Permit me for being personal here but at the end, we all stand to gain from the hard lessons it teaches us all. Let us talk about death! Oh yes, we loathe it, detest it, fear it and always pray it is postponed to yet another day. But it comes all the same- in various ways; sometimes like the hungry hawk swooping down with great momentum to rip the chicken far from the mother hen’s embrace. Or, the predating lion accelerating its pace and clawing the helpless prey of a gazelle before tearing it into bloody pieces! It could also come like the brutal blow of a hammer to squash the unsuspecting fly.
Yet, at other times it gnaws slowly, through debilitating diseases and finally forces the soul from the body, leaving the relations in untold, tearful agony, anguish and pains! That is death for you, the cruel coward!
For that of Prof. Pius Adesanmi (now of blessed memory), it took two good days for the piece of tear-jerking news to sink into my spirit. As concerned compatriots came telling me about the tragic air crash involving an Ethiopian Airline, that took the precious lives of all the passengers and crew, including the Kogi State indigene and erudite professor away from our increasingly wicked world, I kept soliloquizing; “Pius Adesanmi, Pius Adesanmi, who is Pius Adesanmi?”
But like a bolt out of the blues it got to me. “You mean Pius Adesanmi, the man who was working on my manuscripts, with the aim to getting them published for global appraisal, or possible acclaim and eventually getting me a writer’s residence in Canada?!” Words simply failed me.
Amongst those manuscripts are my novel, ‘Our Women’s Anger’- a fictional account of the struggle of some women activists to produce Nigeria’s first ever female president against all odds; my poetry collections, ‘Petals and Thorns’ and ‘Sing Me a New Song’ the first and second in a trilogy of poems based on the state of the Nigerian nation, spanning the First Republic to the current dispensation. The third is ‘Gone to the Dogs’ still in the works.
Precisely, it was in February of 2017 that I informed Prof. Abdulkareem Adinoyi, one of the most brilliant students I ever got to teach, in my 20 years career of mentoring the younger ones in secondary schools across three states of Bendel (now defunct), Kwara and Kogi. Currently, a world- renowned but self –effacing engineering genius, teaching in Canada we met at Abdul Azeez Attah Memorial College, Okene, Kogi State where I was a science teacher in the late ‘90s.
One recalls, with great delight his passion for requisite knowledge. Though I was his teacher in Biology, he never ceased, along with some of his classmates to bring up seemingly complicated issues in Physics and Mathematics which we sat down together to ‘trash out’. Thank God that he went ahead to score distinctions in six subjects at the WAEC/GCE OL, and a First Class from the University of Ilorin before bagging his PHD.
Now back to Adesanmi. It was Adinoyi who linked us together, to add value to my books, many of which are literally wasting away. This was his response to my letter, on Tuesday, 28th March 2017, at 9.13 GMT.
“My dear Ayo:
“Many apologies. I have been traveling, lecturing, etc. It has just been crazy. I thought I had written to acknowledge them (my manuscripts). I have keyed them in with my summer reading assignment and will start reading once the semester is over and I get a breather!”
“Pius, PHD (UBC, Vancouver). Professor, Department of English Language and Literature. Director, Institute of African Studies, 438 Peterson Hall, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa,ON K1S 5B6, Canada”.
Months later, precisely on 13th September 2017, 19:14 GMT Adinoyi paid a visit to him in Carleton and assured me that yes, indeed, Adesanmi had gone far with regards to assessing my books. Imagine how thoroughly excited I was.
While I was still waiting for details on the publishers’ response and getting other details to relocate to Canada, the tragedy took place; Pius lost his brilliant life in an air crash and here we are grieving.
This was what my former student, Adinoyi had to say: “My dear teacher, it was not long ago you were a year plus. My teacher I remember, I sent you a happy-birthday-greeting, an act I usually don’t do on Facebook but you are so special. Because you are special I violated one of my own rules for interacting with the social media.
“Pius’s death was a big shock. Each time death comes knocking, it appears as a new experience. No amount of previous experiences, vast as we all know, is enough to help people navigate the crushing and punishing agony that usually come with such unbelievable moment. Each death is always different.
“On your books’ feedback, I think we have to count it among the good things or promises that time has not allowed him (Pius) to keep. In a way, it should be a lesson for all. Think good, do good, act on your good thoughts ASAP. Nobody owns time”.
This got me extremely sober. It got me thinking…Each person’s death draws us to ours. So, if I die right now, all my books, my creative ideas and works; my cloth and house designs, my cartoons, my School of Wealth Creation, my self-composed gospel and motivational songs would amount to nothing! Too bad! Pius’s death has therefore, become a spur, a challenge and a trigger to get me adding pragmatic value to whatever I want to achieve here on earth.
So, what am I still waiting for? And you my dear reader, what are you still waiting for to act on your dreams? Truth be told, as much as we hate to think about death, it is one critical issue that should guide our every thought and actions every blessed day. As the Holy Bible states, “the end of a thing is more important than the beginning”.
As Adinoyi has rightly noted, thinking and doing good and more importantly, acting on our good thoughts would do us all a world of good. In fact, one cannot but extrapolate this line of thought to Nigeria’s political space. If only our self-serving, power-hungry, nepotistic, despotic and intimidating politicians realise this truism, Nigeria will be better off than we are today.
May Adesanmi’s gentle soul rest in perfect peace.
Ayo Oyoze Baje
