Reminiscences with Chief Mbazulike Amechi

and showed me his house with the bullet marks and everything. The house is being preserved as a monument by the government. I took pictures there. Then they took me to Pretoria where he was lying in-state and I saw him. After the burial, the Nigerian High Commission arranged a world press conference for me and I told the world how Mandela stayed with me and all that. So it was my presence that made the world to know that Nigeria played a key role in the life of Mandela.

Many people don’t know that you married a Yoruba woman. How did you meet your late wife, Tayo?

I first of all married the Igbo woman before the second wife. I met her when she was a student in secondary school here. They were very beautiful sisters, and in those days I was a rascally boy. I took one while John Anyaehe took one. John Anyaehe took the elder one called Funke while I took the younger one, Tayo, and she had three sons for me.

How did you meet your Igbo wife?

When I was a parliamentary secretary, she was returning from London after studies. Her elder sister who was working in the Ministry of Information begged me to chair the reception of her sister. That was where they hooked me.

Did she have children for you as well?

Unfortunately, she didn’t have children of her own.

Do you have regrets?

Not that I have regrets, but I feel unhappy that the house I laboured to build, shed my blood and sweat, is now being destroyed by careless rouges. That is Nigeria. The Nigeria I took part in founding is now being broken by careless and avaricious criminals. It pains me, but that doesn’t make me regret taking part in the struggle for Nigeria’s independence. I have no regret at all. Should I not even thank God for keeping me alive? After all, there are many people of my age who may not have the mental alertness to discuss with you as I am doing now. God has blessed me with mental alertness, good health; apart from occasional waist pain and rheumatism.

How do you relax?

I can’t go to the library again. I am computer illiterate, so I cannot do these ones they put in their ears now. I watch ordinary television. I listen to the BBC and other foreign stations. Then occasionally, I reluctantly allow myself to watch the NTA and all these other local stations because they only say what will please the government. I am not interested in them. Outside that, I am a very busy man, meeting with titled men. In the town here, I am a father. Last year, the town union honoured me by erecting my statue. On December 29, which is Ukpor Day, they have invited former President Olusegun Obasanjo to unveil it. And Obasanjo has agreed to come and do it.