The late Madam Aishetu Ojeifo
What I set out to do in this tribute-and there is going to be a series of it in the days and weeks ahead in celebration of my mother, Madam Aishetu Ojeifo, the famed “moimoi” seller in Owo, is to recall her life and times while her remains have yet to be buried – an enterprise that is nested in mother’s love. Mothers have special places in the hearts of their children. My case is not different. In the last few weeks, I have had to contend with some episodic forgetfulness of the reality of my mother’s death. On a few occasions, I had made to pick my phone to call to speak with her as I was wont to do, and then I would remember that her remains were in the morgue awaiting the final rites of passage and interment, and I would hiss, involuntarily.
The experience supra underscores the strong bond between mother and son. It also explicates the fact that my mother is alive spiritually, albeit physically transmogrified. To quote the late Scottish poet, Thomas Campbell, from his poem-“Hallowed Ground”: “To live in the hearts of those you leave behind is not to die.” My mother lives in my heart and so she is not dead. Nevertheless, her physical death has been quite diminishing, creating a void somewhat in the place of daily prayers and other motherly interventions. In my moments of grief, John Donne comes alive: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”
The late Madam Aishetu Ojeifo
Substantially diminished by not just any man’s death, but a caring mother’s eternal flight to the “hereafter”, I set out, together with other members of my family, to give our mother a befitting burial in appreciation of her motherly love and sacrifices. The funeral rites will begin next week with a wake at her residence in Owo, Ondo State, on Thursday, November 21, funeral service and interment at her residence in Agbede, Edo State, and the celebration of life (social outings/reception) at Mariam Ademarayola Event Centre on Okedogbon Street in Owo, on Saturday, November 23.
As a prefatory note before the final appreciation after burial, I pray for friends who have so far rallied behind me and the family in our moments of grief. Your supports -prayers, words of encouragement and gifts- have been incredible. Some of us did the same thing seven years ago when my mother celebrated her 85th birthday. When she requested that the chikdren should celebrate her seven years ago, I though she was serving us a notice of her imminent transition, not knowing that she was going to be with us for us another seven years.
At the end of the December 2017 birthday shindig for her, I penned a piece entitled: “Madam Aishetu Ojeifo, the famed “moimoi” seller in Owo @ 85”, which I have reproduced in extenso hereunder.
Read it:
On December 16, 2017, there was a rare convergence on No. 4, Clerks’ Quarters Road, Ijebu Quarter in Owo, Ondo State, the “Diasporic” family home of the late Pa Isa Isu Ojeifo, whose genealogy is traced to Ujagbe in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, but whose father, Pa Isu Ojeifo, due to the exigency of migration as a direct corollary of a bitter and failed chieftaincy tussle to assume the throne of his late father, Okoror Ojeifo of Ujagbe, had to settle in Ewu in Esan Central Local Government Area of Edo State, where the family now has an “aborigina”l family home.
The convergence was for the purpose of celebrating the life and times of the matriarch of the family, Madam Aishetu Rachel Isa Ojeifo, a princess of the royal family of Agbede, a near pristine, religiously conscious and contiguous town to Ewu, who had turned 85 in sound mind and good health on December 12, 2017. The union was rare because that was the first time the matriarch would be celebrated in that grandiose fashion at her behest.
From far and near, her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, brothers, sisters, nephews, friends and well-wishers came to celebrate the famous “mama oni moimoi” (transliterated-the mother or woman who sells “moimoi”) who traversed the nooks and crannies of the ancient town of Owo to ply her trade.
Madam Aishetu with her son, Sufuyan Ojeifo
From the sale of “moimoi” (a popular Nigerian food made from beans), she was economically empowered and was able to play a supportive role to her husband in ministering to the needs of the family. Even though she was educationally deficient, having not been opportune to be within the four walls of a classroom in any school due to the loss of her father when she was only three years old, as a mother, she was enamored with the power and allure of numeracy and literacy and would stop at nothing to ensure that her children all went to school.
