Mbah Motomu Eric, publisher of Chronicle Newspaper lost his better half, Desiyi Stella Bikenun épse Motomu. The tragic death occurred in Yaounde on September 28, 2012. It was a devastating blow to the publisher of Chronicle who for quite some time and especially in the recent past worked relentlessly to ensure that his better half regain her health. And of course her fragile health improved tremendously to the joy of all and sundry that had seen Chronicle publisher going throw thin and thick for her. But to the greatest surprise of all, Desiyi Stella gave up the ghost after a small malaise that took her to Yaounde to consult her health specialist. That, however, only proved that it is God who gives life and He alone knows when to take it. Nevertheless, death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. Though Chronicle publisher lost the better half, he solemnly promised during her burial to hold the family left behind intact in her memory as she has to act as their guardian Angel.
By and large, the demise of Chronicle publisher’s wife draw sympathy from across the board since the couple did their best in life to be humane within human reach. This is why people of all walks of life trooped to Bamenda and then Batibo village to bury Deseyi Stella Bekenun épse Motomu on Saturday October 5, 2012. It is often said that it is in times of troubles that you know your friends and enemies. Of course the demise of Chronicle publisher’s wife opened his eyes wide to see those who wish him death. John Taylor once opined that, “While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” It was strange and strange enough because in African tradition death concerns everybody. While many were mourning and comforting the publisher of Chronicle, others were shedding crocodile tears and laughing under their armpits. This group can be forgiven for they committed their heinous act away from public gaze, though not away from the eyes of the Almighty God. Yet another group openly mocked at Chronicle publisher for losing his wife. This group that throw scornful jibes at Chronicle publisher was headed by John Fru Ndi, SDF National Chairman and Peter Essoka, a one-time CRTV journalist. They in their quest for unsolicited revenge forgot that the death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive-perhaps for some purpose which we ought to re-examine.
However, we plead with our readers not to blame these two ignoramuses for they knew not what they were doing, for as Euripides puts it, “Death is a debt we all must pay.” Fru Ndi was overheard saying, “So Chronicle can also lose the wife? Let him taste it for when my wife Rose died he wrote about it.” If Fru Ndi has forgotten his status in society, we will take the pains to remind him. Fru Ndi is a public figure and anything about him is open to public view. As a public figure if he is in his bedroom with his wife and beats that wife within the confines of his room, it makes no news. But if he beats his wife in public, a thing most people do and are ignored, it will make headline news to journalists. This is something Fru Ndi seems to ignore. By the way, what is the issue with Fru Ndi to have lost two wives and thinks that people would not talk about it? Is his political stardom linked to something beyond human comprehension? Statesmen have a duty to pilot the affairs of state and forget about personal happenings or grief for the interest of the people they lead. For instance when the Head of State, Paul Biya lost the wife, Jeanne Irene Biya, he mourned for a week and continued with state matters. When Fru Ndi lost the first wife, it was a non event because he was not yet a prominent politician. When his second wife, Rose died, he turned the ‘cry die’ into a commercial event. As a statesman the mourning could have been one week but Fru Ndi extended it to six months and used it to extort money from people. What has become of the rose Fru Ndi foundation that people pumped enormous amounts of money into? Has Fru Ndi suddenly forgotten that it was in the course of the prolonged mourning and ‘cry die’ that he embarked upon in his Ntarikon residence that one SDF militant, Makoge was shot death? And what is happening to Makoge’s wife today can only be explained by Fru Ndi. But what is happening to Makoge’s wife is not strange given that Fru Ndi is alleged to have an insatiable penchant for wives of deceased SDF militants. Dear readers do not blame Fru Ndi for the derogatory remarks he made about the demise of Chronicle publisher’s wife for basically he is a politician. Political language, we are told is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. And that is just what Fru Ndi did. Fru Ndi and Peter Essoka in making provocative remarks about the demise of Mrs. Motomu were ignorantly oblivious to the fact that human mind and human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. This is so because all act and react upon one another.
When the announcement of the demise of Chronicle publisher’s wife was made on the state-run media, CRTV, Peter Essoka in one of his self acclaimed and uneventful morning reflections cynically extended his condolences to the publisher of Chronicle. He ended by nailing the publisher of Chronicle by saying that what goes up must come down. Of course that is the first truth Peter Essoka spoke in his life, for it is a universal truism that what goes up must come down. Unfortunately, we doubt whether Peter Essoka actually grasps the meaning of that phrase since he has been neither up nor down in his career. He entered CRTV and left the institution as he entered while young and dynamic journalists went to higher heights. If he has been given some solace to purge out his frustration by spurting out incomprehensible words in the morning occupying precious air time for nothing, he should better shut his big for nothing mouth. If it were for women we could easily give him a pass mark, for that is his stock in trade. And as it is often said that births of a feather flock together, it is not surprising that of all the female staff of CRTV, Peter Essoka liaises only with the one that is not trained like him.
To Fru Ndi and Peter Essoka, nothing is worth telling them apart from referring them to the words of Eileen Elias Freeman who stated that, “The angels are always near to those who are grieving, and to whisper to them that their loved ones are safe in the hand of God.” That is the solace Chronicle publisher has, a solace Fru Ndi and Peter Essoka do not have. God’s time is the best.
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