Few days ago, precisely on Friday 27 December 2024, the much-awaited unveiling ceremony of the bust of Prof Lucy Amadin Osemota (Nee Ogbeide), was done with appreciations and conviviality at Orhuaghide Primary School, in Orhua community, the heartland of Irhue clan of Uhunmwode Local Government Area (LGA), Edo State, Nigeria.
Thereby, Orhua, an agrarian and fringe community, which shares boundaries with the Owan West and Esan West LGAs, respectively, was a central of attraction of the sort, with it receiving a lavish media attention that was prompted by the posthumous event of the late woman Professor of education, a mentor, philanthropist extraordinaire and devoted Christian, who hailed from the Oghoe Quarters the community.
The bust was sponsored by the Orhua Indigenes Auchi Polytechnic Alumni Association (OIAPAA), that also organised the event, as a mark of honour to the late professor, whom they revere as a mentor, who had paved the way for them and a lot more mentees and organisations that had benefitted by her large-heartedness.
On Saturday 22 June 1946, a couple of dreary months after the termination of the Second World War, a global armed conflict, that caused humankind untold miseries of huge destruction, bloodletting, maiming and loss of millions of human lives, the birth of the ‘baby-girl’, Lucy Amadin, had brought intense joy and merriment in the household of the late Pa Alfred Aghore Ogbeide, her father, away from the bitter war, and its great devastations and consequences.
As providence would have it, coupled with the inimitable belief and tradition of the Edo people, babies often live in imitation of the native names given to them at birth, as the late professor would have been seen as having acted out the name ‘Amadin-aiyen-agbon’ (Amadin for short). It literarily and instructively means that “a person must be courageous and bold, otherwise the true essence of life is not realised in one’s lifetime”.
In another expression, Lucy Amadin, had had an altruistic, well-fulfilling and moralistic life’s journey, as reflected by her captivating transformation into tangential fecundity and phenomenal cosmopolitanism.
A natural prodigy she was, ‘Ehi’, a Benin word for ‘Destiny’, had always been on her side, from birth unto her upbringing and boom, until her demise in the United States of America (USA), the foreign clime where she had leaped and bonded, after a rapid metamorphosis on the homeward existential rungs, thus etching her name on the marble of Nigeria’s history.
And from the Yankee’s country, she passed to eternity, and her remains were flown back to Edo, her home-state, for a befitting and elaborate burial rites. There were showers of glowing tributes from her mentees, associates and admirers within and outside her country of birth.
And her bust’s unveiling ceremony, held at the former Anglican Mission School, where she started her education, was heavily attended, with the presence of graduates of the polytechnic, under OIAPAA, with other numerous folks of Orhua community and all over. Profound encomium was given by her beholders.
In the opening speech by Pastor Shadrack Agie, Global President of OIAPAA, whose members are spread across the world, it also eulogised the late professors as a great woman, who had touched the lives of thousands of graduates of the polytechnic and others. Pastor Agie, a notable graduate of the educational institution, professed that without the late Mrs Osemota, he wouldn’t not have gone to a higher institution.
“Mummy Lucy Osemota was a destiny helper to a lot of us. She was a rare genius and generous personality, who gave her-all not only to her biological children, but also to numerous youth she had fended for. As we are determined at immortalising her name, we, the OIAPAA, with the support of some public-inspired persons, who are not our members, had to initiate this legacy project, in her name”. Remarked Pastor Agie.
Also, the Odionwere of Orhua community, HRH Augustine Osawaru Ayere, the Father-of-the Day at the event, spoke glowingly about the late professor, through his representatives; Pastor Lawrence Obiti and Pa R.O.U. Igbinosa, the Odionweres of Ore and Ugo quarters of Orhua, respectively. Mrs Catherine Oide, a female leader of an Orhua Christian congregation, spoke in the same fashion.
Mr. Godwin Ogbeide, one of the pioneer alumni of Auchi Polytechnic and an OIAPAA’s patron, regarded Prof. Osemota as a touch-bearer for Orhua community. Ogbeide, the first Chartered Accountant from Uhunmwode LGA, who hails from Orhua, had called for a minute silence for the late Mr. Smart Asemota, the first graduate of the polytechnic who was from Orhua, and a pioneer student and graduate of the institution.
In a moving speech, Prof Sam Ogbeide of the University of Benin’s fame, a younger brother of the late Prof Osemota, narrated how she worked through the oblivion to be an erudite and accomplished global personality.
According to him, her efforts and that of her parents, to be educated, even when girl-children were given scanty education, was then an eye opener for parents. She was amongst the very few who pioneered girl-child education in Orhua and its neighbourhood.
Prof Ogbeide added that she was a brilliant, disciplined and a hard-working child, who after her elementary and secondary schools at Orhua, furthered her education within the country, with intermittent stints, before joining her late husband, Dr Samuel Uwa Osemota, in America. Herein, she had a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), in Education, with a minor in Library Science in 1979, and a master’s degree in library and information science at the University of Tennessee, and another at Knoxville. Whilst on a sabbatical, she was a distinguished professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, after a relocation to South Florida as Assistant Professor and Reference Librarian at Florida Memorial University, thus extending her expertise (on a part-time) to the Miami-Dade County Public Library System, and DeVry University, variously.
Uhunmwode local government council Chairman, Hon Kenneth Adodo, who chaired the occasion and unveiled the statue, didn’t mince his words, who amongst other things, urged the people of the community to endeavour to give their children the best education, and that the late Prof Osemota’s worthy legacy was one of the recipes for the progress of Orhua and Uhunmwode local communities
Tony Erha, a journalist and activist
