On the passing of patriarchs

Tatalo Alamu

Some major masquerades have just departed the forested pavilion. As the avalanche of death and dying continues to wreak havoc on our blighted landscape, the Black race mourns its illustrious children. The new normal is turning out to be quite abnormal in terms of human casualty. The appetite of Covid-19 for human victuals remains undiminished despite heroic efforts.

As we have noted in this column once, our perception of death and dying is undergoing a revolutionary shift. In a society that has been subjected to a systematic dehumanization by viral and human pandemics, the old feudal terror code that admonishes us not to speak ill of the dead is becoming passé.

But certain codes of conduct remain impregnable, such as honour for the honourable dead. In the past fortnight the larger Black community has lost three of its most accomplished sons to the grim reaper. First it was Senator Ayo Fasanmi, pioneer pharmacist, fiery Action Group Youth leader, distinguished senator of the Second Republic, implacable progressive lodestar and prodemocracy titan.

In a lifetime of relentless struggle, the hard choices that fell on Senator Fasanmi’s laps could be sometimes awkward and inexplicable to the political novice. But there can be no doubt that he breathed his last in the service of his Yoruba people and the Nigerian commonwealth at large.

Next to depart and almost around the same time are the illustrious duo of Ambassador Walter Carrington and Chief Elderman Nathaniel Folarin Coker, pioneer permanent secretary in Lagos state, old Grammarian and epitome of Lagosian good breeding and superb manners.

Walter Carrington was America’s envoy to Nigeria during the most turbulent and traumatic period of Nigeria’s post-independence history when the dark-goggled tyrant ruled the roost in despotic and psychopathic delirium. But such is the cunning of history that the moment also threw up its perfect ambassador and iconic activist envoy.

A Harvard Law School graduate with an illustrious pedigree dating back to the Civil Rights movement, the suave and urbane Carrington pitched his tent with the Nigerian people in their struggle for emancipation from a vicious colonial army of occupation, thus causing much consternation and alarm in the innermost diplomatic sanctuary of America.

In the cloak and dagger world of modern diplomacy, the home country has a way of sanctioning envoys that go rogue and off message. America and France have been known to sacrifice their ambassadors “in the greater national interest”. Carrington was lucky to escape with light repercussion.

As for Pa Folarin Coker, he belongs to the finest breed of civil servants and community leaders ever thrown up by this country. Snooper recalls that in September 2001 after yours sincerely delivered the eighty fifth anniversary lecture of the Yoruba Tennis Club, the old Lagosian got up and asked the audience to thank the speaker for his contribution to civilization.  The compliment is now formally returned to you sir in posthumous celebration of true excellence and distinction.