Chima Nwafo
When in November 1945, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe invited Dennis Osadebay, then a Customs officer, to be the master of ceremonies at the first lecture to be delivered by Prince Abyssinia Akweke Nwafor-Orizu, who just returned from the United States, at Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos, little did he know that he was being inducted into the elite club of the leadership of the yet-to-be created Nigerian Senate. The lecture had in attendance father of Nigerian nationalism, Engr. Herbert Macaulay, H.U. Kaine, Dr. Olorun Nimbe, H.O. Davies and Dr. Abayomi, among other socialites of the era. Of the lecture, titled “Zikism and African Irredentism,” Orizu said: “My lecture was a graphic, lucid, and philosophical exposition of the tenets of ‘Zikism’ as a system of thought emanating from the personality of a nation and the culture of an age.”
Orizu’s oratorical prowess was superb. Being a youth bubbling with nationalistic ire, just three months later, February 16, 1946, his inspiring and philosophical interrogation of the topic instantly gave birth to the revolutionary Zikist Movement. With a socialist bent and fiercely anti-colonialism, the movement was multi-ethnic in composition and led by Kolawole Balogun, first president, and M.C.K. Ajuluchukwu, first secretary-general. Other founding members included Abiodun Aloba, Nduka Eze, G. Onyegbula, M. Aina and Mokwugo Okoye.
In his autobiography published in 1994, Liberty or Chains: Africa Must Be, Nwafor-Orizu, a wordsmith, presented the image of the iconic politician, DCO, thus: “When Zik became the Governor-General (on November 16, 1960), I supported Osadebay in the Senate to be the president. Actually, Osadebay was a likeable person: unassuming, open-minded, brilliant, courageous and patriotic. He made a good president.”
For the benefit of Anambra and other South-East elite who actually dishonour Orizu by referring to him as “first Senate president,” contrary to his own record and that of the National Assembly, the pan-Africanist himself narrated the order of Senate leadership succession: First Senate president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, followed by Chief D.C. Osadebay, while he, Prince Nwafor-Orizu, was the THIRD.
As if to prepare for the leadership position, which he had been destined for, in 1945, Osadebay resigned after 16 years as a supervisor in Customs and Exercise, and travelled to the United Kingdom, where he had secured admission to study law at London University. After graduation, he was called to the London Bar before he returned to Nigeria in 1949.
June 29, 2019, will mark the 108th birthday of Chief Dennis Chukwudebe Osadebay, Premier of the defunct Mid-West Region, second president of the Nigerian Senate, one-time acting Governor-General of Nigeria, leader of the Mid-West Movement, member, House of Representatives, leader of the opposition and Deputy Speaker, Western House of Assembly; a civil servant, poet, author and community leader. Popularly called DCO, the Asaba-born politician is the only ex-regional premier that has not been honoured with a tertiary institution, either by his state of origin, former region or the Federal Government of Nigeria. “Osadebay House” is not a befitting epitaph for a foremost nationalist and regional premier who served his nation when politics was not the lucrative godfathers’ enterprise or cash-and-carry venture it is today.
Born June 29, 1911, the young Dennis attended Government School, Asaba, for a year before he relocated to Sacred Heart School, Calabar; from there to the famous Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar, after which he joined the colonial Customs and Exercise in 1929.
Osadebay authored Africa Sings, in 1952, and another poetry book, The Goddess of the Niger. His autobiography, Building a Nation, captures Nigeria’s political and constitutional development from 1900 to 1970. Besides several traditional and chieftaincy titles from the former Bendel State, including an honorary Doctor of Law, from University of Benin, DCO was awarded LLD honoris causa by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1964, same year he was adorned with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger by President Nnamdi Azikiwe; pro-chancellor and chairman, Governing Council, University of Lagos, 1980.
But more than two decades after his exit from the earthly stratosphere, what has the Federal Government of Nigeria done to honour him as in the case of the Northern, Western and Eastern premiers? At the regional/state level, what have governors of the defunct Mid-West, which he served sacrificially and meritoriously, and with a great sense of patriotism, done to honour him posthumously? In both cases, the answer is nothing yet!
For a close-up of the Premier and his style of governance, Dr. Prosper Awhoregba, a Niger Deltan of Isoko extraction, in his Nigerian 100: The Most Influential Nigerians of All Time, provided the following insight of the uncelebrated ex-Premier: “Chief Osadebay was fair in his distribution of government patronage. There was no obvious lopsided development or discrimination, as was the complaint against the old Western Region. His premiership of the region witnessed a policy of ethnic integration and even development. Government (owned) companies were carefully located to ensure geographical equity. For example, Ukpilla Cement Company was located in the North, Asaba Textile Mills in the East, and Delta Glass Company in the South.”
In the same vein, location of the regional capital in Benin City was unanimous, as the book recapped: “The choice of Benin is acceptable to all because almost all the ethnic nationalities that constitute the new region claim their descent from ancient Benin kingdom,” Osadebay had said.
Besides the earlier mentioned political offices, during the heat of the nationalist struggle, Osadebay was a member of the NCNC delegation to the various constitutional conferences, from 1953 to 1958.
“A distinguished lawyer and consummate politician, Osadebay made immense contribution to the socio-economic and political development of Nigeria. Long before the President invested him with the GCON in 1964, he had been conferred with the Silver Eagle Medal of the Boy Scouts International (1960) and Commander of the Order of Senegal in 1961,” the Isoko-born medical practitioner-author noted.
Given the foregoing instances of equitable and transparent leadership in a country where corruption has become the hallmark of public service, what reasonable excuse could any fair-minded Nigerian proffer for such a seeming act of discrimination? Notwithstanding the delay, the aphorism, better late than never, becomes a consolation in this situation.
If the family had taken the lead in honouring DCO, events marking his 108th posthumous birthday would have been scheduled for Saturday, June 29. However, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. With this reminder, one looks forward to the Presidency, National Assembly, Delta/Edo governments, and Delta, as the “state of origin,” for the eventual recognition of this unsung hero, even if belated.
• Nwafo, veteran copy editor/public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos