Newsbreak: Nigeria loses finest female socialist revolutionary, Comrade Benedicta Madunagu

By Ologeh Joseph Chibu

Nigeria has lost one of her finest socialist revolutionary.

She died on Tuesday at 77. Benedict Madunagu was one of Nigeria’s most committed socialists who dedicated her life to the service of mankind.

She was a very honest, dedicated socialist whose work spanned five decades.

As a very young lady, Bene was involved in the effort to set up a Socialist Party in 1963 by the first generation of Nigerian communists.

She belonged to the first generation of Nigerian Marxists who had hoped one day, Nigeria would become a socialist country.

After from being a lecturer at the University of Calabar where she lectured, retired and later lived and died, she ran a socialist workers’ campaign group in Calabar.

Her husband, Dr Edwin Madunagu, remains her soul-mate revolutionary until the last breath of her beloved wife.

Edwin is Nigeria’s most profound Socialist writer with his Thursday columns in The Guardian newspapers.

Madunagu, the husband attended Ilesa Grammar School in Osun State and speaks Ijesa dialect very well.

In a statement made available to Irohinoodua signed by Prof Abiodun Jeyifo, he announced to the world the passing of the female revolutionary, one of the finest Nigeria has ever produced.

Jeyiso wrote “With profound gratitude for her life, her achievements and her contributions to the struggles for equality, justice and dignity for all, I hereby announce the transition early this morning of Comrade Benedicta A. Madunagu, known universally and affectionately simply as “Bene”.

He wrote further that She was aged 77 years and passed away peacefully at the Madunagu residence in Calabar.

“Although this is not a tribute but a formal announcement made on behalf of the family and the Nigerian Left, I wish to state here that my sense of profound loss in Bene’s passing is matched by an equally profound celebration of her life and achievements.”