Ambakaderemo: Remembering Bayelsa’s oldest journalist

By Nengi Ilagha

IN his last public outing on the evening of August 22, 2015, he held a trophy in his hands, his trademark smile upon his face. He was seated before a colourful audience of literary aficionados and men of letters. The occasion was appropriately entitled “The Golden Pen Awards,” organised by the Bayelsa State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA

As far as Simon Meshu Opuwaribo Ambakaderemo was concerned, this was a fitting tribute to an eventful life of writing, a life of penmanship, a life of ink and paper. Bex Royal, as he called himself, was a true fanatic of scholarship, and an unflagging enthusiast of literature.

He ventured into any project that would quickly identify him as a spokesman for the people and he stood up to speak as often as he was called upon. He spoke to live audiences at public functions, on television and on radio. Sometimes he did not wait to be invited. He spoke out in his private corner and belaboured the subject some more in the pages of his newspaper, Crystal Express, to further underscore the validity of his viewpoint.

And his viewpoint was diverse. He held an opinion on a wide range of subjects, and long before he began to publish his own paper, he walked the corridors of established news houses, handing his scripts over to the editor in the paper he could reach more easily, along Ikwerre Road, Port Harcourt.

He was so frequent at The Tide that he could have passed for a member of staff, from the time when the paper was still known as Nigerian Tide under the pioneer management of his fellow compatriot, Gabriel Okara, another recipient of the recent Golden Pen Awards.

That was Ambakaderemo’s joy. It was important to be recognized for your labour. He was counted among the worthy. He was named as belonging in the first caliber of the Bayelsa literati. Bex was not given an opportunity to speak even then. He would have been glad to go down good old memory lane, spicing his adventures with highfalutin vocabulary and generous whoops of laughter.

Ambakaderemo took pride in being mentioned as a founding father of many associations in Bayelsa. His greatest joy, however, was to be recognized as one of the founding fathers of the state itself, and he never stopped reiterating the fact that he was the secretary of the Bayelsa Founders Forum.

This was a body of patriots constituted only by the gentlemen who put their signatures to a noble document spelling out the exigency of creating Bayelsa, neatly carved out from its parent state, Rivers. From one edition to the other, month after month, Ambakaderemo found tireless space to repeat this story and he had every right to do so if nobody was listening.

By the same token, Ambakaderemo was inclined to trace his pedigree with respect to the birth of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, the Nigerian Union of Journalists, to say nothing of the Bayelsa Independent Publishers Association. He was also one of the twelve inaugural members of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Bayelsa chapter.

Simon Meshu Opuwaribo Ambakaderemo

Ambakaderemo loved it when anyone spoke eloquently about the University of Ibadan, his alma mater. He graduated in 1971. He would recount his days as a student in the Department of Theater Arts, and his tutelage in dramatic literature under Professor Wole Soyinka.

It was a time of his life that he was rightly proud of, because it provided the platform for Ambakaderemo to form the Bex Royal Theater Group and, in later years, to write his first play and evidently his most important work of drama entitled, Isaac Boro, an enduring commentary on the plight and predicament of the Ijaw people.

It was a work that earned him prime placement amongst governors — from Alamieyeseigha, through Jonathan and Sylva, right up to Dickson, seated as they were in the front row of a cultural performance featuring a stage enactment of Boro’s adventures. All of these outings were duly captured for the interminable pages of his paper, oftentimes an album of historic photos with countless dignitaries smiling in full colour.

As an actor, Bex Royal featured in Kongi’s Harvest, a play by Wole Soyinka. He was also in the cast for the film adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, as well as Princess Joro of Uganda, jointly directed by the American Ossie Davis and Wole Soyinka. His involvement with the grammar of theater took him far.

In the government of the old Rivers State, he rose to the rank of Director of Information. When Bayelsa State was created, he became the first Director of the Bayelsa State Ministry of Information, and subsequently served as the first Executive Director of Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture. In those early days of state creation, he slept in his rudimentary office and was glad to suffer the inconvenience until he built a three-bedrooml bungalow at Akenfa that he called The White House.

Ambakaderemo was a journalist in search of redress for the Niger Delta. He was out to promote the unity, peace and stability of the Izon nation as best he could. He had a good hang of history, the history of his people, and he was often given to recall many names in a row as a mark of his widespread connection with famous men and women.

Ambakaderemo had no apologies for loving his wife, Love. She was a true partner to him in a life-long struggle, and he never failed to acknowledge her in every edition of his paper. She remains the mother of his adorable children, amongst them Elfrida, Anita, Victoria and their brothers.

Bex Royal saw the dressing of the Urhobos and the Ijaws as complementary, so he was comfortable setting out in either attire. It was a reflection of his paternal origins in Delta State, and his maternal bond with Nembe in Bayelsa State.

Born at Massey Hospital Maternity, Lagos, on July 4, 1935, Bex’s father was a merchant who hailed from the illustrious Kiagbodo family of Burutu. His mother, Elfrida, was a noble daughter of the illustrious Simbi Wellington family of Okpoama.

As a boy, Simon attended the Roman Catholic School, Kiagbodo, Ughelli, Delta State from 1947 to 1952, passing out with distinction. He then moved to Urhobo College, Effurun-Warri, where he studied from 1953 to 1954, before proceeding to the Western Ijaw Teachers’ Training College, now known as Esenaebe College, Bomadi, from 1956 to 1957. Then came his eventful stay at the University of Ibadan, even in the heat of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war.

He served as the Secretary-General of the defunct Bayelsa State Creation Movement in the 1990’s which culminated in the creation of Bayelsa State on October 1, 1996. Ambakederemo was also the chairman of the publicity sub-committee of the Toru–Ebe State Creation Movement until his demise on Sunday March 6, 2016.

A Catholic by birth, Ambakaderemo was a devoted Christian all his life. In his own humble way, he contributed immensely to the growth of his parish, St. Mathias Catholic Church, Amarata, Yenagoa.

Chief Ambakaderemo was here. He loved titles and believed in the power of protocol. He would wait patiently for his own appellations to be fully recited before breaking out in a grand deluge of laughter. And his titles were many – founding father, teacher, publisher, literary guru, icon of journalism, champion of the masses, man of the people, public relations impresario, master of ceremonies extraordinaire, grand inquisitor of the pen.

He was a man of great conviviality and good humour. His bright eyes, his attentive mien, his jolly good spirit, his high sounding words, his explosive use of the English language, all this will be missed not just by his family, but by the many lives he came into contact with.

His remains were laid to rest in the Yenagoa public cemetery on Sunday May 22, 2016. He was 82, and held the distinction of being the oldest practicing journalist in Bayelsa State.