In remembrance of Claude Ake
By
THE sudden and unexpected death or loss of a greatly revered or loved person is one of those things in life whose impact on others could be so enormous as to be almost impossible to endure. Words too, become seemingly inadequate to express the grief of all those left behind to mourn the dead. The very astonishing story of Professor Ake's untimely death on November 7, 1996, at the age of 57 years, remains as disquieting as his unidentified body and restless soul remain interred in an unmarked grave at the sea bed of Ejinrin Lagoon.
Looking back, I wish to submit with utmost humility that it has indeed been a rare privilege to be one of his former students who continued to earn his confidence and ceaseless advice even after graduation. This realization of the magnitude of how the late man affected many lives besides mine as well as the avalanche of tributes that followed him to his grave, makes it infinitely difficult for the painful memories occasioned by his death to go away. It is to say the least one manner of death totally unmerited and unacceptable to befall a humble and peace-loving Ake in particular. However, one striking feature that stands out is that, Ake, like Napoleon of France, has remained undiminished in stature even after his sudden death. For as Emperor Napoleon bestrode European battlefields with strings of military victories and became an enigma in continental European military circles; so Ake bestrode African intellectual plane and beyond like a colossus. While the former allegedly stepped on too many sensitive toes within the dominant class in his time, who undoubtedly decreed his fall, it is however not quite clear who could have plotted the latter's eventual death, because some emerging facts in recent times tend to suggest that, that fateful plane crash that took his life, had less and less to do with an accident or apparent mechanical fault. Indeed, this death without doubt has turned the searchlight on the life and times of this great scholar who has been described by his erstwhile colleagues and associates in the academia and the world at large, as both the torch-bearer as well as the leading light in the field of political economy.
The great Zik is known to have said that "the man who holds the light leads the way, for the light is not concentrated at the feet of the holder". This may represent the best epitaph for this extraordinary scholar and teacher of political economy. As a class room teacher, he earned the respect of his students effortlessly. I had occasion to be in class one day when an apparently inattentive student interrupted him during a lecture, complaining not to have heard what he was saying. From responses to the questions he put to three other students seated next to the complaining student, Ake was able to establish that the said student heard him but did not understand having been inattentive all along. He reminded us that university culture does not permit caning of students no matter the offence committed, besides, he was too frail to cane anybody. He further stressed that enlightened self-interest demands of us to be quiet during lectures so as to be able to grasp the salient points.
Ake outside the classroom was marked by nothing but modesty and humility; and was never short of good humour, though it masked his apparent loneliness and estrangement from the world and people around him due perhaps to his revolutionary attitude toward society and commitment to scholastic pursuit. His modest and humble approach to life came to the fore one day at the University Medical Centre (Choba park); where I had gone to seek medical attention, and as I stood in the queue, Ake emerged at the counter and requested the out patients records Clerk to help him trace his hospital case note having misplaced his outpatient card at home. The clerk's impolite refusal prompted him to seek audience with the then Director of Medical Services (Dr. Afiesimama). The clerk who now realized his blunder ran into the Director's office, ostensibly to apologise but was stopped by Ake in his bid, pointing out that he (Ake) was wrong for not coming along with his own card. He further praised him for insisting on doing his job according to laid down rules, and this was to the consternation of the rest of us present. We met again at Kono waterside during the Yuletide of 1995 on my way to Opobo town. I paid my respect as expected and asked him what he was doing at Kono: He replied that it was a settled principle between him and his wife to always spend Christmas Holiday at Omoku, his home town and the New Year holidays at Opobo town his wife's town. I still do not know how many of his peers would have readily yielded to such holiday travels arrangement with their wives. Professor Ake remained a scholar and intellectual giant who espoused the revolutionary pressures within society and the process of change within it. The primacy of the material condition of human existence and the social relations that arise out of how society's productive forces are organised and the dividends allocated or distributed, runs through all his works.
His now famous assertion in his book A Political Economy of Africa (1982) "that though it is true that man does not live by bread alone but it is more fundamental truth that man cannot live without bread" remains as painfully true today as it has been since the fall of Adam and his wife, Eve; in the garden of Eden, when productivity ceased to be a function of obedience to God's will and he availability of natural resources alone. He chose his goals and pursued their realization with self-denial, hard-work and the commitment of a zealot. He lived and died championing the cause of the poor, deprived and powerless masses in the society; advocating at every opportunity, their empowerment through good, purposeful and human centred development, rooted as it were in democratic norms which ironically came two and half years after his untimely death. Ake resigned from the University of Port Harcourt to establish C.A.S.S. Centre for Advanced Social Science ñ with a five million naira (N5m) grant he masterfully obtained from the Federal Government and insisted that it was "our money" (i.e. public money) when confronted by critics.
It is noteworthy that he neither misappropriated nor misapplied this grant, as was common place at that time. He had earlier served as chairman of the Rivers State Government-owned Housing Corporation and left that office without allocating any house or plot to himself. His tenure and pioneering role too, as Dean of the School of Social Sciences (UNIPORT), ably assisted by Prof. I. Nzemiro, M. Anikpo, Dr. K. Okoko, Ekekwe, Willie Okowa, Tom Taiwo and others was for many years most eventful and equally blameless. It is needless to go on as available evidence points to the fact that Ake was indeed beyond reproach on the twin issues of accountability and public morality. He also seized the arena of public discourse by storm, as he became a regular feature at public lectures, workshops, seminars and symposia. On the December 16, 1992, he delivered what has till this day remained a classic public lecture on the occasion of the inaugural dialogue of the late Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, and by the end of that same year, emerged a National Merit Award Winner.
The following year (1993) he was guest lecturer at the now prestigious The Guardian Lectures in Lagos. His topic "Is African Democratizing?" has remained as thought provoking as most of his writings and he would have without any doubt written about the country's current experience in democratic governance; if he had lived till this day. He was always a delight to watch or read at various fora as his logic, averments or discourses would advance the sophistication of whatever topic under discussion. The loud and thunderous ovation he had always drawn has remained tall and standing five years after his death. It is the light of all these, therefore that it has become desirable for a befitting tribute or monument to be erected to match his vision, legacy and immense stature.
It is suggested that the present civilian administration in Rivers State should follow the footsteps of her predecessor and honour this illustrious son of the state, with a memorial foundation and/or annual lecture for his achievements, services, and contributions to the development of higher education in the state. Furthermore, the education and upbringing of his two young children, should henceforth be the responsibility of the state government. The University of Port Harcourt too, where he taught for years could institute a professorial chair in political economy in honour.
I am also of the firm view that Ake's strides and achievements in education, like the respected late Alvan Ikoku before him, should earn him a favourable consideration for his portrait to adorn any denomination of our national currency (the naira) as he too, has joined the league of our past national heroes, whose works; our national anthem insists, ought not to be in vain. May the Most High God, continue to grant boundless peace to the restless soul of this great teacher and humanist.
November 2001