In contemporary corporate governance both in the service- oriented public sector and the profit-driven private sector, mentoring has taken the center stage in human resource management and organizational behavior. Generally associated with application within an organizational setting, be it at home in the school, social groups and organizations or in a profit-driven formal organizational, mentoring has transcended the limits of formal and informal organizations and has become a necessity for cordiality in human relationship towards cordiality in humanity. This tribute epitomizes how mentoring applies to everyday human relationship and the process of character molding outside the confines of formal organizations
I came home one day in 1984/85 and my colleague and neighbor, Chioma Nwikina (now Mrs Chioma Don-Lawson), informed me that the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice came looking for me. Me? For what? My heart skipped a few beats. I was single, overdue for the nuptials and, incidentally, under enormous social pressure from the other side of the gender hedgerow; so, I wondered if my monkeying around town had landed me on a tree of trouble. Noticing the disconcertment on my face, Chioma quickly said: “He came to shake your hand and said I should shake you on his behalf”. Still startled, confused and worried, I asked in suppressed exclamation: “Shake my hand! For what?” And Chioma added: “For an article you wrote”. Phew! I let out a thunderous sigh of relief. It turned out that the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of Rivers State, Barr B.M. Wifa, read an article I wrote, drove to Rivers State Newspapers Corporation (publishers of The Tide) for my address and came to my house for a handshake with me, a lowly lecturer. I was elated and comforted realizing that some authority figures still stay connected to the citizenry and sense their pulse by reading newspapers.
The story is that the then Minister of Communications, Colonel David Mark, said that Rivers people are lazy. As a result, a barrage of strongly worded condemnations and rebuttals came from notable Rivers men: the legendary Chief HJR Dappa-Biriye, Prince TKO Okorotie and others vociferously condemned the statement in very strong terms and demanded immediate apology. In disagreement with the write ups and the hullabaloo the statement stirred, I wrote an article titled “In Support of David Mark” and The Tide published it. In the obvious satire, I agreed with Mark and took Rivers people to the drycleaners by harping on our complacence, complaisance, docility, malleability, lack of cohesion, etc. Thereafter, I turned to David Mark and literally stumped all over his face and scantily decorated shoulders and shoved him into the shredder.
That article was the genesis of my relationship with Sir Barinua Moses Wifa OFR, SAN. BM had the demonstrated capacity of gracefully stepping down from his lofty social height and relating to younger ones with disarming ease and contagious congeniality. Each time BM and I met, which was quite often over the years, I came out with an inner sense of self-worth that was comforting, reassuring and, naturally, inspired confidence.
During a conference in Calabar, BM came to my suite with two bottles of vintage red wine in hand and literally dragged me to the lounge downstairs where we joined Dr. Lucky Eleanya and other young lads and legislators from Rivers State in the exchange of banters and punchy ribcrackers into the night; I still use some of his “one liners” till date. BM sure was a jolly good fellow and it came naturally with him.
The relationship reflected in the above account clearly spells the concept of mentoring, which is not limited or restricted to teacher-student or boss-subordinate interface in formal organizations. BM was my mentor in the informal scene; he was a boundless mentor (BM). He left an enduring impression that influenced my attitude towards people especially younger ones. In my more than four decades of teaching at the tertiary level, I have related (and still relate) with my students with no air of superiority whatsoever; rather, it is with palpable humility and friendship. Resultantly, I have benefited immensely from the fallouts of that attitudinal disposition over the years from my former students. I have BM to thank for that. Wifa’s boundless mentoring is worthy of emulation.
Adieu my senior friend; adieu BM. Rest in the bosom of God.
O. Jason Osai, ozomogoosai@gmail.com
