OBSEQUIES for business titan, founder of Diamond Bank, mobile telephone communications boardroom mongul, Dr. Pascal Gabriel Dozie, PGD, started Wednesday at the Church of Assumption, Falomo, Lagos.
Prof Mark Nwagu, one of a few who knew Dr. Dozie for almost 70 years, authored a tribute to him…
PASCAL GABRIEL DOZIE: A Tribute
By Prof Mark Nwagu
A Life Roars Diamonds
you came down after the rains, darkness in command
the sun sets its whiskers on disappearing clouds
your colours run end to end encircling
our hopelessness, our faith seeks a stronghold
you come to our rescue.
We bring out the coins from under our pillows
a vault opens, we empty our savings onto your securities.
I had nothing, but did not mind
you started with nothing in your palms
your fingers added several digits before our zeros
& we were climbing heights yet unheralded
rising and rising in the sun’s glare.
Not at all surprising, I had taught you in 1957
before I went on to UCI and taught you again
in 1958 during the university long vacation.
You learnt enough to enter into something
that would yield fruits surpassing the promise of the flowers.
You founded a bank and we rushed with our tattered notes
shirts in smithereens, shorts in ragged bottoms,
you took our money and we kept pouring in more and more
into endless mines, we did not mind digging
in time, our investments floated to the top
jewels everywhere, emeralds, sapphires
and biggest stone of all the diamond
reflecting all life’s splendours in the brightest sun.
I sought you everywhere
like your mines, you buried yourself more and more
that the jewels may grow and grow
I found you, out of pregnant depths you heard sonorous sounds.
it was 2007, FOREVER CHIMES was calling you
my words followed in quiet invitation
kindly come to my seventieth birthday celebrations
with the public presentation of my first literary work
FOREVER CHIMES.
You sat with me held me close and poured water on my head
in joy effusive and delights intoxicating
you asked for more and I obliged.
DREAMS DANCE would not sleep to dream till you slept.
You wore the colours of the rainbow
of the diamond appearing and disappearing
and my dreams danced with you, with Obj, in eternal joy.
You were with me holding me on 30 June 2022 celebrating
my diamond jubilee of my wedding to Helen and the
public presentation of Dreams Dance.
Fortunately you were still in Lagos, in diamond mines
but Egbu your hometown kept calling
you bowed in respect and returned home for rest
I met you there, gave you copies of my poems to Our Lord
Write Me A Poem.
Our conversations turned spiritual, theological
we shared our thoughts on the parables of Our Lord
on the kingdom of God.
We talked about the farmer going to his farm
and as he went some seeds fell here and there.
We were particularly interested in the seeds that fell among thorns
we would spend hours discussing the thorns in our life
on our way to growth
and the thorns would keep growing too until the harvest
and the harvest is the last day of our life
we must therefore struggle to pull these thorns from our life
and be able to yield a great harvest
I pray Pascal yours is a great harvest in the Beatific Vision
as you see God face to face.
Please remember us from where you are
that our harvest may be as rich as yours
to the greater glory of God
22 April, 2025, University of Ibadan
Mark Nwagwu is a retired Prof of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Ibadan, a 1965 PhD holder in Zoology from the Stockholm University, is currently a PhD student in Anthropology at the University of Ibadan. He would be completing his second PhD in 2027, at 90.
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