Good Bye Oga Aturu I have had few encounters with Aturu since last year. The meetings were both personal and general. In one of such encounters, which took place in his office last year – a beautiful edifice he built recently – Aturu regaled me with a surfeit of issues bothering on corruption on the bench, as well as Nigeria’s woes. Typical of him, he was uncharitable about corrupt judges. Although he gave some plaudits to Nigeria’s Chief Justice, Aloma Mukhtar, for her ostensible reforms, he was not less critical about the slow dispensation of pending cases before the NJC. We moved from the particular to the general. I was willy–nilly ingested with doses of legalese. Aturu couldn’t care if he had fed me an overdose of those and other issues. He was exuberant, betraying a familiar passion to discuss Nigeria, Nigeria, and Nigeria. When Aturu wouldn’t stop, it became evident to me that I was in trouble. Suddenly, his telephone rang – it was the saving grace. He excused himself and I left. Sometime later, Aturu and I, again, met and took active roles in the press conference and subsequent publicity on the whereabouts of the missing Professor of Nuclear Physics at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Bolarinwa Olomo. Like the loss of Aturu, Professor Olomos disappearance is a personal one for him. It was so because he had taken him as his son. And few months to his disappearance, the highly cerebral professor had invited me to his house in Ibadan for a meeting. “Oga Aturu, I beg to disagree”, frequently came off my lips. It was during another encounter, which took place last April. Aturu and I were invited for a lunch at an upscale Chinese restaurant in Ikeja by an oil marketer. The oil marketer had been enamoured of Aturu and requested that I acquaint him with the fiery lawyer. Humbly, Aturu accepted and they became friends. The discussion was about Kerosene subsidy – Nigeria’s metaphor for thievery. The man exposed the shenanigans of oil and kerosene racketeers to us, urging Aturu and the civil society to do more in fighting the cabal on behalf of hapless Nigerians. Again, Aturu’s patriotic zeal took over his being. One striking thing I found impressive about Aturu throughout the discussion was that he was as good a speaker as he was a listener. After we were done, we moved to the car park. The two of us were driven by our kind host. We were hurried to leave by Aturu, who said a client was on his way to meet him. Then another issue erupted. It was a topic about region. One thing I didn’t know before then was Aturu’s profound religousity. The oil market, who is faithless, but a prolific writer, had written a discourse on God. “Have you read my latest writing I sent to you guys,” he said. I humbly declined the invite to discuss God. Same as Aturu, who flatly declared it a no-go area. He considered it blasphemous and wouldn’t dare. “If you have witnessed God’s intervention in one way or the other, you wouldn’t question his existence or omnipotence,” Aturu said. Upon our return to where Aturu parked his sparkling black Honda Sports Utility Vehicle – our older friend’s filling station some meters away, which was where we took initially – he discovered one of his rear tyres had gone flat. He turned to our host and said: “God had a purpose for the delay.” Such was his belief in God. We reminded ourselves of an agreement to fly to Ghana on a three-day holiday, in September, at the expense of our host. A trip we would have made earlier, but for Aturu’s urgent travel outside of the country. Oh, Oga Aturu, there was nothing in your eyes to suggest you wouldn’t make the trip. Now, you death – what a beast you are? Shameless brute, you are. How dare you pounce your bestial fangs on Aturu, stifling his breath? How dare you entered his house without knocking at the door? I am sure Oga Aturu would have sued you for intrusion, breaking and entering, stealing, even for your previous muderous acts in the court. But, death you are a coward, who dared not show his hideous face. You lack class and, in your classlessness, you make no preference. Only the timid fear you. As you, now, know, Oga Aturu was not one. He fought and triumphed over ruthless military and civilian mortals – who were your terrestrial representatives. He knew the law; he knew the masses and defended their rights against your earthly collaborators. Humanity defined his existentialism and his energy to push the law against human slave masters was boundless. Oh, shameless death, you have caused me great sorrow than I cant say. Good night, Oga Aturu.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 09:30:22 +0000
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