In celebration of the life of Jeff Lugtu De La Fuente.

Beloved Soulmate · Lover · Best Friend · Provider · Mentor

Kind · Loyal · Intelligent · Ambitious · Resourceful · Resilient · Creative · Patient

LAWRENCE LEO IYOHA BORHA (LLB) [1923 – 2017]

Pa Lawrence Leo Borha (LLB), Pioneer national Trade Unionist, Technocrat and Politician passed away on January 3, 2017 in Benin City the Edo state capital at the ripe old age of 94 years, after a bravely fought protracted illness.

And so, with his passage the curtain has effectively been drawn on the nation’s first generation labour leaders, master strategists and political tacticians. Along with late Michael Imoudu, LLB, as he was fondly called, played a pivotal and major organizational role in the establishment of the National Trade Union Movement in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Indeed his managerial dexterity ensured its growth and survival.

A seasoned technocrat, he along with others remain the pillars of the then newly created Midwest Region, later Bendel and now Edo State.

EARLY DAYS:
He was born in Ubiaja on August 10, 1923 to the famous Alumhen Borha family of Idumhenbor Quarters in what is today Esan South East Local Government Area of Edo State. His mother was Avere Borha.

LLB had his elementary school at St. Benedict’s Catholic School, Ubiaja and proceeded to African College, Onitsha for his secondary education. He was a brilliant and exceptional student and even though he was comparatively from a poor background, support for his education came readily and steadily. His immediate family and kind hearted individuals who early enough spotted his great potentials pulled resources together to see him through his secondary education.


ADULTHOOD:
After graduation he was offered a teaching job and before he could settle down fully to his new job, events around the globe began to unfold very fast. Then, the dark clouds of World War II was looming. Being a British Colony at the time, the impact on Nigeria was immediate and resonated around the entire country.

Imports dried up and proceeds from local exports – largely rubber, timber, groundnuts, cotton, palm oil/kernels etc were directed to the war efforts. This was the scenario when the second campaign towards the war efforts began. Conscription of able bodied adults to join the Army became the vogue while the educated joined the army with adventure in mind regardless of the risks involved.

Young Lawrence belonged to this group. He enlisted and was moved to Egypt before being posted to the nursing Corps. His regiment later moved to Burma where he was before the end of the war followed by his demobilization.

He exhibited an incredible independent spirit on his return as he first tried his hands on local trading and business. He then joined the Civil Service, the Ministry of Information and resigned after a few years to take up a full time job as a Trade Union Secretary. In this capacity, he frequently attended International Labour Organization Congress meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, where he made international friends like Tom Mboya of Kenya, Helmut Schmidt, later Chancellor of West Germany and many others. Indeed he was so close to Helmut Schmidt that the German made it possible for his two nephews to travel to Germany on scholarship.

The narrative of LLB’s labour activism would be incomplete without particular reference to the Nigerian General Strike of 1964 that crippled the entire country.

According to the history books, as regional and ethnic competition intensified during the census crisis, tensions of a wholly different order was gathering explosive force. Wage labourers were beginning to focus their indignation over declining real income and gross economic inequality into military demands for Government attention and higher pay.

For a brief but crucial year in Nigerian politics, the severely fractured trade union movement united in a concerted challenge to the political class and what began as a protest over wages quickly widened into an attack on the very basis of the regimes authority. Spanning the later stages of the Federal election the census crisis and the preliminary maneuvering of the Federal Election, the conflict peaked in a thirteen day General Strike that brought the economic life of the nation to a virtual standstill.

In the confrontation, Nigerian workers scored a significant victory while the regime was discredited across a wide and crucial segment of public opinion.

There is no gainsaying that the forces that led that General Strike were among others, Michael Imoudu as labour leader and Lawrence Leo Borha as secretary general of the Nigerian Labour Congress.

In the 50’s, Trade Unionism and Union leaders were closely aligned to political parties as indeed they still are till date. LLB was one of the stormy petrels of these arrow heads in the labour movement with the likes of Michael Imoudu, Duke Idise Dafe, Gogo Chu Nzeribe, Tunji Otegbeye and others.

His last known Trade Union activity, indirectly as it was, was when he served as Labour Adviser to President Shehu Shagari before the second Republic Government was overthrown in a military coup in 1983.

