A Tribute to Professor Michael Mbabuike

A Tribute to Professor Michael Mbabuike, Ph.D.
To celebrate a linguist, a military tactician, an accomplished diplomat. a giant academician and administrator, a dedicated husband and father; and above all, a good gentle spirit!

It was with great heavy heart that I received the news of the physical demise of Professor Michael Mbabuike on Christmas day. One of the certainties of life is death. Every one of us is sure to die. The only uncertainty about death is when, where and how? We are always overwhelmed by death not just for its finality but because of the many uncertainties, it brings.

The death of Michael is particularly hard for me and to many of his loved ones because of its total surprise. Up until the week of his death, I was still discussing such official issues with him as the official course assignments for the spring 2007 semester, the collaborative works we wanted to do together; and the personal issues like bringing him his favorite ukpa and other condiments from Nigeria. The week before Mike died, he told me that he had three books he wanted me to put on the Internet for him. He gave me two of the books, which are now in my office. He promised to bring the third one later, so I kept them in my drawer waiting for him to bring the third one as he stated. We were still talking in my office as the time for my classes approached so he walked me to my class as we talked. The last words we parted with when we got to the entrance of my classroom were his request that we should talk further on the issues. These discussions and events occurred just two weeks ago so you can see how prepared we were for this death. I remember that Mike had complained earlier that day about not feeling very fine but I had dismissed it as routine for him and that he should just go home and have some good rest for the weekend. Little did either of us know then that that was our last parting words and sights of each other. God is great. God is mysterious. God is the omniscient and omnipotent being for only him knew that day that our handshakes and goodbyes were our last encounters with each other. Therefore, while we gather here today to mourn and celebrate the great achievements of Michael, we must bow our heads in humility to God who is all knowing and all-powerful because we are infinitesimal beings to Him.

However, the most important and must remain the most unfulfilled project I had planned with Professor Michael Mbabuike was our proposal to write a book about the Biafran war. You see, I am sure that only very few people here today know Michael longer that I have known him. I first met Michael in 1967 at Madonna High School, Etiti, Umuahia, during the Biafran war. I was with the Nigerian Central Bank, Tinubu, Lagos before the Nigerian civil war. We moved to Biafra when it was created in 1967 and established the Central Bank of Biafra at Enugu; we later moved to Port Harcourt. As the war progressed, I left Central Bank and joined the Biafran Army where I was later commissioned as a Second-Lieutenant. I later joined the Biafran Commandoes and underwent further military training as a Commando Officer.

I was then posted to the 4th Commando Brigade at Madonna High School, Etiti, Umuahia, which was where I met Michael for the first time. When I arrived at Madonna, Captain Mitchell (In Biafra, he was known as Mitchell) was a Special Aide to Colonel Steiner, the French-German speaking Commander of the Biafran Commandoes at the time. Colonel Steiner spoke only German and French while Nigerians -- officers and other ranks -- spoke neither. Michelle was fluent in French and German so he was the special Assistant to Colonel Steiner who spoke to us through Mitchelle – and we spoke to the Colonel through Michelle. So Michelle was in a dominant position because none of us understood what the Colonel was saying and vice versa -- unless through Mitchell, who thus became the indispensable actor for every Commando – officer or other rank. He was also indispensable for the Biafran State House. He became the intermediary, the Aide and the interpreter for Colonel Steiner and the Head of State, General Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Therefore, Michael garnered a lot of privilege, influence and power in Biafra because of language skills. Mitchell’s influence in Biafra actually grew to monumental heights because the leading supporters of Biafran independence movement were France and the Francophone countries of West Africa and Haiti. So Mitchell’s talents were needed not just by the Commando leaders but by the Biafran leadership at the State House as they conducted the necessary wartime diplomacy. His routines in Biafra, thus included accompanying Colonel Steiner and/or the Biafran leaders on their many trips outside Biafra for the various delicate diplomatic negotiations they conducted then. Therefore, Mitchell became close to, Ojukwu, the Biafran leader – a close relationship that I know continued between them until his death. When Colonel Steiner fell out with the Biafran leadership and was bundled out of the country, Mitchell continued his ascent in the Biafran military. He led independent military operations and ended his Biafran experience as a Colonel.

Hence, Professor Michael Mbabuike was a tested military strategist as well as also an accomplished diplomat. His linguist skills placed him at the center of officialdom in Biafra; and from there he developed important diplomatic and operational skills that helped ensure his success in his later where many of you knew him. His great achievements and success at Hostos Community College has a lot to do with the important diplomatic, administrative and operational skills he learnt in Biafra.