After making her financial contributions to her husband’s effort towards payments of our school fees, she would still go the extra mile to make available foodstuff and condiments that we would take to school. Such was her passion and commitment to our pursuit of knowledge. If we had difficulty convincing our father to part with more money for certain assignments in school, she would rein in with her motherly intercession. Whereas her husband, our father, the grammarian, passed on January 12, 1992, the Almighty God had kept her for us in sound health.
When, in late October, this year [2017], she requested that we should celebrate her 85th birthday, we did not consider the vagaries of the economic condition in the country. We considered it as a perfect opportunity to appreciate a woman of courage, discipline, prayer and faith in God. We did not consider Ujagbe, Ewu or Agbede for the celebration, but rather, we decided to do it in situ, where she lives in Owo, to evoke the symbolism of honour, which the ancient town of Owo, as a land of honour, depicts. To have her honoured in Owo, where a vast majority of her children were born and bred is indeed a thing of honour and joy.
The get-together on Saturday (December 16-the event was shifted from December 12, a weekday) witnessed a praise and prayer session in the morning organised by her local church, Gospel Faith Mission, Alaafia Assembly, followed by afternoon/evening session of wining and dining including cutting of the birthday cake and dancing. One of the highpoints of the occasion was the speech delivered by the chair of the occasion, my friend and brother, former member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Patrick Obahiagbon, the son of Igodomigodo, whose short and sharp speech, replete with jaw-breaking dictions, appealed to the sensibilities of the youths at the event who, apparently, have been following his effusive bombastic exploits on television, the social media and other news outlets. They roared in applause of his rendition, particularly when he rounded off by inviting guests to “settle down and satiate their culinary appetites.”
Madam Aishetu with her son, Sufuyan Ojeifo during her 85th birthday in Owo seven years ago.
It was a momentous occasion on which so many people identified with our family. The Yoruba have a saying, which goes thus: “Human beings are better than clothes; they are the clothes of honour with which we cover ourselves.” It is therefore against the backdrop of and in the context of this time-tested axiom that I appreciate, on behalf of the entire Ojeifo family, the presence and/or support of friends and brothers on and for the occasion, namely, Chairman of Ocean Marine Solutions (OMS), Captain (Dr.) Idahosa Wells Okunbo (JP); Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Ph.D; Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Emadeb Energy Services Limited, Mr. Debo Olujimi; Chairman of Island Club, Mr. Oladipo Okpeseyi (SAN); Chief Executive Officer of Creative Signals Limited, Mr. Akpata Omoruyi; Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo state, Chief Dan Orbih (the Esama of Uromi); Honourable E.J. Agbonayinma (Egor/Ikpoba-Okha federal constituency in the House of Representatives); and former Deputy Governor of Kogi state, Architect Yomi Awoniyi.
They also included former Minister of State for Agriculture, Dr. Christopher Agbobu; former Governor of Ekiti State and Deputy National Chairman of APC (South), Engineer Segun Oni; Mr. Kolade Harrison (United States); Engineer Godwin Adindu (Wuse 2 Central Chapter Vice President of Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship, FGBMFI); Mr. Collins Akwushie (Field Representative, FGBMFI); Director of Media and Publicity of the APC in Ondo State, Mr Steve Otaloro; Deputy Registrar of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Mr Ale Olaposi; Managing Director of This Time Tomorrow Farms Limited, Mr. Niyi Adewole; Human Rights activist, Mr Ariyo Dare-Atoye; and businessman, Mr Tajudeen Aderibigbe, among several others.
[This piece was first published in Vanguard newspaper edition of December 31, 2017]
Footnotes: First, some of those mentioned in this piece are late, exempli gratia, Captain Hosa Okunbo, Mr Ariyo Dare- Atoye and some no longer hold the positions cited against their names.
Second, as we celebrate the life and times of Madam Aishetu Ojeifo, I crave for much more identification and association by friends and well wishers with the Ojeifo family in our bid to consummate a befitting burial for a good mother indeed.
■ Sufuyan Ojeifo is publisher and editor-in-chief of THE CONCLAVE online newspaper @ www.theconclaveng.com He can be reached via [email protected]
