By Reno Omokri
One of the things that most struck me in General Yakubu Gowon’s autobiography, “My Life of Duty and Allegiance”, is that, at a time when he and his family were “stranded” and “homeless” in London, it was an Igbo man from Arochukwu, in the present Abia State, named Emmanuel Oti, that offered the deposed Head of State and his family his house in London, as a refuge (Page 605).
Though there are many other breathtaking and earth-shattering revelations in the book, this exposé was it for me.
It shows the redemptive nature and qualities of the Nigerian person, such that an Igbo man, who only just five years ago, had been a citizen of the defunct Republic of Biafra, which was engaged in a fratricidal civil war that would lead to the deaths of between one and three million persons, mostly Igbos, would still have the milk of human kindness in him to extend such a right hand of fellowship to the man who symbolised the essence of Nigeria’s will to crush Biafra.
Mr. Oti is, to me, the hero of a book whose hero was supposed to be the author himself.
The humanity in his action of accommodating the man who was public enemy number one of the defunct Republic of Biafra is beyond admirable. The adjective I am looking for is ‘otherworldly’!
I recall that on Friday, 27 November 2020, General Gowon’s son, Mr. Ibrahim Ibi Gowon, had testified that the family was homeless until they were rescued by Mr. Oti. But to read it directly from the horse’s mouth makes the account infallible.
I have since verified the account, and even the address on Finchley Road, London, where Mr. Oti (sometimes spelt Otti) put up his friend, General Gowon.
People like Mr. Emmanuel Oti are the truest and noblest Nigerians. They are the types of people we need in Nigeria if we are to fulfil our potential as a beacon of hope for the Black Race.
I wish I had the power to name major public infrastructure after Mr. Oti.
If in life you had only one friend like Emmanuel Oti, you should consider yourself truly favoured by God.
Overall, my analysis of Mr. Oti is that Biafra was like a bee. A bee can sting. Yet, it also produces honey. Men and women like Emmanuel Oti, from the defunct Republic of Biafra, are the honey that the Biafran bee produced.
I am so glad that Nigeria was stung by the bee in the process of acquiring the honey epitomised by the Emmanuel Otis of this world.
May Eledumare bless Mr. Emmanuel Otti and his progeny forever and ever.
Finally, may the Creator also continue to give Nigeria leaders with the honesty of Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, who used to ride on trains to go on his annual leave in the village of Tafawa Balewa in present-day Bauchi State, even where some of his ministers flew on private planes (yes, they had them in Nigeria at that time), General Gowon and the late President Shehu Shagari, who had no befitting house in Sokoto, after his December 31, 1983, overthrow, and retired to a modest building in Shagari village, after his release from detention.
*Reno Omokri is Nigeria’s Ambassador Designate to Mexico.