The death has been announced of Okpani Abah Lazarus Onah, a community leader in Ogene Village of Amejo Ward in Edumoga District, Okpokwu LGA of Benue State in Nigeria.
Okpani Onah died early January 21st, 2026 from what is widely believed to be diabetes related complications. He hovers around early eighties in age.
Like his fellow villagers in most of the communities today around the area, Okpani Onah is an active player in the Catholic Men Organisation (CMO) as well as the Holy Family (those wedded in the Church). In truth, however, his demise is the demise along with him of a huge repertoire of the community world and of human affairs too.
Notwithstanding his limited formal education, he was a connoisseur and recorder of communal affairs and, therefore, of the unmaking of communities in recent decades when our villages and rural communities exchanged the idyllic or tranquil they were known for and, in place of that tranquil, are now defined by all manner of in-fighting, unproductive competition, banditry, gun battles, kidnapping, herder destabilisation, drunkenness, prostitution, collapse of anything called education and all manner of dangers. Who did this to us? This is the question it is hoped his burial will provide an occasion for reflections on: where the threats are coming from and what can be done!
A father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Okpani Onah is survived by eight children, amongst them Idu L. Onah, publisher of Abuja based National Record online newspaper, Mrs Janet Agbo, Mrs Maria Ameh, Mrs Jumbia Etuka; Mrs Margarete Oji, Mrs Mary Oheitonye, Mr. Onah J. Onah, and Dr. Juliana Ejeikwu.
