Ojukwu family Did a Lot for Nigerians-Chief John Ogbonnia Iweanoge (Onowu of Umukwa-Atani)

On June 21, 2013, John Ogbonnia Iweanoge the (Onowu of Umukwa quarters in Atani Ogbaru L.G.A will turn 90. To mark the occasion, his family will be rolling out drums to celebrate a great father, grandfather and an educationist.

Iweanoge was born in Asaba, Delta State, and nicknamed Axholme, after a ship that came to John Holt where his father worked in Asaba the day he was born.

He is an elder statesman and the Onowu of Umukwa, Atani, Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State where he hails from. Onowu is a title conferred on him as the eldeest among his kindred of two combined villages(Ujadimegwu and Umuiyasele)jointly reffered to as Umukwa. He was also one of the few that knew Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s father back in the days because he lived with him.

“My going to school was a funny story. My father was in charge of John Holt in Asaba at the time I was born.  The company was dealing in sales of palm kernel, and there were shops where they sold things brought from abroad. I was very little when I started noticing my father’s friend, Mr. Nwokedi, visiting. My mother died early, so I grew up with my dad and grandma. On one of Mr. Joseph Nwokedi’s many visits to John Holt to buy things, I decided to go with him. What attracted me to him was the motorcycle he usually came on. On that day, after chatting with my day and he was about to leave, I opted to go with him. I did not turn back like most children would do, until we got to Ibuzo.

“Mr. Nwokedi was a headmaster at that time. I lived with him and started pre-primary school, which they call kindergarten now. I stayed with him till he got married. I never one day asked to go and see my dad or my siblings. He was later transferred to Ogwuashi-Uku as headmaster; that was how I started my primary education in St. Peter Claver. I remember back then that I used to ride bicycle to Asaba. Then you would leave your bicycle at a place called cable point, and then enter a boat and cross to Onitsha because there was no bridge at Onitsha at that time.

“I started class one in 1941 in CKC but that was the year they added one extra year to secondary school. They called us preparatory class, and instead of four years before senior Cambridge, it was now five years. I finished 1945. I did only typing because back then you must be skilled in it before you can get a job, after which I went to Lagos to stay with my guardian’s elder brother’s house in Lagos, Pa Francis Nwokedi. He was already a permanent secretary at that time.”

“Then the only transportation system from East to Lagos was Ojukwu lorry. It was a very big lorry. After crossing with canoe to Asaba, you then board the lorry to Lagos. From Asaba to Lagos was a two-day journey because the road was only one lane. The road was very narrow. Only one vehicle can pass at a time. There were very few cars at that time unlike now. Through out the journey, you might not see another car until you get to Lagos.”

On the nature of the lorry, Onowu said: “We travelled with lorry but the lorry had class. It was demarcated in a way that those in front where first class like we have business class now, those at the middle are second-class while others are third class. Pa Nowkedi and Ikemba Ojukwu were from the same village in Nnewi and so Nwokedi lived in Ojukwu’s house in Lagos. So I sat in first class compartment and I didn’t pay any fare. The terminal for the lorry was in the compound were we lived. Ojukwu family really did a lot for Nigerians. That was how I knew Ojukwu and his late son, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was in King’s College, Lagos, then. The World War II ended that year, 1945, so getting a job was difficult because they were only recruiting soldiers who just came back from war first before selecting from fresh graduates. Then you could get a job just because you could play football. Things have really changed. I was asked to work in the Customs but I refused. I said they go to jail easily because of fraud. I later got a job in the Ministry of Works. I worked in a department, which they later changed to NEPA and now, PHCN.”

According to the elder statesman, “My ulcer episode occurred and I was admitted in a general hospital. The only remedy to ulcer then was surgery. It was only in South Africa that they had some relief drugs. In that hospital, I got a letter from my CKC principal in Onitsha saying that I was selected to go for training after which I would pick up a teaching job at CKC as a pivotal teacher. I liked it because I felt it would give me the opportunity to read. My father didn’t want me to leave my government job for teaching because he felt teachers were not paid well. But when I got to CKC they paid us the same salary with those working in government.

“We started teaching in 1949 and in 1953, I went to Sierra Leone because I had written the entrance exam into Fourah Bay College. It’s part of Tytudoram University abroad, I got to Sierra Leone and in 1955, and the ulcer started again. It was very severe and so I was taken abroad for the surgery.”

Pa Iweanoge said he went to London for the surgery, adding that then, America was not that popular. “Britain was where everybody wanted to go to. Then people stowed away to America as Nnamdi Azikiwe and others did then. By stowing away, you travel with ship and the seamen would hide you till you get to America.  My journey to London was three weeks journey because I didn’t want to go by air.

“It was interesting going by sea. You only saw water and what lived in it. We saw a lot of sharks and other sea animals. After the surgery, I studied a little there before coming back. I studied certified and chartered secretarial studies.  I also studied accounting. When I came back I came back 1961, I got a job in Eastern Nigeria office. They gave me a job as an accountant in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Enugu. Eastern Nigeria later started a fishery company in Port Harcourt. I was sent there as the accountant of the company. Then I was already the internal auditor of the Ministry of Agriculture. Towards the end of 1966, another employee that studied accounting in London came to take over. But unfortunately, the new accountant died after one month and so I had to go back.”

Pa Iweanoge also spoke about the civil war saying,  “During the war, I was the acting principal accountant.  After the war, I was confirmed as principal accountant, and by then we were called East Central State. That was before we were separated from Imo and we became Anambra State in 1976.

“I was working in our office, the convent, in Umuahia when the plane came. I never knew my house was affected. I drove home with my workers that I used to take home on my street and met a crowd at my house. My heart sank. We ran to the scene. I asked about everybody and every one was okay but I didn’t see one of my brothers, Benjamin. My brothers thought he was not in the house when the bomb dropped because everyone was asked to stay outside the house and I could see people taking their wounded family members to the hospital. They said they saw him pick up his shirt and was about to leave the house so they thought he had left. The Red Cross said they have asked and no one was missing but something kept telling me that he did not leave the house before the bomb went off. The Red Cross started looking again. And they saw his body at the passage, where they last saw him. He was holding his shirt. It was a terrible experience. War is bad. War is very bad. It is not what Nigeria should experience again.

One day, during one of my journeys, soldiers asked to use my car. They asked me to wait for them but when I waited till dusk and they did not bring my car, I asked my friend to let us trek. I thought wild animals would be kinder than soldier’s weapon. But God was faithful to us that no wild animals attacked us that night. We got to Ihiala and went to a house. We asked them to let us pass the night and they opened their doors to us. Then people trusted people more than now. These days, there are so many immoralities happening. Now people kill their parents for ritual, so who will trust who?”

On how he met his heartthrob, Pa Iweanoge said all the while he was teaching, he was not married and he was not interested in any lady. “It was when I got to London that I realised that it was not good that I was still single at 33. Then, when any young man was about travelling abroad, his parents would warn him not to marry a white woman. When the thought of marriage became so strong, I remembered the girl I eventually married, Theresa Ijoma, and I wrote to my dad and my brother to go and see her dad on my behalf. My dad replied to say they had seen the dad and they agreed. We exchanged letters till I came back. I was still in London when my dad died. My wife and I wedded on 18 August 1962. I was 39 years old then. My first son was born in May, 1963. If he was born in June, I would have been exactly 40 when he was born. I never knew that God would keep me alive to train them and see them have their own children. I have seven children- five sons and two daughters. I thank God for my life and the good health and that of my family. Even with all the war and fighting, none of us was hurt.  I am forever grateful to God.”
By Ifeoma Ononye/Lagos
Daily Independent.