THE BREVITY OF LIFE AND EMPTY NATURE OF MAN

BY GABRIEL OMONHINMIN
The book of Ecclesiastics 3 v 19 and 20 gives us a true picture of man, and it says “Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both. As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. Both man and animal go to the same place, all come from dust, and to dust all return”.
As I was mourning the sudden passage of Zakary Mohammed which happened on Monday 27th June, 2011 in Abuja, rumors became rift, that Chief (Mrs.) Christian Uduak Essien-Igbokwe has again join her ancestors. Not ready to be fooled, I began working my phone, her passages was later confirmed that evening. Her death no doubt made me to be very depressed.
As I ponder on the true meaning and value of life, one question kept coming to my mind. “Does life have any meaning?”
Countless people have asked that question in the past, and as the question remains unanswered, many people are unable to escape what Viktor E. Frankl an Austrian neurologist once described as a “sense of meaninglessness and emptiness”. Why do we feel this way, when certain thing happens in our lives, especially those of us in this part of the world Africa? Our intense felling could easily be attributed to the fact that each day, we wake up to extreme poverty, disease, senseless violence like the “Boko Haram” and above all oppression. In Nigeria and most other African countries lives are truly “glutted with agitation”. Our prime goal is simply to survive from one day to the next.
For Zack Moor his prime goal in life was how to better the lot of the ordinary man, he honestly wanted to bring succor to the lives of the downtrodden, but he never had the means to realize his dream. He was passionate about helping the poor in our society, whether it was Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba. He gave his best in his own very little way.
He deliberately ensure the voices of the masses were heard in the life programmes he had the opportunity to present, thrice I accompanied him to record the fable voices of some beggars on the street of Abuja. He did not just use those voices he made sure they were adequately heard. He will always say to me, “Mualim why is it that, it is only the rich and powerful we are in the habit of listening to day in day out. Who says the masses does not have what to say about the way and manner things are done in our society?”
A classic example of Zack Moor humane nature and benevolence, which I will never forget took place one sunny Saturday afternoon in Abuja. That day, he had just finished presenting a programme on “Capital F.M” the station the irrepressible former Director-General of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Mr. Eddie Iroh, brought to the City Centre - Radio House, in a deliberate effort to give Abuja Residence of old a taste of good programming. Jones Usen and Zack Moor were the two main presenters in the station; they no doubt set Abuja agog with their type of music and presentation, since then, Abuja airwaves has never been the same again.
On that day, Zakary strolled into Voice of Nigeria Newsroom on the 6th Floor in the Radio House, about that same time I was rounding up my production for that day. He requested that I go with him to Gwagwalada where he stays so that we could have some outing. On our way just at the Abuja gate along International Airport Road, we saw a colony of beggars. He asked the driver attached to his official Peugeot Station Wagon vehicle to wait. Zack Moor, kindly request that I join him in the front seat of the vehicle and decided to give some of the beggars a ride to Gwagwalada.
From the point of departure to the place the beggars alerted from the vehicle in a journey of about sixty minutes there was never a dull moment as we share jokes and exchanged banters with the beggars as if we have known them for years. In Gwagwalada, Zakary gave the beggars the only seven thousand naira he had left on him. He had to go home, to beg his wife who borrowed him some money for us to do the outing. That was Zack Moor for you.
For Christy Essien-Igbokwe, I first met her in 1980 when she was spearheading the formation of the now badly run Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN).I was then an entertainment reporter with the Guardian Express. What became clear to me as I daily interact with her was her resolve and determination to help ameliorate the suffering of Nigeria musicians.
I was not at all surprise at her efforts to help the upcoming artist, because she had travelled that rough and turning road of life, before success finally smiled at her. She was therefore in a position to know that suffering especially hunger does not discriminate. Natural disasters, illness and disability, violent crimes and other tragedies can afflict anyone, anywhere and anytime. She was therefore concern about the future of the upcoming artist and wanted to do all within her powers to help. This showed in her zeal and that of Mr. Emma Ogosi as they worked tirelessly day and night and in the process pestering Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former Governor of Anambra State who was then the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Labour and Productivity to register PMAN.
After the registration certificate of PMAN was handed over to Christy, the old gladiators in the country’s musical industry, King Sunny Ade, Chief Ebenezer Obey, the late African Soldier Sunny Okosun and Maliky Oshoma just to mention a few, were determine to create an enviable future for the Nigerian artist. As they all put aside their selfish interest and worked for the success of the body. An example of such is Mrs Igbokwe’s acceptance to become the pioneer National Treasurer of PMAN in-spite of the fact, that she was the driving force behind the formation of the association.
They were all in one accord about the aims and aspirations of PMAN; they wanted urgently to put in place, structures that will enable them build a befitting secretariat, that contain well equipped recording studios and other facilities for the benefits of the Nigerian artist. They wanted a situation where any artist could walk in and had his work recorded.
Painfully, before we could say Jack Robison, the leadership of the organization, was hijacked by very ambitious young men and women, who never cared much about the organization. PMAN leadership became an all comers thing; these noble dreams were never realized. What we saw afterwards was the emergence of hair dressers and okada riders taking over the affairs of PMAN. Efforts by people like Laolu Akins, Oyenka Owenu, Funmi Adams and Terry Jackson-Alumona were rebuffed. As Christy and other founding fathers of PMAN could hardly do anything to change the situation. It was then I knew that the association had no future.
Well, as we mourn the passage of Zack Moor and Christy, we ought to cry. A cry is the natural expression of sorrow, and a suitable utterance when all other modes of appeal fail us; but the cry must be alone directed to the Lord, for to cry to man is to waste our entreaties upon the air. When we consider the readiness of the Lord to hear, and His ability to aid, we shall see good reason for directing all our appeals at once to the God of our salvation. Rest in peace sister, rest in peace brother until we meet to part no more.
Mr. Omonhinmin writes from Lagos - 08057908494