By Eferovo Igho
Ezekiel Noruchor Igho was a genius burgeoning to be one of the world’s greats. Already, he had achieved a rare feat in pre-independent Nigeria. But fate sadly cut him off at 41 in 1956 in the prime of his age.
Born 1915 at Owhrode, some think of Emuhun near Okhuaihe in present-day Edo State to Igho Kodi and Shehor Igho (nee Mavaje) both of Owhrode in Udu Clan, Ezekiel grew up between Owhrode and Emuhun. His brilliance, articulation, indeed, prodigiously beginning from elementary school was the talk of all: From St. Phillips Primary School, Burutu and Holy Cross School, Benin City.
In his “The Miracle of an Original Thought”, 1965 T.E.A Salubi, MHA, a contemporary of Ezekiel and the Urhobo leader at the time of his volume, wrote that Ezekiel “came out the first boy at the 1932 Standard Six Examination for all pupils in Benin Province.
So, when he entered Christ the King College (CKC), Onitsha in 1935, he caught the whole school in rapt attention. He did not only get a startling record-breaking feat with his Cambridge Exams to result gotten while still studying at CKC – a very rare feat in colonial days, but walked away from CKC the best student. Really ‘burning upstairs’, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) which had long been keeping track of him for his rare brilliance, at the needed time tapped him for a scholarship award, being one of the first two persons UPU awarded a scholarship.
As T.E.A. Salubi puts it: “In 1935 Mr Igho had entered Christ the King’s College, Onitsha, where he came first in the School Honours List in 1938. He passed the Government Middle VI Examination and the Cambridge School Certificate Examination, Grade I Pass with Exemption from London Matriculation. Ezekiel joined in 1939 the Marine Technical Institute, Apapa, later resigning to enter the Telegraph School, Post & Telegraphs Department, from where he qualified to become a postal clerk and telegraphist.”
While the other on the scholarship program was to do a quick program that would prepare him for the pre-takeoff preparations and headship of the proposed Urhobo College being thought out by UPU, Ezekiel was to do a longer program which he would have finished at the take-off of Urhobo College.
Heading for the program in Cambridge and doing a stopover in Lisbon, and wanting to share his feelings of Lisbon he wrote to his younger brother Viemudu Igho: ‘Lisbon is like a piece fallen down from heaven. That is one just out of secondary school writing!
In Cambridge, he was one of two black students in his class of about 90 but shone brightest. Graduating B.A. Natural Science from Downing College, Cambridge and M.A. Cantab, he is believed to be the first West African to hold the B.A. Natural Science. He also had Dip. Ed London to better prepare him for the Urhobo College work ahead. In each of those certificates, it should be taken for granted by now that he came out with the best result.
Ezekiel is truly recognised as the second Urhobo graduate. But what is lost is that he was doing a BA/MA straight program. At the finish of his program in Cambridge in 1950, he was both a second Urhobo graduate and FIRST Urhobo Master’s degree holder, i.e. FIRST Urhobo Postgraduate, just to set the records straight.
On coming back after the ‘golden fleece’ he was made Vice Principal, Urhobo College, Effurun. His few years there remain memorable. His craving for excellence came to the fore. Probably one story may tell it: A student from his native town of Owhrode who gained admission to the College and who incidentally was staying with him was not academically promising and he shared his feelings with his aforementioned younger brother, Viemudu that is. Then another boy from the same village gained admission. He was really good with his books. Ezekiel was so elated sharing with his younger brother: ‘Now we got it!’, he said. This young man, John Tobor, made a national mark before he passed on.
Ezekiel, within the short time he lived after coming from Cambridge, was a key figure at Western Nigerian Education Board, some think Chairperson, a key pioneer and pillar in Obafemi Awolowo’s free education programme at its inchoative stage before he sadly passed on in 1956, a young man.
Loved by Chief Obafemi Awolowo for his brilliance and cerebral contributions, Ezekiel was a member of Action Group’s think tank at the beginning of the party. This Awolowo attested to years after Ezekiel’s death when he (Awolowo) had one of his rallies at Ezekiel’s Owhrode village partly to remember or honour him and partly to tell of that closeness with Ezekiel. He did a little tribute on him from the stage.
Ezekiel had a best friend in Chike Obi: A case of birds of a feather …! Being regular visitors and hosts to one another you wonder what brainstorming sessions both geniuses engaged in before Ezekiel left this world that early, not getting to global acclaim. Professor Chike Obi was not that unfortunate. Other of Ezekiel’s close friends include Anthony Enahoro, the Rewanes, Arthur Prest, Justice Samuel Ighodaro, who all became national names, then, of course, McNeil Gabriel Ejaife of Urhobo College and Dr Frederick Esiri.
Ezekiel was son-in-law to Mukoro Mowoe, and son-in-law to a few others, so living as a polygamist unlike his godly father Igho Kodi, a staunch Christian of the Anglican mode. This dark spot of him plus his celebrity and social status that he couldn’t separate from the bottle – another dark spot, probably combined to cause his early exit, for it was reported that a dark-hearted, inhuman being poisoned his glass. All efforts by Esiri and his medical staff to save the life of his friend was to no avail. He passed on at Owhrode 5th May 1956 – a Saturday. And thus Urhobo was denied a global name in Ezekiel Noruchor Igho.
Nonetheless, 65 years after his exit from here the Urhobo nation just thought it fit recognising and celebrating from Uvwiamuge to Owhrode a rare feat of theirs week four, November 2021. That’s how both excellence of a departed and memory of the living aged can tack together, and challenge, enliven and set in upward motion the young.
O that he had lived longer!
• Igho is clergy, writer, and can be reached on +2347083739638
