As I turn fifty-two today, I reminisce about these photos of me with my late mother and her sister, taken on my sixteenth birthday, January 22, 1990.
In the first photo with my mother, I am dressed in an Agbada with Abeti Aja made from Aso Oke woven in Iseyin, Oyo State. In the second picture with her sister, I am dressed in an Agbada made from Kaduna textile, from Kaduna, Kaduna State.
From birth, my late mother imbued in me an undying love for Nigeria and all her people. I was not brought up to wear clothes from only my own ethnic background. My parents taught me that as long as it is authentically Nigerian, then it is a part of me.
Even before my first birthday, though she was a student in Austria, my mother ensured that I began publicly dressing in made-in-Nigeria Aso Oke and other Nigerian fabrics, thus beginning my love affair with Nigeria that has carried on to the present.
Throughout my youth, including as one of the few Black African children in Berkeley, California, my family ensured that I would continue to be publicly associated with my homeland and be publicly and unashamedly adorned in Nigerian cultural attire in a world that wanted to Westernise me, thus strengthening my psyche and resolve to be true to my roots.
At birth, I was given five names. All of them are native to Nigeria, and strongly so.
My loyalty to the Niger Area, its government, and its people is historical, dating back to my birth, and will only end with my death.
That is why, instead of receiving gifts and felicitations today, on my fifty-second birthday, I would rather thank God for sparing my life, and gift this life that He gave me to Nigeria and all Nigerians. I promise to dedicate the rest and best of my life to the service and betterment of Nigeria and all her people, so help me God.
Every friend of Nigeria will be my ally, and every enemy of Nigeria will be my foe.
My solemn vow is, to the best of my ability, to make Nigeria a better place for all Nigerians, regardless of region, religion, or other predilection and identification.
Long live Nigeria!
May God bless Nigeria!
May God bless all Nigerians!
Bemigho Reno Omokri
January 22, 2026
Leave a comment