One of the most prolific Tiv traditional oral poets of all time remains, perhaps, Obadiah Kenhemen Orkor.
Orkor, who hails from Mbayengeijir, in Wukari local government area of Taraba State has maintained that he does not know his exact date of birth but that he was born around 1957.
His secular artistic career spanned close to three decades, from 1970 when he came to limelight to 1997, when he converted to Pentecostal Christianity.
Thereafter, he has been as prolific in churning out sacred songs and music, close to as much as when he performed in the secular arena.
He remains one of the few artistes that have made outstanding marks both in secular and sacred songs and music.
9News Nigeria gathered that,the late Obadiah Orkor died on Tuesday, 27th August, 2024 at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi; was taken to his country home and buried same day based on the instruction he gave to his kinsmen while he lived.
The deceased was captured two years ago (2022) where he explained how he intended his death should be. He maintains that:
“…I have told my children that I want my death to glorify God. When a father or parent dies, the house is usually crowded with people in the name of giving them the last respects. In my case I don’t want the respect for myself, but my death should rather glorify God.”
“God planned that when someone dies, he should be buried immediately. The very day I die and they confirm that I am dead, there is no other program after that. They should take my body to where I’ll be buried.”
“If God gives us the grace to return to our place in Taraba, thy should take me back home and bury. But even now that we are yet to return, we have an old place which our Mbayenge kinsmen met and mapped out and gave to us, our great grand father had settled there. They should dig a grave there immediately. Even my casket, they themselves can construct. That’s to say they shouldn’t go looking for luxuries. If they join one wood with another, a casket has been formed already, they should lay me in it and put in a simple grave.”
“I don’t want a wake keep, I don’t want any embalming injection, I don’t want to be kept in the mortuary. Once I die, I should be buried. After burying me, they should carry my phone, I have already told my son, Myom, that he should remove my SIM card and give to this one, he should give my phone to my eldest child.”
“After burying me, that is when they’ll start picking the names of my friends from the phone and SIM and informing them that ‘we are sorry to inform you that our father is no more alive but we have buried him. He had instructed us that if he dies, he shouldn’t be embalmed, so we have done as he said, we buried him.’ That is what I have told them.”
“It is not natural, keeping dead bodies, embalming is also not natural. Moreso that during the wake and on the day of burial, things happen that in our entire existence, that is what hurts God the most. What I am saying is not a joke, in this our part of the world, what hurts God most is our burial rites.”
“On the day of burial, even Christians drink alcohol, commit fornication and adultery, and there is general lawfulness. It might even be a Bishop that will die, they must drink alcohol there, and they must fornicate, commit adultery, excrete indiscriminately. No matter what kind of Bishop, these things must happen, and because of this, your death hurts God. So as for me, let my death glorify God. Once I die, I should be buried quickly so that people do not have opportunity to commit indignities that will disrespect God, there.”
Now you have fought a hard battle and won. Rest on with our creator my uncle ORBADIA ORKOR. May your soul rest peacefully with our creator.
This is what he said before his dead.
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