It was one damp afternoon then in August 2000, when Chijama Ogbu walked back into the booming newsroom and tapped my shoulder from the back. “Ment Nomeh is asking you to meet him at the gate,” he whispered.
I was surprised.
“Ment? From Enugu?” I asked.
He nodded, “so you know him?”
“Yes, I met him in passing at the Daily Star when I did I minor stint in Enugu, in 1991,” I answered.
“OK,. Meet him at the gate,” he said.
When Chijama, now late, moved on to his desk, I started wondering why Ment, himself a newsman, did not want to come into the boisterous newsroom to meet me.
Then, I had no idea that Ment was already employed in the Media Branch of the government of Enugu State.
About a week before, I had passed through Enugu on my way to Umuahia, on appointment with Victor Oye, working with Governor Orji Uzor Kalu. Typical of a journalist, I had asked questions on the numerous project signboards litering Enugu City then.
A story followed on my return, but I never made any contact with any government official.
Nevertheless, Ment was happy to see me, and his first shot was, “I am here for you to have our side of the ‘story’ you wrote.”
I was taken aback. “Which ‘story’, Sir,” I asked.
“You wrote on projects and signboards in Enugu State last week,” he said, almost in accusatory form.
“Oh, you have left Daily Star, now working with the government?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
I said nothing more as I led him into the Newsroom, and got him seated right opposite me.
“Now, Sir, based on your understanding of my featurised work and the other facts you want to give me, let us hear your side,” I said, as I put together the loose sheets of paper to record him.
We spent about an hour of questions from me and answers from him.
In a week after my writing was published, he was back, this time right in front of me. As a newsman, he knew when to come into the newsroom to meet a typical field journalist.
He was almost imperious as our gazes met. “His Excellency requests that you come to Enugu for a tour of the projects so that the final doubts you expressed could be removed.”
I was taken aback. “Is there any added thing required after my writing?” I asked.
“His Excellency said that you should be shown the hinterlands of Enugu,” he declared.
“Wow!” I almost shouted.
Then, I gave him my own shocking disposition. “Meet you in Enugu tomorrow morning,” I said.
He started laughing. He actually thought it was a joke.
“I go by night bus, and should be in Enugu, Young Ghall Grow Park by the Central Library,” my tone was even, which must have either alerted him to my unusual style or a way of discarding him.
He did not know much about me. I was dead serious, and he only realised it when Emeka Alex Duru sauntered to my desk and wanted to invite me to an engagment of the next day.
“So sorry, Ohaneze Ndigbo,” I was addressing Emeka our usual way, “I am going to Enugu this night, to be back a day after tomorrow.”
Emeka wasn’t surprised. He knew it. Nobody ever regulated me, and he knew that it had always been the reason for the many clashes I faced with bosses of The Post Express newspapers where we worked.
I saw shock registered on Ment’s smooth and oily face. “You mean you are going to Ebugu today?” He was almpst breathless
“Oga, I am coming to Enugu tomorrow,” I said.
“But I am supposed to be there to take you round the projects?” He was a bit confused.
“Then, take a night bus too,” I said dismissively.
“I don’t do night bus…it is risky,” he tried to argue.
“Then, call somebody to meet me up and show me around,” I stated firmly.
“You are really an enigam,” he said as he hurried out.
At 4am, the nerve-say-die Young Shall Grow stout driver soon parked, stretched out his bulky frame and declared, “thank God for journey mercies.”
Now late Mr. Sam Oha and a police man were waiting for me. Sam was sharp. He recognised me by the pix on my column page. “Welcome, Igbonekwu,” he called across, and I followed.
Our tour of projects started at 6am, and before 4pm, we were through. We had gone to Ebugu Ezike, Amala, Inyi, Amagunze, Ihuokpara, Oji River, Akpugo, Agbani, and more.
“Ment should be in Enugu now,” Sam said as we arrived 9th Mile on our way to Enugu.
He actaully had arrived by the first Ekenedilichukwu bus, and I was told that an interview with the governor had been scheduled for me at 7 that evening.
The interview held, and I picked my own impression of the governor. I was told afterwards that a room had been reswrved for me at the Nike Lake Resort. But as I was driven outside the Governor’s Lodge, I checked the time. 8.50pm. “Take me to Holy Ghost,” I unceremoniously demanded of the driver. He was surprised, but complied. I was lucky. There was a bus in the process of loading. I paid and thanked the driver. “Please tell them I am now on my way to Lagos,” I pleaded with him as I mounted the stairs.
A week later, Ment was back in Lagos, “this enigma of a boy,” he said, “the governor thinks you would be a good member of his staff, and I advise you to take it.”
It was now October, 2000.
“I will think about it,” I responded and he handed me an envelope. “You were supposed to be given this that day of the interview..in fact, you really put us in trouble with the governor. He could not understand why you refused to follow any specific arrangement as made for you.
“My Oga,” I said smiling, “what I did was my exact plan. Sorry it upset you guys.”
In December, he brought pressure to bear on me about joining the government.
To cut this story short, I joined the administration, formally, on January 14, 2001.
The day I was appointed Commissioner to succeed Ayogu Eze, who had succeeded Ment, he asked, “this ìsì Òkpùkpù, do you remember how this started.”
We pumped hands as i declared back, “ife nwoke gba n’ezi ebukakwa nnam ukwu” – what a jouney!
By then, he was the Chairman of the newly created Njodo Development Centre.
We have remaind so close, meeting every day, till the last two days before his last moment.
When Kenechi, his son called about 2pm, Wednesday, the 30th of September, I suspected nothing.
“Ment said he ain’t eat no garri no further,” he said without ceremonies. It landed like a blow across the belligerent cheek.
But I understood.
“Where is he? Where are you,” were all I could ask.
I was in a remote village, for some land deals on behalf of a client.
Everything had to wait now.
I gunned the tired car like mad and was in Enugu in 35 minutes.
“Ment had his normal life, Tuesday, then mild cough about 8am on Wednesday, then the loss of steam and seeming unconsciousness. In 30 minutes, declared “brought in dead” at the Parklane specialist Hospital.
Just like that?
Graduate of Mass Communication department, University of Lagos; former Editor of Daily Star newspapers; Special Adviser to Governor Nnamani, on Communications; ext-Commissioner; ex-LGDC; hence the oft-repeated joke, “ex-this, ex-that.”
Fulfilled, yet not sure he was not bitter that Lt. Col. David Ejoor refused him enlistment in the Nigeria Army in 1966, when Ejoor was the Commander of Enugu Garison Command, the eve of the crisies leading to the war.
“My Oga,” i once asked, “but why didnt you join in the fighting when the shooting started?”
He looked at me, slanting his head, and said, “not without the right training…those who joined then were merely fed to the meat grinder. No training.”
I forcifully said, “if i was there, nothing would have stopped me from joining.”
He smiled, “i know…your kind of temperament was what was needed then, but you were not there.”
We laughed and bent over our respective bottle of Stout.
Ment was about the most easy going fellow i have had to relate with. No stomach for any kind of intrigues. Always accepting the rurn of any event.
Now, Ment has shut the door.

Adieu, Boss!