Dr Austin Agbahiwe writes a moving tribute to the late Chief Bernard EjizuOsuoha.
6 min read
The people’s Ejizu!
This is one death too many!
The Socrates of our time!
The Eclipse of an Era!!
What an Impactful Life!!!
What a great mentor!!
Journey thee Well!!!!
As You’re Committed to Mother Earth today May 2, 2025.
Dee Ejizu (as I used to call him), and so did others during our primary school days in the village in the mid-seventies, had been there for me.
Quite unassuming, tall, handsome, meek, outspoken, fearless, industrious and well organized in addition to being a very smart dresser at all times, he was well respected by all of us village children who saw him as one of the richest individuals in our community who also was doing well in the village without any of his businesses in the township. A focused palm oil merchant who had a zinc house, beautifully designed and painted, with a motorcycle and a 911 big “Austin brand” lorry that carried palm oil for merchants within our neighboring towns to the famous Onitsha market. I think he co-owned the big “gwongworo” with his cousin, the late Chief VinIhedoro who was then living at Aba. The driver was Dee Innoma and the conductor was Hilary, Onyegharauwaya’s first son. What was more? He had two wives with all his children attending schools with us at Union school, Inland School and All Saints, Ime EkeIbele. As I write, I can still visualize the excitement on his face the day our late Sir Dr Timmy Obiwuru, took his first son, Sir Dr Sampson Osuoha to Nkwerre, who passed the competitive common entrance examination and was posted to St Augustine Grammar School, SAGS, Nkwerre, where Sir Timmy was also a student, to commence his secondary school journey metamorphosis. It was amazing, seeing the joy of a proud father determined to give his kids the best!
I could also recall an incident that happened in one of his “edibele shades”. Very small, but always in the company of my older schoolmates (AmawuruArikankpa, Silas Íyéé, Ambrose Ogujiofor, OmoNnadi, Moses Mgboji, and others, I used to go to the èdi-Ibele at Amaukwuoji to extract palm kernel from mashed boiled palm fruits for a fee to enable us make money. Unknown to me on one occasion, Moses, Ambrose and Omo had conspired and agreed among themselves that even though we were schoolmates that I was too small to be following them for the itù-nkwúexcercise and decided to barricade me. Unknown to them also, I refused to give up. I nursed my strategy of collecting from each of their portions as they struggled for the heaps from the milling machine.
They kept me quiet and waited for me to finish extracting the nuts from the mashed fruits I collected from their heaps and shared it among themselves. Given that they threatened to bully me if I made any further attempts to struggle, I started crying. It was in that situation that Dee Ejizu, the owner of the shade and the palm oil being milled and processed, came in. He saw me crying and asked to know why. He appealed to me not to struggle further as they will overpower me and still went ahead and paid me the money equivalent of the consideration for the portions I sorted out, even though they had already shared same among themselves and added them back to theirs. From that day, he knew me by name and continued to call me, “Nwamu Austin”. He also allowed me to work on his white horse bicycle whenever he brought it to my father, Chief Linus, who was a renowned bicycle repairer.
We became friends and he was always sending for me to come to collect his white horse bicycle whenever the need arose for it to be serviced by my father. An organized and focused entrepreneur and farmer, he also allowed me to patch his elegant new chassis Yamaha 100 motorcycle in those days that motorcycles were found in the homes of very rich individuals. In Iblele in those days, with its economic ecosystem within the Amaukwuojii market square, the people who had motorcycles were: Dee Ejizu (Yamaha 100), Nze Polycarp Ijenwa (BenleyAtompera), Mr John Ogumba (the village doctor) (Yamaha 100), Mark Ugboaja (BenleyAtompera), Boniface Asoanya [Yamaha 100], Jerry Duru [Suzuki], and KcOgumba who used to intimidate all with his well decorated Honda 175 motorcycle with a massive antenna almost touching the skies. And I was their little engineer, patching their tyres with quick patch. Dee Ejizu was always praying that I will one day become a renowned engineer.
In another occasion as a young student of St Saviours College Umuaka, sometime in November 1978, struggling to liberate myself academically while at the same time helping my daddy in his bicycle & parts sales at Ama-Ukwuoji, Dee Ejizu sitting as the chairman of the committee set up by the renowned Oludazie Dancing Group with headquarters at Ibele, to choose an artist to design “their dance singlet” insisted that I, though an amateur artist should be given the contract. His reason was that I have an innovative and resilient spirit and that he is convinced that I will do better than any of the other two professionals.
I eventually got the contract, did the design and the rest was history. There is also, no way can I forget the N25 he gave me on December 31, 1985, to support my university education following an earlier attack by armed robbers on my way to the University. Without his and other people’s assistance, I don’t think there was any way I could have traversed through the rough roads of academic emancipation. I had never stopped imagining what manner of man he was to have such level of trust and belief in my potentials. What a man! What a father!! What a mentor!!! What a memory, sweet memories of a man who didn’t waste time in radiating concerns, genuine cares for all that crossed his path. A man of the people!!!!
Like Socrates (399 BC), who was credited with inventing the Socratic method, a way of questioning and reasoning to explore complex issues, Dee Ejizu as a powerful and talented philosopher used Socratic ideals embellished with deep emotional intelligence to add immense value to societal growth. Recalls his unique roles with those of my father, Chf Linus Agbahiwe and native DrUgochiAgunanne in subduing the Amaocha/IhitteAfara people in recovering Ibele lands annexed by the Afara people between 1972 through 1975. His communication skills lubricated with witty proverbs were legendary. In December, 2017, for I used to visit him as one of my mentors every December when I am at home, I took him up on why he had failed to make a public position on the issue of lack of peace and harmony in Ibele occasioned by the problem arising from some distortions in the ezeship institution model for the new Ibele Autonomous Community created during our time. He said, “Austin Nwamu, “… hapuchaa! Some issues will fall in place when it dawns!!”
Dr Austin Agbahiwe.
In reality, his demise has re-emphasized the emptiness and temporariness of life and the need for one to continue to give his best to the society and humanity till the end of life, …in a world that is in a constant flux to make someone somebody else. What a man of great wisdom, courage and contentment!
For you, my friend, High Chief JustmanOsuoha, NkumeJiMmiri, Omekannaya himself, and your other siblings, as you pay your last respect to this great man, your father, and one of my domestic mentors today, the 2nd day of May, 2025, please be strong, for your daddy lived a fulfilled life, serving God & humanity. We will forever miss him yes, we will! Definitely!!!
While praying for the repose of his gentle soul in the bosom of the Lord, be assured that my thoughts are very much with you and the entire household, at this trying times, even as I, …even from a distance, support your efforts for a befitting burial with a cow.
Ndonu!!
Adieu, Ojiudo 1 of Ibeleland
Adieu, my mentor!
Editor’s note: The late Chief Bernard EjizuOsuoha who was born in 1924 died in 2024 at exactly one year. He held until his death, the title of Ojiudo 1 of Ibeleland.
