By Omoniyi Ibietan
Mama Josephine Ojobo, matriarch of the Ojobo family of Obollo-Afor, headquarters of Udenu Local Government Area, Enugu State, transited in the wee hours of 29th December 2021 at the age of 83. Her remains were interred yesterday, marked by ceremonies quite befitting of an iconic personality that she was.
Mama was the beloved mother of my friend, leader and former boss, Tony Ojobo, former Director of Public Affairs at Nigerian Communications Commission, a distinctive brand communicator and unarguably Nigeria’s public sector’s most deservedly honoured Public Affairs manager in contemporary times.
The woman who called my boss, ‘Anto Oyoyo’, whenever he visited home; that iconic woman, whose moniker, ‘Anasenyi’, translates to “What else do you want to tell an elephant?”, indicating that she was an institution, has gone back to her maker. The mother to many, beyond her biological children, who ensured that her nuclear family never lived alone but with extended family members and acquaintances to form an ever expanding geography of rare sociological formation, has gone the way of all mortals, leaving behind a great portion of her ecumenical spirit in her children.
A decidedly dedicated Christian and community leader, my boss (Tony) describes his mom as “an inspiration, a pathfinder and lover of all”. Mama was humble and humane, and she eternally found joy in the happiness and progress of others. She was astonishing, a conscious enabler, and a rare torchbearer.
Mama Ojobo, a speaker of truth in defence of the dignity and rights of the community, gave concrete demonstration and expression to Proverbs 31: 8-9, that admonished us to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the poor and the helpless, and ensure they get justice. She was also a defender of public good and a natural teacher who was everything phenomenally and characteristically defining of a good woman.
If Ellen Kuzwayo’s biography, CALL ME A WOMAN, was telling enough, Mama Ojobo, as Mama Josephine Ojobo was fondly called, also ran a great race that will make her life and times an enthralling story like Kuzwayo’s. The Priest who delivered the sermon at the Funeral Mass this morning, at St. Patrick’s Parish of The Catholic Church, Obollo-Afor, gave both scriptural and practical references about how Mama Ojobo gave her life for others.
At a juncture in the passionately delivered message, the priest recalled the central message in Soyinka’s THE MAN DIED, telling the congregation that each of us must stand for the truth and justice the way Mama Ojobo did, otherwise the man dies in each of us.
Were I to do a biographical work on Mama, I would titled it, ‘Anasenyi’: A Narrative in Community Leadership. For that will be the totalising message of Mama’s sojourn on the planet earth. The significance of the moniker, Anasenyi, is to say Mama saw it all in her times and was so active all through her years as an institutional and cultural repository. Indeed, what else do you want to tell an elephant.
Evidently, mama died fulfilled and gratified by the transformation of her community, Obollo-Afor, from a largely agricultural community noted for its cashew, cashew nuts, organic bananas, palmwine and unusually big yams, into a semi-urban town that is a model of Igbo industry, Republicanism and entrepreneurial spirit.
In those days when I and my colleagues in the national student movement would traverse every part of Nigeria, mobilising students and youths for conscious citizens’ action against tyranny and military dictatorship, Obollo-Afor is one place I always looked forward to savouring.
I once bought a bunch of bananas at Obollo-Afor in 1995, shortly after a rally at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, a contiguous community with Obollo-Afor. The bananas were so fresh and natural I was reluctant to eat them. I felt like keeping and just beholding them. And it is not only bananas that show the agrarian factor in the beauties of Obollo-Afor, anyone familiar with the town will attest to the unique selling point of the town’s genus of avocado pears. I haven’t seen avocados with such enriched organic butter like those at Obollo-Afor.
Interestingly, not only is the town blessed with the right soil for agriculture and remarkably transformed, Obollo-Afor is marked by enlightenment and egalitarianism. Thanks to the dedication, commitment and social entrepreneurship of its leaders, including Mama Ojobo, who continued with the good works she had embarked upon with her husband of 52 years, even after the husband passed.
The elegies and tributes rendered in Mama’s honour by her son, Tony; daughters, Gloria Eze and Uche Nwoye; daughter-in-law, Chinze Ojobo; grandchildren; the officiating priests at the Funeral Mass; other members of the expanded family she and her husband built; and members of the community in general, eloquently demonstrate that Mama lived well.
So many of the people in and outside the community will miss her but the central lesson she’s left with us as the priest had recalled perceptively, is to stand up for the community, the community of men and women, and ensure that the lives of others are qualitatively transformed by their association with us.
May God continue to uphold the Ojobo family, the Obollo-Afor community, and grant her soul a befitting, peaceful rest.
