WHAT a man! Such men are rare. They live for ever! They never die. Friends or foes will always remember them; each according to his own personal experience. A man of noble carriage. As straight as a rod. As clean as a whistle. A man of very strong conviction. He was different things to different people. Soft and gentle. Strong and as inflexible as iron. That was Chief (Dr.) Michael Clement Atowari Peterside.

I knew him a bit more intimately when I married into his family. The Petersides gave me a lovely damsel; one of the most beautiful ladies I have ever known in Gloria Orugba Jim-Peterside (now deceased), the only child and daughter of Chief Jim-Peterside, son of Chief Shoo Peterside.

Before my marriage to Gloria, Chief Michael Peterside’s reputation as a dogged fighter and as a man of principle and inflexible conviction had already been established; and had preceded him. We were then boys. It was his much publicised in-fighting with one or two of his colleagues in the medical profession which brought him to the limelight. He stuck doggedly to his conviction. He, ultimately, rose to the rank of Controller of Medical Services.

In my interaction with Chief Michael as head of the Peterside family, he was ever so courteous and so accommodating. He made me feel absolutely at home; a welcome member of his extended family.

The role of Chiefs in Opobo Town has always been very daunting with hundreds of years of tradition heaped on their shoulders. Chief Michael carried his office with ease, grace and dignity, laced with the enlightened style and aura of the modern man he was. For he was an accomplished and distinguished medical doctor, who trained in King’s College, London, St. George’s Hospital, London, and Moorfields Eye Hospital, London as a specialist ophthalmologist.

He tried to strike a balance between the traditional and the modern demands and values in a Kingdom long deeply steeped in the art of intricate diplomacy – gun boat and the rest – that challenged the imperial might of Britain (perfidious albion), then at the peak of her heady buccaneering activities. Those were in the then-to-be Nigeria, in the Niger Delta, before amalgamation. Those were the days of the much celebrated and legendary King Jaja who was exiled to St. Vincent and later to Barbados in the Caribbean. Their heirs, leaders, sons and daughters of Opobo Town, Chief Michael Peterside himself not excluded, still have running in their veins, a tint of the old “Igbani diplomacy”.

Chief Michael was never an arm-chair critic. His character was such that he could not have stood on the sideline of the dominant issue that was then at the heart of Opobo politics. He threw himself passionately into it; and true to his own personal conviction, firmly held his grounds. Notwithstanding the acrimony generated, Chief Michael was for a peaceful resolution of the disagreement. All who knew him can attest to the fact that he never hesitated to take any issue he felt very strongly about to the law courts for adjudication. It remains the crowning pride and glory of the entire people of Opobo Town, Chiefs and citizenry alike, that they never resorted to violence in resolving their differences. They did so peacefully.

What a mark of a highly cultivated and civilised people, whose attributes include love for healthy food and their drink, music, dancing, matched with an elegance in taste; a swagger that is unapologetically displayed in fine, howbeit flamboyant attires and jewellery, a proud people, beautiful virtuous and impeccably domesticated women folk, noted for their sophistication. Chief Michael Peterside, in his nobility, and with his adoring wife always by his side, embodied all these virtues.

With their joie de vivre, represented in a much mellowed manner by the Chief, it is not surprising that the average Opobo person is blessed with toughness and longevity. So was Chief Michael. It may not be generally known that the chief continued driving his own car from his residence at Trans Amadi Layout in Port Harcourt to Kono Riverside – many miles away – to his home town in Opobo, even when he was almost 90. After a prolonged tussle with his son, Atedo, he finally acquiesced to utilising the services of the driver Atedo had hired for him. However, the driver soon became the passenger, while he, Chief Peterside, took over the steering. A more stubborn man I have never known.

Now he is gone; leaving behind a loving and caring wife, Mama Patricia, a trinity of distinguished children, grand-children, great-grand-children, a group of relations and friends to honour and mourn him.

I will miss your beguiling look with an ever teasing glint of mischief hovering in your eyes. Others, who deserve it, will miss your stern, admonishing stare. I will miss your hardly recognisable stammer. All those who cherish hard work, straight talk, honesty and truth in an almost certainly corrupt-free life will sorely miss you. What a man! Good night. Farewell.

• Olisemeka, CON. was an ambassador and former Minister of Foreign Affairs.