Benjamin Sunday Ebaju
Sunday, 29 December 1946 to Monday, 9 June 2025
Born on 29 December 1946 in Owerre-Olubor in the then Western Region of Nigeria, the late diokpa Benjamin attended Western Boys’ High School in Benin City for his high school education. Coincidentally, that school features as its alumni the late Midwestern State military governor Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia and Mr Emmanuel Charles Osigbeme Ikazoboh – a former managing partner of Akintola Williams Deloitte, one time sole administrator of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and later Chairman of Ecobank.
I remember diokpa Benjamin as a dynamic and handsome man in the 1970s. He was a capable mobilizer of men and resources. He opened up Ikorodu to many sons of Olubor for them to put up their own houses – just as he himself had done in the 1970s upon returning from working with UTC Ibadan branch to settle in Lagos. Diokpa Benjamin never liked working too long as an employee and so, on quitting UTC, he pursued his dream of having other streams of income as a self-employed person. That was at a time when self-employment had not become popular; he was a trailblazer in this respect and therefore an example worthy of emulation.
In another respect, as a community builder, diokpa Benjamin spearheaded the founding of the first Owerre-Olubor Quarter Union in Lagos when the Umuikpulu Progressive Union (UPU) was established in the house of the late diokpa Pius Okorie Monye in Maryland, Lagos on Sunday, 25 November 1979. In fact, it was the then young Benjamin Sunday Ebaju who wrote the first draft of the UPU Lagos constitution. This Owerre-Olubor Quarter union (UPU Lagos) was the first and remains the only one still functioning today in Lagos as the four other Quarter unions which had copied from it have all wound down ignobly.
Lest we forget, UPU Lagos was formed immediately after the death of the teenager Benjamin Pius-Monye who had drowned in the Atlantic Ocean in Lagos. He had gone to swim as he used to do in Accra but he never came back! Benjamin Monye, a namesake of Benjamin Sunday Ebaju, was the son of diokpa Pius Okorie Monye; no wonder that Benjamin Sunday Ebaju was affectionately treated by diokpa Pius.
As the late diokpa Benjamin Ebaju advocated at the formation of UPU Lagos, it would serve as an internal bastion of support in case of any emergency arising upon any Umuikpulu indigene in Lagos and also as a firm foundation of diaspora support for Umuikpulu Quarters in Owerre-Olubor. Today, UPU Lagos has surpassed the other such Owerre-Olubor unions in Lagos in terms of organization and finance; thanks to the vision of the late diokpa Benjamin Sunday Ebaju.
Of course, as every mortal will eventually pass, Benjamin Sunday Ebaju has passed away. But we pray that his demise will not be the death knell for the outstanding union which he headed and which has been meeting in Ikorodu house up till the time of death last Monday. Let us keep the flag aloft and fluttering and flying forever! This is how to keep the memory of the last head of Umuikpulu-in-Lagos, the late Benjamin Sunday Ebaju evergreen!
Frank Monye
Nwa Ogude Ndudi Smart Monye
13 June 2025
