Chief Sam Odighi Udinyiwe Igbe (MON), the Iyase (Traditional Prime Minister) of Benin Kingdom, who on September 29 turned 92, is a man of many parts. He is described by many as the chief of chiefs, leader of the leaders, a humanist, administrator, educationist, a philanthropist and a cop par excellence as well as purist, who is noted for his high moral rectitude and disdain for corruption. He is also a cultural icon, a lover of tradition, customs and arts, who wears and propagates his Benin culture with high sense of responsibility and in an uncompromising manner.
The unscheduled visit to his Ugbor residence in Benin City, Edo State, recently was a private one. It was to reconnect with the enigmatic elder, who is ageing gracefully. Warmly, he bade the three of us (Eno Louis, renowned Benin musician and founder of Benin Bronze Festival, among others, Osahon Odia, promoter of arts and culture as well as an aspiring Nollywood producer and this writer) to his palatial sitting room, where he was quietly seated alone. After the exchange of pleasantries, especially over his recent 92 birthday celebration, this writer attempted to lure him into granting an interview, but trust a former super cop and high ranking chief, who has seen it all and can decipher your thought and intent easily. He laughed it off and chose to be reticent regardless of the probing questions and issues raised especially regarding Nigeria at 62.
Instead, he was gracious enough to engage in random conversation (in English and Benin), which dovetailed into fielding questions on life at 92. Then of course, he took us on a long excursion into his career, which by his admission later was a design to frustrate me to turn off my recorder, which was on record mode. ‘‘I am telling you all these to let you know that I don’t have anything to tell you,’’ he noted at some point of the narrative. He had an interesting career, starting out first as a Third Class Clerk in the Colonial Civil Service, later he joined the teaching profession after graduating from the prestigious Saint Andrew College in Oyo.
He dumped teaching after a short stint for the Nigeria Police Force, where he spent most of his working career before voluntarily resigning from service as Acting Commissioner of Police in 1978. Dubbed ‘Mr. integrity’ during his time with the Nigeria Police Force, the Benin Kingdom’s Prime Minister regaled us with different instances of how he shunned ‘brown envelopes’ brought to him by people, including the one by three new recruits of Benin extraction. Shortly before he bowed out of the force, one of his bosses tried to rubbish his Mr. Integrity status by putting him through an acid test. But he refused to compromise despite the threats. Although we didn’t bring him gifts and kola nuts as tradition demands, we actually contemplated it, but somehow, couldn’t because of the hurried nature of the visit, yet he gifted each of us a bottle of choice wine from his wine cabinet.
I didn’t bring my wine bottle along with me to Lagos but left it for Eno Louis. Perhaps to say thank you for being my guide and driver, which of course, he always does happily whenever I’ m in town and we linked up as we did for the two days I was around. We also parted with some autographed copies of the Prime Minister’s books. However, Osahon and I paid for ours except Eno Louis, who was lucky enough to have a free copy. Here is recorded excerpt of some of his thoughts during the interview:
How do you feel at 92, sir?
I feel my age, I’ m not a young man, I don’t feel like a young man. I don’t feel old, but I feel my age. There are things happening to me now that didn’t happen to me three years ago. If I want to get up from this chair now, I am really struggling, I can’t jump up spritely like I used to. I know that I am really getting old. But what I’ m saying is that I feel my age. I’ m not unhappy about it. I’ m alright, I feel my age and I feel that I’ m really getting old. At times I think about it that is it me who can’t run round this house like I use to before? You can’t cheat nature, you can’t cheat age. I’ happy about my age, I’ m happy about how I feel.
Is there any health regime you undergo daily?
Right from time I used to be a good athlete. I played football and I did all those athletics things and so on but when you get to this age you can’t do those things anymore. I’m not quite as strong as I used to be. The only thing that you do not to let the age win over you is that I walk round the house once, twice or thrice and come and sit down here. I do some writings here and there and they give me pleasure. When you are happy you don’t feel old. I’m always happy, nothing really makes unhappy. Somebody abuses me or something like that doesn’t make me unhappy. I’ m happy all the time. I’m never sad, In fact, I don’t like being sad. When you keep your composure and you are happy, no matter what happens to you, you don’t feel you are somebody else, you are always happy. In terms of food, there is no special food. I’m not particularly good with food. I don’t complain. Whatever they give to me I eat, my wife will tell you that, she is not at home right now. She is a very hard working woman. She has gone to work now and when she gets back or whenever she is at home, I go and sit with her and we chat. You never hear about us quarreling, there is no room for that. When nothing makes you unhappy and you do those things you want to do, only that this days I can’t do those things that I was doing when I was young. But I’m happy with aging and like you said, I don’t look haggard. But I do eat, although food is not my specialty. I don’t fill my stomach with food.
What do you think about Nigeria at 62 given the dreams and aspirations that you had for the nation growing up?
I’ m not a politician, when I was younger I did a book, ‘Nigeria of our dream.’ But I am very, very serious about what I think we should have been but it doesn’t make me unhappy. I don’t think Nigeria should be where we are now. But I think we should have been something else. Nigeria, I don’t know whether it is what everybody wanted it to be but it is not what I wanted it to be. But there is nothing that I can do about that. I have never liked politicking, Nigerians attitude to politics anyway. I don’t like it. So, I’m happy being what I’m. I eat what I want to eat, I go out when I want to go out. I don’t like a lot of things that people like. I can sit down here from now till tomorrow. I don’t go out very often. Today is Tuesday, later in the day by 4pm I will go to fellowship (Christian Worship Centre) (He used to come there, referring to Eno Louis, who replied humbly that he still comes, but just that he has not come for a long while). I go there and I listen to them, we read the Bible and at times what they preach and talk about are very interesting. I don’t like missing it. I watch television. I like watching Prophet TB Joshua on Emmanuel TV. I can watch it for a long time. Well, Nigeria, we all are what we want to be and I’ m what I want to be. I don’t like politics and what the politicians preach. But I’ m happy with myself.
But do you think that Nigeria will ever get to the level or great height that you had dreamt of then?
Well, I don’t know. When you leave school then you get a job. I have never begged anybody to help me with a job. I left Edo College on December 21 and by January 1, I was already working in the Residence’s Office. We waited in the school to play Cricket against King’s College and I wrote a letter to the Residence Office asking for a job. My school principal brought the letter to me and he asked me how I did it and I told him I wrote a letter after our school certificate exam.
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