SOMETHING of a big argument has surfaced on the recently conducted presidential election. Who delivered the Igbo vote to President Goodluck Jonathan?

The governors of the South East have those who give them the credit. But it is one credit that must be mediated by the Governors’ showings in the rest of the general elections.

For instance, how much credit can Imo’s Governor Ikedi Ohakim claim on the Jonathan election when his bid for a second term was comprehensively repudiated by his state’s electorate? In any case, Ndigbo voted for Jonathan across the country, even in far off places where their state governors have insignificant clout. No, the credit for amassing Igbo vote for Jonathan goes essentially to Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the umbrella body of the ethnic group and its President-General, Ambassador Raph Uwechue who is 76 years young today!

It is significant that Chief Uwechue has not led a cavalcade through the towns and villages of the Igbo country to celebrate the feat of getting Ndigbo to speak with one voice on an issue as crucial as Nigeria’s presidential election. It speaks volumes on his perspicacity.

It calls for a review of the route he has so far travelled through life. Raph Chukwu Uwechue was born in Ogwashi-Ukwu, Delta State, on May 13, 1936 to a civil servant father and the wife. He had his primary school education in Sokoto and was a foundation student at St. John’s (Rimi) College, Kaduna, where he set an unbreakable record of being the school’s senior prefect for each one of the five years he spent in the school from 1949 to 1954.

He took an honours degree in History from the University College, Ibadan, in 1960, the year of Nigeria’s independence and joined the Foreign Service that same year. He was also educated at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales, Geneva, Switzerland, from 1963-1964.

Uwechue’s rise in the diplomatic service was rapid. From being Second Secretary at the Nigerian Embassy in Yaounde, Cameroun, (1962-1963), he became First Secretary at the Nigerian High Commission in Karachi, Pakistan (1962-1963).

He was posted to Nigeria’s embassy in Bamako, Mali as chargé d’affaires (1964-1965). Back in Lagos at the Ministry of External affairs, he was principal assistant to the Permanent Secretary (1965-1966). It was from this position that he set up the Nigerian Embassy in France in 1966, becoming the chargé d’affaires at only 32 years.

But political upheaval intervened. Just as Nigerians are currently expressing outrage at the massacre of youth corps members in Northern Nigeria, Uwechue reacted to the anti-Igbo pogroms of 1966 by quitting Nigeria’s Foreign Service and becoming Biafra’s representative in Paris (1967-1968). He took this major decision although, geographically speaking, he was not a Biafran.

His The Nigerian Civil War: A Call for Realism (OITH International Publishers, London, 1969) was the first published work on the internecine conflict.

Uwechue went into publishing and excelled. He was Editor-in-Chief of Africa Magazine (1971-1978). He was publisher of Africa Yearbook from 1976,S and publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Know Africa Series since 1977. Venturing into politics, President Shehu Shagari appointed him Federal Health Minister in 1983. A decade later he was elected Delta State Social Democratic Party presidential candidate. From 1999 to 2007, Uwechue was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and the Special Presidential Envoy on Conflict Resolution in Africa to President Obasanjo. He was awarded the national honour of Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in 2003. A family man, Uwechue married Augusta Ogwu in 1960. They are blessed with four daughters and a son. There is a story on his family life that bears retelling. When his father put all his six children through university education, he called them together and wished that they would do the same to their offspring. Raph Uwechue upped that injunction by training all his children to doctoral degree level!

President Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal famously described Uwechue in 1969 as a man of sense and courage. General Olusegun Obasanjo, as Nigeria’s military Head of State, and in recognition of Africa magazine’s contributions to African liberation and development, called Uwechue a ‘One-Man Organisation’ of African Unity. Two years ago, Chief Uwechue became the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

He succeeded in extending executive tenure in the body from two to four years. Others tried it previously but failed woefully. It is a testament to Uwechue’s persuasive skills. A man of deep vision, with a personal philosophy of live-and let-live, he has now repositioned Ndigbo as a people with one voice. He didn’t ask for four years as the front man for Ndigbo because of the sheer love of office but because of a number of goals clearly set out.

These are: To initiate a befitting secretariat for Ohanaeze Ndigbo; to unite all Ndigbo within and outside the country; to give hope to Igbo youths and women; to revive the technical committees on oil and gas, telecom, agriculture, industry, Igbo language and culture; to monitor the performance of Igbo governors and political office holders; to get a comprehensive data base on Ndigbo in the Diaspora, and to establish an Igbo Hall of Fame.

Chief Raph Uwechue now shares his time mostly between Enugu, where Ohanaeze Ndigbo has its headquarters and his massive Africa House mansion in Ogwashi-Ukwu, where he holds the traditional title of Ogwuluzame. On this anniversary, just one prayer for this famous son of Africa: May God place a hand of benediction on your head and let it stay there in perpetuity.

Mr. CHUKS IIOEGBUNAM, former Chief of Staff at Govt House, Awka, Anambra State , wrote from Lagos.