It would not be surprising if theirs turned out the most welcome marriage ceremony in the area this season. The bride in particular and the bridegroom. All two are products of well known families in Edemoga District of Okpokwu LGA of Benue State in central Nigeria.
Perhaps contemplating her transition!
Rebecca Ada, now Mrs Akpakwu, is a daughter of the late Francis Umale Ada, one of the earliest of those who got into the textile industry from Idomaland and got trained outside the country to become so proficient therein. They equally provided some of the earliest socialist influences in Idomaland arising from their trade union orientation from their exposure in British textile unionism.
Francis Ada who became popularly known as Okpani Ada as well as Okpani Patrick Ochiga would remain referent in the manner they operationalised their pro-people orientation. Their houses at the KTL Quarters in Barnawa, Kaduna was the drop off point for majority of the later day migrants from the Edemoga area in Benue State. It is difficult to imagine what their wives must have gone through in those days coping with excess baggage of job seeking migrants from the rural to the urban centres in the wake of Nigeria’s oil boom. The more interesting thing is that the textile sector was booming and absorbed majority of such migrants. In the early 1980s, the reversal of economic fortunes set in across Nigeria. It is part of the tragedy of today.
Mr. Patrick Ada, head of the Ada family at the weeding held at Otukpo, Dec 23rd, 2020
Naturally, the marriage of any of his daughters will attract attention although members of their generation have generally faded out of popular imagination and the space taken over by smart politicians promising to build bridges over dry lands most of the times.
Again, the bridegroom here will draw attention on her own. Not only did she train in French additional to her first degree, she is also a postgraduate product of the ‘Zaria School of History’. Whatever might have happened to that School, the old order cannot but have rubbed on her intellectual package, having been supervised by another warrior of that school, Dr. Hannatu Alahira who has, fortunately and unfortunately, moved to a newer university.
In all, the couple have been adequately prepared, culturally, faithw ise and educationally for the challenge of marital union. Hence the great dancing and merry making that has been reported from the wedding venue and theraafter, according to usually reliable sources.
Intervention wishes the newly wedded a great marital life!
