By Eric Chibuike–Nwikwu

When the devastating news of the death of Ogbuagu Oputa Eugene Iworisha filtered into my ears on that fateful Wednesday, the 22nd February, 2023, a mutual friend who was with me when the sad news came, quipped in regret, “A good man… a patriot… is gone, when shall we get another like him?”

Ogbuagu Oputa Eugene Iworisha was 84 years old when he breathed last, ordinarily, his death was not supposed to elicit heavy wailing, grief and uncontrollable tears from his family members,  friends, associates and well-wishers given that he had the grace of long life but his father-figure disposition and his uncommon passion for assisting others make his death a bitter pill too hard to swallow.

It was providence that brought him along my way. In 1992, as I was driving to Owerri from Aba, I had a flat tyre somewhere before Okpuala Junction, a lonely place with no human presence except vehicles cruising past in the speed of lightening. My driver had forgotten the spare tyre in another vehicle in the house. As confusion was almost bursting my brain, a vehicle stopped ahead of us and the occupant demanded what the problem was. Before I could properly explain our predicament, he had invited us to ride with him to Okpuala Junction where we can repair our tyre or buy a new one. As we were driving to Okpuala Junction, he whispered to me not to be too hard on my driver, adding that some days could be like that. Turning to my driver, he asked him his highest academic qualification and in response, my driver told him that he was a graduate of Economics from University of Nigeria Nsukka. When we got to Okpuala, we exchanged numbers and he promised to be relating with me as his Media Consultant after I had told  him my professional background.

About six weeks later, he called me and after we were done  exchanging pleasantries, he asked after my driver…..I told him he was fine. He paused and asked me again if I would like him to make a career in the Nigerian Customs. I quickly responded in the  affirmative. The following month,  my driver became a staff member of the Nigerian Customs….employed not as a driver….but as a full-scale graduate employee of the Nigrian Customs. As you are reading this, my driver is currently one of the big boys driving the administrative machines of the Nigerian Customs.

The above story is a microscopic representation of how Ogbuagu Oputa Eugene Iworisha assisted humanity. In sprinkling his milk of kindness, he was not limited by gender, nativity, tribe or religion. He was an irrepressible defender of the defenceless, a helper of the helpless who ceaselessly empowered the powerless.

As I was to understand later, his major worries in life was how to advance the welfare and wellbeing of people around him and how to make the society a better place for the human race. When asked about what he wanted for himself, he would refer you to the words of Shakespeare, “Those things that concern us shall be treated last.” On why he was passionate about helping other people, he would quote the words of Norman B. Rice: ” Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light.”

As sources from his family reveal, this great man of the people was born on 21st September, 1939 in Abatu village in Oguta LGA of Imo state. He attended Elementary School at Sacred Heart Catholic School, Oguta. Thereafter, he secured admission into Saint Peters Clavers Seminary, Okpuala in 1951. At this time, he was known to have interest to become a catholic priest. At the seminary, he was privileged to be mentored by such renowned clerics as late Bishop Anthony Nwedo and late Monsignor Nwanegbo. When he later chose a different pathway, the influences of these great men of God guided him until his recent call to glory.

Late Ogbuagu Oputa Eugene Iworisha was appointed a Federal Commissioner in the Board of Customs, Immigration and Prisons Services during the military regime of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, a position he used to create massive employments for the teeming Nigerian applicants which generously beneffitted people of the South East including a good chunk of his Oguta kinsmen.

•Chibuike-Nwikwu, is Owerri-based Media Condultant