The Nation Newspaper

Tag: remembered

  • Patrice Lumumba, remembered and honoured

    Recently, a small but historically significant gesture took place in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. The gesture was the naming of a square in a prominent place in the town after Patrice Emery Lumumba, the Congolese independence hero and the first Prime Minister of that country now renamed Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Patrice Lumumba was brutally killed in 1961 by the agents of Belgian government in collaboration with local political opponents of Lumumba. Through this action, the Belgian government was trying to tackle and atone for the dark and sordid colonial legacy of Belgium in Africa. The Congo became officially a Belgian colony in 1805 after centuries of being a personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium for centuries. Under Leopold II, the inhabitants of the Congo were regarded as beasts of burden and they were subjected to horrendous brutality by the Belgians. It is an irony that a small country like Belgium which is just like a small dot on the map of Europe could subjugate for centuries, a country as big as the Congo with a land area of over two million square kilometres.

    The wind of change which blew over Africa in the sixties leading to the independence of many African countries caught the Belgian imperialists napping. The Belgian imperial power rushed to give the Congo independence and subsequently sowed the seed of instability which is still plaguing that hapless country till today. The political arrangement before independence saw Patrice Lumumba, the leader of the Mouvement National Congolaisis (MNC) as Prime Minister and Joseph Kasavubu the leader of the Abako party as ceremonial President. Patrice Lumumba, though a man with little education was a charismatic leader with profound oratorical skill. He was an ardent Pan Africanist in the mode of his mentor, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Joseph Kasavubu on the other hand, was very conservative and a lackey of the Belgians. Right from the onset, the Belgians put a wedge between these two leaders of emerging independent Congo.

    At independence, the Congo with its abundant mineral and natural resources had the potential of being the richest country in Africa. However, it lacked human resources and it was the most primitive with its people living in pre-historic era. The vast country had less than 100 kilometres of paved road; it had no graduate in the field of Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture and other essential fields needed for development. This bleak situation in the Congo at independence did not deter King Baudouin of Belgium at the Congo independence celebration on June 30, 1960, to arrogantly extol the civilising mission and the achievements of the Belgians in the Congo. The insensitive king added insult to injury by praising King Leopold II who turned the inhabitants of the Congo to serfs who were treated like animals for centuries. Joseph Kasavubu as the president in a moronic way thanked the king, but Lumumba being a patriot would have nothing like that. He openly criticised the king at ceremony for his insensitivity and he enumerated the woes of Belgian colonialism in the Congo. He told the king without mincing words that Belgian presence in the Congo was a waste to humanity. Lumumba’s unscheduled speech was the high point of the ceremony and the speech was applauded by thousands of his country men. For his audacity to tell the king of Belgium the truth, he became a marked man and the Belgians from that day did everything to annihilate Lumumba.

    Despite the tremendous and searing opposition from the Belgians, Lumumba tried to assert the independence of his country. He was supported and advised by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana in this effort. Lumumba put many Congolese in positions of authority and one of those who enjoyed his patronage was Joseph Mobutu, a failed journalist who he made the Chief of Staff of Congolese Army. Mobutu who many people regarded as an agent of the Belgians, later joined other evil-minded people in the destruction of Lumumba. The opposition of the Belgians to Lumumba was  enormous. They encouraged and sponsored anarchy in the country. The Belgians were behind Moise Tshombe who  tried to take away the mineral-rich Katanga province from the Congo. In order to assert his authority, Lumumba appealed to the United Nations Organization and United States of America for help to suppress the Belgian supported Katanga secessionist  but they both refused and he had to turn to the Soviet Union.

    The Belgians made the Congo ungovernable for Lumumba despite the presence of United Nations troops in the country.

    Patrice Lumumba was removed unconstitutionally as the Prime Minister by Kasavubu with the instigation of the Belgians who had a strong contingent of troops on the ground. Lumumba was subsequently arrested, tortured and later killed by the Katangese  troops commanded by the Belgians. He was killed along with his colleagues, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito.  It was reported that that the Belgian authorities and the fiendish Moise Tshombe of Katanga so hated Lumumba  that they ordered that his dead body should  be soaked in acid and his teeth used as souvenirs. His death led to many demonstrations all over the world. In Nigeria, the Nigerian Youth Congress led by Dr. Tunji Otegbeye organized a mammoth demonstration in Lagos to protest about the complicity of Belgium and the Western power in the death of Patrice Lumumba.

    After his death, Lumumba became an icon. Mobutu who was one of the conspirators that killed Lumumba, proclaimed him in 1966 as a national hero and martyr and in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the longest street  with his imposing statute named after him. The former Soviet Union named the People Friendship University as Patrice Lumumba University to honour him.

