Photo: Illustration by Mrs Chinze Ojobo
HRH Prince Philip: From Refugee To Royal (How a Greek refugee boy ended up as the head of the world’s most famous royal family)
By Professor Chris Imafidon – The extraordinary life of a little baby that was almost killed while he was a few months old, to becoming the head of one of the most powerful kingdoms of this world. The saga of HRH Prince Philip, the consort of the first head of state of Nigeria and a passionate lover of Africa sounds very similar to the Biblical Moses. From near death childhood to leader of nations. Through his extraordinary life, “Duke of Edinburgh” gave us his formula for success, which is a combination of devotion, dedication, and duty.
DUKE?
In Africa, particularly countries once colonised by Britain, HRH Prince Philip is well respected as their former Head of State’s spouse. In fact few days to the burial service, I saw an advance copy of the Order of Service for the funeral of Prince Philip due to take place in Abuja, Nigeria – six thousand miles away from Windsor Castle. In the service of songs, Prince Philip Mountbatten is addressed as “HRH Prince Philip – consort of the first Head of State of Nigeria”. The Order of Service by Arch. Bishop Sam Zuga!
To the Nigerians, the Duke of Edinburgh title is a misnomer. They see Prince Philip as a global icon, and legend who impacted over 132 countries, therefore “Duke of Edinburgh” grossly understates his influence and impact. Based on merit, he should be “Duke of Africa, South America, Asia” and so on
Another unknown secret is that Prince Philip’s original idea of ecology was due to his experience in Africa. When he visited Africa he saw undiluted natural co-existence of plants and animals in the wild. But when he visited later, behold things have changed. The natural habitat was being disrupted and the ecosystem was now compromised. He called for sustainability. He saw the immediate need for natural habitat conservation but people ridiculed him. As a man of conviction, he continued unaffected. The western leaders and society called him unprintable names but six decades later they began to realise that he was a “prophet” who saw things very far ahead of time. This is why most world leaders today call him the father of global ecology. This is a product, World Wild Fund (WWF) which he pioneered.
DIFFICULTY
HRH Prince Philip was born a Greek of Danish extraction. But as a baby of a few months old, his parents had to flee Greece otherwise they would have all been killed. Therefore, the young Filippos was smuggled into exile. So they virtually left their country WITHOUT any material things. If you ever had the chance to discuss immigration with HRH Prince Philip you will be shocked to be told that he is not from Edinburgh, Scotland as his title suggests. He only had his schooling in Scotland. He spent his whole life relating with strangers and foreigners because he saw how his family suffered due to immigration forced on them by very unusual circumstances. This informed his life dedication to diversity. HRH Prince Philip often shared with inner-city students the ExcellenceinEducation.org.uk programme who won Gold in his youth training called the DofE in the palace that where you start life is not as important as where you end up. Therefore, with focus youths can achieve a lot no matter the difficulty.
DUTY
Perhaps, this strange beginning gave birth to his sense of duty and gratitude to Britain and to some extent France. These foreign countries came to the rescue when his entire family could have been wiped away if they had stayed a day longer in his home country of Greece. The least thing he could do is being dutiful and perform whatever role he was given and never complains. This sense of duty started from a very young age while studying in Scotland after leaving France. Then he loved the military and trained a naval officer-graduating top of his class. Samantha Imafidon, paying tribute to him, said to the Sunday Times “HRH Prince Philip was a huge advocate for technology. He was more of a rebel, who wanted to shake things up. He was the one who pushed the Queen to give her first broadcast address etc.” In 1961, Prince Philip became the first member of the royal family to be interviewed on television. Also, he was bilingual, as he speaks French very fluently – he lived in France for seven years as a kid. We loved tech enough to have enjoyed reading this piece that was co-authored by AI designed by FireFlies. AI called Fred developed in Silicon Valley by Africans.
DEDICATION
His dream was to be a successful military officer. He developed the leadership skill via personal dedication. And served Britain as a war officer. He saw danger and fought it off and the United Kingdom rewarded his bravery with national awards. And most of all, the UK also gave him a young lady to marry. Again he demonstrated his dedication to the institution of marriage and mobilised all his efforts to the then Princess “Lilibet’ as Queen Elizabeth was known. Nobody could have predicted that she would one day become a monarchy, because when she was born, her father was NOT a king. Her Uncle was supposed to be King until he ran away with an American divorcee. So her father was now forced to dedicate himself to the throne.
DEVOTION
Prince Philip’s devotion became obvious when all of a sudden his lady was moved from being someone with just royal blood, to become a full blooded royal and next in line to the throne. He had to change his life ambition of living an ordinary life to being at the heart of the extraordinary life of a constitutional monarchy. A ruling house. Due to his devotion to his wife he quickly moved things around and forsook his military career to become a consort so that his wife can assume her reign as Queen of the UK and the realm.
DETERMINATION
His devotion and enthusiasm is revealed by the fact that he supported 800 different charities, 22,219 individual engagements and more than 5,000 speeches. But the truth is that he never gave meaningless speeches. He spoke directly from his heart. He was a man of conviction. He was a real Duke of duty, devotion and dedication not a mere ceremonious and glamour loving individual. His formula for transiting from a refugee to royalty is simple and anyone can apply it even today. He lived a life of Duty, Devotion, Dedication and Determination. May HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of the world, rest in peace and rise in glory.
Professor Chris Imafidon, is a multi-Guinness World record holder; world renowned adviser to royalty, presidents and corporate leaders. He worked directly with HRH Prince Philip, through his education and empowerment initiatives and charitable programmes for inner-city and underprivileged students. [Twitter @ChrisImafidon; Instagram @CoImafidon; Facebook/Linkedln –Professor Chris Imafidon
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