By Maik Ortserga
He was deep, smart, poetic, infectiously likeable and charismatic. A tall lanky fellow with a melodious voice, he was a folk legend and model for the young and the old. For several decades, he bestrode the length and breath of Tiv land and beyond with his irresistible songs. When the mercy of God arrested him in the last decades of his life, he more than anything else, loved preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in his songs as the yearning for the salvation of souls pounce upon him.
This man is Evangelist Obadiah Kehemen Orkor- Orze, the popular Tiv folk singer who died in the early hours of today 27th of August, 2024 and whose body is already on its way to Jortar where he had lived with his family since he left the home of his forefathers in Taraba State on the heels of crises many years ago.
As I tried to put my thoughts on the legendary Obadiah Okor, after receiving a call from Orvesen Tahav Agerzua announcing his demise, I found myself in the same situation that the poet Niyi Osundare found himself when he said “Some lives are so rounded, so thronged, that they confront the biographer with a nightmare. Where does one begin the tale? Where does one end it? How does one count the seeds of achievement in the sea of a crowded career? How does one categorise the elements of a person who confronts history with such authoritative profundity as though he lived before he was born? Where does the teller put a pause in the tale?”
Obadiah Okor was a prodigy bubbling with creative acumen packed so much into his sadly abridged life. His insight on Tiv culture, philosophy, economy, politics and aesthetics was very profound as demonstrated in many of his early songs.
His poetic engagement with Tiv worldview was in the illustrious tradition of Tarker Golozo, Tondo Kumbur, Anche Igbaaze, Pevikyaa Zegi, Agugu Igbakumbul, Amee Yongo and others who committed a substantial part of their energy and creativity to put the society in check and create a better world.
Obadia was a verbal artist who intruded upon the world in every utterance he created thereby committing himself and inadvertently making proclamations about people, things, situations and events which ended up as legend for his own life. To borrow Osundare’s words “ Every prolific artist writes his own epitaph, sometimes several times over in his active career.” And so it was with Obadiah Okor. I would like to categorise Obadiah’s singing career into two monumental phases which I would like to term: The Old and The new Testament.
Obadiah’s songs in the first testament were deeply inscribed in the Tiv cultural fabric, and the lives of his patrons, exuberant in their tragedies as in their joys and desires. Some of the songs in this era captures the psycho-spiritual depth of Tiv cosmology in elevated language and thought.
The new Testament inherently tells how the twists and turns of fate and faith helped propel the twilight of the soloist’s life, painting the forceful portrait of his conversion in a radical manner as he gave new life to his career, propagating the gospel of Christ.
Thus, Obadiah is one historic singer caught in opposite sides. He was deeply radical in his Pentecostalism. For instance, he sent his numerous wives, the mothers of his children packing, then went on to bring back his first wife who left him for over a decade without bearing children for him. The one that will get you is that he even wedded her in the church.
Also in iconoclastic manner, he parted ways with the songs which he sang in his early testament and was never willing to discuss them. He became a radical preacher of the Good News both in his songs, in his speech and in his deeds.
When news went round that the Baka maestro, Terfa Gbateman, who goes by the stage name of Osaze, was converted and baptized in the church, Obadia came into town to provide counselling to the younger artist and I was there on the invitation of Tahav Agerzua. That became the very first time I would be meeting the legend face to face.
I was to meet with him on three more occasions, the first with Tahav Agerzua to conduct a marathon interview with him at the house where he lived near Cherrywood on Gboko Road. By this time he was already battling with prostate cancer.
The second time was when the legend featured on “Mtem Wase u Tiv” on Asking Radio 98.5 Speed F.M.
I returned to the house near Cherrywood with my friend Tim Cuttings Agber on the legend’s invitation to spend some time with him. By this time, it was quite obvious that he was on his way home.
Today, with a saddened heart, I co-hosted the radio programme “Mtem wase u Tiv” on Asking Radio with Tahav Agerzua where we had Mr Akwashi Uyeer, the president of Tiv singers discuss the life and time of Obadiah Kehemen Okor, a prophet of the human spirit. The callers on the program were overwhelming. It is impossible not to be touched by the final words of the legend as reproduced on the program today.
People like Obadiah never die. They live always in the spheres of our existence.
My final word is that Benue state University surely owes this remarkable singer an honorary doctorate degree.