Before then however, he had served as commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in the Col. Samuel Ogbemudia administration at inception in Midwest region of Nigeria for nine years.

Little wonder that when told that LLB was very alive and in Benin two years ago. General Ogbemudia (Rtd) retorted: the great one, where is he?

A man of humour devoid of bitterness he was very compassionate and caring. He was always involved in peaceful resolution of conflicts in his rural area, state and the nation at large.

He is survived by a wife, Lola Borha, three sons, Edmund, Charles and David, a daughter Rachael as well as grandchildren and great grandchildren. He is also survived by daughters-in-law, Cousins, Nephews and Nieces.

A great one has indeed departed. When comes another?

May his gentle soul rest in peace.

MRS OPEYEMI AJUYAH NEE OSO TRIBUTE
We are gathered here today in memory of my sister so that together we may acknowledge and share both our joy and the gift that was her life and the pain the passing brings.
Yemi was an educated and liberated woman, a banker turned entrepreneur .
You came down from the bus of life, at your bus top at 45, with the sun setting for only girl amongst her siblings.
You touched, and enriched lives helping strangers , one of such memorable charitable works, was when a young construction worker whose hands was almost amputated and could not pay for drugs at a pharmaceutical shop, you were purchasing a drug ,on hearing the story of a down casted lad , in the pharmacy shop, she took the responsibility of paying for the drugs, and paying for hospital bills. Today the lad has recovered and hale and hearty.
There were a lot of things about Opeyemi, that many of us will remember.
I always love her for her human sympathy, she was a prayer warrior always standing in the gap, praying for other people when she hears their petition, but does not bother about her own.
She loved the fine things of life, never felt they were necessary.
Yemi, was eclectic, free spirited ,warm. Her husband offered her every opportunity to express herself.
Something is drawing on us , its almost too soon to admit, its there half truth blooming. The final truth will set you free from a legal case, you have presently. May you be vindicated in death , to clear your name, as you use to say integrity is a way of life.
God knows best, nobody can query God Almighty -Kaaabio kosi. You were delivered from an air mishap on your way to China, with other great testimonies God gave you, only for a prolong sickness post partum depression, to deal a blow, to a beautiful intelligent ,Ekiti born woman. Many friends did not know you were sick and dying as you still sound lively on the phone.
Who did you leave your children for now after 17 years of marriage?
How would your mother and father take this news? Nobody wishes to bury their children.

GOD GIVETH AND TAKETH AND HE KNOWS BEST.
May God Bless and Protect the children left behind and the husband.
We will always remember you in our heart, we hope to see on resurrection day, the hope of all faithful Christians.
ADIEU

MR KAYODE ADESUYI

My Grandpa written by Ben Gonzalez

“When someone tells you thank you, you respond with ‘you’re welcome’. Not ‘no problem’ or something like that. Because it shouldn’t be a problem or worry to help someone else out.”


He loved helping us with projects, be it wooden swords, a basketball hoop or homemade go-carts, he loved helping us create something special.

He taught us to carry humor into every aspect of our lives.

He showed us that sometimes you have to let the other man win not for yourself but for them.

He told us stories and jokes that will never be forgotten.

He never made any enemies and was loved by all, making positive interactions with almost everyone he came to know

He expressed the extreme importance of respect of one and ones personal belongings.

He woke up each day with a new joke to tell and a lesson to teach.

He loved his wife, children, grandchildren, friends, duct tape and PVC.

He watched each of his children and grandchildren grow supporting them along the way.


He was a father, husband, grandfather, teacher, coach, engineer, student, jokester, treasurer, outdoorsman and much, much more.

My grandfather’s way of life and attitude upon which he brought into my life everyday has left an everlasting mark within me. I hope to one day educate my children and grandchildren the way my grandfather educated me. The way he could entertain any crowd and always extract the absolute best of anyone he was around was momentous. His passionate sense of carefulness toward each and every person he met taught me to strive for the same. He would always teach my brother and I to try and solve our own problems. He taught us to: consider the situation; try something, then to try again with resilience, until finally if nothing prevailed he taught us to whip out the duct tape. He taught us love the things you love, be positive each day and to never stop learning in your lifetime. For each lesson or message he conveyed to us I am grateful. I am fortunate to have had such a figure in my life and his actions will never be forgotten.