ANTONELLA SGAVO, a city official in Civitanova Marche, told reporters that the stories of those three killed are not unique.  For that reason, she said it is crucial that the community keep their eyes open to such everyday struggles and reach out to those in need.

“We need to pay, more than ever,……greater attention to new forms of poverty that affect many families (living) next door, when we do not realise it,” said Sgavo.

As for the “Seventy Senior Elders” from Nigeria, who have gathered in a corner of St Peter’s Square, we are mourning.

The Vatican as well as both the old Pope and the new Pope have overwhelmed us with their sincere sympathy and heartfelt condolences as we celebrate the life of a great Nigerian writer – Chinua Achebe- whom God has given the exceptional talents which propelled him to write the masterpieces, copies of which we are giving away for free to our Italian hosts who have been so generous with their hospitality.  It turns out most of our visitors and sympathisers are already familiar with Achebe’s books:

*                 Things Fall Apart

*                 The Arrow of God

*                 A Man Of The People

*                 Anthills Of The Savannah

*                 Once There Was A Country

It is a moving spectacle to watch Nigerians grieving in dignity without reference to tribe or religion.

The Italians have no cause to complain – these are Nigerians at their best.

Huge screens have sprung up and we are besieged by journalists from all over the world.  They are only too eager to join in paying well deserved tributes and exceptional accolades to the departed man of letters and quintential wordsmith.

As the crowd begins to swell and the queue of frantic sympathisers gets longer and longer, we are invaded by another set of mourners!!  They started off quietly by lighting candles in honour of the departed Prime Minister of Britain, the “Iron Lady” – Mrs Margaret Thatcher.  Achebe was 73 but Mrs Thatcher was a grand old lady who sang her “nunc dimities” (let your servant depart) at the age of 87.

I have plenty to say about Margaret Thatcher.

For many years, we were neighbours in Chelsea, London.  The only way you would know she was around was that a single policeman stood on duty outside her gate.  As for her husband, Denis, the press (especially Private Eye the satirical magazine) gave him hell with unrelenting mockery of his drinking habits and apparent preference for living in a world of his own.  Ironically, it was at a party hosted in Ikoyi, Lagos by the British High Commissioner in honour of the visiting Margaret Thatcher that I observed her at close range.  I was at the table next to hers and when it was suggested that Britain should consider writing off Nigeria’s huge debt, she exploded with fury.  She went ballistic!!

“Britain will never write-off those debts.  I have a list of Nigerians who can pay off the debt.  Some of them are here.”  We Nigerians, whom both the old Pope and the new Pope have Christened as their “brothers and sisters” have no problem sharing our grief with our British fellow mourners.  All we are required to do is to remind them of the “House-keeping Rules” which had been agreed with both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis I, namely:

*                 No noise (absolute silence must prevail at all times.)

*                 No litter

*                 No Smoking

*                 No alchohol.

By a strange co-incidence, both the Nigerians and the British find ourselves mourning Peter Alexander Ashikiwe Adione-Egom who died on March 3, 2013 at the age of 70.

He and his buddy Stanley Macebuh came into the sixth form of King’s College, Lagos in 1961 from the Eastern Region.  Straightaway they became super stars.  Alex Egom was both an athlete and a scholar.  He went on to Downing College, Cambridge University where he won a full Cambridge Blue in recognition of his athletics prowess (100-yards).  He graduated in 1966 with First Class Honours degree in Social Anthropology.

We Nigerians are also mourning the wife of the late Bola Ige, the Chief law officer of our nation.

“On April 10, 2003 (exactly 10 years ago), the security of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, was again shattered as Justice Elizabeth Omoborike Atinuke Ige, wife of the late Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, died suddenly at the age of 72.

It was indeed a sad day for the matriarch of the Ige family to have died even as the trial of 11 accused persons charged with the assassination of her husband was in progress at an Ibadan High Court.

According to Tunji Oladunni, a spokesman of the late Chief Bola Ige family, the late Justice Atinuke Ige became visibly shaken early in the morning after reading newspaper reports on Andrew Olotu, the star witness in the trial of the 11 accused persons charged with conspiracy and murder of her husband.

Atinuke Ige, apparently shocked by the denial of the star witness on the identification of the gunmen, complained that she had developed body pains and was given first aid treatment.  She later died at home before she was transferred to the University College Hospital, UCH, where her body is being kept.

“She was sick for just about two hours.  She complained of body pains and was given first aid and some drugs.   She was gasping for breath, then we rushed her to UCH and she died on the way to UCH around 8.30 a.m.,” said Oladunni.  A pensive Muyiwa Ige and her sisiter, Mrs. Funso Adegbola, sat in the living room of the Ige’s family home, Solemilia Court, at Bodija Ibadan looking askance when Governor Lam Adesina, one of the early callers, walked into the room with his entourage.

Adesina arrived at the Solemilia Court of the Iges at Bodija around 3.20 pm. “What do you want me to say?”  the Oyo State governor asked journalists who followed him to Bodija.  “It’s sad news.  It’s most unexpected.  It is an irreparable loss.  If I must tell you, it is Nigerians who killed Bola Ige who also killed his wife,” he charged.

Just before we departed St. Peter’s Square, the “Seventy Senior Elders” from Nigeria learnt of the passing away of Deacon Oluwole Awolowo (son of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo).  We prayed for him and the rest of the Awolowo family.  For most of his life Wole swam against the tide.  For him to have survived till he was 70 years old was an uncommon feat.  May his soul rest in peace.

We stayed on at St Peter’s Square.  The doors of the Basilica were still open.  We proceeded to say a silent prayer for the soul of a great Nigerian – Chief (Dr.) Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi who died exactly a year ago at the age of 95.  Sadly, we all agreed we shall never see the likes of him again.  He deserves his peace.

J.K.RANDLE Randle wrote from Lagos.