BY EKANPOU ENEWARIDIDEKE

History is a vagabond generally regarded by everybody as a habitué of every household because every household has a history. In the history of man on earth many greats have been grated and minimised and many more greats shall be so grated and minimised because to grate and to minimise greats is the obsessive meditation and Ph.D dissertation of some special verbal scientists called demonic detractors.

Timiebi is a multidimensional personality of impeccable character-composition in whom could be seen a conglomeration of varied personalities and disciplines – a teacher, moralist, politician, philosopher, human rights activist, historian, meteorologist, hydrologist, fisherwoman, philanthropist and environmentalist – but there is a deadly desperate determination by deadly demonic detractors to minimise and move her away from the widely applauded channel like Soja Smooth in his hit song, ‘Total Set Up’, when he angrily alerts the world to how some persons are evilly at work to remove him from the music channel through disparaging stories of maritime robbery and brigandage beautifully woven around him.

Many stories have been bandied and told about Timiebi. Timeibi’s demonic detractors spread about her anything that suits their imagination. There are stories that Timiebi Maika did not go to school and the often referenced philosophical statements attributed to her are indeed plagiarised quotes not original to her in creation. To these people, Timiebi is not fit to be called a philosopher. There are also stories that Timiebi died many years ago and that she still lies refrigerated or mummified in the morgue because her children have no money to pay the accumulated mortuary fees and take the corpse home for burial. In all these stories told captivatingly with all the communicative flourishes and devices at their best it is the lies, the untruths and the fiction that far outweigh and outshine the truth.

Sometimes, one is mystified as to how Timiebi, a great woman who gave her very best to her children in upbringing without discrimination, a woman willing to lay down her life for her children, a woman who laboured with her hooks, lines and nets to bring up her children, a woman who turned bamboo-raft into her fishing canoe out of privation-stricken ingenuity, a woman who fell dead raffia palm trees for grubs, live raffia palm trees for live palm grubs and live raffia palm  trees for piassava-weaving to be able to feed her children and guarantee their future, an amazon of Timiebi’s stature, became a victim and punch-bag of propagandist liars who are very inventive in the fabrication of incredible stories.

It sends cold down me that the deadly demonic detractors did not tell the world that Timiebi’s educational qualifications from primary school to university level were burnt during the 2010 military invasion of Ayakoromo. The detractors would not find a delicacy in this story because it carries no derogatory echoes against Timiebi. They are excited that her educational details are no more, leaving to the world only her quotable philosophical statements as the landmarks of her intellectual weight and worth – quotable philosophical statements the demonic detractors still irrationally question.

The demonic detractors, who are only dramatists of status-reducing stories about people, would not be willing to tell the world that Timiebi is also a dependable politician. As a politician she has always supported candidates and whoever she supports, always wins. Timiebi was instrumental in the electoral victories of many aspirants in the 1999 and 2003 general elections in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State because in these elections she voted for the candidates of her choice and also mobilised people massively to vote for them. Is Chief Braduce Angozi, one-time Burutu Local Government Chairman and former Commissioner for Agriculture in Delta State, and the late Julius Otuwo Eyenanaotu not aware of Timiebi’s capacity for mass mobilisation of people to vote? What about His Excellency Otuaro, Julius Pondi, Forteta Peter Asupa, Angele Godknows and Pullah Ekpotuayerin?

Timiebi Maika (the third wife of Maika Ekanpou, and nee Ferebo), a towering storyteller philosopher fondly nicknamed the Aristotle, an amazon of altruism, a personality with philosophical statements widely quoted by writers, is paternally from Oyangbene and Ayakoromo in Burutu Local Government Area, Akugbene in Bomadi Local Government Area and maternally from Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State. She is a virtuous, hardworking, principled, altruistic woman with an amazing capacity for storytelling. Most of the quotable philosophical statements attributed to her are derived from her numerous stories told. It is this woman King Alfred Izonebi musically portrays as a versatile storyteller whose care and upbringing of her eight children is flawless by every standard of evaluation. That she is referentially an amazon can be clearly located in the musical chronicles of King Izonebi about her. Her storytelling skill and the teaching words embodied in the stories remain unbeatable as they form the basis for the quotability of her philosophical statements.

Beyond Timiebi’s quotability derived from her numerous stories told which are further translated and told by her numerous students who drank from her inexhaustible river of knowledge, she commands reputation as a great woman wrestler, human rights activist, environmentalist and philanthropist. She hates oppression with passion and is ready to go to war with anybody when it has to do with protection of one’s human rights much as she believes in environmental protection through healthy attitude and protection of biodiversity and the ecosystem.

Timiebi does have a passion for human rights activism.The passion of Timiebi for human rights activism is always philosophically anchored or engaged. The philosophy of ‘Wiyouism’ is Timiebi’s driving force for human rights activism – a philosophy always mouthed to fight against human rights violation of any species. Through Wiyouism Timiebi ensures neither her fundamental human rights nor those of others are trampled upon with impunity. She would not like to see her children and grandchildren bully people or being bullied by others. To her there is no one seven-headed that would bully and deprive people of their human rights anywhere on earth. Her often asked question which strengthens her to confront human rights abnormalities is: ‘We you?’, meaning: who are you to intimidate and trample upon the rights of others? With this energising question mouthed courageously she could go to any length to protect the human rights of people violated and oppressed.

Timiebi’s entire life is dominated by enthusiasm and passion for any chosen task. Passion for environmental protection is one of her phenomenal associations. As an environmentalist she wages relentless war against felling of immature trees, indiscriminate bush burning, killing of fingerlings and the use of chemicals and dynamites in a fishing lake or river for a supposed large haul.

There are people on earth who pursue philanthropy and care for orphans as a goal without any visible formalised structures established for it. Timiebi is one of them and so radiance is the word for Timiebi’s philanthropy and love for orphanages. Where her philanthropy is termed ‘fish-philanthropy’, her love for orphanage is a mobile one as she  often gives fishes generously to the motherless ones that come her way in the course of fishing.

Known memorably as a great fisherwoman, she generously gives fishes to anyone that comes her way – motherless or mothered, fatherless or fathered. Her fish-philanthropy is non-discriminatory in philosophy as it is extended to both the Ijaws and the Urhobos who come her way. Her canoe is often loaded with fishes after every fishing expedition and anyone who meets her often smiles home with fishes. She is an angler who relies on hooks and lines for her maritime trade. 

The ubiquitously recognised  multidimensional personality called Timiebi is both a celebrated meteorologist and hydrologist.