By Emeka Obasi

Death no doubt must be everyone’s final activity, a price we must all pay.Under very normal circumstances, mortals shy away from our end.Yes, there are a few suicide cases here and there, through bombs or hara -kiri[Japanese for belly cutting]. By the way, I do not think there are still any kamikaze pilots. Even euthanasia (mercy killing) remains a taboo in sane minds. Death indeed is a thief.

Sylva Eleanya won prizes in the course of his job as Sports photo journalist. The laurels came in torrents-encomiums, plaques, shields, trophies name them.And we were like Oliver Twist expecting more.Now we did not plan for this.Death.Oh death. Death is a coward.You know, it caught our man napping.Trust Sylva,his lens would have captured the act, that was why death came knocking at dawn.Like quicksilver,the deed was done.Not in our dream.This is real.

There is this generation of photo journalists that I code named ‘Digital’. In this group you have Sam Olusegun,Wilson Bodiso-Owei, Pius Esiri, Femi Gbadegesin-Kuti,Gordon Omoigui,Ayodele Ojo.Sylva was one of them.

At the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games,eight of us shared the same apartment.Our home was the Media Village, inside the Cumberland campus of the Sydney University in Lidcombe.My room mate was Emeka Enechi (nowlate), Kunle Solaja paired Gboyega Okegbenro, Felix Awogu and Nnamdi Anazia (of blessed memory) took same room while Sylva stayed with Sanni Zaria.

Sylva loved the Dream Team so much that he travelled all the way to Melbourne, about one-and half hours flight away as they played Honduras.With mega stars like Maurice Green,Michael Johnson,Marion Jones (before we fished out the beast in her) and Gail Devers, I placed athletics ahead of soccer.

Going to Melbourne was good though. I had an uncle who left Lagos in 1978, and had not seen Nigeria ever since.Somehow, he was incommunicado a few years to 2000. My trip to Australia therefore was also to locate him.Thank God I did.We agreed to meet at the end of the Games.

Sylva’s trip caused me to send a message. My uncle was to meet the photo journalist at the airport.Something changed the plan.They could not meet.When they spoke on phone, my friend gave it to my uncle, albeit,without my consent ooo.

In his typical Owerri dialect, Sylva hollered,”enyi, ashi ijena ayo uyo!”(my friend, they say you have refused to visit home). When he told me this, I shivered. It was what I had mentioned to Sylva,but I did not send him to harass the ex-Biafran soldier.

Well, I eventually met my uncle in Melbourne.We laughed over it, and got talking.The man was so bitter with the Nigerian system that he asked me if General Babangida was still the President. For an 18-year-old who joined the army from college, got his intenstines gushing from his stomach in battle and could not see his mother’s corpse, he had every reason to be angry.

Twelve years later,the London Olympics came.Vanguard Sports Editor Tony Ubani Nwokoma was there.While bewailing Sylva’s inability to secure travelling documents,I sent him a mail about Sylva.I knew he could make it, and he did.I told Ubani the Melbourne story.

Two weeks ago, I was on line to Dean of Sports Editors Onochie Anibeze, Onyegwu. I also talked about Sylva.We laughed over Dada Adekola’s cartoon, ‘Toni and Sliva’.You cannot miss the ‘mischief’.The randy cartoon character Toni is different from Tony Ubani.Sliva could be one Onitsha market character,not Sylva Eleanya.Infact,my mind was still there when the sad news hit me.

Sylva loved his camera,he enjoyed his job.Were it possible,he might ask God for one last opportunity-to play a fast one on all of us-Sylva would wake up, grab his tools,attend his funeral.Just to capture crying faces, flooded eyes, failed voices and weeping friends. A parting gift, maybe, a painful exit.All Fairy tales.

Emeka Obasi is Media Adviser to former Abia state Governor Orji Uzor Kalu.