Abati Vs TOS Benson, By Emeka Obasi

Wounded politicians are highly inflammable, little wonder many turn to communicable disease when power eludes them. In 1959, Chief Theophilus Owolabi Shobowale (TOS)  Benson, became Nigeria’s first Minister of Information.

A year before Reuben Abati was born, Benson lost his ministerial position after the 1964 General Elections. The man who gave him sleepless nights was an Igbo man, Maduagwu Moronu. The minister lost the NCNC primaries for Lagos North Constituency to a man who was just an aide.

TOS would have none of that. He later contested as an independent candidate and won. It was at a time the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) and the Action Group (AG) came together as United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA).

After the January 15 1966 coup, Benson was arrested by the military and detained alongside some prominent politicians including Dr. K. O. Mbadiwe and Chief M.N. Ugochukwu. From Alagbon, without toilet facilities, they were taken to Ikoyi prison. Head of State was Gen. Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi, an Igbo man.

Perhaps, the first Information minister never forgave the Igbo for taking bread from his mouth in 1964 through Moronu and the NCNC. And they were supposed to be his in – laws. Benson was married to Chinenyenwa Mercy Abaecheta, a Paediatrician.

Abati will make a good propagandist. Dramatic Irony played out recently when he brazenly declared on Arise TV that the Igbo do not sell land to outsiders. He quoted his source as Benson. I watched the programme somewhere close to Abalti Barracks, Surulere.

It was morning, I thought it was Nollywood movie brought into Ojy Okpe’s part of the programme, ‘What’s Trending’. Abati studied Theatre Arts at the University of Calabar, anyway. The world saw the worst of dramatics, really.

I am a proud Historian, acting is not my field. Lawyers will not treat me as learned. Abati should just let those of us who know History educate him on the past which he probably has been unable to grasp. Politics is full of lies.

Abati should leave politics for politicians. Benson was only playing politics where friendship matters not. I am sure, if not for Dapo Abiodun’s grassroots grip, someone would have been moving around as His Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Ogun State.

Abati is an excellent writer, you cannot take that away from him. He is also an excellent bread winner, attracting romantic glances from those who love the good things of life. I do not know how far Excellency Hotel, Ogba is from his reach. This Weekend will be good for relaxation, Five Star or not.

Benson did not understand the Igbo man. His wife, Chinenyenwa, one of the first three Igbo female medical doctors, was the daughter of a wealthy politician, Chief Isaac Ihumanma Abaecheta, of Obazu, Mbieri. Raised in Port Harcourt, she attended Banham Memorial Primary School, before proceeding to Queens College, Yaba.

From Yaba, Chinenye went to Glasgow University for further studies and after graduating as a medical doctor in 1957, she returned to Nigeria. Along the line, she got married to Benson and they had a daughter, Bimbo Chima Benson. Unfortunately, Dr. Benson died at the University College Hospital, Ibadan on Valentine Day, February 14, 1961.

Chief Abaecheta could have tried to protect his son – law – from shame. Igbo tradition sees a man who sleeps in his father – in – law’s house as a weakling. The man should dictate the pace, not the woman. Perhaps TOS was madly in love and wanted to show it, in his own way.

Ways differ, just like tradition. Building a house for your wife in her village would hurt the father. He was not praying for his daughter to use that as an excuse to dash home at the slightest provocation. I guess, Benson did not care to ask questions.

However, Dr. Okey Ikechukwu has confirmed that the Ikorodu, Lagosian actually got land and it stood as a Post Office in Obazu.  The people understood Benson better. If he wanted to write a bale of letters as a good lover, that opportunity was offered.

Yes, TOS loved women around him. His first wife, Charlotte Cloworthy had five sons and a daughter. The year Chinenye died, 1961, her husband met Opral Mayson, daughter of a wealthy Liberian, in Monrovia. They got married in 1962.

Anyone who caused Benson pain, did not have it easy with him.  Folake Odulale was not going to be carried away by this UK trained lawyer from an equally wealthy home. She chose the love of her life, Toriola Solanke, in 1956. Her father, Chief Sogboyega Odulale, the tycoon behind Alabukun pharmaceutical products preferred Benson.

TOS was heartbroken. He trailed her to the United Kingdom even after marriage and created a scene. The case was decided in court after Mrs. Solanke called in the police. One account says it was because of the woman who later became the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) that the ex – minister’s musician brother, Bobby Benson, sang : ‘If you marry taxi driver, I don’t care’.

Abati did not know the bitterness and politics that Benson carried on his head. Now, he should know. In Nsukka, there is JB Gbadamosi. In Enugu, Taofeek is a landlord on Azia Street New Haven, just like Soji Salau. Segun Oladapo owns the Onitsha Business School. In Owerri,  Ama Awusa belongs to Northerners and Rotobi Street is like Fleet Street, London, home of newspapers.

The Abaechetas have moved on. Chinenye’s brother, Nathan, has a doctor daughter, Anne -Marie whose mom, Kathleen Ann,has Irish and Liberpudian blood. Bunmi Benson is now Bunmi Cardoso. The first Igbo female doctor, Priscilla Nzimiro, died before she could practice. Like Chinenyenwa, Priscilla, another Port Harcourt Girl, was at Glasgow University and graduated in 1950. Nebuwa Nwozo became a doctor in 1957, the year Chinenye graduated. She died not long ago in the US, as Nebuwa Nkele.

@Vanguard

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