By Magnus Eze
Traditional ruler of Obiagu Lekwesi, in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State, Eze Tim Nwokoro, lived and died an apostle of peace.
The monarch, whose remains would be interred today, was 101 years by the time he transited to glory last year.
His community has had a protracted land dispute with their Amata Ishiagu neighbours in Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State and, following renewed skirmishes in the area in June 2020, this reporter had visited Eze Nwokoro.
In an interview, the then nonagenarian had appealed to Daily Sun to escalate their plea to “the Executive Governor of our dear state, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, to enable him liaise with his Ebonyi State counterpart to straighten this lingering boundary adjustment issue before it assumes a more dangerous dimension.”
He was emphatic that his people were not inclined to war or bloodshed but appealed that the report of the boundary delineation be released soon.
Nwokoro’s life and times were legendary. An educationist of the first order, he played critical roles in evolving a uniform education system in Nigeria.
He was secretary of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) for five years in the Port Harcourt zone, which then included the riverine schools. It was he (as secretary) and the late D.K. Onwenu of Baptist High School (father of Nigerian singer/songwriter, Onyeka Onwenu) as chairman, who formed the Eastern Nigeria branch of the NUT for the well-being of teachers.
Nwokoro and Onwenu worked for the introduction of uniform education system in Nigeria through the teachers’ union but their recommendations were rejected by the colonial government. He was enamoured that his comrades in the union and himself were vindicated after Independence when the recommendations became the foundation of the policy on education in Nigeria.
He was described as teacher of professors and bishops in the Methodist Church of Nigeria, where, in April 1999, he was conferred with the award of Knight of John Wesley during the prelateship of His Eminence (Dr.) Sunday Mbang.
He was a well-loved teacher, an exemplary academic and a force to reckon with in the mental development of many leaders of men.
In its tribute, his family said: “He was a teacher to the most prominent clergymen of a generation – a teacher to Emeritus Prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence, Dr. Sunday Mbang; a teacher to Archbishops – His Grace, Most Rev. Rogers Uwadi (deceased), His Grace, Most Rev. Udenze, His Grace, Most Rev. Ebere Nze, His Grace, Most Rev. J.T.C. Allison (deceased), His Grace, Most Rev. Nelson Eke, etc; a teacher to the former governor of Lagos State – Alhaji Lateef Jakande; a teacher to professors – Prof. (Sir) Joe Irukwu, SAN, Prof. (Sir) Sampson Ukpabi etc; and a teacher to many other successful men and women in commanding heights of affairs in the country.”
In his biography, Nwokoro said: “It gives me immense pleasure to see men and women who passed through me become useful to themselves and the society. In this way, teaching is my ideal job.”
Born September 1, 1920, in Eziama Obiagu-Lekwesi, in the then Awgu District, Nwokoro grew up in his little hamlet, Amaeke-Eziama, Obiagu-Lekwesi, and partly at his maternal abode, Umuogele, Amuda Isuochi.
From a native primary school, Nwokoro went to Ihube, where he passed Standard 6 in 1941, before his uncle, who had been his mentor, sent him to Port Harcourt, where he was employed as a probationary teacher in Banham Memorial School by the headmaster, Mr. D.N. Achara.
A very tender fellow at the time, he taught for only two years. It was in this period that he and his wife met as teenagers, the latter having moved from Wesley School, Port Harcourt (Infant Section), to Banham School (Primary Section).
In January 1945, he went to the prestigious Methodist College, Uzuakoli, to do the four-year teacher training. In December 1948, he was one of the seven out of 21 students in his class to pass the Teachers’ Higher Elementary Certificate Examination (Grade II Certificate).
In January 1949, the young certificated Teacher Nwokoro was posted back to Banham Memorial School, Port Harcourt, where he was received with open arms by his former pupils who had then gone to higher classes and the staff.
He returned to Uzuakoli to teach at the Higher Elementary Teachers Centre (ETC) of the Methodist College in 1954. He was the senior tutor/boarding master till August 1960 when he went to the City of Leicester College of Education and University of Leicester Institute of Education, England, to study on a Commonwealth Scholarship. He studied the Teaching of English as a Second Language, Divinity, Methodology in Selected Subjects and Practice Teaching. Upon his return to Nigeria in 1962, he was posted to the Higher Elementary Teachers’ College (HETC), Uzuakoli, where he rose to the rank of vice-principal and acting principal, before resigning in March 1967.
Ahead of the Nigerian/Biafran War, Nwokoro left Uzuakoli in March 1967 to join the Eastern Nigeria Civil Service as an Inspector of Education. He recalled in one of his memoirs that his students felt disappointed that he was departing but he consoled them that he was going into the field to evaluate and assess how they were putting what they learnt in training into practice.
His inspectorate job took him to different parts of the defunct East Central State, including the Onitsha Provincial Office of the Ministry of Education. With the creation of new states, he left Onitsha for Imo State. He was the first Education Officer at Mbano Division, and thereafter served through different stations, namely, Okigwe, Ukwa and Orlu, where he voluntarily retired as a Principal Inspector of Education in December 1982.
Back in Lekwesi, Nwokoro and his amiable wife, Ugoeze Felicia, spearheaded the building of Lekwesi Basic Comprehensive Health Centre and also established a government-approved commercial school. He was honoured with the chieftaincy title of Okaa Omee I of Umuchieze in September 1985.
In the year 2000, while Nwokoro and his wife were away in the United States on vacation, he was unanimously appointed traditional ruler of Obiagu Autonomous Community by his people and subsequently recognised as the Ikemba of Obiagu. The then Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, handed him the staff of office.
He had an unquenchable passion for the work of God and served in various capacities, including as a leader in the local church, Holy Trinity Methodist Church, Obiagu-Lekwesi, and lay president of the Old Okigwe Diocese in 1992, a post he held for six remarkable years.
He supported apostolic endeavours of all Christian denominations in Obiagu-Lekwesi and was a life patron of the St. Philomena’s Catholic Parish, Obiagu-Lekwesi.
Nwokoro got married to his lifetime partner on September 1, 1956, at the Uzuakoli Leprosy Settlement Methodist Church, where she was working at the time, and the marriage produced six children.
A former student of his, Prof. Ukpabi, described him as “genial, soft-spoken and conversed in measured well-thought-out precise grammar. He exuded good breeding, culture and old school courtesy.”