Discourse : Remembring Comrade Bene Madunagu 

I could not be at Calabar for the  interment activities and ceremony of our own Benedicta Madunagu, eminent professor of Botany, the one we reverentially called Comrade Bene, wife of our elder and respected Marxist; one half of the revolutionary couple we have come to adore all these years; and a foremost revolutionary intellectual in her own right! Yet, as I surveyed the solid national list of those who chose to stand up to be counted for the Madunagus’ at the burial, and for Bene personally even before her passing, that I could not but reach the conclusion about the continuing veracity of the contention that doing good is the only reliable way of ultimately expecting some sense of good. Here was Bene, with her corpse laid out in the coffin for burial, attracting and commanding the attention of hundreds, if not thousands, of her compatriots who not only continued to value her positive deeds while alive, but were witnesses to her extraordinary commitment to human values and the love of humanity in general.

Bene was not in a position to force anybody to stand up for her or to identify with her at death. But as our people would say, a good name has always been better than gold and silver and good deeds speak for us more than anything else after we must have passed. The compelling reason why many chose to stand up for her and identify with her and her family at her death and burial was the simple fact that she lived a committed life that positively touched many while alive. In the last analysis and in spite of the tendency to believe that humans do not necessarily set great store by the good deeds of others, here we saw them remembering and valuing the humanistic commitment and great deeds of Bene and coming out forcefully and prominently to identify with her and acknowledge and pay obeisance to the memories of such good works. This would be in contradistinction to the argument I was making on these pages last week about the joke of humans believing that they could profit from bad action and behaviour even where it has been proven that all bad actors and actions come to bad end in the end as nature’s recompense for the negative effect of the badness inflicted on the rest of the society. The same way that good works would not go unrewarded in the last analysis as elements come together to acknowledge the good effects of such work on the society.

Perhsps to borrow from the Scriptures, there would come a time, in every location and in every single instance, that we would see the distinction between those who do good and those who do bad. All we need to do is to be critically observant, to be able to apprehend the minutiae of life, and see as the elements coalesce to punish bad actors and actions and at the same time reward good actors and actions. Sometimes it would look like good deeds are meaningless in a world largely populated and defined by badness. But that would mean to miss the essence of the teachings of history about nature’s correction of badness and its extolling of goodness in the long run. Goodness ultimately begets goodness and badness ends up badly within the same parameters of natural scheme of things.

The lesson in all this is that Bene lived a life of commitment to values and ideals and principles and love of humanity and all these did not go unnoticed, unacknowledged, unappreciated and were not taken for granted by her compatriots. Good deeds have a way of speaking out for us boldly and courageously in the long run, and attracting the best elements of nature to help us and come to our rescue at every point in time, even at the worst of times. Bene played the good part and we saw goodness following her even at death. Her commitment and values did not go down in vain after her passing. She was adjudged and continued to be adjudged a quintessential humanist by almost all and this would mean treating her memories with respect and adoration. She played her role well and for this we are all grateful to God for her life. Our own dear Comrade, continue to sleep well after such a remarkable life of commitment!

* Olaitan, Professor of Political Science, was Vice-Chancellor, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State