THERE is no better window into the illumining life of late Akunnia Pius Okonkwo Ngige than this very angle that touches on nationalism, honesty and selflessness. The scarcity of these virtues has hobbled our dear nation to the knees as the cascade of corruption cases, which have dominated discussions since June 2015, bear it all out. Young Pius arrived Enugu in 1940 and was absorbed after a while into the Public Works Department (PWD) of the Eastern Regional Colonial Administration, now known as Ministry of Works. He rose to an Assistant Foreman, Building and later, a Supervisor; a privileged position for a Nigerian in the colonial administration. Among others, his team was instrumental in building many hospitals especially in the old Onitsha province where a scheme, One Health Centre, One Village successfully ran. However, he sharply disagreed with British senior engineers over poor conditions under which Nigerian junior workers and artisans worked. Absence of medicare, compensation for injuries at work, inequitable remunerations, casualisation and negative profiling of indigenous workers were top of the issues. There was also the controversial cutting of ‘knack up’ (lunch time) to 30 minutes from one hour. He was not just an ordinary supervisor; he also had a burden of expectations from junior workers, who in admiration of his nationalism nicknamed him “opposition” leader. He pressed for a redress but it fell on deaf ears of these white overlords at loss over the agitation of “Mr. Ngige” who they thought being a supervisor, would probably align with them. He detested injustice and engineered workers to take their fate in their hands. He damned the consequences of being unemployed and promptly resigned in 1958 before a query could be issued.
Born in 1910, into the wealthy family of Obidiwe Ngige, the influence of Whiteman on Obidiwe took his first son to school. He enrolled first at Catholic Mission School, Umuru Ide Alor, later Central School, Nnobi where he had his Standard 5 with the famous educationist, James Okigbo, father of the foremost economist, late Dr. Pius Okigbo as headmaster. Low enrolment forced the Colonial Native Authority to relocate Standard Six to a distant Ajali in today’s Orumba. The alternative was at Amawbia near Awka and his father would neither allow his first son to sojourn among strangers or be far from him. Thus, came the end of the quest for further education but he was already well equipped for life struggle, as events will show later.
He was full of self-conviction and determination. He told me in 2009 that he quietly rejected suggestion by his father to take to farming after schooling, instead, moved to Onitsha under the tutelage of his uncles Dominic and Peter in February 1928. A cockerel shows early signs of “masculinity. Leaving his uncles’ trading posts, he quickly aligned interest in vocational skills, making carpentry and furniture a choice. That was how he built his capital, and veered into the then flourishing bicycle rental service, building a large fleet. According to him, however, “bad people started renting and disappearing with the bicycles,” and his fleet depleted.
He was not daunted but obviously not cut for the notorious Onitsha business environment. He, therefore, moved to Enugu where his education and vocational skill would be better deployed for life struggle. What’s more, his brothers, P.N. Okeke who later became Minister of Agriculture in the Eastern Region, Bernard Ojukwu and Ezekiel Obiegbu were already leading lights there.
He was bound for success too. When he left the PWD in 1958, he established his own private building construction company, P.O. Ngige and Sons Enterprises. This multi-purpose company also veered into horticulture, handling some beautification projects in Enugu metropolis. His business was prosperous. He was a lover of education, making sure all his children had university education. His relations all benefited immensely, as some had the privilege of attending famous Colleges like CIC, Enugu long before independence. His kindness for fellow mankind also expressed eloquently, as he gave his Enugu home free to fellow returnee Biafrans at the end of the civil war.
Baptised on May 27, 1927, he was a devout Christian and a forerunner at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Alor. He wedded his lovely wife, late Priscilla Okafor from Nnobi in 1943 and was barely a month away from emerging as the longest living Alor baptised Catholic during the centenary celebration held in October 2015. Akunnia lived his faith. He fought obnoxious traditions and rescued twins from Akunne family of Alor who were to be killed.
He believed in honesty and uprightness, the major reason he left Onitsha. In Enugu, the nickname “Okwedike” meaning Mr. Integrity was the result of his unbending stricture to transparency. Severally, he was elected unopposed as the treasurer of the Indigenous Federated Association of Nigerian Contractors, East Central State and for many years was the treasurer of the Ogbete Enugu Landlord Association. Akunnia was not a politician but was progressive in thinking. He had scorn and disdain for unbridled material acquisition. He saw partisan hate politics in the political travails of Awolowo in the 60s, and was jocularly said to the hearing of all that Awo was in “political nga,”(jailed for political reasons).
Men who lived up to his age often turn oracle and he did. He prayed and blessed all who came around him and predicted he would leave on September 1, 2015. He eventually left on the 4th. In Igbo, no man with diminished posterity is ever counted great. Akunnia lives on in Sen. Chris Ngige, the Minister of labour, Emeka Ngige (SAN) and Edwin Ngige, an accountant. With him abounds a lesson that with God, man is fully in charge of his own fate. When Onitsha business environment turned unpalatable, he wasted no time in relocating to Enugu where he employed his education and vocational skill. He would not stomach the injustice by Whiteman in PWD and resigned. He tried his hands on buying and selling at the end of the war and needed no oracle to decipher his destiny was not there. Finally, he saw very early, the advantages which vocational skill possess over white-collar job. He took charge of his fate and lived to the full.
•Nwachukwu Ngige, a journalist lives in Abuja.
