The remains of winner of the 2017 Nigerian Prize for Literature (poetry category), Ikeogu Oke, who died on November 24, 2018, at the age of 51, has been laid to rest on March 30 at Akanu Ohafia in Abia State.
[Image: Ikeogu Oke] •Late Ikeogu Oke
The funeral was attended by ANA members from Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Abuja and Akwa-Ibom states. A festival of life in which a book on Ikeogu, For Ikeogu, For Poetry, was unveiled was held in Akanu Ohafia on the eve of the burial.
For Ikeogu, For Poetry was published by the association and edited by ANA President, Denja Abdullahi and Ofonime Inyang. The collection of 51 poems, written by both old and young Nigerian poets was published in February 2019 after a call for submission in December, 2018 for poems in honour of the departed poet.
Delivering his emotion-laden speech at the funeral, President of ANA, Denja Abdullahi, recalled a heart-breaking conversation he had with the late poet during his sickness in which Ikeogu had said to him: “Denja, I am not afraid to die but what breaks my heart as I think of it is how that my little child, Nadine, is going to take it.”
The ANA President said: “The poetic incidents that preceded his death and what has been happening thereafter have shown to us that Ikeogu has triumphed over death. A man has three pathways to becoming immortal as stated in one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. A man lives forever in his writings, in his progenies and in the hearts of those who love him. Ikeogu, through his hard work, faithful cultivation and God’s blessing, had achieved that status of immortality before passing away.”
The full script of the ANA president’s speech titled: Ikeogu Oke: A warrior for poetry, being a eulogy delivered by Mallam Denja Abdullahi, President, Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, at the funeral service for Ikeogu Oke at Akanu Ohafia on 30th March, 2019, reads thus:
“On behalf of the Association of Nigerian Authors, nationwide and worldwide, I thank you all for showing up to honour the soul and memories of the one I now call “a warrior for poetry.”’ Ikeogu Oke, beyond his latter-day adornment of the Ohafia warrior attire to perform his poems and his winning the Nigeria Literature Prize for poetry in 2017, had for so many languorous years laboured for poetry. Some of us were direct witnesses to the effusion of his poetic labour, his avowed display of affection for the art and his personalised emotive connection to people. It is, therefore, not a surprise seeing the deluge of tributes and empathy from persons who knew or knew him not, at his passing.
“Ikeogu Oke was always a reckoning presence in the many activities of the Association of Nigerian Authors and wherever there was a literary gathering to which he can squeeze in a poetic rendition or just get inspired to write another poetic piece. I got very close to him in those days when we toured Nigeria together in 2014 to organise events connected to the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God. On many occasions during that celebration, I will drive to Ikeogu’s house at dawn to pick him up for our transiting by road or by air to one city or the other.
“I got to know from then on that Ikeogu took his time with everything and did things at his own pace, regardless of your take on time. I also found out in the many hotels we stayed in across Nigeria that Ikeogu worked almost all the time, with no time for frivolities… a person thus committed to working on his art all the time cannot but come to the literary acclaim he met with later on in life.
“The story behind his award winning work, Heresiad, which is widely known, is a supreme signpost that behind the flourish of literary success, or any success at all, are years of unnoticed hard labour.
“I was also there at the moment of his triumph and coming to limelight as they say. I was a witness to Ikeogu’s private and public battles with people who cannot comprehend some of his often against-the-grain opinions on issues. I have had private and public quibbles with him and even if I sometimes thought he went about with his head in the clouds, we have always made up and continue purposefully with our friendship.
“At the crest of his descent to the ailment that eventually claimed his beautiful soul, we travelled by road together from Abuja to Ojoto via Awka as guest poets on the invitation of Awka Literary Society to follow the trail of Christopher Okigbo’s walk to the River Idoto on that enigmatic poet’s birthday which was the 16th of August, 2018. I waited impatiently for Ikeogu as usual at the Motor Park somewhere in Utako, Abuja.
“When he belatedly arrived, a good look at him revealed what some persons had worriedly related to me a few days back about him. I questioned him about his state of health. He gave me a full answer later that night in his hotel room where I spent two hours with him, listening and offering my advice. He told me a lot in confidence about his travails and said something that registered in me that he was in full glare and grasp of his imminent fate. He said: “Denja, I am not afraid to die but what breaks my heart as I think of it is how that my little child, Nadine, is going to take it.”
Ikeogu Oke, the one who lived and breathed poetry and took on himself the battle to popularize poetry like its true warrior is gone. The poetic incidents that preceded his death and what has been happening thereafter have shown to us that Ikeogu has triumphed over death. A man has three pathways to becoming immortal as stated in one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. A man lives forever in his writings, in his progenies and in the hearts of those who loves him. Ikeogu through his hard work, faithful cultivation and God’s blessing had achieved that status of immortality before passing away.
“The Association of Nigerian Authors acknowledges Ikeogu Oke’s faithful dedication to its ideals, his works for children in his children’s books, his fight for ensuring that the writer gets his due for his art like everyone else in the creative sector and his unwavering ardour for the poetry of life. The Association has already put in place schemes to further immortalise the poet, Ikeogu Oke, and one of which is the anthology, For Ikeogu, For Poetry that was published in February 2019 containing 51 poems by young and old writers on Ikeogu and his art.
