FEW personages have so perfectly embodied an educational institution’s corporate spirit and greatness as Rev Father Nicholas Chukwuemeka Tagbo has done for CKC, the famous high school that shaped his life and ours into adulthood. But like all projects human, his most illustrious and eventful career on this planet is done with and over. And here lies our worthy senior and distinguished fellow Old Boy.

We salute a jolly good fellow, our erstwhile co-crusader in the glittering armour and shining breastplate that reads forever:BONITAS, DISCIPLINA, SCIENTIA…for he dies no more!

Yes, he dies no more. Instead, this giant of a man, this great teacher, mentor and exemplar continues to live in the hearts of all the young that pass through the unrivalled centre of learning that he left behind, the great high school that the whole world knows as CKC (Christ The King College, Onitsha.) His ideas would continue to shape dreams and move hearts and minds. His thoughts would be heard in all the conversations, and his presence felt in all the halls and classrooms for ever and ever. He dies no more. For we all, his fellow Old Boys don our blazers today for him. We stand in honour of this ineffable icon who literally poured his absolute all into his service obligations to God and mankind.

Our revered alma mater also stands today with us, her privileged brood, but not in drowning tears of faithless grief. We stand together in glowing appreciation of the finished works of a worthy alumnus,one who has before our very eyes, given so much back to CKC and to us all in return. On behalf of CKC, we celebrate a legend who first as a pupil and then as Principal, saw his time and times at our great college as a life calling.

Everyone bears witness todaythat the bond between Father Nicholas Tagbo and his alma mater was no fleeting romance. It was a nuptial cord that destiny itself had tied in eternity. Father Tagbo was only a young priest just back from his place of higher studies in Ireland when he was appointed as the first Nigerian (and indeed, African) principal of the great college that taught him Chemistry as a chosen discipline and football as a life passion. CKC under the founding Irish Fathers was already a growing and flowering legend as history shows in volumes of publications and oral accounts. Nestled as it was(and still is) in the then burgeoning commercial city of Onitsha, the school was proving an inestimable gift to all Africa.

She ruled the lordly Niger as the citadel of unsurpassable excellence and her offering was the best in learning to the entire continent.  So was it that, as her very first indigenous and the tenth ever principal, Father Tagbo was stepping into the intimidatingly humongous shoes of such revered greats as Rev Fr. W.L. Brolly, M. Flanagan, J. Keane, A. Callaghan, M. Clifford, W Butler and J. FitzPatrick.

But not only would this young African priest make unbelievable history, he would write it in purest gold with his life’s utmost gifting. Father Tagbo’s natural graces, towering stature, mental acuity, poise and elegance were distinctive assets that brought instant élan and character to the running of affairs.

The needful indigenisation of our college’s executive management was therefore accomplished seamlessly and expressly without diminution of the institutional standards that made CKC a top global brand as from its foundation. Central to this milestone was the personality of Father Tagbo, a man who lived and breathed CKC. The natural outcome of his unparalleled dedication was manifest in a few short years. He simply became the college’s enduring mascot, her face and soul for all time.

Father Tagbo goes home, a beloved father figure and role model. For the hundreds of thousands he taught, guided, coached, nurtured or reformed, he would never be forgotten.   A strict disciplinarian, he never spared the rod on an errant child, never gave up on the weak or struggling kid.

Behind the austere visage he occasionallywore to keep hisyoung wards in form and norm,there lived amentoring spirit that keenly sought out the jewel in every child and polished it to the brightest sheen. Father Tagbo never suffered fools gladly but he had an inimitable wit and a matchless sense of humour. . The visible benefit is there today for all Nigeriain luminaries like Senator Mike Ajegbo, Governors Peter Odili, Peter Obi and Willie Obiano,to cite a few of Tagbo’s pupils of yore.

May Christ the King, our Lord and Saviourwho you served so well receive you in peace. Good night, Father. Bonitas forever!

It is a trait that draws conspicuously from his rigorouspersonal interpretation of our college motto, BONITAS, DISCIPLINA, SCIENTIA. The visible benefit is there today for all Nigeriain luminaries like Senator Mike Ajegbo, Governors Peter Odili, Peter Obi and Willie Obiano, to cite but a few of Father Tagbo’s pupils of yore

A colossus, he weathered the storm of the disruptive Nigerian civil war after which it fell on him in 1970 to rebuild the college back up from ruins and rubble.

The school’s files and records were still intact – preserved because he,as a person took the courageous initiative of personally evacuating themto safetywhen from 1967 to 1970, Onitsha became a theatre of war.He was later in 1973 postedaway from the school he loved so dearly. That was in the era of government takeover of schools and colleges by the defunct East Central State.

But he returned three years after and would run CKC again for what would be nine further years of academic excellence and stellar performances in sports and other extra-curricular activities. It is in this his second coming as Principal that CKC proudly achieved the incredible feat of winning the World Cup for Secondary Schools, the first by any school in Africa.

Father Tagbo goes home, a beloved father figure and role model. For the hundreds of thousands he taught, guided, coached, nurtured or reformed, he would never be forgotten.   A strict disciplinarian, he never spared the rod on an errant child, never gave up on the weak or struggling kid. Behind the austere visage he occasionallywore to keep hisyoung wards in form and norm,there lived amentoring spirit that keenly sought out the jewel in every child and polished it to the brightest sheen.

Father Tagbo never suffered fools gladly but he had an inimitable wit and a matchless sense of humour. It gave his watch over us a fantastic family feel, and all of us that passed through him in adolescence are of one essential mold in leadership by dedicated service. It is a trait that draws conspicuously from his rigorouspersonal interpretation of our college motto, BONITAS, DISCIPLINA, SCIENTIA. The visible benefit is there today for all Nigeriain luminaries like Senator Mike Ajegbo, Governors Peter Odili, Peter Obi and Willie Obiano, to cite but a few of Father Tagbo’s pupils of yore.

For a teacher of men who groomed such a vast galaxyof world-beaters and servant-leaders as Father Tagbo did in his lifetime, there is no grimace in death for indeed, death is swallowed up in victory. It is only a triumphal crossover, a joyful passage to everlasting glory.

Our great principal dies no more, only goes upward to meet the king of glory for whom he labored so much in life.Goes Father Nicholas Chukwuemeka Tagbo, principal emeritus of our great college. May Christ the King, our Lord and Saviourwho you served so well receive you in peace. Good night, Father. Bonitas forever!