BY JOHNSON EGBEMUDIA DUDU PhD.
Professor Emeritus Andrew Godwin Onokerhoraye wrote the memoir, “On the Hot Seat: The Memoir of a Vice-Chancellor.” It was about his time as a Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State. The book is popularly known as “On the Hot Seat”.
The 851 pages chronicled the sweet and bitter stories of the seat of the VC of the University of Benin, from 1992 to 1998. President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangidi (IBB) was the Chairman of the occasion, though represented by the former Vice President, late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu. That was about 20 years ago.
The book did not only tell of the stories of the everyday life of a VC and the politics in the university at the time, but was testament to the academic scholarship that the name Emeritus Professor Andrew Godwin Onokerhoraye is associated with. Some of the followers of the geographic scholar believed that is enough representation of the life of Onokerhoraye, but some of his closer cliques thought otherwise, with prompting for the former VC to document his life stories in a more detailed and systematic way. This gave birth to his autobiography, “The Riches of His Grace.”
The question is what is in the life of the Emeritus Professor Andrew Godwin Onokerhoraye that is worth a story to document? Were the promoters of an autobiography by the scholar right in their nudging for him to write another book? What is my personal position about the push for this new book? What is the place of Grace in the life of the Geography Professor?
My outright position is that there is a need for the chronicling of the life of the distinguished scholar because a lot of details were not in the first memoir he wrote about his university life and VC service.
In about the last three decades of coming in close contact with the scholar, my story about him is at different levels. The first stage was when I got admission into the University of Benin and heard about him as the VC of our institution. It was during this time I shook his hand as one of the university scholars without a formal personal relationship with him. The second stage was when I was relatively close to him as his class governor for the course, History of Geographic Thought he was taking at the time. This was defined by a student-teacher relationship. The last is when I became his staff at the Centre for Population and Environmental Development, Benin City, Edo State. This was an employer and employee association. However, Andrew G. Onokerhoraye is not the typical employer we know. He is a father, a mentor, a friend and helper indeed.
During these stages, our levels of communications were different but deep enough to form a profound opinion about the life of the Emeritus Professor.
Onokerhoraye is a product of the neglects that pervade our lives and society as people. He has never covered his humble background from his father – Chief Onokerhoraye Echanacho Ideh of the Eteh family in Isiokolo-Orhoakpor (Otorho Agbon) in Ethiope East Local Government Area and his father’s inability to achieve many things like many of his contemporaries. Like Barrack Obama, the former President of America, the Professor of Geography was frank about the many times his mother, Mama Unumiayemu Onokerhoraye (nee Akpokomuaye) rose to the occasion to help him overcome many of his early life challenges especially paying for his post primary education.
Locked in the stories of his early life is how the migration of Urhobo people from their lands to Ikale (Okitipupa) and the impact of such relocation on him and others of the people of the time, especially in acquiring western education.
Hilarious among the stories of his early life, and the extent of economic deprivations he suffered like many persons of his time, was the story of his birth. According to him, his birth took place on the 7th of July, 1945 at the end of the Second World War which occurred along a lonely forest path at about 2am, when his mother being escorted by her younger brother (Douglas Akpokomuaye) was going to a Traditional Birth Attendants living in five kilometres away from their camp. The story of his birth is always a common talking point each time I discuss social services and equity with the geographer.
He counts this incident as one of the graces of God in his life, just like the migration of his parents to Ikale land. He was so particular about a divine intervention which did not make him die like many of his siblings that came before him.
The hand of God upon his life is evident in his school life. As a son of poor migrants to Okitipupa who could barely survive at the time with a father who was not so keen in pushing for education due to the distance he has to cover to school, the normal thing would have been to be palm nuts collector like many of the people of his time. However, no matter the difficulties in raising the needed finances to see the process of education, somehow, the hand of God was around to make an open road to the next level, cumulating in his earning a PhD from the London School of Economics. Were these happenings entirely just mere coincidence?
The Emeritus Professor doesn’t think so, even though he openly admitted that his life was not planned, he was of the opinion that an unforeseen hand beyond his capability was somewhere making things happen to reward him for his hard work.
The event that transpired between him and his wife when she got pregnant was particularly disturbing. There was instruction to stop him from schooling when as teenagers the wife who then was just a girlfriend got pregnant.
According to him, he was scared at the time, not knowing what the outcome of the pleading with the priest who was to decide his fate was. Nevertheless, the grace of God was sufficiently sufficient to also put that behind him. Indeed, the grace of God was available to propel him to the zenith of his educational pursuit of a PhD and eventually a Professor of his field. Today, He is an emeritus professor of geography in the University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
Despite, the environmental constraints that affected his early schooling, the presence of grace saw him through the entire obstacles. God is indeed good.