    From the foregoing, the gesture in Brussels to honour Patrice Lumumba,  57 years after he was gruesomely murdered, was a little token to give  peace to the tormented  collective conscience of the Belgians for their ignoble role in the murder of Patrice Lumumba. The United States of America under President Eisenhower also colluded with Belgium in this heinous crime. The United Nations should also follow the example of Belgium to apologise for its role in the death of Patrice Lumumba, after all the United Nations troop  made of Canadians handed over  Lumumba and his colleagues to the Congolese army under the command of the duplicitous Joseph Mobutu. The effect of Belgian destabilization of the Congo at independence in 1960 is still very evident to everybody. Despite almost 60 years of independence, the country is still rudderless with little impact on the well-being of its people despite its tremendous resources.

    In Africa, we have other cases of nationalists killed by imperialists with the connivance of renegade local politicians.  Felix Mommie, a Cameroons nationalist was poisoned in Geneva by French secret agents so as to allow Ahmadu Ahidjo, the French lackey to rule Cameroons without any formidable opposition. In apartheid South Africa, Albert Luthuli, the first President of African National Congress of that country was killed by the apartheid regime under a mysterious circumstance. In the same South Africa, Steve Biko, the young and vibrant nationalist was killed  in gruesome manner in apartheid police custody. There is a need for restitution for known  cases of politically motivated death of nationalists killed in Africa. The recent action of President Buhari on June I2 and Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola who died mysteriously in detention , is a step in the right direction.

     

    • Professor  Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.
  • How will he be remembered?

    How will he be remembered?

    University of Calabar (UNICAL) Vice-Chancellor Prof James Epoke will end his five-year tenure in December. His administration means different things to various students. Some praise him; others which he had done more.  EMMANUEL SHEBBS (Graduate School) and STANLEY UCHEGBU (Graduate of Accounting) write.

    Professor James Epoke had his job cut out for him after he was appointed Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) almost five years ago. He was sworn in on November 30, 2010.

    •The new Faculty of Education building
    •The new Faculty of Education building

    Having been part of the administration of his predecessor, Prof Bassey Asuquo, as the Dean of Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences, Prof Epoke knew he had a huge task to build on Asuquo’s achievements and make his own mark.

    When he assumed duty, his mantra was: “The quest for academic excellence”. Pronto, he unveiled his plans and means of achieving them. This was contained in his development masterplan.

    Barely a year on the saddle, Epoke’s administration hit a glitch in August 2011. A final student of Public Administration, Chima Agba Kalu, was murdered on the campus, which led to violence that left properties worth millions vandalised by rampaging students. The school was close for six months.

    When students returned, they were welcomed by beautiful facilities and pristine environment. The school introduced innovations into many activities, which were done manually. By this feat, the VC won many students’ hearts. Besides, some students said the VC listen, accommodate and respond to matters on time.

    Some, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, described Epoke’s effort to increase the rating of the school as unique.

    Jeffrey Essienobong, a Medicine and Surgery student, who has spent 12 years on the campus, said the university has never had it so good before Epoke came. He said: “I still remember when the school was seen as a place where facilities were in dilapidating state. When Prof Epoke came, the whole place became friendly arena.”

    Sandra Onwurah, a 400-Level Management Science student, said the VC started to change the story of the school immediately he assumed office.

    Sandra said: “Barely five years in office, Prof Epoke brought his wealth of experience to bear in administering the institution. We have witnessed drastic changes both in academics and infrastructure.”

    To Margaret Onen, a Post-graduate student, the VC’s policies have positively impacted the lives of students and lecturers. She said provision of wireless Internet bandwidth to students has resulted in stress-free learning. “The provision of free wireless Internet service within the campus shows Prof Epoke’s drive for innovation and research,” Margaret said.

    Bassey Umoh, a lecturer at the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, said the image of the university has soared within the country and worldwide, noting that the VC’s creativity improved the rating of the school.

    Students pointed to establishment of Bassey Andiah Institute for African and Asian Studies, Senator Ita Enang Block, construction of faculties of Engineering and Education, among others as some of commendable feats of the VC.

    Dr. Dave Ugwu, a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Public Policy and Administration told CAMPUSLIFE that the upgraded of the school’s Information and Communication Technology system made computation of students’ results easy. “Students now see their results on time and certificates are issued immediately after graduation. That is a good story to tell,” he said.

    A final year student of the Faculty of Allied Medical Science, Michael Uwakwe, hailed the Epoke administration for upgrading hostels, saying the move had encouraged learning.

    He said: “The renovation work embarked on by the VC has given Malabo hostel plaza a new shape and restore the beauty of academic area. The hostel is not noisy as it used to be and students no longer inhale generator fumes from traders around the hostel. We can now read very comfortably in the hostel unlike before.”

