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...Those who cannot be remembered without a tomb are without legacies
By Olivia Obijiaku
“For Mama, work is over; going to the market is over and her toil is over – her plantain customers will not see her again. She has just changed her dress to a glorious city and her Paradise of rest. Mama is enjoying a new glorious life in a place of eternal rest.“
The Anglican Bishop of Kaduna Diocese and the Supervisory Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Zaria, Rt. Rev (Dr) Timothy Yahaya has called on Christians to live a life that will influence the world for good. He made this call at the funeral service of Mama Monica Adejoh which took place in All Saints Anglican Church, Zaria on Saturday, 22nd January, 2022.
Reflecting on the topic: ‘When Christians Die, They Rest in Their Labour,’ the bishop charged them to ensure that they labour for things that bring glory and honour to God as well as leave legacies for which they may be remembered long after they have gone citing the deceased as such a person whose legacies live on.
“The best thing you can be in this life is to be a Christian because we die to Eternal Life.” Bishop Yahaya stated. “Let us consider our ways. Let us fight a good fight of faith and hold on to God. Those who die in the Lord are blessed because heaven will be their rest (Rev. 21:14); they rest from constant struggle with sin (Rev. 21:27); their work will follow them (1 Cor. 15:58); they shall see God (Rev. 21:3); they will inherit their mansion (Jn. 4:2); and they will have Eternal Life (Jn. 5:13). If we do not live in accordance to the will of God, we will live in eternity in hell and become evangelists in hell like the rich man.
“For Mama, work is over; going to the market is over and her toil is over – her plantain customers will not see her again. She has just changed her dress to a glorious city and her Paradise of rest. Mama is enjoying a new glorious life in a place of eternal rest.
Discipline was Mama’s legacy. Some of us allow our daughters to bring men into our homes and sleep with but Mama never tolerated that. She was a disciplinarian. You cannot cook without discipline. Cooking is very difficult – fire is not friendly neither is the knife, yet she survived all that.
Mama labored for Christ together with her husband. She is blessed. She has written her name in the hearts of many people. In terms of human relations, she was above many Professors of Human Relations because she was raised up properly and her in-laws loved her. Her children are so proud of her today because she related well with them. She related well with people of other tribes. Mama is beyond the grave. For almost twenty years, Idah Igala Women in Zaria trusted her to lead them and she was able to carry everyone along. What is your community going to write about you when you are gone? Will your name be a resource to your children or shame to them? You have no legacy in this world if you cannot be remembered without a tomb. We pray that her children will not scatter after her demise.”
The leader described hell as a catastrophic place where a drop of water in hell is bigger than the abundance of the earth and inspired them to make heaven their ultimate target so that they may inherit the greatest promises of God in the Bible.
In their combined tribute to their mother, the three surviving daughters of the departed Prof (Mrs.) Doris Adejoh-Obieje, Director NOUN, Sauka Abuja Study Centre; Mrs. Ele Josephine Seriki and Dr Mrs. Elizabeth Adejoh- Ubani explored their mother’s monumental legacies
“Our testimony today is that we remember what she has done. At her passing, strangers say of her, ‘This kind woman is gone.’ Mama was a mother to all. She was a mother to students, her husband’s nieces and our friends. She welcomed everybody in her home without discrimination. She was not only surrounded by her biological children and it was hard to tell which of the children in her house were hers. Mama fed students who could not afford meal tickets. She always stood by her children. She was a resourceful and hardworking mother who made sure that we never lacked.
Mama suffered many human loses. She lost her husband, children, grandchildren, in-laws and friends but she never turned her back on her testimony – she never cursed God. Her shoes were too big and we hope we will be able to walk in them.”
More testimonies of late Adejoh’s life flowed from people of different fields of endeavour including the former Vicar of the Church and now the Bishop of Kano, Bishop Zaka Nyam, professors many of whom benefited from her benevolence as a caterer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Samaru Zaria, neighbours, former collegues.
On a very special note, Mama was the oldest member of the Church, “with the advent of the Nigerian Civil War in 1966, only Mama Adejoh, her husband Joseph and their little daughter, Doris stayed on in the church after the other southern brethren had gone back to their roots. They stayed back and ran the Church. With her demise, the first post-civil-war generation of All Saint’s Anglican Church has shut down for a new generation to carry on the Christian battle.” Her children declared.