An angle of grace in the life of Professor Andrew Godwin Onokerhoraye is from his work in the University of Benin. The professor started his Career at Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (N.I.S.E.R.), Ibadan before transferring his service to the University as a Senior Lecturer. Even though he was looking forward to his appointment as a Reader, which was never to be. Nevertheless, that initial situation did not deter him from putting his all into academic life. He worked hard and rose to become a Professor in the early 30s. Today the rest, as they say, is history.
He was the University of Benin VC from 1992 to 1998. The professor is one person that served at major levels of university administration. Starting with his placement as a departmental head, he was later appointed the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The then VC- Professor Grace Alele Williams appointed him as the Deputy VC Academic before he eventually emerged as the VC in later years. This is outside his chairmanship of different university committees that prepared him for the life of a university administrator. In these, was grace not at work? Surely, the unseen hand of God was available like always.
The tale of the life of a man defined by God’s given grace should reflect that kind of living in all ramifications. The end of the tenure of Emeritus Professor Andrew Godwin Onokerhoraye as VC saw his appointment at Harvard School of Public Health as a visiting professor. This also Coincide with the formation of the Centre for Population and Environmental Development (CPED) from the Benin Social Science Series that was in the Faculty of Social Sciences. There was an initial attempt to stop the independent registration of the Centre at the Corporate Affairs Commission. However, God knowing what impact the Centre was going to make averted the stoppage of the organisation. Hence, CPED was born in 1999. I worked as one of the pioneer staff with Emeritus Professor Andrew G. Onokerhoraye (AGO) as the Chairman. Later Board deployment saw AGO relinquishing the Board Chairmanship to the Person of Professor Gideon E. D. Omuta while he took over as the Executive Director when he retired. The Centre has witnessed growth from inception till date.
My work culminated as the Director of Research in January, 2019. From the earlier time of the Centre, there is no doubt that the Centre will go to places, since she has received grants from major funding agencies. The outcome of these grants is the fact that CPED has touched various hard to reach rural communities in the six geo-political zones of the country ranging from the South to the North, under the leadership of Emeritus Professor Andrew Godwin Onokerhoraye with real impacts which community members attested to.
These projects for communities begin with intensive research whose results culminate in intervention. In the words of AGO, “I was a son born out of deprivation, but the least I can do is to right some of the wrongs which led to my being delivered in the centre of the road by 2am”.
The Professor has kept to these principles asserting the need for every project to make an impact in the lives of the beneficiaries. There are diverse testimonies over the years by beneficiaries that attested to the impact of CPED has made in their lives. All these are championed by AGO insistence on quality of research and interventions.
Setting up and managing CPED over the years reveals how wonderful God’s hand has been on Emeritus Professor Andrew Godwin Onokerhoraye. The survival of CPED can be seen as the intervention of God’s Grace.
The harmony and the humility of the life of Professor Andrew Godwin Onokerhoraye speaks volumes of a man who understands his roots and where God placed him today.
In 2002 when I joined CPED from LEEMEX International as a young researcher, I took part in field work activities that the professor championed himself. Those were the days we used to go out with our two Peugeot 504s. These were times of fun. It seems that there was no boss in these trips because of how much he cherished each of the staff. I cannot forget an incident. We bought some southern fried chicken with meat pies. After a prolonged time on the field on this day, it was time to enjoy ourselves. We look forward to these breaks during fieldworks especially if the Emeritus Professor is with us.
“Johnson,” he called, “where is our food? Make sure that the drivers have theirs before us,” he instructed.
Then, Mr. Falodun Isaac and Mr. John Idoghor were the two official drivers. In fact, the drivers and any worker in the employment of CPED were treated with specialness by the Boss. I had an issue with a colleague and Prof said something I never liked. When the argument was over, I went to meet our boss in his office to tell him what happened. Surprisingly, I heard him saying “Johnson, sorry, I never saw the issue from your perspective.”
That is the vintage Andrew Godwin Onokerhoraye. He is not too big to say sorry to a boy he was paying his salaries and who happened to be his former student. He surely remembered his roots and the grace he enjoyed from his maker.
Indeed, no title best suits his autobiography than the “Riches of His Grace”, which the good Lord made available to him at all stages of his life and in his entire endeavours. Congratulations my teacher, my employer, my mentor and my friend as you present your autobiography, “The Riches of His Grace”.
