Working In Mortuary Is God's Calling Says Henry Okah

People die every day and naturally, the dead must be buried but involuntarily, societies in this part of the world tell to be uncivil toward undertakers. Understandably, this reactions scale from disdain to outright stigmatisation founded upon fear of death.

But a passionate mortician, who entered into the gruesome business at age 13, looks back 15 years and acknowledges that the profession is a noble and lucrative one that Nigerians should learn to venture into!

Henry Okah (not the coupist!), said every passion is rooted in divinity and declared histopathology is God’s calling for him.

The 30-year-old native of Afikpo in Ebonyi State is a certified mortician whose credentials and pedigree amase you. 

“I am a Chief Mortician and have been on the job at various levels for 15 years,” he told Daily Times . “I hold a Diploma in Embalmment; I have worked at Borromeo Hospital, Onitsha, 

Bendel Clinic Warri, Delta State; Queen of Peace; Abia,  Special Hospital; Agundu Hospital Awka; Regina Hospital, Awka; Maris Hospital, Abia state; Chetak mortuary, Obolo, Imo state; Amaku General Hospital, Akwa (now Amaku Specialists Hospital) and Cottage Hospital

Mortuary.”

Looking very confident and sure, the undertaker sounds philosophically, “The care of the dead requires the attention of people living. This requires very special people because you have to be special and God fearing to think of caring

the dead.

“In the beginning, a normal person would be scared to within an environment full of corpses; although after sometime, he may adapt and come to terms with the nature of the work.

But the bigger challenge is the poor remuneration, hazards we encounter in the chemicals we use for embalmment and these are compounded by social stigmatisation.

“I put in all my energy to work all hours of the day and nights anytime my attention is required; but in the society. we are not valued. Employers over labour us because they never have enough staff for the mortuary departments.”

Just how busy is the mortuary business?

“I have worked in a place where over 100 corpses were kept. I took charge of them all alone as my colleagues and two other persons, resigned for reasons which may not be unconnected with pressure of work, poor emoluments and maltreatments from both the employer and the society.

“On top of all that, some clients would shout you down; they can even accuse you of killing their beloved ones in order to earn money. However, some do help and appreciate us earnestly. I have so many clients who have been of help

me.”

Just how poor is the ‘remuneration?’

“You know in the olden days when the profession begging practitioners requested for gift items such as fowls, tubers of yam, drinks, etc. and they use kaikai (local dry gin) and some herbs for embalmment.

“But now, science and technology have been introduced into the industry for optimum service delivery, so all those gifts are no longer there. Now we use formalin for embalmments 

which can keep a corpse for about 10 years with

decaying. In that wise, I can embalm up to 100 dead bodies in a day. I usually embalm a corpse under 10 minutes.

“It is unfortunate that the operators of mortuaries are yet to adapt to that moving trend in terms of good salary package for mortuary workers. All they do mostly is to discourage

from requesting for or accepting any form of inducement, bribery and corruption, but we all have families to cater for.”

How true is it that morticians communicate with the dead? 

“I can tell you truthfully that it is not true. Dead people do not communicate. I believe people just like to be mischievous by creating those fearful tales. I have never encountered one.”

So it not true that you must knock at the door of a morgue before you enter?

“It is unbelievable! I have been a mortician all my life and i have never knocked before entering into any morgue. There is no formality for entering into mortuary. But you know some people can tell all manner of lies to extort money from their clients; I guess they even use those lies to defraud their customers.”

Do you pray for customers to come?

“Why should we? We don’t need to do that. It’s like a doctor praying for people to fall sick. It is unprofessional. People die everyday. So corpses

naturally come to us day by day. It doesn’t require public campaign or awareness.

When someone dies, the family will locate the mortuary wherever it is located.”

Would you advise your beloved to practice this profession

“Yes I will! It is a noble profession, very lucrative

respectful. We render services to God and man. That is why I work even on Sundays. Whenever I have cases to attend to, I will do that here. There is nothing wrong being a mortician.”

Caskets

Just how much does it cost to bury a dead in a decent casket?

“It all depends on how families wish to bury their loved ones. Caskets cost from N5000 to N,000,000, but they get rot between 3 to six months in the grave.”

There have been reports of missing parts, including disappearance of the whole corpse: what could be the cause?

“Are you saying that corpse or some parts could disappear? just like that? No! It may be that morgue operators or the mortuary workers sold it to the ritualists. This is why people must be careful of where they deposit their corpses. There was no such report all over the places I have worked far.”

How does Henry feel after a day’s work?

“Even though I desired to do the work before I even saw a mortuary, when I started the job, I used to have nightmare, where corpses attacked me. It was terrible then, and i wished to withdraw from the service. But later, I adapted and since then, I never had bad dreams. I now live normal life.”

How does the society relate to Henry, especially in the locality?

“Well, there is always stigmatisation whenever

introduce yourself as a mortician. The family members and friends often mistake you to operate with charms. Many people even believed we belonged to the world of spirits. But it all fallacies. Corpses do not strike. And you don’t need to have powers to be a mortician. I am a devoted Christian.

“So, to manage my relationship with wisdom, whenever I meet an acquaintance, I might be inclined to hide my profession from him or her … until they get to love and appreciate me for who I am. If not, they will run away.”

Message to government

“I wish to advice government to engage professionals in the field. Lots of quacks or what they call ‘contractors’ given us a bad image. It is a pity that they don’t employ experienced morticians to the job.

I was frustrated out at a particular government owed mortuary in Anambra State on account of the contractors they brought on the job after pioneer morticians like us laid the solid foundation there.

“They contracted a person who neither had academic qualification nor working experience to coordinate us.

The man was neither a mortician nor doctor but was picked from nowhere because of his connections in the government circles.

He looked down on workers’ salaries and welfare and over laboured us and the environment was polluted among other ugly developments.

“The best way to render quality service in this profession to employ experienced morticians!”

Well, you have heard it from the source. Want to be professional mortician? It’s a matter of choice.

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