Friday, April 24, 2009
Funeral Dr. Recab Eleazar Bongi
The Friday morning schedule was set for the Medical Board to meet at the LCCN Jimeta office (my home here) at 7 AM to go to Lemurde (80 Kilometers west of Jimeta past Numan, N9.60263, E11.78943) for the funeral. So I was surprised to see Mr. Bulama at 6:30 and Dr. Bille at 6:45AM. I was still having breakfast. The fact that they were ahead of schedules shows the importance of Mr. Bongi. That was the last thing that was ahead of schedule.
I drove with Dr. Bille to pick up the head of the medical board and then on to Numan. The Jimeta to Numan trip is now just over 35 minutes. Last year it took an hour. The worst section of the road has been repaired. At Numan we met up with Mr. Bulama. We left his car in Numan and proceeded to Lemurde. About half way there the car backfired and lost power. This is what I call a Lazarus car. It is one of thousands of Peugeot 504’s in Nigeria. Peugeot stopped making the 504 many years ago. The mechanics here keep raising them from the dead. The driver got out a screw driver and some emery cloth from the glove box. He took of the distributor cap and sanded the contacts. He fiddled with some other things and hand turned engine. Then we started the car and continued our journey to the Lamurde school grounds. Three sections canopies and hundreds of seats were set around the parade field. In the center of the field was an elaborate purple and gold, I guess you would call it an altar. The wind was whipping and the staff was working hard to keep it up. The post were dug into the ground and stacked with rocks. We decided to go to the far side of the field to a section of canopies which would have a nice breeze through them. The breeze lifted the two end sections of the canopies and flipped them out into the field. The jumped up and grabbed our section as it was about to head into the field. We then decided to move chairs under a canopy made by God, a large tree at the edge of the field.
Archbishop Babba and his wife were seated with the family and VIP section behind the podium. We trekked across the field to greet them. The Archbishop asked us to stay in the section set aside for the church and dignitaries, behind them. This was a much larger structure made of large steel tubing and steel crosswires. It was set on a slight hill so the heavy weight caused it to lean forward. I told the Archbishop to be ready to run. Because when the structure failed, it will fall right into the little canopy they were under.
The schedule had 10Am Corpse arrive at Lamurde family home compound and Lying in State, 11AM the Boy’s Brigade of Nigeria Parade Leads Corpse and Procession into LCCN Lamurde. At around Noon Bishop Edward Ishaya consecrated the school’s parade grounds as a holy place and for this day it was LCCN Lamurde. The Boy’s Brigade Paraded onto the field and then we waited as they realized that what they had practiced at the LCCN compound in Jimeta would not work here. After a lot of discussion and arm waving they planted some sticks in the ground to designate the points that the band and parade would turn. At this point Dr. Bondi was yet to arrive.
As the Family arrived in a large air conditioned bus the organizers realized that the family and VIP section was too small. A few minutes later a group of youth (teens and young men) came carrying a larger canopy section. This was a much sturdier canopy section. As the section we were in continued to lean forward until one of our posts was being supported by their canopy. I was amazed that it lasted throughout the service. Around 1:20 PM everything was set. And the Boys Brigade Honor Guard escorted the casket into the parade field with swords drawn. The entire Boys and Girls Brigades and national officers paraded by the casket at a funeral pace. Each pace was to raise the foot pause then finish the step. Then the band picked up the pace to a full march and they paraded by again at full pace with arms swing and knees raised high in the British style.
The church service started with hymns and bible readings followed by tributes. The MC for the event was trying to hurry everyone up. Most had prewritten speeches. The permanent secretary of the Adamawa Department of Education gave a speech that showed that the employees of the department really like their boss, Commissioner Bongi and they will miss his leadership. The longest speeches of course were from politicians. The Governor sent his secretary to give a speech which because he spoke lightly and away from the microphone no one heard. The Senator for this part of Adamawa had defeated Mr. Bongi in the primary election and he had then campaigned for her. She is the wife of his cousin. She gave a much more personal speech. The best tribute came from some children from the Remi Foundation Academy. A group of hearing impaired students sang a hymn in sign. Dr. Bongi had devoted his whole life to education. In his later years he established the Remi Foundation to give children with disabilities a better education. With the speeches over the sermon started around 3:30PM by the Dean of the Lamurde Division, Rev. Nelson Malau. An impressive sermon and short by African standards. The length of sitting and heat had taken its toll on my attention, not to mention that one supporting post for our canopy was leaning in excess of 30 degrees off vertical. The ending point of his speech was that we are re-born in Christ and Dr. Bondi had worked with Christ his whole life and now has died with Christ.
Following the sermon the Boys Brigrade and Band paraded past the casket and the honor guard escorted the casket to the grave yard for Interment Rites. We skipped this part along with many of the guest from far away. Mr. Bulama had hoped to leave Numan for Jalingo by 4 PM to attend a wedding in his wife’s family. He will not arrive until after dark. The lights on his Peugeot are a little iffy. If they work that is good. If they don’t be careful.
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