I was stunned and perplexed in the early hours of Tuesday the 24th May, 2011, (about 43.30 am) when a friend called from Calabar to say that there was a strong rumour making the rounds in town that the indefatigable Neil Ofem had passed away in far away Republic of Gambia. I rightly dismissed it as a tissue of speculation. However, at exactly 5.25 am I got a call from the wife of Neil from Gambia who confirmed the sad news which left me in a state of total bewilderment?
Neil was an enigma and controversial, little wonder he disappeared in such a flighty way. This is the way of enigmatic and controversial people.
It is with heavy heart I write this Tribute. I did not want to write this Tribute because I am yet to recover from the shock. Utum Etowa told me: ‘you were very close to Neil; are you not going to write a tribute to him?’ He was collecting Tributes from interested people, but I had this reluctance to write. Again a friend, Hydro called me and asked: ‘have you written a Tribute for Neil?’ When I confessed to him my reluctance, he bluntly told me I must write a tribute for Neil. I had to give up.
Neil Ofem and I pioneered human rights activism and social advocacy in the early 1990’s in the Cross River State of Nigeria. In September, 1991, fresh from the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) we collaborated and organised against the military dictatorship of General Ibrahim Babangida concerning the Ugep-North and Ugep-South Local Government Areas. We made a protest in Ugep for the failure of his regime to create Ugep Municipal Council and the nullification of the creation. It was the first politically motivated mass protest in this part of our Country. Thousands of men, women and youths poured out into the streets of Ugep brandishing branches of trees and leaves, singing solidarity songs. The Ugep end of the Ikom-Calabar Highway was completely cut off by the Protesters.
Neil was my ideological mate and collaborator in issues of human rights, corruption and good governance. We fought against military dictatorship, injustice, corruption, abuse of human rights and oppression. In 1992 bubbling with plenty of youthful exuberance and progressive idealism coupled with a lot of revolutionary fervour, we joined the Universal Defenders of Democracy a Pro-democracy and Human Rights group formed by Chief Michael Ozekhome (SAN). I was appointed the Chairman of the group while Neil became the Secretary-General of the Cross River Chapter. We were arrested several times and incarcerated for criticising the then Military Dictator, Gen. Babangida (IBB) whose dictatorship was then facing the brunt and bouts of criticisms as Nigerians, wearied from years of a corrupt and decadent military dictatorships, began a great agitation and clamour for the return of constitutional rule in the Country.
Neil was courageous, fearless, irrepressible and dogged fighter and crusader for human freedoms and emancipation from the clutches of abysmal ignorance, grinding and chronic poverty, and human rights abuses. He was a Democrat to the core. On July 2nd, 2001, (which is exactly ten years anniversary on the day of his interment to mother earth) we led a protest that led to the removal from office of the then Chairman of Yakurr Local Government Council, Godwin Ettah, which to all intents and purposes was a monumental historical event in the constitutional history of Nigeria so that the BBC ran a commentary on it. It was Neil’s strident and trenchant editorial commentaries in the X-Ray Newspapers which he founded in 2000 that helped to mobilize and sensitize the people to move against a perceived corrupt and inept Local Government Administration.
Neil was like a senior brother to me. We became close even while I was in Secondary School. Neil animated my dabbling into political essay writing. He brought me to the fore as a Social Activist and a Social Commentator. I was in Mary Knoll College Ogoja in the early 1980’s. Neil had finished Secondary School and was doing an Advanced Level course in the then School of Basic Studies, Akamkpa, but was already writing for the Nigerian Chronicle Newspaper. My schools essays (which I showed him) impressed him so much that he advised me to start contributing to his weekly column in the Nigerian Chronicle.
When he told he was relocating to the Republic of Gambia last Year, I tried to dissuade him, but he stuck to his plan. Neil was a self opinionated and stubborn. He told me he was tired and disgruntled by the happenings in the Country. He said time had come for him to move on in life. He sadly said he had fought against injustice, corruption and human rights abuse but the Country had refused to change and that it was the right time he moved on as age was no longer on his side. I was very saddened that I was going to lose a Social Activists Mate and Collaborator. He was indeed the moving spirit of the cause we had charted together to effect a social change in our Community and Country.
Neil was a great man in his own right. He had left his name in the foot print of the history of Yakurr Community in particular and Nigeria in general. It is not how long we live but what our contributions were while we lived to the development of mankind; our impact to the progress of the human race that counts. It is axiomatic that some of the greatest historical figures lived and died young. The great Jesus Christ who has continue to impact on humanity more than two thousand years after he was born, died at the age of 32. The Founder and Motivator of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jnr. died at the age of 39 but his contribution to the development of the United States has kept on reverberating. One of his contributions to the development of the United States is the unprecedented emergence of a Black man as the President of the United States of America in 2008 at exactly the 39th anniversary of his assassination in 1969.
I believe in the injunction in the Holy Bible that there is time for everything in this world. There is a time to be born and a time to die. Neil was born, he played his part and he died when the time which his creator had apportioned for him came.
Good Bye, my Brother; my Friend and my ideological Mate. I shall undoubtedly miss you. I shall miss your doggedly spirit and do many things we use to do together, alone now but with the help of God Almighty. I can assure you that I will never waver but shall keep the flag flying.
