AIT/RAY POWER SPORTS JOURNALIST ED-EMMANUEL BASSEY LOSES MOTHER AT 89
Renowned sports reporter, editor and presenter with Daar Communications Plc, the owners of Africa Independent Television and Ray Power 100.5FM, Ed-Emmanuel Bassey has lost his mother, Madam Grace Bassey (Nee Animi Manas Thompson).
The community leader and astute business woman passed on at age 89.
In a tribute to his mother, Ed-Emmanuel Bassey who cut his teeth in Ondo State RadioVision Corporation(OSRC) described his late mother as “Biggest Ally in life’s struggles”.
(Full Text of the Tribute)
MY BIGGEST ALLY IN LIFE’S STRUGGLES
The Bo Namondo family, Odukpani, Ikpai, Nkonib(Ikot Ansa) Qua Clans in Calabar, Cross River State have announced the passing of the matriarch of the Sweet Bassey family, Madam Grace Bassey (Nee Animi Manas Thompson).
One of three siblings which an Ijaw merchant fisherman from Nembe/Brass in Bayelsa state Nigeria got from his union with a Balondo woman in South West Cameroon, Animi Grace Manas Thompson would chat her own procreation course yielding eight children even as her union with an Abakpa/Qua/Efik Calabar man John Okon Edet Bassey produced one of the finest most versatile broadcast journalists in Nigeria Bassey Ed- Manuel Edet as the last born.
Her life became guided by hard work and an unquenchable drive for success within the limits of available resources.
She was a woman who never allowed anything or anyone to hold her back from giving the best possible to her children.
In a nostalgic recollection of his days growing up, Ed- Manuel who cut his teeth in broadcast journalism with the Ondo State Radiovision Corporation(OSRC), Akure in the 2000s before moving on to DAAR Communications PLC where he’s been a key Sports presenter and Newscaster on both Africa Independent Television AIT and Nigeria’s number independent Radio station Raypower 100.5 FM reveals;
“On one particular occassion, she had come back from the market as usual with some fish and been cake (akara). I rushed along with other kids from a nearby playground to drink garri with the fish and akara (the usual practice back then pending when the real full course meal would be ready). We ran back for the football kickabout and soon heard “Eddiiieee Boyyy” as she loved to call me”.
“On sighting her with a 4-litre keg, I sneaked to hide in an uncompleted building and watched her go get the Kerosene for the stove she used to cook for us.
My father was told of my behaviour by someone else altogether later in the evening, and when he started to mete out the punishment my mother intervened putting up a defence that saved me from further beating”.
“Another incident- a life-threatening one at that- was when at the age of about four or five, I strayed into the waterboard and fell in to the big, deep clean pool of water and was rescued by a “good Samaritan”. As some family members got ready to give me some lashes of the cane, she grabbed and covered me protectively like a hen covers her eggs saying “please don’t beat him. He has suffered enough already from gulping so much water that has been pressed out of his belly “.
“She obviously knew how to draw a line between punishment and protection for her children”.
“She was never one to bother anyone with anything she could do on her own. My elder sisters particularly can also testify how she went on with household chores without bothering anyone until food was ready and on the table for either breakfast, lunch or dinner”.
“A very kind and caring heart, her magnanimity was felt beyond her household and while charity for many may have begun from home, for her it did not end there. It went further out and deep into the community”.
“Despite being a seamstress by training the desire to help fight hunger motivated her to veer into the food business industry albeit on a small scale as a food vendor. She nurtured it to give birth to a restaurant that served the needs of the “haves” and the “have nots”.
“In an instinctive show of appreciation, the less privileged and vulnerable among the masses in a small South West Cameroon town of Ekondo Titi where the business thrived, nicknamed her “HELEP MOTHER”.
“This ostensibly was because of the fact that most times they could eat on credit and pay whenever, while at other times they got compassionate free meals for themselves and kids”.
“It was actually a no brainer that in no time the small eating place with no name became HELEP MOTHER RESTO (Restaurant)”
“On these evidence it is clear that even though she was not a known philanthropist her deeds were highly philanthropic within the context of giving to inspire life and humanity in her small space”.
“She’s left her footprints on the sands of time.
Many would miss her for many reasons”.
“As the family meets to decide on burial plans, Ed- Manuel Bassey finds it very hard to take that his dear mother is no more but says living a fulfilled life upto the ripe old age of 90 is a cause to glorify the Most High God”.
“Although nobody wants their mother death no matter how old, we her children led by my elder brother Chief Joseph Edet Bassey who’s played the role of my father for decades, would come up with burial plans to celebrate an amazing woman who lived a life dedicated to the service of God”.
Ed- Manuel Bassey
