The Nation Newspaper

Tag: posthumous

  • Posthumous statesmanship

    A pop diva sang about love being wicked but Hardball wager that it is History that is actually most wicked. For one, history seems to abhor villainy. Two, since many still have not been able to fathom the ways and wiles of history, they tend to ignore it or even banish it from national syllabi.

    But history is like a wizened old man, full of wisdom and well-being; seated at a corner of the theatre watching and taking in every minute of man’s strivings on the stage of life.

    History, as unobtrusive as the old one at the corner, is apparently lost on all, especially the principalities, the powers and the rulers of the world. How could anyone kowtow to history if an entire population is at his very mercy? The aphrodisiacal fervor of power would make any leader to repudiate history, banish it and denounce it as a mere tome of verbiage on the dunghills of time.

    Such is the trap that many leaders across ages have fallen into that at the end of the day, when the dust of life and living has settled on the red earth everyone, history is all that mankind is left with… its pages begin to turn as the last page of man is closed. If there was no repentance in the grave as some wags have opined, there surely is no changing the verdict of history.

    Men have tried to write their own history… or re-write history’s history. Some in bold and vicious assertiveness while others in stealth or even by stealing. But it hardly works. History can be mean and unforgiving.

    The sum therefore is that you live your history daily unbeknownst to you but it is penned on your demise, when your opinion didn’t matter anymore and you cannot smuggle stuff in it. In other words, you couldn’t have lived an entire life of a scoundrel and expect history to present you as a statesman.

    In other words again, there is no such thing as posthumous statesmanship. This is why Hardball merely chuckled some jejunal Nigerian politicos try to foist statesmanship on one of their kind after a peculiarly Nigerian perfidious sojourn.

    They start by heaping vacuous eulogies on such a fallen traveler as if that would change anything. History is neither stupid nor is he a Nigerian big man.

    Here: “Senate has urged the Federal Government to accord former Lagbaja all official burial rights due a national figure, with such honour and diligence.”

    Let’s just close by telling them bump heads that honour never comes through the back door nor is statesmanship acquired after the fact.

  • Posthumous award for ex-UNILAG VC Sofoluwe

    The University of Lagos (UNILAG) Students’ Union Government (SUG) will hold its maiden personality lecture, where some students will be honoured.

    Also, posthumous award will be presented to the family of institution’s former Vice-Chancellor (VC), the late Prof Adetokunbo Sofoluwe.

    Chairman of the Organising Committee, Moyosore Adebanjo, said the event would hold on October 2 at the institution’s Multipurpose Hall.

    According to him, the event, which is tagged: UNILAG Awards, is being planned by committee composed of students drawn from Akoka and Idi-Araba campuses of the school.

    Moyosore said the award was introduced to celebrate students and alumni, who have brought honour to the school through their activities.

    He highlighted categories of awards to be presented, including leadership, impact, innovation and enhancement, outstanding and social enterprise, Mr and Miss Personality, and Best Online Personality among others.

    Moyosore disclosed that the nomination process had started, adding that each awardee must have 25 per cent votes from each faculty. This, he said, is to ensure transparency in the nomination process.

     

  • Ojukwu gets posthumous honorary degree

    Anambra State University (ANSU) will, next Thursday, honour the Biafran warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, with a posthumous honorary degree.

    Senate President David Mark will also receive an honorary doctorate at the institution’s sixth convocation.

    The former military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, is to deliver a lecture, titled: ‘Nigerian Civil War: No Victor, No Vanquished’.

    Ex-Governor Peter Obi renamed ANSU Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU).

    Addressing reporters yesterday at the institution’s campus in Igbariam, Anambra East Local Government, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Fidelis Okafor, said it was significant that Gen. Gowon would speak for the first time about the Civil War at a university named after his ‘rival’ in the war.

    Prof. Okafor said: “Ojukwu’s wife, Bianca and  Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (Jnr) will receive the award on behalf of the late Igbo leader.”

    He described the three main characters in this year’s convocation as ‘special military men’, who, in one way or the other, helped to shape the country.

