Mike AmobedaSend a message to

Mike Amobeda

Mike Amobeda

TRIBUTE TO MY LATE BROTHER, MR. GABRIEL AMOBEDA BY JOHN AMOBEDA As I write this tribute, I still find it extremely difficult to believe the hard reality that my brother, Mr. Gabriel Amobeda, is no longer with us physically. I do not know at what point to begin this tribute but from whichever side I choose to write, the fact remains that I cannot write the much I would have wished because of the limit of this compilation. My dear brother Gab, you left home at a very young age to Lagos in the late 60s in search of brighter future. As was very common with us then, both the young and the old in the family would look forward to seeing you at the end of every year especially during Christmas celebrations. You never missed coming home to celebrate with us. Such occasions were usually happy moments for us. Aside the fact that you brought gift (shirts, trousers, shoes, wrappers, wine, etc.) for every one of us, every minute of your holidays was memorable and fun filled, not only for us in the homestead, but for your contemporaries in the village and beyond. At the end of each day’s work, particularly evenings, we along with your friends would gather round you to listen and dance to then trending indigenous and foreign music you came home with (Ebenezar Obey, Sunny Ade, I.K Dairo, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Donna Summer, name them). You were a great music lover. And when it was time for you to go back to the city, everybody including our father, would see you off. Some would weep openly that you were going back too soon. I joined you in Lagos after my secondary school education in the late 70s. You gave me enormous orientation which helped me to shake off traces of village habits and to embrace those of city life. In Lagos, I saw in you a very intelligent, disciplined, hardworking, kind and very sociable personality. You laid a very solid educational foundation for yourself, reading voraciously while working, to obtain your ordinary and advanced level certificates. This solid foundation saw you through to your higher levels of education, climaxing in your Master’s Degree in Journalism, obtained from the University College, Cardiff- Wales, in the United Kingdom. This also saw you through to the pinnacle of your career in the Civil service. You imparted in me qualities of discipline, handwork and prayerful life. You encouraged me early enough to seek for higher education and this accounted for my very early university education. In all my life endeavours, I never stopped learning from you and you never stopped giving me worthy brotherly and elderly advice. I never failed to take instructions from you. You were always happy with me for heeding to your advice, especially the advice that I should get married immediately after my NYSC in 1985. At any slightest opportunity, you would recall this advice and would call on our younger ones to listen to the elders. One of such occasions was during my wife’s 50th birthday anniversary held in September, 2020 in Lokoja. You were at your best that day, brother. Shortly before you took ill, which eventually culminated in your glorious home-call, we had a very sober discussion where you mapped out steps you would take to take the family to greater heights. You said no human was infallible and expressed regrets for any action taken wrongly as an elder. You advised me to brace up and join you in the greater efforts for the enthronement of enduring peace, unity and progress in the family, promising that as co-head, you would always live a life worthy of emulation by the younger ones. The last time I visited you at the National Hospital, Abuja, specifically on the 9th October, 2020, you were full of life. We discussed frankly and robustly before I left. Little did I know that it would be the last I would see you in your physical form. My consolation, however, is that I saw you in your very best mood before your glorious departure. The Lord who created you knows why he chose to call you home the time he did. All I can say is THANK YOU LORD. Gabus, as you were fondly called by your friends, you were a loving, caring, kind and good brother and you exhibited these sterling qualities till your very last breadth. Rest peacefully in the bosom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ until we meet again on the resurrection morning.

More...