Azikwe
The following is full text of the funeral oration delivered by Mr. Nnamidi Azikiwe, at the grave side when the remains of Herbert Macaulay were interred at the Ikoyi Cemetery on Saturday, May 11 1946.
Come and mourn with me, heroes and heroines of the New Africa. The beauty of Africa has been desecrated by the cold hands of death; how are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
An illustrious son of Africa has received his summons to join “the innumerable caravan, that moves to that mysterious realm where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death
This African immortal has answered the home call not, “like the quarry slave, at night, scourged to his dungeon,” but 'sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, he has approached the grave "like one that draws the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams"
Mr. Herbert Macaulay died peacefully in his sleep, without qualms and without
worries. In his life-time, Africa entombed by the forces of evil, had faith, cruelty and oppression, and Africans were enveloped in the darkness of intolerance, prejudice, poverty, ignorance and superstition; but he had one life; yet this has been sacrificed for the redemption of Africa.
Verily, he died on active service - battling for the revival of the stature of man-in-Africa.

CHEQUERED LIFE
Born on November 1864, Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay was seventh son of the founder of the Lagos Church Missionary Society Grammar School, Rev. Thomas Babington Macaulay. His mother was second daughter of the first African Bishop, His Lordship the Right Reverend Samuel Ajayi Crowther, D.D.
After his education locally, he proceeded to the United Kingdom for studies in Civil Engineering. At the age of 29, he completed his professional education and graduated as and associate member of the Institute of British Architects.

For five years he served the civil service of Nigeria as Surveyor, being among the first to hold what, today, is regarded as European appointment; afterwards he established private practice.
At the age of 40, Herbert Macaulay entered the political arena of Nigeria and subsequently distinguished himself as a great journalist. It was his wish that he should die in harness, and in spite of his advanced age, he led the delegates of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons on a nationwide tour, only to succumb when was in sight.

NATIONAL CALAMITY
The demise of this Doyen 'of Nigerian politics is a racial disaster; at this critical stage of human history, when the fate of millions of the Negroid races is being decided at the conference tables of the western nations, his encyclopedic knowledge would have been invaluable to many African political embryos.
His death is a national calamity; at this crucial milestone in the history of Nigeria and the Cameroons under British Mandate, when the destiny of our country has been "Made Abroad" in a cut and dried fashion and we are expected to accept same as an immutable and revealed law handed down to us from Mount Sinai, his 'political sagacity could not but have a chastening effect.
Indeed, what William Wordsworth said of John Milton, is applicable to the great man whose last remains we deposit here today:

"Milton thou shouldn't be living at this hour.
England hath need of thee; she is a ten.
of stagnant waters: alter, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hail and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower of inward happiness.
We are selfish men.
Oh rise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:
Thous hadst a voice whose sound was like the seat.
Pure as the naked heavens majestic free.
So 'didst thou travel on life's common way
In cheerful godliness and yet they heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay."

WITHOUT PREJUDICE
It is not within the ken of man to judge his fellow man without prejudice; the toga of imperfection with which mere mortals are clothed makes any adverse judgment by any human being on the life of our dead leader futile.
None is perfect, otherwise should no t be human. If, in spite our imperfection to man, and thereby vindicate the imperfections, of humanity.

William Shakespeare said:
"Blow, blow thou winter wind, 'Thou art not
so unkind As man's ingratitude
"Freeze, freeze, thou better sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot".

SUPREME SACRIFICE
With apologies to the Second Book of Samuel:
The beauty of Africa has been desecrated by the cold hands of death; how are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of  war perished!
Spread this national calamity throughout the continents of the earth publish the news in West Africa; disseminate it in the streets of  Nigeria - so that the world will know that Africa has lost a hero in the fight.
Mountains of the Cameroons, weep not for  Herbert Macaulay; but hold high your heads in pride - that our country has produced a patriot whose life has been enshrined in the hearts of all who adore freedom.
Let the tears shed by the River Niger and the River Benue irrigate the plains of this blessed soil of our country so that the realms of Herbert Macaulay for Nigeria might become a reality.
Ye sons and daughters of Nigeria, weep over our fallen leader, who has sacrificed his life so that we may have food, raiment, shelter and the necessities of life in abundance.

And as you weep, take heart and remember that
"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sand or time."

THANATOPSTS
We come now to the parting of ways  we, to depart to our various homes until our individual calls to our Thanatopsian doom; and dead leader to return to the womb of Mother Earth, the Alma Mater which gave him birth and enabled him to enjoy the beauties or this life, ere his eyelids were closed in death and his lips sealed forever.

As we lay this feeble and mortal frame ill the bosom of Mother Earther let us realise that this place has now become a hallowed spot in our national history.
Let us remember that the occupant of this hallowed parcel of earth once lived like us  he ate, slept, woke,. worked, joked and fretted, lo today he lies down here, cold, mute, forlorn and inert.
When he lived, he generated ideas which have inspired millions to look forward to a new life conceived in the ideology that man that is born of a woman is not destined to be ill servitude for ever.
As we. commit Herbert Macaulay to the physical element  which inhabit this hallowed ground, let us dedicate our lives a-new to this conception  that our leader shall not have died in vain, that the ideals for which he lived and the ideas which the propagated shall not be obliterated from this continent.

A LEGACY
Herbert Macaulay has left us an imperishable legacy - the struggle for the attainment of social equality, economic security, religious tolerance and political freedom.
Ours it is to hold aloft this torch of democracy so that our posterity shall not repeat the fatal mistake of yesteryears and continue to live in servitude and in want in the midst of plenty.
Let us venerate the memory of our fallen hero; he has paid the penalty of leadership.
Let us perpetuate his ideas of freedom; they can be realised in our life- time.
Let us erect a monument on this hallowed spot, as a fitting climax to his glorious life, so that this chapter in our national history, which has now closed, will open a new page in our onward march towards the crystallization of a new Africa.

OUR LEADER
Oh, our leader, we mourn for you; oh, our hero, we weep for you.
To leave us at this stage of the battle is a bitter pill to swallow, but man cannot stay the hand of destiny
Fare thee well, my political father, the candle of liberty that you have lit shall never, never be quenched.
My thoughts are now one with Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Dirge without Music", the last stanza of which reads:
"Down, down, down, into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned",