Demas Nwoko
It is my greatest joy to be standing before this most eminent audience to bear testimony to the life of a great man that impacted so much on my own life. I met Prof. Chike Edozien, the Asagba, while I was still quite young. I would have been about 12 years younger than him, but as it was the case with my life, it’s seen that people much older than me usually accepted me as if I was of their own age.
He was at that time one of the few prominent consultants at the University of Ibadan Medical School. At that time, they were still using the Ibadan General Hospital, Adeoyo, as their pioneering site ever before the main university teaching hospital in Ibadan was built. I was a prospective student to the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria, in the year 1957. The train in which we were travelling to Zaria derailed shortly after leaving Ibadan and I was one of the lucky survivors in which we had many student fatalities. We were taken to Adeoyo hospital for treatment after the accident and I remember he was the highest consultant in the hospital at that time.
I think he noticed me, and my origin from the type of people who came to rejoice with me at the hospital. So our friendship lasted all through my four years in Zaria, during which I spent my holidays in Ibadan, which was already a second home to me.
Our paths crossed and we struck a friendship that blossomed throughout my time in Zaria, culminating in, at that time Professor Edozien, the hall master of Tedder Hall at the University of Ibadan, who I didn’t know was such a lover of art, until he commissioned me to paint a mural on the walls of the dining hall of Tedder Hall. This work, which I concluded by October 1961, at the first instant, become a very controversial project. Some student activists organised a protest opposition against his preference to use the hall resources to order a work of art, rather than use it to furnish their common room with electronic gadgets and other things of more worldly value.
Prof. Edozien stood his ground and eventually the work grew aesthetically on the members of the hall, and he became very popular with them, as they now renamed the work “Mama Tedder.”
I’m telling this story because it has a very profound implication on the quality of the mind of Prof. Chike Edozien, who decided that the best thing that the students needed at that time of their life was not to enjoy mundane things rather than acquire things of higher aesthetic value like art.
That was the quality of the leadership of our pioneers at that time and those pioneers were giants in their profession, and they left their indelible mark on the young minds that were fortunate to be taught by them.
The quality of their personal lives that exhibited great modesty belied their strength. In their extreme modesty, they did not leave anybody in doubt of their impeccable taste for good things. I remember vividly that the type of car Prof. Edozien owned at that time was so unique that to a creative mind like that of a young artist, which I was, I did not fail to notice it. He owned and rode the earliest Citroen cars. A car that was not as flashy as the American limousines in vogue for politicians and other professors but had a distinctive characteristic of a great design, though it was much smaller in size than the American limousines.
For me, this aesthetic experience must have been stamped behind my mind and followed me to the extent that I chose to go to France for my post-graduate studies. We should remember that France was the home of Citroen.
Eventually, when I returned from France and joined the University of Ibadan as a lecturer in the School of Drama, I did purchase one of the current models of the Citroen car called the “D Super.”
Do we say that great minds think alike? Yes, but I was not an age-mate of Prof. Chike Edozien. Remember that I said I was at least 12 years younger than him. So, this great mind of mine just has been following after one of the greatest pioneering minds of our time. The rest is history; but let us get back to what we are celebrating today, which is the good fortune and the ultimate reward that is the desire of everybody, to have a long life.
When I look around the hall, I can identify these same traits in most personalities that are present in this gathering/distinguished scholars and professionals, who have paid their dues to the development of this country, acquitted themselves excellently and are rewarded with long life. What else could anybody ask of his creator, and we are all thankful for our good fortune and continued service to our communities, even when we are ebbing in physical strength but still marching on as intellectual giants. As they would say, old soldier never dies.
It looks like as we are here gathered celebrating the good fortune of one of our elders, Prof. Chike Edozien, the Asagba of Asaba. We are basking in the glory that has spread around us, which I will want us all to accept as our own personal good fortune. Since Oliver Twist always wants more, we all pray that, with Prof. Edozien leading the way, we are all going to live as long as Methuselah. Why not? If we all know that we still have a lot to offer and contribute to the continued development of our communities and the country in general. We wish Asagba many years of happiness.
I thank you all, but a footnote: Since all of us gathered seem to be living in close proximity to each other, I would wish that this type of meeting is replicated more often.
• Nwoko, the only African sculptor and architect whose work and building at Udumuje Ugboko is recognised as one of the 1,000 modern wonders of the world, the brain that built the Oba of Benin Royal Theatre, etc, presented this tribute during Prof. Edozien’s 94th birthday, recently