By Ikechukwu Eze
I write this with a heavy heart and a head that has continued to swoon in disbelief and denial. The family is in deep sorrow. The wound remains raw.
Every sigh of grief and recollection of what we did together remind me of who and what we have lost. Senator Ayogu Eze was the pillar of the family, the pride of the community and a national idol.
It has been three weeks since your passing, and I am still struggling to put my thoughts together, accept what has become and eventually pen a deserving tribute (probably this will still come.)
Since Ebube Dike’s inopportune exit at the age of 65, a lot have been said in sincere adulation by numerous friends, well-wishers and admirers on his humaneness, oratory power, student activism, writing skill, sterling career in journalism, unrivalled performance in the senate and overall contributions to national development and the growth of our democracy which do not bear repeating in this short write up. I would rather that this piece came through as a candid reflection on my late brother’s positive influence on his siblings.
Ayogu was a worthy elder brother, who was more than just a sibling. Teacher, mentor, role model, guardian, trailblazer, critic and cheerleader; all that and more capture his essence. His unwavering guidance and support helped shape many lives back home and across the country.
From childhood, you took me under your wings and showed me the way. You were always there to lend an ear, offer avuncular advice, and push me to be the best version of myself. Your unwavering dedication and sense of duty served as a constant source of strength and stability for all of us.
Now, this is personal. From my child’s eye, growing up under his tutelage, Ayogu had a larger than life image. While I was still in primary school, he was already a shining star, writing as a student journalist for newspapers, especially those based in Enugu (Daily Star and Satellite) where he had become a household name.
Everything I did at that young age tried to ape his illustrious life and considerable achievements. I chose the arts in Senior secondary school, not because I wasn’t good in sciences, but because I had a big brother who walked the path and was already making waves in journalism. I couldn’t exactly study mass communication like he did, but I majored in English, a course I considered close enough to his.
Nonetheless, upon maturity after graduation from the university, I sought to carve out a different path for myself and began a stint in Enugu State public service.
However, I found out after a couple of years that the experience wasn’t challenging enough for me; a vibrant young man with a head full of fancy and imagination. I shared this thought with Ayogu and he was quite taken with the idea that I should try something else to satisfy the push I was feeling inside.
My sense then was to do something else and establish myself differently. Even when I subsequently chose journalism because, like him, I had developed a love for writing, I thought I could practice outside his influence, beyond the coverage of his reputational radar.
I was reassured by the fact that journalism is a field where your work speaks loudly for you and you couldn’t hide your incompetence, just because you have a sibling who had made a big name in the profession.
For this, I deliberately avoided being piggybacked or dropping his name in all the places I had worked. I felt it was not going to be fair for people in the industry to view my performance through his own prism and judge me by his towering image and soar-away records.
Yet, life sometimes has a way of playing games on one’s intentions by taking him through a labyrinth that, perforce, returns him to that road he probably wished to avoid. In most places I had worked, I found myself on the same trail that bore Ayogu’s footprints.
For instance, while working in Vanguard Newspapers as a reporter, I won a fellowship to the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ) in Berlin, Germany in 2005. In the course of the four months programme, the school sought and confirmed that I was related to a certain ‘Ayogu Eze’ who had passed through the same programme many years before me. It became the first time IIJ would document two siblings as alumni of the institution, a record for which we both earned a special recognition.
From Vanguard I moved over to BusinessDay newspapers as Features Editor and member of the Editorial Board. One day, in the newsroom, the publisher Mr. Frank Aigbogun walked over to my desk and was like, “why didn’t you tell me all along that Ayogu Eze is your elder brother.” Apparently they had met at the airport and Ayogu had enquired how his younger brother was doing under Frank’s employ. I later found out that both Frank and Ayogu were school mates at the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu, and both later ended up in the Guardian where Ayogu also served as the Features Editor at some point!
Henceforth, my fate became like that of Jonah in the Bible; the more I sought to walk further away from Ayogu’s beaten path, the closer I moved to his vast network of colleagues, associates and friends. I left the newsroom to serve as the media adviser to former Planning Minister, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, on the recommendation of a colleague and a good friend of mine, thinking I had gone far enough from Ayogu’s encircling influence in the newsroom.
How wrong I was! Few months after my appointment, I followed my new boss to a budget defense session at the National Assembly. Lo and behold, Ayogu was seated in the meeting right opposite me, as a member of the Senate committee on National Planning! That was how my cover was blown.
Later, when a minor cabinet reshuffle affected Dr. Usman’s job as minister of planning, he recommended me to his successor. That was how I continued as media adviser, this time, to the Minister of state, works, Amb. Bashir Yuguda, who took over the planning ministry as the supervising minister.
This happened at a time my brother was the chairman of the senate committee on works. At that point, I knew how close they were but was determined not to reveal our relationship to my new boss. However, in 2013 Ayogu’s mother passed on and he sent me to notify my boss of the development. That was how Amb. Yuguda discovered that his media adviser and his ministry’s committee chairman in the Senate were siblings!.
Even when I moved over with Amb. Yuguda to the Finance Ministry where he was later redeployed as Minister of State, I could still sense that my brother’s name commanded attention in the new environment.
It is still a similar experience where I currently serve as the Media Adviser to His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, President Federal Republic of Nigeria (2010-2015). I had known that my brother, while in the seventh Senate, was close to the then President but I never mentioned my relationship with him to my current boss until the day Ayogu visited and met me right inside the office of His Excellency, Dr. Jonathan.
I could simply state that this testimony of Ayogu’s abiding influence held true for many others, especially members of the family, even those in different professions. If anything, this tells me that we were in deed meant not to be too far away from each other; he, always moving ahead and probably clearing and smoothening the path.
It also tells me that Ayogu had over the years, through sheer dint of hard work and goodwill, blazed many trails, touched many lives and cultivated good relations across the country. Whether as a journalist, commissioner or federal lawmaker, he acquitted himself creditably as a sincere patriot who sacrificed so much for others and selflessly applied himself to the task of nation building.
My Beloved Brother, the pain of your absence is intense, but the impact you had on lives is immeasurable. Your passion for life, your warmth and kindness, your commitment to making a difference, zest for leadership and unwavering love for humanity will continue to be remembered. The memories we made while you were here on earth will eternally remain in our minds and heart.
Adieu, Ebube Dike.
