High Chief Raymond Aleogho Anthony Dokpesi, media icon, shipping magnate, political juggernaut and the Ezomo of Weppa Wanno Kingdom of Edo State, begins his final journey into eternity this week. He succumbed to the cold hands of death 21 days ago, to the shock and consternation of his family, friends and associates. I was particularly stunned by the news of his sudden death because my wildest imagination never suggested to me that he was indisposed enough to die at this time. Yet, death struck at a most inauspicious moment, leaving behind unspeakable tears and sorrow.
My first encounter with High Chief Dokpesi was as uninhibited as it could be. I came across a man without airs; a man who was not held hostage by the demands and shenanigans of social status. Even though I have had a professional relationship with his Africa Independent Television (AIT) as far back as the mid-1990s as a resource person on foreign affairs, I did not meet with High Chief until 2013, more than one and half decades after. Our point of contact was the public presentation of my second book, entitled “Delicate Distress”. I had visited Abuja a few weeks before the event to ensure that everything was in place. Then the idea of having the book reviewed on AIT came up. Someone who knew him well enough suggested that I should contact him for possible assistance. On the strength of this, I wrote him, enclosing a copy of the book. Within days, I got a call from the broadcast station to appear for the review session. That was just it. No prior acquaintances. No referrals. He just treated the subject matter on its own merit. What mattered to him was excellence and the promotion of intellectualism. That was the stuff High Chief Dokpesi was made of. He was never constrained by convention. He was never worried about normal social rules.
A few years afterwards, politics brought us together. But High Chief Dokpesi did not cling to me on the basis of politics, especially since I was a fringe player on the political turf. His interest in me rested largely on the intellectual plane. He valued the intellectual in me. We had mutual respect for each other on account of this. But we did not operate in general terms. High Chief Dokpesi narrowed me further down to the media space, his profession, and my profession. He was a man who liked to relate with people on the basis of their areas of competence. In fact, he had a stupendous aggregation of professionals from all walks of life around him. When there was job to be done, he deployed people to their areas of core competence.
In all of this, his attention to media engagements was second to none. Fully aware of the power of the Press, High Chief Dokpesi always ensured that he got swift hands in the media profession to intervene whenever occasion called for that. He found me very useful in this regard. Together with other media professionals, we ensured that our collective purpose was served with him as the anchor.
Beyond professional or business relationship, High Chief Dokpesi was an open-minded man. His soul and spirit were as expansive as his sprawling mansion at Kpaduma Hill, Asokoro, Abuja. While he lived, his Kpaduma mansion never went to sleep. A house of numerous doors and multiple compartments, High Chief Dokpesi always kept his gates open to friends and associates. There were no restrictions. No protocols. He had no reason to keep people away. He wronged no one and, therefore, had nothing to be afraid of. He had no baggage to contend with. He was free both in body and soul.
In October 2021, High Chief Dokpesi overwhelmed me again with his generosity. The occasion this time was the public presentation of my third book, entitled “Scents of Power”. Again, High Chief Dokpesi got me to appear on AIT for a review of the book. Thereafter, he approved several slots on the television station where the jingle announcing the event was aired. All of this was at no financial cost to me.
Overwhelmed by this show of love, I wrote him a “Thank You” letter after the book presentation. He opened the envelope in my presence and remarked thus: “Why bother?” He meant what he said. He did not think I should thank him. He was just happy to be associated with a worthy project. He did not partake in it to be praised. That is the selfless man High Chief Dokpesi was. He never hankered after gain. His primary motivation was the improvement of life and society. His likes are not easy to come by in a land where entitlement mentality is the order of the day.
As if he was moved by premonition, High Chief Dokpesi had cause to tell his complete story less than two years ago. This was through the book with the intriguing title: “The Handkerchief”. Prior to the unveiling of the book in October 2021, he autographed a copy for me. As a voracious book reviewer, I devoured the book and retold the story of High Chief Raymond Dokpesi in my own way. In my review of “The Handkerchief”, l had said of High Chief Dokpesi:
“Since he hit the limelight more than two decades ago, what we had before us was an influential Dokpesi. The Dokpesi we know hugs the klieg lights. He is a national figure, an achiever, a trailblazer, and a bulldozer with the heart of gold. He has been something of a rare breed; a gem of sorts. You would think that he was born with a silver spoon. But he was not.
“Last Monday, the man turned 70. And that was how the startling revelations began. From the presentation of his biography that held three days earlier to the Thanksgiving Mass and the grand reception that took place on his birthday, it has been the celebration of a man whose story epitomizes the aphorism that the heights reached and kept by great men were not attained by sudden flight.
“From what we can glean from ‘The Handkerchief,’ Raymond Anthony Aleogho, the son of William Ayaoghena Dokpesi, was not born great. Greatness was, therefore, not thrust upon him. Rather, he achieved greatness through the sheer scope of his imagination.”
This was my summation of the rare breed named and High Chief Raymond Aleogho Anthony Dokpesi. As he takes his final steps into eternity, I join his family and his numerous friends and associates to ask the good Lord to accept his soul.
Good night, the free-spirited one.