Written by: Palmer Ogheneyole Nathaniel
Yesterday being 26th day of July, 2021, I was going through contents in the Global Media Professionals’ WhatsApp group when a post from a Kenyan Journalist caught my attention. The post was a direct and witty attempt to drag me out of my long but tremendously invigorating vacation from descriptive and diagnostic dissertation writings. It was short and thought-provoking. “We hope the death of the Nigerian parliamentarian whom he served as a media advisor, have not killed his own inspiration in essay writing? Greetings to my Nigerian friend”. I giggled. Humorous but moralistic. Pushing. I felt challenged. Awoken.
Now to you Hansen, let my recommencement be centered around a genius I once served so conscientiously. I must confess that the shock of the 27th day of January, 2021, is not something I could capture in a single assembling of letters and words. My boss, leader, principal and mentor, our very own senior and accomplished media giant, distinguished and erudite parliamentarian, scholarly lawyer and astute businessman, seasoned to a fault in all of his pursuits, Hon. (Sir) Barr. Tim Kome Owhefere, gave up the ghost right before my watchful eyes. It was a day God should never had created. That single moment disrupted so many lives, killed so many dreams, unsettled legions of permutations, dampened thousands of hopes, set confusion in so many quarters and brought an eventful era to an abrupt and throbbing end.
Let me make this as brief as possible. A compendium of the life and time of my principal is underway. ‘Tim Kome Owhefere: A man was here”; so it was titled. As his Media Assistant, part of my job description was to serve him even in death. While the security, the protocol, the drivers and teams of advisers’ jobs ended long ago, my designation entails that I continuously tell his story, preach his goodnews, trumpet his stewardship and repudiate the misadventures of the incongruous who would capitalize on his deafness and dumbness to rewrite his history.
Hansen, my greatest pains were not his death particularly. My pains were the names he was called at death, the inglorious and unceremonious way he was “planted” devoid of the pop, pageantry and cheers of his community. He was a “rogged” sailor of repute. In death, he was mischievously and impishly assumed a title that restricted many from nearing his interment, a title I can bet he never had.
Truly, Owhefere lived a life of ion-cast bravery, incandescent legacies, heroic conquests, judicious philanthropism, unparallel service and enduring accomplishments. From a small community of Akiewhe-Owhe in Isoko North, Owhefere fought the dusts of the street to become one of the leading journalists in Lagos in the nineties. He could pass for the most meticulous writer I have ever seen. In all of my career as a spokesman for VIPs, I have never met a man so neat in all of his deeds, so thorough, so spotless, so detailed, so true and so brilliant. In all of the documents I have edited for him in the nearly a decade of my service, apart from reconstructing sentences for media and public suitability, the only prominent correction I could remember making in his pieces was a “where” in place of “were”, and that correction was occasioned by the fact that the piece was written in anger during the debate of the 1% budgetary allocation to the Isoko nation.
His political journey was full of intrigues. He narrowing failed in his first attempt. Those credited with victory in that contest wished they never fought him. When you defeat a lion, the scars on you must be visible. From then henceforth, Owhefere has remained victorious in all political contestations he enlisted in. The life that left him even before his death was his business empire which he sacrificed so that he could diligently and meritoriously serve the state and its people.
Owhefere has a record of been the first Majority Leader of the Delta State House of Assembly whose motion were never voted down. Not even one. We would have been the longest-serving Leader by 2023. I can also state that he was the most well-respected Leader of the House that our state parliament ever had. When he speaks, he radiated firmness, control, intelligence and insurmountable gasp of the business of lawmaking. Sitting on the media section of the Assembly gallery, I am often awed by his command of the spoken English and depth of his analysis and debates.
He studies government bills all-night and present them even better than the authors. He could read the entire state budget and then quote figures and items verbatim without a second look. Many described him as the legislative encyclopedia and deity. He was the intellectual power horse of the House and his loyalty to the Rt. Honourable Speaker and his Deputy was unwavering. Nearly half a year after his departure, the state is still locked in a titanic Catch-22 over who to replace him as the eye of the party in parliament. He has set a standard that his successor may struggle to meet.
Owhefere was the Speaker we never had. I could bet everything that he would have effortlessly defeated his opponents at the party primaries. Owhefere won the Isoko North PDP House of Assembly primaries the day Hon. Christian Itehire emerged as the Party’s choice for the position of the LG Chairman. This fact is unimpeachable. A man who in 2019 ran against the big forces and emerged would not have had issues now that a vast majority of the power brokers were behind him. If he had arrived that Assembly again, it would have been easy for camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for him to lose the speakership to another. The man left when the horses, camels and chariots were set for his triumphant entry. At a point, we could all picture ourselves seated around him in the table of parliamentary power. But today, all that has hit the rock and we are left in tears, sorrows and anguish.
Owhefere, the man with the money. He was a giver who would pay us for doing the job we were been paid to do. His concern for our welfare and the welfare of even his enemies was unheard.
Hansen my friend the ‘bleeding pen of Matsanga’, please note that although a part of me is gone, I am still on duty and the fire is flaming. As I return to reboot my career as a full time media practitioner, guerrilla journalist, Public Relation Executive and Speechwriter, may history remember me as the lieutenant who stood beside his boss even in death and mourned him like the Romans mourned their great leader and liberator, Emperor Caligula of old.
Palmer, a Journalist and Media Consultant was the Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to late Hon. Barr. Tim Kome Owhefere KSC
