Ninety six years on earth and seventy years on the throne! If that milestone is not remarkably historic then nothing would. For a powerful woman who exercised power without complex, for a graceful great grand-mother who believed in the resurrected Christ and His power of community and love towards everyone, for a modern Queen who had seen it all, from World War II to the revolutionary advent of the Internet, from COVID-19 pandemic to the smooth transition from Empire to independence by many countries colonized, the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch was an epitome of greatness and ‘stateswomanship’.
The Queen of England, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, died last Thursday in a blaze of glory in the imposing royal Balmoral Castle in Aberdeen, Scotland. Two days prior she had dutifully received the outgone Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the current one, Liz Truss, there where she received Johnson’s resignation and appointed Ms Truss as his replacement.
Longevity, service to humanity and compassion were all on display as qualities embodied by the late Queen. Surviving the World War II, the Cold War, the Berlin Wall collapse, COVID-19 and other global phenomena is as rare as the Biblical Methuselah was credited with a longevity spanning 969 years so far unsurpassed by any man, ancient or modern!
Impressive tributes had come from across the world. From President Joe Biden to President Muhammadu Buhari, from Vladimir Putin to Emmanuel Macron; from Pope Francis to Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the who-is-who in the world politics, nay leadership, (religious, political) were all paying glowing tributes to an amazon of great standing whose leadership defined generations in war and peace times.
Remarkably the world was united in grief mourning the passing of an extraordinary woman of high value. It is often uncommon for the global community to unite to grieve the death of a world leader. In other cases the global media would have unearthed certain misdeeds and scandals swirling around the public figure. Bad news travel more distance than the good ones in a digital world transformed to a global village by the world wide web revolution.
But that does not mean that the beloved Queen Elizabeth did not have scandals or controversies trailing her 70-year sovereign reign. She was not a paragon! No mortal is or was! There existed certain weaknesses as well as strength like every Adamic element inhabiting this beautiful vast garden we know better.
When Princess Diana died tragically in a car crash in Paris, France, decades ago, the British monarchy was shaken to its very foundation with the good old Elizabeth reciving accusations of aloofness or carelessness in the tragedy. Allegations of complicity were equally thrown her direction. Diana had divorced the then heir-apparent and now King Charles III. This scandalous royal connubial clash did not reportedly sit well with the Queen.
A praying Queen her faith as a Christian was a departure from diabolical power and the wielders across the world. She was a mother, wife, royal Head of State of countless countries and Head of the Commonwealth yet the late Queen was as simple and jovial as every other woman on the street.
She was said to have possessed a profound sense of humour that often knocked leaders into a prolonged laughing frenzy even during serious engagements. She was a caring mother, a good housewife and a she-shepherd of millions under her leadership in the UK and elsewhere around the world.
The late Queen meant many things to many people of all races and religion, none negative. She had visited Churches, Synagogues and Mosques. She had travelled to more than a hundred countries (including Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya of course) and the whole continents meeting and interacting with Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers and fellow Kings and Queens. During those official visits she had taken time out to interact with the poor and the vulnerable too exhibiting charity.
She was in Kenya at a young age holidaying when suddenly the sad news came across that her then King-father, Albert Frederick Arthur George (King George VI), had died! In Ghana she danced with the late President Kwame Nkrumah. During one of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summits held in an African country she insisted that Apartheid must be condemned strongly likening it to “affront to humanity!”
Her historic journey from the cradle to the grave was a demonstration of man’s natural temporal existence in this vast garden we call home. We shall all taste death one way or another whether we are sons of daughters of Kings and Queens or poor artisans! If money could buy life then the Queen would have lived forever! Given the public affection she commanded from her subjects at home and abroad it is unimaginable that the grim reaper could strike, taking her down like other mortals.
Leadership, in its best element, entails discipline, dignity, hardwork, good work. It involves work for peace, work for unity, for progress; work for posterity and prosperity of the people. And above all, work for God! The late Queen embodied these qualities and much more.
As the the international community mourn the passing of a great Queen whose global impact was legendary we express our grief and our solidarity with the British people, our former masters. God, in His infinite mercy, saved the Queen. ‘God Save the Queen’ was the National Anthem of the United Kingdom. And that supplication must have been heard by the Supreme Being by preserving Her Majesty and bestowing her with long life and great health.
In this pervading global atmosphere of melancholy, therefore, following the celebrated demise of the Queen we can only say: God Save The King!
Fare thee well, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor! May you make heaven!! And may He in His mightiness, forgive your transgressions, if any!!!
SOC Okenwa
soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr
