An ‘Evening of Tributes’ comes up later today (22/09/2025) in the capital city of Nigeria for Chief Audu Ogbeh, two-time minister and party mandarin who died August 9th, 2025. Apart from leading politicians, popular culture will be a significant part of the collective homage to the departed orator.
Bongos at a previous outing
Intervention is authoritatively informed that Bongos Ikwue will be performing at the ‘Evening of Tributes’. Though Chief Ogbeh’s senior by over six years, Ogbeh and Bongos have been friends and are also part of the philosopher-crew among the elite from the Idoma nationality in Nigeria. The appearance of Bongos Ikwue at the Evening might be the most significant attestation to Chief Ogbeh’s authenticity.
Those who attend the event taking place at the International Conference Center in Abuja will have another opportunity of watching Bongos Ikwue Live again after many years of age related withdrawal from the national scene even as the legend remains actively engaged with creating and performing musical arts. He has lately gone into deep philosophising.
A hint of what to expect at the ‘Evening of Tributes’ is already out in the public. In a one- page advertorial in selected nationally read Nigerian newspapers, Ogbeh’s longtime friend and kinsman, Chief Stephen Lawani, made the case for a national farewell for the departed, saying that Chief Audu Ogbeh’s death is not an ordinary transition. His ground for the exceptionalism is how “He made himself a welcome personality in every part of Nigeria, be it the Southsouth from where he married; the Southeast whose son, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, he coordinated his presidential campaign in 1998/99; the Southwest where he had the Wole Soyinkas and Yemi Ogunbiyis as life-long friends and the North whose regional umbrella – Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) – he chaired, amongst others. Of course, he was the most altruistic National Chairman of the PDP”.
Coming within weeks of the loss of Prof Jonah Isawa Elaigwu whom Lawani described as another communal hero, Ogbeh’s transition is, for Lawani, only understandable from the point of view of the basic vulnerability of every soul to death, not because human beings are not wise enough but because death has too many messengers by which it guarantees mortality.
Today’s ‘Evening of Tributes’ is the second of the activities in the rites of passage for Ogbeh. It extends to a valedictory session later in the Benue State House of Assembly where he was Deputy-Speaker from 1979 to 1981. He will finally be buried September 26th, 2025 in Otukpa from where he hails.
Chief Stephen Lawani, Otukpa, Bongos Ikwue, Benue State House of Assembly, ACF, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Southsouth,
