By joshua 
Good Night Sylvester Afuo Ogbaji
By Victor Ndoma-Egba
Apart from my very brief stay in Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria, I was not lucky with hostel accommodation when I transferred to the University of Lagos (UNILAG). UNILAG’s accommodation policy then gave hostel rooms only to first and final year students. I had arrived late from Enugu Campus and could not get a room. I was squatted in my first year by the kindly Godwin Ntue Ofuka, a mature student who was an Information Officer with the then South Eastern State Government who was on in service to do a program in Mass Communication.
In my second year, by school policy, I was not eligible for student hostel accommodation. Afuo, who had been admitted to read Accountancy ran into me and strangely recognized me. After the courtesies he asked where I was staying and I told him I did not have a place. He offered to “squat me”. I reciprocated by squatting him in my final year. We thus were roommates for two years. I soon found out why he recognized me so easily. His younger sister, Josephine (later Mrs. Julius Agrinya) lived with my parents and was nanny to my younger sister Mbong.
Our room in my final year was epic. We had Thaddeus Karierien, who like Afuo, was reading accountancy, though one year ahead of him, Mark Egbe (who had an illustrious career as a diplomat and became Ambassador) who was reading Mass Communication, Christopher Adebayo Ojo now famously known as Bayo Ojo who became President of the Nigerian Bar Association and Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice etc. Mike Akpan, a mature student reading Mass Communication and was being squatted by Mark Egbe. He became Editor in Chief of Newswatch Magazine. Officially I was the fourth member of the room as four was officially the maximum for any room. Afuo, given his age and maturity, was appointed “Chief Justice “of the room to keep us, the younger ones, in check. We addressed him as “My Lord” or “De Lord”. His “judgements “were hilarious and inevitably ended in a fine of a drink, usually brandy, which he had to “certify fit for human consumption”.
Our room was a happy family, full of humor and laughter, and De Lord as we called him to death, was the chief merchant. His stories were exhilarating and dramatic. His life was full of drama. He at some point taught mathematics in Boki Boys Secondary School and one of his former students told me how he used to tell his students who did not answer a question correctly “I will put you in a convenient angle and destroy you”. The convenient angle was you had to stand while he explained until you got it right. When I confronted him with the story, he recalled it and many more, with relish.
De Lord was a man of character, forthright, honest, firm in his dealings and humorous. He saw situations from the lighter side. He was both traditional and western and was very proud of his Yala heritage. He related equally with king and commoner, man and woman, young and old. He had neither barriers nor prejudices.
Fifty years later, his roommates in the University of Lagos remember De Lord fondly and recall his many stories. He was a complete gentleman. His life was rich and full and has gone the way of all flesh to rest in peace. Though the challenges and demands of life separated us after UNILAG, you live in our hearts.
Rest in perfect peace.
Victor Ndoma-Egba, OFR, CON, SAN, a three term Senator and Leader of the 7th Senate, is the Pro-Chancellor of Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) and Chairman Advisory Board of Start-Rite Schools Abuja