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The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, yesterday reflected on the significance of the number 70 as Joseph Anayo Ezie, Akudo II of Umuna, celebrated his septuagenarian birthday in Abuja.
Olaopa, who was the chairman of the occasion, set the ball rolling by thanking God for making Ezie to gracefully enter the septuagenarian club.
He specifically congratulated Ezie, his wife, Lolo Ify Ezie, the children, friends, colleagues, well-wishers, family members and the entire Ezie clan of Umuna town in Orlu LGA of Imo State.
According to Olaopa, God has seen Ezie through the wilderness of life, with all its traps, valleys, seen and unseen arrows of wickedness in the last 70 years.
He said that since Ezie survived those past years, he should be rest assured that by God’s grace, he would be alive to celebrate 80, 90 and 100 years.
“You will live, you will not die. You will neither bury your wife nor children. You will live to continue to proclaim the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, even as our Lord preserves you in good health, soundness of mind and all-round prosperity,” he said.
The essence of attaining age 70, according to him, in a challenging society like Nigeria, is that Ezie has, “weathered all manner of storms. It, indeed, takes the grace of God to survive the many existential traps in Nigeria’s combustible space to be able to get beyond the life expectancy age of 59 years for males.”
Beyond the dangers of living in Nigeria and reaching 70, he underscored the significance of that age in a broader context.
As he put it, “Seventy, indeed, is a weighty number in spiritual and cultural terms. Seven indicates perfection and 10 signals completeness.
“This must be the reason Psalms 90 says ‘the years of our life are 70.’ This makes 70 years a most notable year that represents fullness, the time of reckoning and deep reflection and appreciation.”
Underscoring the significance of 70 years in a spiritual and biblical context, he said: “In a little deeper spiritual sense and for those that are Bible students, for instance, for the Israelites and in the Holy Book, the number 70 indicates so many remarkable significations.
“From a combination of seven for perfection and 10 for completeness as I earlier noted, the number 70 packs sufficient sacredness that represents a perfect spiritual signification in Israel and biblical theological and political acts.
“ In Exodus chapter one and verse five, the scripture declares that the Jewish nation began with 70 souls, with God as the 70th member.
“Moses appointed 70 elders. The Sanhedrin, Israel’s formidable tribunal, is made up of 70 elders.
“Israel spent 70 years in captivity, and Jerusalem also kept 70 sabbaths while Judah was in captivity. Jesus sent 70 disciples to preach the gospel.”
“The translation of the Torah into Greek is marked by the symbol LXX, 70, the Septuagint.
“In fact, 70 years are the span of political activities from the first Zionist Congress in 1897 to the unification of Jerusalem and the expansion of the Jewish state in 1967.
“And then, to cap it, the Book of Psalms pegs the nominal span of human life at precisely 70; the age of wholeness when, as the psalmist suggests, we are to number our days, give thoughts to our life and be guided by wisdom from there on.”
He also explained the significance of the title of Akudo that Ezie bears. According to Olaopa, Akudo is a compound word deeply rooted in Igbo culture and philosophy, specifically translating to ‘Peaceful Wealth or Wealth that comes with peace.’ Akudo, therefore, describes a person who brings peace and prosperity to their family or community.
“The Akudo title is, therefore, not a mere appellation. It represents a distinguished value orientation for the Igbo. It celebrates someone in good standing with the family and within the society, an honourable fellow who has fellow-feeling.
“What an apt metaphor characterisation of our celebrant. Indeed, everyone who knows Ezie would attest to the fact that Akudo depicts the personality of Ezie in an irreducible manner,” Olaopa said.
He disclosed that before he stumbled on the Akudo title as an Igbo title, he had always seen Ezie as one man who embodies, in more than equal measure, the perfect quality of an English gentleman.
While praying for Ezie to end well and live more gloriously in the coming years, he added that “70 years and beyond is the time of reckoning, a time for stock-taking, a time for deep reflection and appreciation. A time when it is appropriate for the very reflective and perhaps spiritual person to begin to undertake reflection around the critical questions of our being: why am I here, where am I and where am I going?”
