomorrow!!

 I was still in a mourning mood when  The Morning Prayers of 20/10/25 admonished us  to give a helping hand and to do the little we can to make the world a better place for everyone. But this has to be NOW, not tomorrow!!! Long before this, Mother Theresa advised us  to:

Do ALL the GOOD we can                                                                                                                          By all the means you can                                                                                                                              In all the ways we can                                                                                                                                  In all the places we can                                                                                                                                At all the times we can                                                                                                                                To ALL the people we can                                                                                                                            As long as we can

 And to this I dare to add: do it today, Do NOT WAIT for TOMORROW because TOMORROW MAY NEVER COME! About 40 years ago, I authored a  short poem which read thus:

 DO NOT LEAVE FOR TOMORROW

WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY BECAUSE

 TOMORROW MAY NEVER COME.

 I do not know to what extent I live by this my treatise but I advise ALL of us to try and abide by it

 Good buy to Eddy Santana and my sincere condolences to Muomenem Family, Umunono Kindred, Ndi-Obiuno, Ndi IgboUkwu amd Ndi Igbo in General.

- Ik Muo, PhD. FCIB. Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026625

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