August 26, 2026
Okoh Aihe
I love writing about telecoms with relish; if only to enjoy the little pomposity that I am one of those journalists who wrote the industry into existence. You know the story started somewhere and we like everyone to understand our circumstantial intervention to make things happen. I was on the way to Edo State last weekend, August 21, 2026, to be specific, to pay my last homage to Uncle Benson, full name — Benson Omonzokpea Okoh, the last of my father’s generation, who went to join his siblings and ancestors in that final place where home is eternal and harbours the kind of peace that cannot be disturbed by human wickedness. He was 103 years, 12 years short of that of his father, Pa Okoh Akhimien (aka Okoh Alowa), who died at the beautiful age of 115 in the early ’70s. Uncle Benson made his choices very early in life and that paid off. He was the second of his siblings who worked for the white man, the first being Pa Michael Ojeabulu Okoh, who went home much earlier than hisA younger sibling. When you worked for the government in those days, it was assumed in my part of the country that you were working for the white man as you earned the much-coveted monthly salary.
