By Sunny Awhefeada
History is a class conscious calling. It is strongly so to the extent that even those who write or encode history are never part of it. The encoders of the exploits of great empire builders are soon forgotten while the subjects of the chronicles they build remain eternal occupants in the many mansions of history. The encoders merely show up as footnotes while the deeds and misdeeds of the subjects that they gave life through their scribal efforts bestride the pages of time. A more sinister character of history inheres in its jettisoning of the actual builders of society and state. Yes, the actual builders! And who are these actual builders? They are the hewers of wood and drawers of water. In Nigeria’s South-West, encoders of history will always ascribe the building of Cocoa House to Chief ObafemiAwolowo. The same has always been said of the university at Ile-Ife, the Universal Free Education and other laudable achievements. The South-East ascribes such monuments to Dr. NnamdiAzikiwe, while the whole of the North see in Sir Ahmadu Bello the builder of modern Northern Nigeria. But did Awolowo, Azikiwe or Bello ever wield the axe, spade or handled a trowel while those monuments were being built? Did the trio ever break a sweat or got stung by angry ants or wasps while the dense forest that yielded space to these monuments was being fell? Yes, Awolowo, Azikiwe and Bello envisioned these dynamic strides and saw to their being delivered, but for the hewers of wood and drawers of water they would not have seen the light of day. Why then has history forgotten the latter whose daily toil “under the rain and in the sun” saw to the materialization of the vision of the three strongmen? History is discriminatory.
Karl Marx and his followers sought to reframe the character of history in order for it to acknowledge the people whose daily toil, and not the opinions and postulations of strongmen manifesting in policies and programmes, build society and state and thus advance the cause of humanity. Sadly, despite the rigours that attended Marx’s efforts, the proletariat remains unwritten about in the annals of nations. Only the titans and tycoons, magnates and moguls, gurus and giants, generals and juggernauts and others described by such jaw breaking lexes in politics, business and military are remembered. Yet, among them are nation ruiners who get canonized as nation builders in our history books. This is the reason why the military despots who ruined Nigeria between 1984 and 1998 bestride our history books as statesmen. While the teachers, doctors, civil servants, bricklayers, market men and women, rank and file soldiers and others who toiled tirelessly and receiving nothing during those locust years are forgotten and never to be remembered. This is the unpalatable character of history. Thankfully, we can tell our stories without the hindrance imposed by the vagaries of history. Thankfully too, Nigerian literature, for which history remains a scaffold, despite being the product of imagination, has long valorized the ordinary people in their shanties, on the streets, in the markets and the sweaty farmlands that dot our besieged landscape. NiyiOsundare, TanureOjaide, OdiaOfeimun, KoleOmotoso, Festus Iyayi, Femi Osofisan, Bode Sowande, OluObafemi, sang about, narrated and dramatized the condition of the hoi polloi in inspiring tenors and tropes.
This week’s intervention derives from an avowed and deliberate agenda to celebrate the ordinary man and woman. The subject of this resolve is Mr. Thomas AwolowoEdjerunuketa. Our subject here is not a state governor whose convoy and aides are numberless. He is not a strutting general around whom hordes of armed soldiers gamboled. He is neither a tycoon nor a titan! Neither a mogul nor a magnate is he!He is just a quiet community leader whose daily efforts and toils have consolidated the body of Christ at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, served by the Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers, in Ighwrekpokpor, a bustling suburb of Ughelli in Delta State. When my family began worshipping at the parish in the October of 2011 it was occupying a ramshackle structure in which the eager worshippers were cramped. We contented with heat in the dry season and bore the inconvenience of being drenched by rain water through the leaking roof during the rains. But work was going on in the future church building which we were to christen “the Basilica” after it was completed. Among those who toiled day and night to see to the completion of the gigantic structure was Mr. Thomas Edjerunuketa. He numbered among the foundation members when a mass center opened there in the late 1990s. As chairman of the building committee, he was hands on and with his working tools he would work untiringly with an uncommon strength and agility. It was a great moment for all when the new and magnificent church building was commissioned by the then Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Warri, His Lordship Rev. Fr. John Afareha in 2015. Mr. Edjerunuketa and all those who toiled to build the structure have quietly in their little way contributed to the consolidation of the work of God. But will history remember them in the long run?
Born seventy years ago in Lagos by parents of Okparabe descent, he was named Awolowo after the legendary Chief ObafemiAwolowo, then premier of the old Western Region. The year of his birth, 1955, was the year that free universal primary education was declared in the Western region, a feat that instantly turned Chief Awolowo into a hero among the people. He was named Thomas for and by the church during baptism in December 1966. After primary school education in 1967 he took to vocational apprenticeship and became a welder. He got married to Stella Oghenegweke with whom he birthed and raised nine children, among them sons and daughters, who have also become parents thus making Mr. Thomas Edjerunuketa a grandfather! At his seventieth birthday thanksgiving on Sunday 14th September his family was a spectacle of what the Urhobo call “orhua r’ omirgua” the family of a great man. His family made up of his wife, children, in-laws and grandchildren is evolving into a clan before his eyes. It was a most fulfilling moment going by the indices of Urhobo prayer embedded in ufuoma (peace), omamo aye (good wife), omamoemo (good children), igho (money) and omakpokpo (good health). Mr. Edjerunuketa was all smiles and joy as his family and fellow parishioners joined him in singing and dancing to the altar.
My conversation with his son, Vwegba, gave insights into his life as a lover of peace, disciplinarian and great family man. Part of his experience was work with SuperbruNigeria Limited as a supervisor in the 1980s before branching off to set up on his own as a welder under the brand name of TomketaWorks Nigeria Limited. Together with his wife, he gave his children education, brought them up in Catholicism, discipline and love which now manifest in family cohesion and bond. A member of the Boys Scout Movement which he joined in 1969, he was also very active in the Catholic Youth Organization of Nigeria (CYON) of which he became a patron for the Benin Ecclesiastical Province in 1998. He has in the last few years taken up the pivotal responsibility of being the president of the Urhobo Catholic Community of the parish. He has worked hard in mobilizing the Urhobo community and promoting the use of the Urhobo language during Mass. He also wears the Urhobo wrapper to church every Sunday. At seventy he deserved the respectful and age defined honorific of papa, but his agility and looks portray him as five years younger! His face bears witness to the rigours of time and labour. But his steps are energetic and his handshakes firm and gripping. His smiles testify to peace and fulfillment. He still has a lot to offer humanity. This then is a tribute to Papa or Mr. Thomas AwolowoEdjerunuketa as he joins the septuagenarian club. His works as a community and church leader have not gone unacknowledged. God grant him his wishes many as they are!
Kukpekukpeamreegodi…..Congratulations and Happy birthday, Sir!
