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(Continued from March 29, 2021)
While ushering me from the lobby into Loyalty’s resplendent living room, his assistant, Samuel Udokoh, Esq., whispered, “Please, The Boss, whatever he requests, say yes.”
I was processing that when I negotiated a corner and saw Loyalty seated with someone who resembled a uniformed person. Like me, both men wore masks, no thanks to coronavirus.
On sighting me, Loyalty’s face dissolved into his trademark childlike smile. Then, almost in a nanosecond, the smiling face halved into partly mischief and partly humour. I saw his lips move so I assured myself it won’t be long before I decoded the mischievously humorous smile. “The Boss,” he made to begin.
That caught me unawares. Why would he call me that? Only friends and fans (most of them younger than me) and a handful of elders and leaders quite close to me address me by that sobriquet. If Loyalty, who was doing push-ups (so to say) for the high office of state chairman of the party governing the state, calls me ‘The Boss,’ surely that could only generate a premonition, right?
Right: So I refused to answer. He called again, “The Boss,” and this time our eyes clashed. We both broke into loud laughter. The man with him also laughed along, but I knew that, not being from Akwa Ibom, he didn’t understand the contagious laughter.
When calm returned, Loyalty threw a battery of questions at me: “As your daddy, should I also call you The Boss? Even my children call you The Boss, what’s going on? And, being called The Boss, which I understand is a function of the years of your incredible independent work and success, do you think you can serve as my boy?”
That strange poser could have thrown anyone into discomfiture. I managed a wry smile as my mind’s ear rehashed Barr. Udokoh’s earlier appeal.
“Daddy, I am not too big and shall never be to render any help you need. However, if it is what I am thinking, may I recommend … ; who better fits the role?”
He reacted, “I understand you came with him. Let Samuel bring him in.” Turning to the young motivational virtuoso, Loyalty first acknowledged the guy’s dexterity before explaining quite succinctly why he couldn’t accept my recommendation. There again I discovered yet another of Loyalty’s strengths: clarity of thought.
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I experienced that trait every day in those six months. One night -two, three months into his chairmanship- I got Loyalty to agree to spend an hour with Kelly and Joe who had shared a few political concerns with me. He sat there listening as both party members emptied their hearts, with neither his facial nor body language betraying the direction his reaction would take. At the end, without having had to interrupt them as most leaders are wont to and after confirming they had said everything they planned, Loyalty simply rounded off the session with: “Relax, my brothers, what’s going on happens every time a governor or government or party plans succession.”
That was so true and apt. My mind raced to the last three, two of the Attah as well as Akpabio Years and, instantly, I wordlessly consoled myself that the noise, the bad press and the betrayal (witnessed and loading) as the Udom Years empty into their last two chapters were child’s play compared to what his aforementioned predecessors experienced. Politics shall always be politics. Human beings shall always be human.
On the brighter side of things, Loyalty’s clearheadedness was imbued with infinite dosages of sure-footedness, foresight, courage, love, understanding and a meticulous mindset that dovetailed with his knack for hiding away or joking off pains, anger, betrayal, disappointment and sundry political vices. In his inaugural speech as state chairman of PDP and indeed during his abridged tenure, he left no one in doubt about his capacity for the job and ability to navigate through. Loyalty may no longer be alive but his signature is engraved on the wall of our hearts and the party. Forever, people shall know that there was an Obong (Hon.) Udo Loyalty Ekpenyong.
By the way, calling him Loyalty comes naturally and easily because he was loyalty in every ramification. As carried in this space on the 7th day of September, last year: “Loyalty is not when you only worship your boss or benefactor. Loyalty is really when you also respect and love your aides and people you think can do nothing for you; people you think you owe nothing. The foregoing is exactly the way to appreciate what the (then) new chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Akwa Ibom, brought to the table.
“Judging by his uncanny humility and loyalty to the top as well as to the bottom seen and felt in his meticulous consultations and negotiations, … Obong (Hon.) Udo Loyalty Ekpenyong’s trademark justice-consciousness and respect to all, in his first official assignment, brought about the first-ever rancour-free local government party primaries in the state. His was a quiet leadership revolution.”
That 7th September, 2020, entry says it all.
On the eve of council chairmanship and councillorship primaries, he sat at his dinner table until 3am painstakingly poring over mountains of documents, LGA by LGA, making and taking frantic phone calls to and from ‘the owner of the party,’ stakeholders and even people he needed to appease. Most of these were people thought unimportant and, therefore, undeserving of such attention. Loyalty was loyal to everyone -big, small, tall, short, rich, poor, local, national, name them. Loyalty was a different kind of big man.
Someone who read the first part of this tribute asked me if I think Loyalty may have died in vain. I know, but I told her it remains to be seen. Without saying too much, loyal people should expect no earthly reward, otherwise they or their family may live in permanent bitterness. Thankfully though, Mummy Elisabeth, Dr. Frank, Engr. Ekpenyong, Engr. Silver and the psychologist, Mr. Aniekan Ekpenyong, et al, must take solace that in a country or system where an alarming majority of the people in power don’t care about the very government nor the masses they took an oath to serve, their father -Loyalty- was fresh air.
Finally, the best mirror of a man is his family. Loyalty’s life essence is best captured in the parting shot by his wife, Elisabeth, children and grandchildren at his funeral: “We cannot mourn as if we have no hope, for we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again, even so God will bring alive with Him Udo and many others who slept in Jesus. This is our sure hope, comfort and assurance. We will continue to fly Udo’s flag higher and higher, promote and sustain his great legacies with vigour and pride, in Jesus name, Amen.”
God bless Nigeria!