    A member of the Students Union Government (SUG) told CAMPUSLIFE, who pleaded for anonymity, urged the VC to remove “bad people”, who intrude into the union’s affairs, from the system.

    “The VC should not allow these backbiters to soil his last days in office. I will advise him to look into the students’ welfare and stay away from sycophants,” he said.

    While the VC wraps up his tenure, some part-time students are, however, not happy with the school. Their complaints range from certificate issuance and participation in the Nation Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. CAMPUSLIFE learnt that some students, who graduated years ago, had not been given their certificates.

    A part-time student, Desmond Archibong, said he graduated from the Faculty of Education in 2012, but he had not been given his certificate, because he could not get exemption letter to stop him from going for National Youth Service.

    He said: “We were asked to fill the mobilisation form at my department with the promise that we are going to get exemption letter not to participate in National Youth Service. Up till today, we are yet to get it. The VC must solve the problem before he leaves.”

    Ben Ikahi, president of Part-time Students’ Association, wants the VC to approve mobilisation of part-time students for the National Youth Service. He said: “We are being short-changed, because we pay so much to study. We want the VC to extend participation in NYSC to part-time students.”

  • Kayode Osuntokun remembered

    This year marks the 20th year since Professor Kayode Osuntokun passed on . If he had been alive, January 6, the day of epiphany would have been his 80th birthday. How time flies! I still remember those  horrible days when I was with him in the Addenbrooke Hospital in Cambridge not really knowing how serious his case was until his friend Sir Keith Peters, Regius Professor of Physics (medicine) told me Jide, you know Kayode will not be returning home to Nigeria. I immediately knew what he meant. My brother that meant so much to me was dying before my eyes and there was nothing I could do  about it. It was horrible. Everyone in the family had always taken our medical problems to him  and he always found solutions to them. Our rural folks at home in Okemesi always waited for his visits to lay before him their medical conditions and in his inimitable way, he would treat them and sometimes used psychology for good effect by jokingly telling them not to talk to any of their wives after swallowing whatever medicaments he gave them. We would laugh over his pranks! Our people at home did not know of course that they were consulting one of the best neuro-scientists in the world. He had garnered all the certificates available in his field from MD, PhD to Dsc and the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and prizes across the globe. If he had lived, I believe he would have been a strong contender for the Nobel prize especially because of his research on Alzeimer disease. He was such a global figure in medicine that his earlier research on cyanide poisoning associated with consumption of garri (cassava) had led to disease  emanating from it being named the Osuntokun’s syndrome.

    We as a family were very proud of his unparalleled achievement and none of us expected he would die so young at 60 with so much accomplishment that even one could not have done in a century. It was like he was in a hurry  to finish his earthly work. His birth was itself a miracle. My mother was about to die with him in her womb when my father rushed to Prophet Joseph Babalola who through prayers facilitated his delivery. When a few years later my mother had a set of twins and because of the hardship of raising three babies at a time, she  donated Kayode to Babalola and his Christ Apostolic Church. Kayode  as a precocious child finished reading the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation-before he was six years old.  The child indeed  was the father of the man! He showed his hands very early in life. He waltzed through secondary school by clearing all his subjects at O Level at Distinction grade, a feat that can only be equalled not excelled. He did the same at medical school in Ibadan. He had in record time finished his training as a neurologist under eminent British professors in Cardiff and Newcastle in the UK. He became a professor of medicine in his 30s and the rest they say is history. It was not all work and no play; he was a good footballer and was once Western Nigeria’s Lawn Tennis champion. On his death bed, he once asked me about what would happen to all the work he had done. He was meticulous even to the point of where he would like to be buried. He had told his wife he should be buried at right side of his father’s grave. I have not met somebody as organized as he was. Sometime in 1992 when I was ambassador of Nigeria in Germany, he gave me a letter written to him in 1953 by someone asking him to send him a pair of shoes known then as ronke. The letter in terrible English  was first a mystery to me until I saw my name  as the writer. I showed this letter to my children who simply dismissed it as probably something written by  an illiterate cousin from Okemesi. I finally told them that their illiterate father at 11 wrote the letter! My brother had kept that letter  for almost 50 years!

    He was so selfless to the extent that he bequeathed half of his estate to the University of  Ibadan to support professorship in  medicine and ophthalmology in honour of himself and his equally cerebrally endowed wife who is a retired professor of ophthalmology at the University of Ibadan. He was the first African to serve as an examiner in the British Royal College of Physicians examination and the first African to be appointed visiting professor to the Royal Hammersmith Hospital in London.

    The most important thing was that he was a father, husband and brother. He was of course honored by his country as an Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) and was the second person to receive the National Order of Merit (NNOM) after the great Professor Adeoye Lambo, a great friend of his who stood by him when he was evacuated from Lagos in 1995 by medical ambulance. Recently he was adjudged as one of the most distinguished Nigerians of the last century.

