Nduka Nwosu
Senator Ben Murray Bruce tells the story of his life, his family, politics, the men and women as well as the events that have helped to shape his worldview in the complex life of a politician and businessman
Christmas celebration worldwide is a re-union for many. That is when the Murray Bruce family returns home for celebration. Ben Murray Bruce with his family are heading for No. 17, Thurnbull Avenue, Yaba, to join others for thanksgiving surrounding the matriarch who at 92 still radiates good health and energy. An early visitor is the Catholic Reverend Father from St. Dominic’s Church where the family worships.
Ben hugs mum whom he calls his girlfriend and plants a peck. Mum smiles and asks a few questions on the state of the nation. When she is done receiving Guy and his family, the matriarch beams a huge smile at his visitor. “What are you up to, you and your friend Ben? That boy, do you want to hear about his many troubles growing up? Where do I start? Mama has everything to say about everybody including his stubborn son Ben.
Mrs. Margaret Mary Dolly Murray-Bruce cast her thoughts back into time and space. On a warm sunny day in a less turbulent time, 18th February 1956 to be specific, the seventh child of Pa William Murray Bruce and the fourth child of Madam Margaret Murray-Bruce was born. Nobody expects Ben to remember exactly all that happened when he was born in Yaba, Lagos at an Aje Street hospital by a renowned gynaecologist, Dr. Doherty. Of course, he was not the Abiku who had one leg walking in the land of the spirits and the other walking deceptively in the land of the living, knowing all things and all things knowing him. Was he also a bird capable of assuming numerous forms with no boundaries?
More than the imaginary and protean mind of the other Ben, the son of Okri, Ben as we must call him for now, realising that the subject in question has come a long way with popular acclaim and credibility, confesses: “I don’t know if my early beginning had a shape of what a person will end up becoming in life,” by which he means there was neither a shooting star in the firmament announcing his arrival nor some three wise men from the East with gifts for the newborn star. “I was at Our Lady of Apostle’s Primary School and my father worked with the UAC and every two years he was transferred to another city and that accounted for all of us being born in different cities.”
Ben admits he grew up under the tutelage of a conservative family. His father retired as a UAC manager in charge of Kingsway Stores, while his migrant grandfather was among the founders of UAC Nigeria. In one of his conversations with Pa Christopher Abebe, first Nigerian and former UAC chairman, he told him each time the Governor General went on leave, the UAC chairman acted as Governor General; that was pre-independence Nigeria. Much later Ernest Shonekan became Nigeria’s President and the same UAC provided Nigeria a First Lady-Stella Obasanjo-nee Abebe. Of course, when his father retired, he received as part of his pension, one or two stores belonging to UAC but was under-performing, and he grew the stores to what was later to be known as Domino Stores.
His greatest gift from his parents, he says, was the discipline bestowed on him. “I am the rebel in the family. I am not a conformist, I am very liberal, more to the left, conservative in some areas but more to the left but though I am a radical, I cannot put a dog or bird in a cage. I can’t put a fish in a fishbowl. I believe everybody should be free because I like freedom. I cannot restrict anyone yesterday or today. I once went on a hunting expedition