Fr. Ikpiki: Death be not proud
By SUNNY AWHEFEADA
WHEN I left the University town of Abraka for my abode in Ughelli in the
eveny of Monday first September, 2008 I had one burning desire in mind. My
thoughts revolved round how I would dig into the jungle of books in my study
and rescue an old note on modernist literature. As my Jahopy MBW car ate up
the distance prodded by my resilient right foot I kept thinking about where
that note would be in the maze of books, read and unread in the study. That
was however not to be. Less than five minutes after I got home my phone rang.
It was my wife calling with a crying voice; they shot Father Ikpiki to death
this morning” her quivering voice barely audible. My response was and
endless “What, what, what…..”.
For a moment the world stood still, then it reeled and I think I lost my mind.
When I came to, I heaved and with tear, filled eyes muttered the immortal
line of the poet, John Donne, “Death be not proud”. In that dazed
condition I decided to walk down the street. The painful news of father Ikpiki's
death was already full blown on the street, and by the time the boring tune
heralding the 7pm news on the Delta State owned television station ended,
the news of Rev. Fr. John Mark Ikpiki's death had been confirmed.
A Catholic Priest, and one of humanity finest breed, Rev. Fr. John Mark Ikpiki
was brutally shot to death in the morning of Monday First September, 2008
in the deeply somnolent town of Isiokolo in Delta State. Until his death,
Fr. Ikpiki was the Parish Priest of St. Ambrose Catholic Church, Ekpan, a
Director of Communication in the Catholic Diocese of Warri, Founder of the
news magazine Messenger of Peace and a popular presenter of the equally popular
programme VERITAS on the State owned television.
My first encounter with Fr. Ikpiki was in 2003 when I was preparing to tie
the nuptial knot. Fr. Ikpiki was then the Priest in charge of St. Joseph's
Catholic Church at Okpare near Ughelli. We, my fiancé then, now my
wife, Ufuoma, had requested him to be the officiating Priest of our wedding
ceremony billed for August of that year. Fr. Ikpiki most graciously obliged
us. He began a most fruitful session of counseling for us. He was gentle,
kind and amiable. His presence was soothing to the point of being therapeutic.
Every session we had with him was usually a most fulfilling experience. I
was to later discover that other innumerable young men and women also benefited
from Fr. Ikpiki's counseling.
When eventually that most memorable day, Saturday twenty-third of August 2003,
our wedding day arrived, Fr. Ikpiki mounted the pulpit of the Ss. Peter and
Paul's Catholic Church Ughelli as the officiating priest. A great inspirational
speaker, Fr. Ikpiki held the audience spell bound with his homily on marriage.
He was to the point, earnest, but lighthearted. The audience floated with
him as his well measured cadence reverberated all over the four corners of
Ss. Peter and Paul's, Ughelli. The young in courtship, the recently married,
and those who have been married for decades confessed how beneficial Fr. Ikpiki's
homily was on that day he consecrated our marriage.
Fr. Ikpiki did not end his duty with us on twenty-third of August 2003 in
the pulpit of Ss. Peter and Paul's. He occasionally called at our residence
to counsel us and pray for us. When my wife became a University don a month
after our wedding, Fr. Ikpiki called to give her counsel. When I bought my
BMW car that has now seen better days, we visited Fr. Ikpiki at his Okpare
residence. He prayed for us, and blessed the car. Fr. Ikpiki's house was perched
on the bank of the famous Okpare River-with its pristine swamp and mangrove.
Twice we had taken a walk by the alluring countours of the Okpare River, reminiscing
on socio-economic history.
Saturday twenty-third of August 2008, made it five years, half a decade, since
my wife and I were joined in wedlock. Almost on a daily basis between that
day, and thirty-first of August, we played again and again the video of that
momentous event. Our children Jokpeme and Amakashe who are now so fond of
the video continuously proclaim “ see daddy, see daddy, see mummy, see
mummy, see grand ma…” as it played and replayed. The only principal
character in that video they did not know or have not met physically is Fr.
Ikpiki. My wife and I had planned to visit him at his Ekpan Parish with the
children of the union he consecrated. We had looked forward to that visit,
until that black, unfortunate and painful September one.
Fr. Ikpiki is no more! He now belongs to the ages. His exit is pain, no it
is more than pain, it is agony to us! Fr. Ikpiki should not have died. Nigeria's
soul is famished, so is the world's. Nigeria needed him, entire humanity too.
There was plenty of work Fr. Ikpiki would have done for humanity. But now
he is no more. His demise is a loss to humankind. We are all diminished by
it. Fr. Ikpiki's exit once more interrogates and brings to the fore the alarming
failure of the Nigerian State. Rationality is dead in Nigeria, reason has
taken flight, life has become so cheap, nothing is hallowed anymore, and existence
has become short, nasty and brutish in Hobbesian terms.
If writing a letter to God would restore Fr. Ikpiki to life we would do so
now. If getting an injunction against death were possible we would have gone
for one. Our hearts are heavy, and we shall remember Fr. Ikpiki for as long
as life endures. His type does not come often! But, then as his name sake
John (Donne) himself also a Priest once wrote, I would say:
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou thinkest thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou Kill Ikpiki”
It is with tearfilled eyes, a quivering voice and a trembling hand, that I
say farewell Fr. Ikpiki, Akpokedefao….
•Dr. Awhefeada teaches, literature at the Delta State University, Abraka.
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