The Journey to Dr. JB Egberike in Ndoro on 21 February 2026, By Enewaridideke Ekanpou

Dr. JB Egberike’s home in Ndoro is the home of repelling rebuff.
Many are the ennobling visitors that journey to Egberike’s home everyday.
The visitors to Egberike’s home are not only Ndoro people;
Trooping to his home everyday are thousands that have no roots in Ndoro.
To Egberike’s home are thousands who have been rebuffed everyday;
They are not only ennobling visitors so rebuffed everyday;
From Ndoro are thousands that have been so rebuffed many times in Egberike’s home.

Never in my life have I been so rebuffed, not even by Helen of Troy whom I mistook for my wife and kissed 200 years ago.
In Egberike’s home this my time-tested honour got mangled beyond trace like needle thrown into river.

Home Egberike came to rest after many years of service in Port Harcourt and Abuja.
For Egberike, Ndoro was his home of retirement after a long haul;
A long haul with willing words walled in his world of words merits homecoming.
By his willing words walled in his world of words, Egberike endeared himself to the world;
In Egberike’s world willing words are welded to work with weighted words.

Truth is a treasure, though always bitter like bitter leaf.
Nothing but the truth must be told right from the genesis here.
Lies do not live long in my lineage.
My eyes are like fireflies but they have seen things more than the crocodile light befriended by nocturnal fish-hunters.
I saw Jesus, Judas and Lucifer 300 years ago.
Before my very eyes Lucifer was expelled from Heaven to earth;
Yet, these my glow-worm eyes have not seen Egberike.

On 21 February 2026 I journeyed to Ndoro to see Egberike, not his world of willing words whose stories anyone can tell like folktales when moonlight and mother earth mate.

Everybody told me Egberike was at home.
Everybody was certain I would see Egberike at home.
Only Izonebi Alfred differed with doubts like Thomas when he knew my journey.

I went to Egberike’s residence in the morning;
They told me it was too early for him to wake up and talk to me.
I left and came back in the evening.
They told me again Egberike had gone to bed.
I left and came back in the night.
They told me Egberike was still fast asleep.
I left again and came back very early in the morning of another morning, exhausted.
He was still fast asleep

Still kept waiting for him I craned my neck and saw the room where Egberike was still fast asleep.
Must Egberike be the Ofo snake allergic to early rise from bed?
I did not see Egberike; it was only the room I saw.
Egberike had worked so hard he would not see anybody until after many ages have gone by.
Perhaps, Egberike would be ready to welcome ennobling visitors after 500 years of undisturbed sleep.

Joseph of Arimathea saw the body of the crucified Jesus Christ…
But I did not see the Dr. JB Egberike I sought.
I only paid homage to the grave where he was caught asleep, deaf to all visitors holding flowers of Ennoblement;
Because Egberike refused to see me, I only had a consolatory gift from his own messenger.
Lexis and Structure by JB Egberike was my only consolatory gift.

Egberike is still fast asleep, dead to lively conversations craved.
Egberike is still fast asleep with his great brain in Ndoro.
For ages Egberike shall lie fast asleep without the courtesy of saying ‘Tebra o’ to his august visitors.

Sparks and echoes murmurred in Abayai Forest caught from distance.
Through Bulou-Ndoro the speed boat meandered to Toru-Ndoro.
Toru-Ndoro-bound, our boat driver mistakenly headed towards Abayai Forest and retreated in fear.
The protest screams of the scared passengers awakened the driver
to the waiting sacrilege.

Humid, air-conditioned and dusk-embraced the trees in Abayai Forest looked from the distance.
The look of the trees and the waiting sacrilege frighteningly evaded meant nothing to Egberike still fast asleep in his underground room.
So Egberike wouldn’t have been bothered if we had sped ‘gedegede’ into the heart of Abayai Forest, seated on sacrilege?

Fast asleep in his TILED underground room, Egberike has no time for visitors coming to pay homage to him;
Fast asleep, Egberike no longer speaks his trademark flawless English to anyone;
Fast asleep, Egberike has locked his dictionary away from the world;
Fast asleep, Egberike could not rise to grace Chief Mitin Tamaraumieyefa’s funeral on 21 February 2026;
He was too fast asleep to watch the ennobling last dance steps of Kofee Amasuomo and Ayakoromo people for late Chief Tamaraumieyefa on his final day on earth.
Like Golor bridge in River Forcados that has cut itself from Esanma, Egberike has cut himself off from Ndoro.

Egberike is still fast asleep in his underground room;
Fast asleep, Egberike will not welcome anyone, not even the striking rhythms from the drums and guitar of Izonebi Alfred.
Fast asleep, Egberike will not welcome ennobling visitors to his home in Ndoro, not even his own Ndoro people with whom he shares roots and bonds of oneness.

Dr. Ekanpou writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State.