NELSON MANDELA, HIS SUN FINALLY SETS AT 95.

Icheoku says what a man he was that walked the face of this earth, a real man indeed. He happened on the stage in South Africa when he was needed most and he stood up to be counted. He never wavered, he never flinched, he never shied away. To the clarion call of who shall free his people, he answered 'here, I am present, use me, send me and forth he went. Convinced in the rightness of the cause and abiding faith in a mission to free his people from the yokes and shackles of apartheid - a very inhumane, oppressive, discriminatory and repressive system of white supremacy government of the minority, he courageously stepped forward, never looked back and never floundered; and despite severe mental anguish and pains of grave bodily harm and injury inflicted on him in an attempt to intimidate him to turn tails, he soldiered on. His reward, a death-blow to apartheid and a free South Africa where the majority now rules.  His name, Nelson Rouhiahilia Mandela, whose demise the whole world especially South Africans mourn today, December 5, 2013. Nelson Mandela was 95 years and died at his home of old age related infirmities. Icheoku says our heart goes out to the people of South Africa who have lost their one and only true leader and a role model to the whole world. 

A member of the Xhosa speaking Thembu tribe, Nelson Rohihlahia Dalibhunga Mandela affectionately called Madiba was born in July 18, 1918 in Umtata. Transkei Region of South Africa. He was thrice married and twice divorced to wives Evelun Mase in 1944, Winnie Madikizela in 1958 and Graca Machel in 1998. He is survived by wife Graca and children.

Nelson Mandela had unflinching love for his people and this cost him dearly - a twenty seven years surcharge from his youthful life. He was focused as he was determined not to lose sight of the big prize - freedom for his people and refused to betray it. He refused to trade his peoples freedom for his personal freedom by refusing to renounce the struggle as a precondition for an early release from prison. For Mandela, the emancipation of his people was more important than his personal freedom and he sacrificed accordingly. Icheoku says if the word "selfless" has a twin, Nelson Mandela definitely fits that and put in another way, "selfless" could be Mandela's other middle name. Icheoku says possibly since Jesus, no man or woman has ever done what Nelson Madiba Mandela did for a people - sacrificed self for the greater glory and lived to celebrate it as their crowned leader  - president. From prison he went straight to the Presidential mansion as president, to God be the glory. 

Nelson Mandela lived like a real man when he looked his traducers in their eyes and said to them 'your cudgels cannot break my resolve' and they did not. They put him through hell, he survived. They cajoled him, he laughed. They punished him, he sang and finally when he had opportunity to take his pound of flesh, he forgave them. Icheoku says this is the type of man William Shakespeare had in mind when he vouchsafed in Julius Caesar through Mark Anthony about Brutus, that this is a man the stars would also attest to. Icheoku agrees and wishes that a Mandela could someday come out of Nigeria to lead the people out of the quagmire and rudderless-ness holding Nigeria down and under. Admitted Abiola's attempted walk on that route was aborted but Abiola was no Mandela as the latter survived the gulag for twenty seven years and later became president while Abiola died or was tea(ed) to death in prison barely four years into his forced sabbatical. Like the Northern Star, Icheoku vouches that Mandela was indeed a spectacular man of whose type there is none other in our firmament. 

Mandela took it severally in the chin, suffered for his people and did not yield to the merciless and concerted effort to break him down. Mandela refused the temptation to trade his personal freedom in exchange for abandoning the cause for a greater freedom for all his people and succeeded. Unlike the biblical Moses, Mandela led his people to the perimeters of the promised land and also entered therein alongside with them. Unlike Martin Luther King, Mandela died peacefully at very ripe old age, of his own accord and not through a violent conspirators' elimination in the hands of his traducers. In short, Madiba came, saw and conquered his whites apartheid oppressors, who only succeeded in making him the larger than life icon he was transformed into. They sent him to Robbin Island prison, a somewhat local political dwarf and he came out a lumbering ten foot global political giant and permanently transmuted into a heroic icon. Like Gandhi, he preached peace and forgiveness to his persecutors. Like Mother Teresa, he showered love and affection bountifully. Like all radicals, he did not and refused to accept what was as is and went on to affect a change; and under his weight of influence, the oppressive white minority apartheid system, like the Berlin Wall, came tumbling down and finally crumbled. Icheoku says a man this huge do not often walk this earth and this generation is fortunate and shall ever remain grateful that Mandela made his stage appearance with them in audience. Icheoku says Nelson Madiba Mandela did his time, left an indelible print on the sand of time and like all mortals, has now departed back to his maker. Hopefully his stage presence was also pleasing in God's eyes and that he earned enough saintly points to be rewarded with eternal life. Icheoku says if Nelson Mandela is a Catholic, he should be made a Saint - a Saint Madiba. 

What else can Icheoku say in this obituary about a man whose mold was destroyed as soon as the creator finished making him. A very unique man indeed with a heart so large and filled with forgiveness; a man whose dignity and charisma made him bigger when he came out of prison than when he went in. A man whose disarming smile and charm offensiveness made his detractors and traducers clinch in agony and friends and admirers clinging to him more. But at last, like all mortals Nelson Mandela is no more, now gone to be with his ancestors in their maker's bosom; but surely the world knew that a man came through this way and in him that was Nelson Mandela.  He is forever immortalized and shall remain in the annals as the icon who looked at his persecutors and said "forgive them for they know not what they did." 

Peradventure the last icon of the world is gone and the world is now left short of one truly honest man with his departure, but Mandela was a man who gave it his all in order to free the all. He got the job done - South Africa is free and now have a majority rule democracy. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, Icheoku says 'never in the history of South Africa was so much owed by so many to just one man' in the person of Nelson Mandela. Rest in peace Mandela and may the Almighty God reward all your efforts while you lived here on earth, especially in letting racist White people all over the world, particularly those in South Africa to know that we all are God's children. That we all bleed red blood and that we all have needs and wants and also treasure our respective dignities. That irrespective of the shades of our skin colors, whether or not we have different hues and the pigmentation of our skin comes varied, that we share the same humanity and should strive to get along together otherwise Rodney King's plea will go unheeded. Nelson Mandela, Icheoku says adieu great one and may the torch which you lit and passed on in South Africa never quenches. So long Madiba, go in peace.