    A great man never dies just as a great idea never dies. He lives on  in his published scientific papers of over 300. His library was shared between Ekiti State University and the College of Medicine University of Ibadan. His estate and a friend who doesn’t want himself named and this grateful brother have endowed a medical prize at Ekiti University College of Medicine. He lives on of course in his children and grand children. Two of his children became doctors in his life time. Two were lawyers and one a distinguished and accomplished chartered accountant.  One grand child is already finishing medical school in the United States and another is on scholarship in Yale to mention some of the grand children who are already following grandfather’s footsteps. If Kayode can see how well his family had done since he left mortality for immortality, he would no doubt be proud of them and realize that when ashes cover a burning fire, it does not mean the fire is completely extinguished and when the bunch of plantain is chopped off, it will sprout again!  Let this be our testimony of Kayode Osuntokun’s promenade on this side of heaven. He was a man in a million.

  • World War veteran Fadoyebo remembered

    Isaac Fadoyebo was just 16 when he ran away from his home in southwest Nigeria. Then, he signed up to fight for Britain in World War II, a decision made out of youthful exuberance that saw him sent to Burma to fight. He nearly died.

    Courage and luck kept him alive behind enemy lines as local farmers protected him for months until the British broke through and found him. When he returned home to Nigeria, his story and those of his fellow veterans largely fell away from the public’s mind as independence swept through the country and a devastating civil war and political unrest later followed.

    Fadoyebo, who died in November at the age of 86, represents one of the last so-called “Burma Boys” in West and East Africa. On Thursday, his family and friends gathered for a final worship service and celebration of his life, as new attention has been paid to his sacrifices and those of other Africans drawn into the fighting.

    “There was this allegiance to the British; we would sing ‘God Save the Queen.’ … Those who joined the war then were of course celebrated as heroes, not as we were celebrating them now,” said Elizabeth Adenike Ajayi, a daughter of Fadoyebo. “But like much of Africa’s history, there wasn’t an attempt to get the history from the perspective of the Africans.”

    Fadoyebo served as a medical official in the Royal West African Frontier Force, a military comprised Britain’s then-colonies of Gambia, the country that would become Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Coupled with recruits from Britain’s eastern colonies as well, authorities recruited some 500,000 Africans to fight.

    Fadoyebo ran away from home and joined the force out of curiosity, the desire to have an adventure, the money that British forces paid and a “youthful exuberance,” Ajayi said. Historians say many others joined for the same reason. Fadoyebo sailed with others around the Cape of Good Hope and toward India, later arriving in Burma, the country now known as Myanmar.

    Shot in the leg and chest in battle, Fadoyebo drew the attention of Japanese soldiers who approached him with bayonets on their rifles. However, they left him alone, likely believing he’d succumb to his serious wounds. He survived, crawling to a fellow soldier still alive from Sierra Leone. Villagers later took them in and protected them for months, even though they could have been killed for aiding the African soldiers, according to accounts from him and his family.

    Fadoyebo returned home to Nigeria, still then a British colony despite a growing call by nationalists for the nation’s independence. Soldiers who took part in World War II from Ghana later sparked the 1948 Accra riots, the start of the nation’s march toward independence. However, their Nigerian counterparts largely faded back into normal life as the nation gained its independence from Britain in 1960. Later that decade, some soldiers fought during the nation’s civil war that saw 1 million people killed. At that time, most of the military commanders in the nation came from a later generation.

    History, however, has a way of fading quickly in Nigeria, a young nation that has seen its population boom to more than 160 million people. The British Commonwealth still pays to have a portion of a Lagos cemetery where the graves of World War II dead still lie. A Nigerian military cemetery next to it for those who died in the 1990 peacekeeping missions to Sierra Leone and Liberia has trees growing out of the graves and overgrown bushes blocking people from entering a memorial there.

    Fadoyebo ended up writing a book about his experiences. It was entitled, “A Stroke of Unbelievable Luck,” while still receiving his disability payments from the British for his injuries into his eighties. He later was profiled as part of a documentary about Africa’s contribution to British forces during World War II, drawing new attention to his incredible story.

    “It is a surprise that I survived it. It’s a miracle,” Fadoyebo told journalist Barnaby Phillips in the documentary that aired on the satellite news network Al Jazeera. “I never thought I could survive it. I thought I was going to die.”

    Yet through it all, Fadoyebo remained humble, raising six daughters and retired from his job as a civil servant. His will calls for much of his estate to go toward establishing a clinic in the village where he grew up, Ajayi said.

    “He was a focused man,” his daughter said.

     

    Source: JON GAMBRELL Associated Press