Okoi Ofem Obono-Obla
(Obol Kepon of Lekpankom and Obol Kobil of Ijiman)
29th June, 2011.
Neil was an enigma and controversial, little wonder he disappeared in such a flighty way. This is the way of enigmatic and controversial people.
It is with heavy heart I write this Tribute. I did not want to write this Tribute because I am yet to recover from the shock. Utum Etowa told me: ‘you were very close to Neil; are you not going to write a tribute to him?’ He was collecting Tributes from interested people, but I had this reluctance to write. Again a friend, Hydro called me and asked: ‘have you written a Tribute for Neil?’ When I confessed to him my reluctance, he bluntly told me I must write a tribute for Neil. I had to give up.
Neil Ofem and I pioneered human rights activism and social advocacy in the early 1990’s in the Cross River State of Nigeria. In September, 1991, fresh from the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) we collaborated and organised against the military dictatorship of General Ibrahim Babangida concerning the Ugep-North and Ugep-South Local Government Areas. We made a protest in Ugep for the failure of his regime to create Ugep Municipal Council and the nullification of the creation. It was the first politically motivated mass protest in this part of our Country. Thousands of men, women and youths poured out into the streets of Ugep brandishing branches of trees and leaves, singing solidarity songs. The Ugep end of the Ikom-Calabar Highway was completely cut off by the Protesters.
Neil was my ideological mate and collaborator in issues of human rights, corruption and good governance. We fought against military dictatorship, injustice, corruption, abuse of human rights and oppression. In 1992 bubbling with plenty of youthful exuberance and progressive idealism coupled with a lot of revolutionary fervour, we joined the Universal Defenders of Democracy a Pro-democracy and Human Rights group formed by Chief Michael Ozekhome (SAN). I was appointed the Chairman of the group while Neil became the Secretary-General of the Cross River Chapter. We were arrested several times and incarcerated for criticising the then Military Dictator, Gen. Babangida (IBB) whose dictatorship was then facing the brunt and bouts of criticisms as Nigerians, wearied from years of a corrupt and decadent military dictatorships, began a great agitation and clamour for the return of constitutional rule in the Country.
Neil was courageous, fearless, irrepressible and dogged fighter and crusader for human freedoms and emancipation from the clutches of abysmal ignorance, grinding and chronic poverty, and human rights abuses. He was a Democrat to the core. On July 2nd, 2001, (which is exactly ten years anniversary on the day of his interment to mother earth) we led a protest that led to the removal from office of the then Chairman of Yakurr Local Government Council, Godwin Ettah, which to all intents and purposes was a monumental historical event in the constitutional history of Nigeria so that the BBC ran a commentary on it. It was Neil’s strident and trenchant editorial commentaries in the X-Ray Newspapers which he founded in 2000 that helped to mobilize and sensitize the people to move against a perceived corrupt and inept Local Government Administration.
Neil was like a senior brother to me. We became close even while I was in Secondary School. Neil animated my dabbling into political essay writing. He brought me to the fore as a Social Activist and a Social Commentator. I was in Mary Knoll College Ogoja in the early 1980’s. Neil had finished Secondary School and was doing an Advanced Level course in the then School of Basic Studies, Akamkpa, but was already writing for the Nigerian Chronicle Newspaper. My schools essays (which I showed him) impressed him so much that he advised me to start contributing to his weekly column in the Nigerian Chronicle.
When he told he was relocating to the Republic of Gambia last Year, I tried to dissuade him, but he stuck to his plan. Neil was a self opinionated and stubborn. He told me he was tired and disgruntled by the happenings in the Country. He said time had come for him to move on in life. He sadly said he had fought against injustice, corruption and human rights abuse but the Country had refused to change and that it was the right time he moved on as age was no longer on his side. I was very saddened that I was going to lose a Social Activists Mate and Collaborator. He was indeed the moving spirit of the cause we had charted together to effect a social change in our Community and Country.
Neil was a great man in his own right. He had left his name in the foot print of the history of Yakurr Community in particular and Nigeria in general. It is not how long we live but what our contributions were while we lived to the development of mankind; our impact to the progress of the human race that counts. It is axiomatic that some of the greatest historical figures lived and died young. The great Jesus Christ who has continue to impact on humanity more than two thousand years after he was born, died at the age of 32. The Founder and Motivator of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jnr. died at the age of 39 but his contribution to the development of the United States has kept on reverberating. One of his contributions to the development of the United States is the unprecedented emergence of a Black man as the President of the United States of America in 2008 at exactly the 39th anniversary of his assassination in 1969.
I believe in the injunction in the Holy Bible that there is time for everything in this world. There is a time to be born and a time to die. Neil was born, he played his part and he died when the time which his creator had apportioned for him came.
Good Bye, my Brother; my Friend and my ideological Mate. I shall undoubtedly miss you. I shall miss your doggedly spirit and do many things we use to do together, alone now but with the help of God Almighty. I can assure you that I will never waver but shall keep the flag flying.
Okoi Ofem Obono-Obla
(Obol Kepon of Lekpankom and Obol Kobil of Ijiman)
29th June, 2011.
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