TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF PROF. BEN EBELE OBUMSELU - NYIM OF OBA

Nyim of Obam, as I normally address you, we spoke last towards the end of February 2017 and you informed me that the end was around the corner and that you were ready, having lived life to its fullest. That was one of the bravest thing I have ever heard anyone say at the point of departure. 
But that is not anything new in your life whose path is strewn with exploits in courage. 

I heard and read of you from the 1950s but our paths never crossed until the late 1990s in Enugu whilst battling to set Ohanaeze Ndigbo on the path of restitution. 
The 2002/3 Ohanaeze Transition Committee, which I served as Secretary wound up with election of a new Ohanaeze national leadership at Owerri. Despite the manifold intrusion of Governors in the election process, we were glad you agreed to serve as Deputy President General and got elected as such.

In 2004, you demonstrated rectitude as a value inherent in you when you quit the Ohanaeze national executive committee as soon as other Ohanaeze leaders in the Committee  began to manipulate their 2-year tenure into four-year term. We all joined forces to fight the sit-tights until they surrendered and Dr. Dozie Ikedife was elected President General at Umuahia in 2007. 
From 2009 you always offered to join in the litigations against erring Ohanaeze leadership but you took my counsel to stay in the background and offer advice and support, as a more elderly elder.

On the Anambra State front, we again joined forces in setting up the Anambra Elders' Council in a bid to focalize government activities to service of the people. I served as the founding Secretary of the Anambra State Elders Forum; and when the Forum crystallized into Anambra State Elders Council, you consulted extensively, like the natural democrat you are, before accepting to serve as the Council Secretary.

I cannot forget the several nights we spent time worrying, researching and thinking out solutions to Igbo for-ever-multiplying problems in Nigeria. From these sessions, one thing became obvious to me. We were soul-brothers in identifying the issues and their solutions.

Consequently, I was over-joyed when in spite of your increasing health challenges, you accepted to preview my 450-page manuscript - "THE UNCIVIL WAR" - an effort to correctly depict the Nigerian Civil war (1967-70) for what it really was - an aspect of forever Jihad pursued by the Nigerian oligarchy; and the lapses on the part the Igbos to see the war for what it really was, both during the war and even 47 years after. I concluded in the manuscript that until Igbos repel the Jihad with the intellectual arsenal abundantly available among them, the Jihad, which is continuing in all of its eight forms, will consume the Igbos.

Nothing has ever gladdened my heart when on  September 22, 2016, you returned your verdict on the manuscript in the following over-flowing words of praise:

"Agbalanze, 'Okpu adirom nisi' (in recognition of the place of an NRI Prince in Igbo Cultural History). You have undertaken a great and monumental task, that of summing up a theme of Nigerian history and delivering a carefully considered final judgment after the lapse of fifty years. You have clearly done the research, assembled the evidence, unearthed hidden documents from unknown sources, reflected deeply about the issues.  Congratulations for a job well done. It is revealing, very informative and impressive."

Thereafter you descended into an analytical dissection of the work in nine numbered paragraphs, counseling on some excesses in language and speed. That manuscript was intended for release in 2016 but after reading your advice that "Scripts usually have to be revised several times even by the most experienced writers. . ." and that I should consider to "re-conceptualize, re-arrange and re-phrase," it became obvious to me that I had a lot of work to do in the three areas advised as above before going to press. I am still working on the script.

You never forgot to ask about that manuscript each time I talked to you since after your review. I got the message that you would have liked to read the published work before your departure, but the pressures of daily life and an effort to perfect the work as advised by, could not allow any hastening of publishing. I assure you that 2017 would get the work out with excerpts of your review in some prominent corner.

I need not delve into your life as an Oxford trained Doctor of Philosophy in English language. Your fellow Professors are in better position to evaluate you. I can only say you are one of the very bests.

You have written and published very many brilliant papers and manuscripts but the one that touches me most and, in my view, serves eternally Igbo future, is the publication of "The Report of the Justice G.C. M. Onyiuke Tribunal - MASSACRE OF NDIGBO IN 1966," which, in your own words, "dedicated to all victims of ethnic and political violence in Nigeria in 1966/67". 
I give you an undertaking:
After the commencement of the proceedings on remedies for IPOB (Independent People of Biafra) victims of extra-judicial killings and torture, which is in very advanced stage, I will mobilize, using your documentation and others from international writers, to seek remedy from the Nigerian authorities, in the appropriate international arena, for all victims of the Genocide, committed against the Igbo, 1966-1970. 
I will promise to dedicate that effort to the memory principles we both share on eradicating impunity for serious human rights violations, like Genocide.

"That lack of accountability encourages repetition of crimes, as perpetrators and others feel free to commit further offences without fear of punishment; that impunity must be fought as a matter of justice for the victims, as a deterrent to prevent new violations, and to uphold the rule of law and public trust in the justice system, including where there is a legacy of serious human rights violations."

Iconic principled Igbo leader, Scholar extra-ordinary, Wordsmith, Democrat, Philosopher King and NYIM of OBA, good Bye, till we meet to part no more.

Oba Agbalanze na NRI.
EZE NRIENWELANI II PALACE,
NRI, ANAMBRA STATE.

17th May 2017.




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