Nigeria: Tribute to Late Justice (prof.) Okay Achike, Formerly of the Supreme Court

24 October 2003

Death is a tragic event, but the circumstances in which it may come to some people make it even more so. The state of helpless incapacitation to which a stroke, reduces a person before it finally kills him or her off is most agonising and devastating to the person concerned, to his relations and friends. The sight of Hon. Justice (Prof) Okay Achike in that state when I first went to see him at the National Hospital Abuja after he was struck down by stroke was simply unbearable to me. As intimate friends who, for more than forty years, had shared together many life experiences, activities and confidences - personal problems, exhilarating jokes, chatty conversations, visiting night clubs and other such exploits - we were both overcome by emotions during that first visit, and tears came flowing uncontrollably down our checks.

What people do not know is that I am by nature a very sentimental person. It was just unbearable to see Okay in that state, unable to make himself heard or to use one side of his body - a man who, all through his life until then, had been so full of seat and mirth and vivacity.

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