After the war, we all went our separate ways until we met again by accident in New York. I first went back to Central Bank of Nigeria, Tinubu Square, Lagos to resume my career in Central Bank. I was absorbed back in Central Bank based on the peace treaty that ended the war, which demanded the implementation of “Reconstruction, Restitution and Restoration” policies, the “three Rs” of the peace accord. I left the CBN in 1971 for the United States in pursuit of higher education and ended with a doctorate from Purdue University, Indiana. After, I went back to Nigeria and taught at University of Ife from 1979 to 1990 when I came back to the US on sabbatical at the University of Wisconsin.

I stopped in New York on my way back to Ife when a colleague who noticed that I was a Biafran Commando Officer from my resume told me of Professor Michael Mbabuike who was a former Colonel in Biafran Commando. That was how I came to Hostos and met Michael; and that is why I am in Hostos today. So, Mike, as I called him was hundred percent responsible for my relationship with Hostos today for which I am eternally grateful.

However, Mike’s very untimely and shocking death has robbed me of one of the major life-time fruits of my long and historical relationship with Professor Mbabuike. We had agreed to jointly write a book on the Biafran War based on our respective experiences. This is a project that cannot no longer be accomplished, at least, not in the way we envisioned it; and the void is impossible to fill. This is why the death of Professor Michael Mbabuike is a special tragedy for me, for Nigerians and for the academic community because an important, irreplaceable and irredeemable part of our history has died with him.

Mike was a Nigerian. He loved and was proud Nigeria and all its cultural attributes. He was therefore a good-natured Nigerian traditionalist – a gentle spirit and a caring spirit. He was also an American – an ultra modern American well acculturated, sophisticated, knowledgeable and quite comfortable in the American-European habitats and institutions. He was therefore a typical example of what his other stalwart friend, Professor Chinua Achebe, would call, “cultural compartmentalization,” which is a skill that allows some people to live comfortably in different cultural worlds. He was therefore especially talented and very well equipped for his very successful academic and professional career at Hostos Community College where he remained the highest and the most successful Igbo, Nigerian and black academician and official until his very untimely demise.

Hostos Community College will miss Professor Michael Mbabuike because his shoes are too large and diverse to be filled by any single person that I currently know of. More importantly, his family will miss him far more than each and every one of us here will. My heart therefore goes out particularly to his wife, Christy. However, I know that she will survive because she is a strong and resourceful woman. I also particularly mourn with the three children but I also rejoice with them for God’s mercies. They might not have heard it from me, but some five years ago when Mike was really sick and in coma for days and we were really scarred for him even as he regained minimal consciousness and gradually recovered. When I met him at his hospital bed then, the most important thing he told me with the whispering energy he could muster then was, “Amechi, you see, what would I do if I die now. My children are slated to enter medical school. Who will train them if I die now.” I told him to shut up, rest himself and stop talking that way or thinking such thoughts because he was not dying. Of course, I was right. He did not die then. He lived some five more years since then with reduced course and administrative loads from the College. The most important thing to note though was that God heard his ardent prayers then and granted him the most important wishes he requested. Very few people are ever lucky to have their deathbed wishes heard and granted. Mike’s wishes were heard and generously granted by Almighty, God. This is important because, to me those bedside murmurings were his most important deathbed wishes. The children should bear the comfort that they occupied the inner recesses of his mind at his most dire moments. And I am sure that he died happier this time because he saw his wishes come to fruition he died. And from then to this time when he actually dies, the children are all set on their definite irreversible paths as planned. Nnena is in now in her final year in medical school; Onyebuchi is confidently following his sister’s footpaths while Obinna is on his way to becoming a corporate lawyer. So, these might be why God finally called him to rest in high heavens because he had finally fulfilled his most important ambitions. He left because he was sure that he had led his children through the path of no return. He died knowing that his erstwhile little kids will be doctors and lawyer – and damn good ones for that matter. This is a cause of celebration for me and for all of us.

So, instead of mourning the death of Michael, we should all celebrate his most elegant and useful life on earth. Thank you all; and God’s Bless.

Let us all now rise up and give thanks to God for the Blessings he bestowed on professor Michael Mbabuike, his wife and children.

By
© Professor Amechi Okolo, Ph.D.
January 3, 2007