Mazi Cyprian Onwubiko; My Father, My Mentor Transits

When in the night of January 13th 2014 my dearest mother Gladys called me I took it as one of our many convivial conversations. I had called the home in Imo state to ask them how they were all doing and was informed that my Father Mazi Cyprian Onwubiko had little health challenge.

Thinking it was the usual off and on old age sickness, I instructed that he be conveyed to the Specialist hospital run by the Catholic diocese of Okigwe so the doctor can once more take a closer look at his situation and to proffer better solution.

But my Mother's phone call changed all the dynamics and indeed shattered my lifetime hope of ever seeing my Father who in the last couple of years became my best companion intellectually given that he was infinitely gifted with native wisdom and he had the history of my people in Arondizuogu by his finger tips.

His transition therefore has effectively killed my dream of ever recording in writing the brief history of Arondizuogu from a dependable viewpoint.

For it was our closeness which informed my frequent travels to the country home of my Father to be with them briefly even as Christmas journeys over the last two decades had become a must for me as well as my other siblings.

'Emma, your father has gone to be with the Lord', was the words spoken by my mother on the phone and I immediately became traumatized and emotionally troubled but not wanting to give my mother the impression that I am weighed down by her what she told me I told her to take heart that I will call some of our relatives near by to be with her.

The transition of my Father to the Saints triumphant is one event that has made so much impact in my life in ways that I never could have imagined. My father apart from playing the role of the mentor in chief of our family, was personally responsible for encouraging me to discover my writing/journalism talent. I will forever remain appreciative of the heroic role played by my Father towards molding and shaping me to become the professional writer that I am now. He was always the person to send me on errand to pick up his newspapers on daily basis which gave me the vantage position to read as much copies as I wanted before bringing his own home. He and my mother had to learn to put up with my nuisance value of always playing the transistor radio as loud as possible every 4am to 6am to list to global news on Voice of America and British Broadcasting service and especially the African service.

The transition of my father is painful but I am also aware that he died as a good man who was contented with what God gave him and was always concerned about our wellbeing even when he had little. He was a marvelous father and mentor who would be missed in more ways than one. Since his transition, several persons have written condolences pouring encomiums on this great but simple man who bequeathed the legacies of truth and simplicity to whomsoever that must have met him during his 87 years sojourn on Earth.

Deputy Senate Preisdent Ike Ekweremadu; Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal; Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha; Governor Magatakarda Wamakko; the Federal Attorney General and minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke [SAN] and John Cardinal Onaiyekan were among the first persons among many prominent Nigerians to have written to console us on this great loss of a man who would now be buried on Friday March 7th 2014 in Ndiuche etiti Arondizuogu, Onu-Imo local Government Area of Imo state.

Christopher, his first son and a lawyer of over thirty years post-call wrote the following biography of my father thus: Mazi Cyprian Okoriocha Onwubiko was born to late Mazi Onwubiko Kanu Nnadozie of Ndiuche-etiti Arondizuogu Imo State and late Madam Oriri Kanu Nnadozie who hailed from Ihitte-Owere Orlu also in Imo State, on March 29 1927. He was the 3rd of 5 children, 2 males (late Mark, his elder brother) and 3 females (late Nwobiaeri, his elder sister), Mrs. Grace Asuzu and Mrs. Beatrice Okeke, his surviving younger sisters.

Although he had very little formal education, having stopped in Standard 2, following the early death of his both parents; as a testimony to the very high standard of education at that time as well as his prodigious intelligence, he could read and write his own letters and was in his youthful days, an avid reader of Newspapers, a trait that was imbibed by virtually all his children.

Mazi Cyprian started shouldering the responsibility of shepherding and bringing up of his own siblings very early in life having lost their both parents when he was only a teenager himself, as pointed out earlier.

Mazi Cyprian Onwubiko started his working life after dropping out from school due to the aforementioned early demise of his parents as an apprentice-mason with Mazi Bonny Enechukwu of Ndi-Uwakonye Aniche, Arondizuogu, a trade which he learnt so well that within a short space of time he was granted his freedom by his master.

Being a very sensible and foresighted young man, while his contemporaries were busy “enjoying” themselves, he was rather busy building up his savings and simultaneously embarked on useful networking, such that within five years of his aforesaid freedom, he had become a big time contractor handling building and civil works for the St. Peter Claver's Catholic Church and its Mission Schools and other clients in Kafanchan and environs and in no time, he diversified into produce and general trading.

He thereafter settled down and got married to his soul mate Madam Caroline Ada Udensi Okoronkwo from Ndi-Uche Ofe-Ndima Arondizuogu and before long he had built and bought properties both at Kafanchan his primary place of abode for most of is active life as well as in Aba, Owerri and Arondizuogu.

Mazi Cyprian Onwubiko knew and appreciated the value of education and spared nothing to educate all his children virtually all of whom are now graduates in various fields ranging from Law, Journalism, Engineering and Philosophy.

A very liberal man who assisted others even to his own detriment consequent upon which in the course of his much fulfilled life, he trained several men and women who have since become successful entrepreneurs in various fields of human endeavor.

In the same spirit, during the civil war he threw his doors open and accommodated scores of refugees in his country home where he also provided a room free of charge, for the storage of relief materials for one of the international donor agencies at the time, for the feeding of refuges in the area.

Mazi Cyprian Onwubiko was a practicing Catholic both at Kafanchan and Arondizuogu and was until his death the Chairman of Group 2 of the CMO at St. Joseph Catholic Parish Uwakonye Aniche, as well as a life Patron of the church.

He was also active in traditional circles being a member and an 'Akajiofor' of the 'Eze-in-Council' of Aro Umuduru traditional ruler ship.

In the last two to three years, Mazi Okoriocha as he was fondly called, battled bravely with geriatric (old age) ailments and finally joined our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ peacefully, on that momentous night of Monday the 13th day of January 2014, at St. Anthony Catholic Hospital Okigwe at the ripe age of 87 years.

Mazi Okoriocha is survived by his very lovely and loyal wife, Madam Caroline Ada Udensi Onwubiko, seven children comprising of four males and three females, 17 (seventeen) grand children, 2 (Two) great grand children.

Emmanuel Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria; blogs @www.huriwa.blogspot.org; http://www.huriwa.org/