Pat Onukwuli
To Chief (Mrs.) Odoziaku Anastasia Onukwuli, I say: You realised from the onset as Saint Peter said in Acts 3:6, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you.” What you gave is by far greater than silver and gold. You gave yourself, your all to all. You were available to everyone that came your way, and like a candle that consumes itself while lighting the way for others, you sacrificed for others to live.
You left at the midmost age of 54 and did not have the opportunity of growing old. However, as Martin Luther King Jr. says, it is not how long we live that matters but how well we lived. You were an epitome of virtue that is very rear in this modern age of individualism. You portrayed the four classical cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and courage.
You were born into the noble and dignified Okwudili family of Ifite Nkwelle Ezunaka on February 19, 1940. Your father, Chief Uduezue Thomas Mbaekwe Okwudili, was taskmaster at Nigerian Railway Corporation and your mother, Madam Afuluenu Okwudili, a founding member of the defunct National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) right at its inception in 1944. NCNC was a Nigerian political party established by Herbert Macaulay and Nnamdi Azikiwe for the pursuit of Nigerian independence.
Life for you as a youngster was full of promises as you traversed Nigeria with your father who was constantly on transfer, from Port Harcourt to Enugu, Makurdi, Kano, and back to Enugu. Those were indeed the happy days. However, tragedy struck in April of 1948, with the sudden and untimely death of your mother at the blossoming age of just 34 after returning from an independence campaign rally. That singular event changed everything. You were now to live without the direction and succour of your dearly beloved mum who was your hero and role model. However, you did not allow it to determine your pathway and out of the ashes of the tragedy, you rose.
With that, you knew that you had to fight for yourself. At 15, you enlisted at the then highly admired and sought-after Holy Rosary Teachers’ College, Enugu, run by Catholic nuns. At 18, in 1958, you qualified as a Grade II teacher in flying colours and commenced teaching immediately afterwards at Saint John’s Primary School, Odoakpu, Onitsha. Due to your young age, your father had to arrange for you to stay with his cousin, Chief Eziako, the renowned couturier. His son and former executive director of Bank of Agriculture, Dr. George Eziako, would later recall: “Miss (Odoziaku) was very strict and would insist you do your homework. However, she would go out of her way to help you.”
You later met your heartthrob, Chief Chinyelugo Onukwuli, who was then a registrar at the High Court of Justice, Onitsha. The relationship blossomed and culminated in a nuptial union. The rest, they say, is history. The fruits of this marriage are six children, including the writer, and numerous grandchildren. Like Saint Gorgonia of Nazianzus Cappadocia you raised your children and grandchildren to embrace a life of service to God and charity to others. You typified the virtue of hospitality, welcoming all who came to your home and sharing all that you had with everybody.
Another tragic event that would shake your being to the marrow was the death of your immediate younger brother, Obiora, for whom you had a sisterly love that was beyond compare. You took over the payment of his school fees immediately you started teaching and saw him through secondary and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he qualified as a civil engineer in 1967. With the advent of the Nigerian civil war, he immediately joined the Biafran Army and died in action at Obosi just weeks before the end of hostilities. As a kid, I was with you when the sad news was broken to you. You were utterly devastated and I cannot ever recall witnessing such grief and sadness. That unfortunate event more than anything else would shape the rest of our days.
After the civil war, you moved to Aba with your husband who was then the chief registrar at the High Court of Justice with residence an approximately one acre mansion in Aba GRA. In 1971, at the age of just 31, you were elevated as the headmistress of Mosque Road Primary School, Aba. Between 1976 and 1978, you took time from work to complete your bachelor’s degree in Education from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and thereafter proceeded to United Kingdom for your postgraduate degree in Education.
Despite these accolades of distinction and palatial rubrics around you, you remained yourself. As a reflection of the good wife in Proverbs 31:10-31, you stood firmly behind and supported your husband in all his dealings.
You became the bedrock of your husband’s Onukwuli-Ezedigwe family as well as your family of birth. You cooked, fed and provided for all that came for assistance, especially during the very difficult years following the civil war. You never let anyone go hungry and empty-handed. You prioritised, rationalised and knew the value of time. You planted yourself in the hearts of people. You were not allured or intrigued by external beauty or fame. You were not a great fan of fame, pomp, circumstance and pageantry. You knew that there was a lot of work ahead, so you kept things simple and conserved as much as possible to reach the most needy. Nonetheless, recognition and admiration found you and came your way. You won numerous encomia as most valuable teacher and mentor as well as mother of faith. The chieftaincy title of Odoziaku was bestowed on you in recognition of your simple, judicious and prudent lifestyle.
You retired from public service after 35 years of pedagogic excellence in 1993, at the sprightly age of only 53. You took ill shortly afterwards during the national turmoil of the Abiola debacle. Your loved ones and doctors did everything they could to save you, but He that loved you most took charge. On August 2, 1994, at about 7:20am, you took your last breath on earth.
I recall, the words of Reverend Father Tim Anunobi, then of Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, who came immediately to offer blessings, “My eyes have seen a real Saint in Odoziaku.”
You touched the lives of most people not through giving but by leading by example. You were philosophically opposed to excessive laissez-faire, as you believed that order was the law in heaven. You insisted that there was time for everything and disproportionate liberalism would come back to haunt, and life is more of nurture than nature. This rhymes with thoughts of Chiron, foster son of Apollo, who was the wisest and “justest” of all notable centaurs throughout Greek mythology for his youth-nurturing nature. Rules and nudging, therefore, should animate our existence, as primordial nature is ill equipped for the job.
• Chief (Barr.) Onukwuli (Okaka Abatete) writes in from Abuja.