For Agbai, a Worthy Elder

Tribute By Eniola Bello

Our paths first crossed when he was Abia State Commissioner for Information, sometime between 2000 and 2003. In my Eni-B column on the back page of THISDAY, I had written a scathing article on his principal Orji Uzor Kalu, at the time the Abia State governor. Barely two weeks after, Dr Agbai Eke Agbai walked into my office at THISDAY corporate headquarters, Apapa Lagos, to personally invite me (he could easily have sent the Invite which he came with) to a lecture Kalu was to deliver at The Apapa Club.

We hit it off as if we’ve known each other for years. Although I was a member of The Apapa Club then, the lecture was not on my schedule on account of the choice of guest speaker. With Agbai’s visit, however, I decided to attend the lecture. I was surprised that he did not, as other information managers of politicians/public officials were (still are) wont, write, or commission others to write, abusive rejoinders. And on meeting me for the first time at the lecture venue, Kalu, perhaps to ease any likely tension between us, made light of my column with a self-deprecating joke.

Agbai and I thereafter became buddies, a close friendship that has survived his stint in the Abia cabinet and has lasted some 20 years. A scholar perpetually on a quest, Agbai would, at the initial stage of our friendship, always call on reading my column; we would discuss the issues of the day, exchange important information and examine different perspectives.

Since he is constantly on the move from the United States where he has his family, to the United Kingdom where he regularly passes through, to the numerous other countries the privilege of being on the entourage of former President Olusegun Obasanjo takes him, we usually seize every opportunity whenever he is in Lagos, or sometimes when both of us happen to be in Abuja, to meet over lunch or dinner.

An intellectual sparring partner, our lunch or dinner meetings go beyond revelling in good food and fine wine, they are veritable grounds to debate global issues of the day, and ultimately, we would return to Nigeria, its peoples and its leadership challenges. Despite the challenges of Nigeria always evoking feelings of disappointment and anger, we usually move the luggage of our discussion on the conveyor belt of passion and hope. At the of the day, we leave such meetings sated, enriched, recharged.

Indeed, Agbai loves life and living. For him, every occasion involving family or friend creates an opportunity for celebration. He luxuriates in putting together small groups for such celebration, and in the process connecting or reconnecting people, and widening one’s social network. He comes alive at such events, partly playing the personable host, warmly welcoming every guest and easing them into the social environment; partly playing the bartender, ensuring no guest is without a glass of one drink or the other; partly playing the toastmaster, introducing the guests and generally managing the ceremony; partly playing the comedian, narrating funny stories that crack everybody up; and partly playing the moderator, co-ordinating discussion of issues, asking the questions and picking the speakers. He is a master of surprises, always doing the unusual and, like a magician, springing the unexpected.

Talk of loyalty and friendship, Agbai continually strategizes on ways of supporting friends – either those in positions of authority, or those lost at critical moments. I will cite three instances that concern me. When my wife Helen passed on June 2019, Agbai, unable to abort a scheduled engagement, got his partner to fly into the UK from her US base to attend my wife’s funeral. Some years earlier, I had mentioned to him that the day we were to fly to Obudu Ranch, on his invitation, to attend the 25th wedding anniversary of another of his friends, was Helen’s birthday, Agbai had got the pilot, to our pleasant surprise, to announce my wife’s birthday and sing her a song midway into the flight. And when I recently re-married, Agbai conspired with Dr Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke to put together a home-made post-wedding celebratory dinner at her Ikoyi residence. All this is the essential Agbai – a friend in good and bad times.

It is therefore my pleasure and honour to write this testimony to the character of the man Dr Agbai as he joins the Elders Council. Although a man of the world, Agbai is also immersed in the tradition, culture and mores of his people. I understand that the Ime Uche is not a Council of just anybody and everybody, that those admitted are men of character and learning, those imbued with courage, knowledge and wisdom. I also understand that the Ime Uche is the seventh of the rites of passage the Abiriba male child must successfully pass through. For our friend Eke to have successfully navigated the Igba Nnunnu, Igba Ekpe, Ila Uche Oba, Izari Efa, Igwa Mang and Iburu Omu makes his admittance to the Ime Uche indeed worthy of celebration. The Elders’ Council has gained a worthy compatriot.

To my friend Dr Agbai, his immediate family and the entire Ikwu Umuotutu family, permit me a shout out: ikele!