A single decade can go by without anything happening, but two decades change everything. Bright eyes might turn dim; dim eyes might close indefinitely. But some things endure in the face of time’s ruthlessness: memory, legacy—the defining facts of human life.
March 11, 2021, marks the 20th year since the passing of a great man, the late Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Dickens Oghenereuemu Patrick Sanomi. To outsiders, he was an impartial AIG, lover of talents and sports; but to the Sanomi clan, he was a compassionate husband, father, brother, uncle, grandfather, and father-in-law. It has been 7,305 days since he left, but his memory and legacy are still as fresh as ever.
The entire Sanomi clan remembers the late man today, sighing with helplessness at the eyes that shut, and will never open to this world again, at the calming hands that will never pat their heads and shoulders again. And yet, the memory of the Sanomi patriarch does not foreshadow despair but pride and hearts of celebration.
The children of the late Dickens Sanomi have ensured that their father’s memory will not expire, nor allow the greatness and kindness he embodied in his lifetime to slacken. The Dickens Sanomi Foundation (DSF) is how they accomplish this, a foundation as solid, reliable, and charitable as he was. And with every accomplishment of the DSF, people remember Dickens Sanomi and celebrate him.
Since its establishment in 2011, the DSF has touched and influenced the lives of children everywhere. Designed to reflect the late Patriarch’s passions and interests, the DSF has improved many secondary school students’ lives, buoying their education with platforms for essay competitions, literacy programmes, music, and sports. But this is not the entire scope of the foundation’s work.
When River Niger flooded its banks in 2012 and interrupted Delta and Bayelsa residents’ lives and livelihoods, the DSF rose to help the victims with lifesaving relief packages, food supplies, and other necessities of life. The result was the rescue of over 12,300 people, which relieved the state government and won their appreciation and commendation. The DSF has continued to shine; a light on a hill cannot be hidden. It, and the rest of the Sanomi clan, represent something of the brilliant life that the late Dickens Sanomi lived. It has been 20 years of silence from the other end, but 20 years of uninterrupted impact from this end.
