She’s 102 and dying. Submerged for decades in agony, it’s a surprise she lived this long. Now, with skin all squeezed together, frail bones and failing sight, the old woman has only one wish left.  It’s so important to her that she went on her knees, last week, begging “a Yoruba boy” she fed and tolerated his excesses with women. She begged somebody she treated as a “son.” Somebody so heartless as to abandon her since the 70’s. Madam Elizabeth Nzeogwu wept and pleaded with Olusegun Obasanjo to release the decaying bones of his late friend, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu to her.

That’s her dying wish. She doesn’t even beg for Obasanjo’s visit. She doesn’t want road contracts. She’s not asking for Obasanjo’s money. Not even the N300million spent on roads that were never repaired would pacify her. Give her the $3.6 billion siphoned through SOLGAS (an inexperienced company our “bigmen” brought in to handle the Ajaokuta Steel project) and she would still be asking for what many may consider inconsiquential. She wants just the rotten bones, the remaining significance of her son. Is that too much to give to a dying woman? “I cannot ask for anything more and I will not ask for anything less,” said the old woman. 

When I saw the frail-looking creature and read her pathetic story, I felt like someone pulled out my heart and stepped on it. Here’s a woman whose son risked his own life to save Obasanjo’s in the Congo war. They did everything together, except women. Madam Nzeogwu recalls that the “young Obasanjo liked women a lot and was coming with one girl after another to our house…” No one would doubt that.  Not with the many women he’s been identified with. Yet, he forgot the accommodating spirit of Nzeogwu’s mother.

Once, Obasanjo claimed he visited the woman often. But last week, the truth came out. She saw him last when he was the Head of State. And even after she wrote to him, she got no response. Even if I would have doubted the woman, I met a prominent Nigerian last week, who also told of Obasanjo’s snobbish attitude. A former DG, he was so close to Obasanjo once. When Obasanjo was arrested for an alleged coup plot, our man’s wife panicked, because of the letters both men used to share. And when Obasanjo was released, the man wrote to him. No reply came. It does appear that after Obasanjo went to prison, everyone became his enemy. That would explain his strangulating policies, perhaps to make Nigerians feel a bit of what he went through in prison.

The old woman said: “I will leave this earth a happy woman, if my son’s body is returned and buried in his father’s compound”. But does Obasanjo care for anybody’s happiness? 

Nzeogwu has been dead some 35 years now. But his grave remains in chains. To ensure that the occupant doesn’t escape? The old woman said it was “wicked and disgusting”. To me, it’s foolishness to put a chain round a dead man’s grave in the belief that it signifies anything. Just like his bones do not mean anything anymore, the chain can’t be more than a decoration. It may pain the likes of Mama Nzeogwu because she is of the old breed. For those of her generation, superstition was the order of life. But loyalty was also a strong word in everyone’s mind and vocabulary. Friendship was a bond and Mama thought a man like Obasanjo should be able to pay back the loyalty and friendship he enjoyed from her son and family. Moreover, Obasanjo ought to develop a little positive conscience to remember the old woman’s kindness to him, when he was young and adventurous. There could be no better person to release Nzeogwu’s body than he.

If people like Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, who didn’t enjoy Nzeogwu’s friendship and confidence could visit the woman, what excuse has Obasanjo? If Dr Tai Solarin could visit Mama regularly, before he was overtaken suddenly by death, it only shows how ungrateful Obasanjo has become. Regrettably, even his relations, those who grew up with him; those he fed from their homes are also lamenting. Some of them now survive eating termites. They, too, long for a changed, truly born-again Obasanjo. They want a man who would remember his people. A man who would think of ways of making life easier for all. They long for an Obasanjo that would remember the past and thank God by trying to be of service to the less privileged. But will Obasanjo ever realise that God probably spared his life so he can be of good service to his fellow men in truth and not only in words? Well, will he ever learn the true meaning of loyalty and gratitude? What he does with Nzeogwu’s bones will decide.

From my mail box

Funny country

I read your wise column pertaining to power of moustache. I could imagine and view the truth how indispensable it’s to have a moustache. Please, tell our fake leaders to build a Ministry of *moustache* that will enhance the growth of the economy. It could be another source of revenue to the government. A funny country, where everything works by the oligarchy. God will save us one day.

 “Bunmi Olade” <bunmyink@yahoo.com>  

Why marginalise with the moustache?

I consider the power of moustache, Saturday Feb.7,2004, a serious one.

Why have you decided to marginalise some people or class? The  Inspector General of Police should have a moustache, Gani Fawehinmi should  add it to his SAM (Senior advocate of the masses). Adams Oshiomhole, miracle workers and, in fact, anybody who wishes to rule or ruin our economy should have  a moustache, period. 

“george itua” <osagiewwj@yahoo.com>

Spiritual approach to  find  the devil

I suggest a spiritual approach towards arresting this “invincible invisible” terror operating the world over and especially in our country, since all other approaches seem ineffective.

“Bennie Chinze” <benniecee2000@yahoo.com>  

The truth shall prevail

Thanks for that article. The invincibility of the so-called Devil has turned my faith off; I now only believe in the historical and geography of this earth. The name is a jeopardy to the society. And the new generation church has upgraded the name *Devil* to that of a black gigantic creature. And it seems everybody’s brain has been programmed to act and view it the same way. I believe the truth shall prevail one day about the verifications of the so-called the Devil.

“Bunmi Olade” <bunmyink@yahoo.com>  

Death penalty!

   God created man in His image and put a miniature version of his wisdom in man so that they can reason together.  ‘ Come let us reason together’. This gift was exercised when the first man named all other creations which God Himself   supervised. So all actions of man are skillfully and perfectly crafted in the heart to match their desires. But when wrongs are not punished, they become habits. Let there be death penalty for anyone who siphons public funds and those longing for the post will be few.

“segun odepidan” <segunpidan@yahoo.com>  

• First published in Saturday Sun of  Feb 21, 2004