By Ehiogie West-Idahosa

I pen these words down in honour of my bosom friend and brother, Chief Dan Osi Orbih, the Kulukulu 1 of Ogoniland, the Oduma of Uzairue, Knight of St., Mulumba and a man endowed with many titles in his sojourn on planet earth. I would hereinafter simply refer to him as Dan. 

The news of his passage was piercing and took many unawares. No one thought that Dan was immortal, but at 64 years of age, he was at the prime period of his very successful business, political and philanthropic life. To illustrate this, most laureates receive their Nobel Prize between the ages of 60 and 69. It is in light of this, that his transition appeared like the fall of a whale with a banquet of concerns from family, friends, relatives and assorted associates. 

My friendship with Dan was inherited from the friendship of Dan’s late father, the legendary Chief M.C.K Orbih with my late father, Hon. Justice Joseph Oghogho Idahosa. Our personal friendship crystallized in Auchi town when I had the privilege to accompany my late parents in the 70s to the opening ceremony of Hilltop Hotel, which was owned by Dan’s father. As young boys, we were safely clustered together as we watched our parents dance to the sonorous evergreen hits of late General Bolivia Osigbemhe like “ Ughara Gbe” and many more. 

In spite of the long hiatus between the 70s and when we reunited as students of the University of Benin in the 80s, our friendship remained topnotch. Dan supported my involvement in Student Union politics effortlessly and I supported his governorship ambition in the defunct UNCP passionately with the likes of Senator Magnus Abe. 

Subsequently, Dan demonstrated certain characteristics of a politician that was destined to reach the apogee of politics and it was not a surprise to anyone who knew him, that he reached such height as he did in Nigeria’s ever changing, combustive and unpredictable political environment. Dan was intellectually savvy, painstakingly tactical, had quick reach to political and policy actors of his environment. He mastered the art of working with them. His knowledge of history was uncommon and akin to that of some of the best students of Herodotus, the father of history. 

No era best epitomised the political stuff that Dan was made of than the period when he led the Peoples’ Democratic Party ( PDP) as the main political rival  to the defunct ACN, a political party upon which Senator Adams Oshiomhole won election as Governor of Edo State. Using very efficient research methodologies, empathy for public good, strong oratory and gesticulative techniques, Dan armed himself with critical political tools with which he theoretically transformed PDP into an alternative government that Edo people very much believed in. Aggrieved members of the public and public interest groups took their cases to the PDP which promptly took up their matters in the court of public opinion. Such was the power of his leadership, charisma, idiosyncrasies and personal style of articulation, aggregation and eventual ventilation of matters of public concern for the good of all.

Friendship and loyalty meant a lot to Dan. His political associates at leadership and followership levels can attest to this. He held tenaciously to what he believed was the right thing to do and stood by same religiously. He would make efforts to return most telephone calls or send a message in lieu. Such was his value for friendship. 

Dan was a devout Catholic and family man who understood the place of the nuclear and extended families in nation building and excelled in his duties to both. 

There is no paradigm by which success on earth can be measured without crediting Dan with a more than fair version of it. Indeed, It is heartwarming that his stay on earth was so eventful that many have gathered from far and wide to pay their last respect to the Knight of Saint Mulumba and Chief of many places. According to Christopher Morley, a famous  American writer, there are three ingredients in a good life; learning, earning and yearning. Dan had all and lived a good life. No wonder, Shakespeare quipped in his work; Julius Caesar- that “ When beggars die there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of Princes. “

To all who have gathered to mourn Dan, please be consoled by the worthy life he led on earth. Remember the words of Walt Whitman in his work; On the Beach at Night, where he wrote the following-“ Weep not child, weep not my darling,

With these kisses let me remove your tears”.  In truth, let our tears be removed for Dan stood for the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people like Jeremy Bentham, the apostle of utilitarianism and he was as constant as the Northern star to that effect. 

Let us praise Dan in death as in life. Unlike Julius Caesar who was a Senator in Ancient Rome, let Dan’s good not be “interred with his bones”. Let us bear witness concerning his contributions to our  geographical space called Nigeria and its political ecosystem. 

So much has been written already. Let me end this eulogy by praying for the repose  of Dan’s gentle  soul. As for his wife, children and immediate family, the world has already shown them that they are now like diamonds from the sky with several foster parents. May God grant them the extraordinary fortitude to bear this  loss. 

My heart is with all those who have been part of the obsequies  for they have all shown that  in life or in death, the Kulukulu 1 was indeed a knight in golden armor. 

ADIEU Dan! ADIEU the peoples’ chair! 

God bless us. 

*West-Idahosa, SAN, writes from Abuja