    The vice chancellor said 3,000 students would receive certificates as follows; 2,800 to be admitted to first degrees, 54 to receive  Master’s.

    Fourteen are to be conferred with doctorate and 97 postgraduate diplomas.

  • Posthumous award for Justus Esiri

    Two weeks after the late consummate actor, Justus Esiri, was buried in his home town, Oria-Abraka, Delta State, he bagged Africa’s Best Actor award on Saturday. It was amid ovation at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) which held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital.

    Film professionals, movie buffs, Bayelsa State Government officials, foreign observers and other stakeholders across the country gathered at the Glory Hall Cultural Center, venue of the event, which is often described as Africa’s version of the Oscars.

    Esiri won the award with his last work, Assassins Practice, beating Nigeria’s OC Ukeje, Bimbo Manuel, Femi Jacobs and Lindani Nkosi (South Africa), Hlomlab Dandala (Ghana) and Amurin Wumnembom (Cameroon) to it.

    His trophy was received on his behalf by the President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Miss Ibinabo Fiberesima.

    South African actress, Florence Masbe won the Best Actress award for her role in “Elelwani,” beating Nigeria’s Rita Dominic, Ghana’s Yvonne Okoro, Burkina Faso’s Mariam Ouedraogo, Cameroon’s Mbutung Seikeh and Malawi’s Flora Suya.

    It was an evening of glory for Nigerian movies, as the Best Director and Best Film categories were clinched by Niji Akanni, for the film, Heroes and Zeroes and Kenneth Gyang for Confusion Na Wah.

    Lifetime Achievement Awards were also bestowed on some Nollywood veterans, including Chief Eddie Ugboma, Sir Osita Okeke Oguno (Ossy Afason), Ayuko Babu, Pete Edochie and Tunde Kelani.

    Special Recognition laurels also went to ace producer, Emem Isong, veteran actors, Kanayo O Kanayo, Keneth Okonkwo, and the Film and Video Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria (FVPMAN) for its invaluable roles in the industry.

    Minister for Culture and Tourism, Chief Edem Duke, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan at the event, said the government was committed to helping the movie industry grow in Nigeria, adding that the N3 billion grant promised by Jonathan was still valid. He added that the framework for the fund would soon be out.

    Also, Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson said his government is passionate about AMAA and its activities as he announced the establishment of Bayelsa Film Trust Fund, with an initial donation of N150 million.

  • Family marks Christy Essien-Igbokwe’s 2nd posthumous birthday

    Family marks Christy Essien-Igbokwe’s 2nd posthumous birthday

    FOR two years running after Christy Essien-Igbokwe’s death, the family last Sunday continued with the good works she was noted for on earth, when after marking her 52nd birthday anniversary and 2nd posthumous birthday church thanksgiving service, they visited two charity homes with loads of items including her birthday cake for the less privileged.

    The church service which was held at the Arch Bishop Vining Memorial Church, GRA, Ikeja, on Sunday November 11, 2012 attracted a lot of attention by other worshippers, her fans and other family members who joined in the procession to the altar as the church choir rendered one of her popular numbers Seun Rere.

    The officiating priest, also touched by the family’s kind gesture, praised them for keeping the fire burning, noting that life does not end after death especially for those who lived well and left a lot of legacies.

    However, that was not the end of the ceremony as the train headed to Yaba, first to the Red Cross Motherless and Modupe Cole Handicapped Home, Akoka to donate foods and other items to them.

    Excited Mrs Juliana Obanife, Home Matron of the Red Cross, could not hide her feelings when the team arrived. “Everyone here, including the children, remember her and would always celebrate her. Our prayer is that her soul continues to rest perfectly in the hands of the Lord.”

    A high point of it was the cutting of the posthumous birthday cake which the children ate with joy.

    And it was the same sweet song and prayer at Modupe Cole where both the staff and inmates rushed out to receive the august visitors and their gifts. Group photographs were also taken before the team bade them bye-bye for the day.