Garba Shehu: First time I met Ikeogu Oke, he told me we won’t meet again

Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, says Ikeogu Oke, award-winning poet, saw his death coming.

Oke died on November 24 in a hospital in Abuja from an undisclosed ailment.

Oke, 51, was a celebrated poet who won the 2017 NLNG Prize for Literature.

Shehu said he met Oke in person two weeks ago for the first time, and that the poet told him it would be their last meeting.

“I join millions of our countrymen to mourn Ikeogu Oke, the prize-winning poet. I met his person for the first time two weeks ago. Before then, Femi had spoken very well about him,” Shehu wrote.

“I told him that I read his recent writings and he asked me if I had been impressed by them. When I observed that he looked unwell, he told me about his recovery from a recent surgery. Throughout the meeting, he was warm and affectionate.

“I don’t know what others will make of his telling me at that time that I and him will not meet again. To this, I protested and assured that we will meet again and again.

“He then requested me to join him in a photo and thereafter, he embraced me and said goodbye. Few deaths have shocked me as this one. May God give his family the fortitude to bear this loss.”

Interestingly, Oke had posted his epitaph on Facebook two months to his death.

He had simply written, “My Epitaph. Here lies a man who loved virtue and art, And gave to both his fortunes and his heart. Ikeogu Oke (1967 – ).”