Yinka Odumakin & Innocent Chukwuma: Indelible footprints of two revolutionary fighters
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By Lanre Arogundade
The demise of Yinka and Innocent within twenty four hours of each other last weekend was a double blow for Nigeria’s radical movement. The more the reality of their exit registers, the more the pains and pangs torment.
If the passage of Gani Fawehinmi, Alao Aka-Bashorun, Arthur Nwankwo, etc, at advanced age caused considerable grief, that of Yinka and Innocent cannot but be evocative of the kind of deeper grief that greeted the exit of Chris Abashi, Chima Ubani, Bamidele Aturu, Remi Ogunlana, Rotimi Ewebiyi, Bala Muhammed, Emma Ezeazu, etc.
Innocent Chukwuma: Blown Out Like A Candle In the Wind, By Bolaji Owasanoye premiumtimesng.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from premiumtimesng.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Lanre Arogundade
The demise of Yinka and Innocent within twenty four hours of each other last weekend was a double blow for Nigeria’s radical movement. The more the reality of their exit registers, the more the pains and pangs torment.
If the passage of Gani Fawehinmi, Alao Aka-Bashorun, Arthur Nwankwo, etc, at advanced age caused considerable grief, that of Yinka and Innocent cannot but be evocative of the kind of deeper grief that greeted the exit of Chris Abashi, Chima Ubani, Bamidele Aturu, Remi Ogunlana, Rotimi Ewebiyi, Bala Muhammed, Emma Ezeazu, etc.
Even if the gods of revolution are equally in shock, we must ask them why significant numbers of the ‘younger’ generation of radicals and revolutionists are struggling to cross the sixty borderline to make a dash at the biblical three scores and one.
Men come and men go. But does history make the man or does the man make history? When this old philosophical conundrum was put across to Nelson Mandela, he responded that history makes the man. Though others may have a different opinion, this was certainly the case of the Okoroba-born scholar, orator, activist, intellectual giant and philanthropist, Barrister Oronto Obebitazibanateiami Douglas, who sojourned planet earth for forty-eight years.
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Oronto’s parents, Pa Obebara Douglas and Mrs Igoni Douglas, probably saw what others did not see and named him Obebitazibanateiami, which in the Ogbia language simply means “
The good of God will get to me”. The Natei in the name took prominence and, indeed, the good of God got to many people and communities through Oronto Natei Douglas, popularly known as OND.
Innocent Chukwuma: The enduring legacy of a beacon of hope for every generation vanguardngr.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from vanguardngr.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.