GOOD NIGHT, DE MONGO GEO! Being an oration read by the family of Mr. Geoffrey Ukwuoma Jim-Nwoko at his funeral on the 17th of August 2012. It was William Shakespeare who said: “When beggars die no comets are seen, but the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes” Here lies the remains of a prince of the Nwoko-Oleah Royal dynasty, a prince of Umuchie, a prince of Ezema and a prince of Ngor-Okpala. So, how do I begin to read the funeral oration of my father when I was born to see him as a god with immortality? Truly, to us, he cut an image of invincibility based on the audacity and uncommon courage with which he faced and survived the odds that dotted his path quite early in life and the herculean challenges he surmounted to be a family man. We witnessed some of his travails in the hands of kinsmen and hostile neighbours, and we admired the determination with which he fought his battles legally, physically and even spiritually and lived to tell his stories. As his late elder brother, whom he loved and admired, Augustine Anuonye Jim-Nwoko inscribed on his brick house - ONE WITH GOD IS MAJORITY- before he died at the battle front during the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War; Geoffrey Jim-Nwoko was one man who struggled against forces that threatened his existence and prevailed, because ONE WITH GOD IS MAJORITY. He was born in 1933 to the noble family of Sir Jim Ugorji Nwoko-Olea of Umuchie Eziama and Lady Janet Ahuwanya Nwoko (nee Akobundu) of Ukpa-na-Nkata, Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State. The life and times of our father, Geoffrey Jim-Nwoko could be described as a life in contrast when viewed from the perspective of his birth. This was why he was fond of saying to every ear that cared to listen: “I was born with a silver spoon,” and with a pause, he would go further to assert in the local dialect “Mana Uwa amaghi Nwa Onye Eze Ara! (Life could be very merciless to a king’s child).” And will naturally conclude such discussions with painful stories and recalled sad memories of the early demise and the difficulties of an orphan in a world full of injustice and wickedness. BACKGROUND The young Geoffrey was the youngest of the seven children of Jim Nwoko. Jim Nwoko was one of the earliest persons in the then Owerri Province to acquire Western education, influence and be converted to Catholic Christianity. This enabled him play central roles in the spread of Catholicism and education of the black man in Eastern Nigeria. Jim Nwoko’s Catholic missionary activities culminated in his trip to Emekuku Owerri in 1916 to bring the Irish Catholic Priest who came and celebrated the first Mass in Ngor-Okpala of today and its environs in the palace of his father Eze Nwoko Olea (1830-1930) in Umuchie Eziama. The Catholic Church had come to Emekuku in 1912, so with the coming of the Irish priest and the celebration of mass in 1916 in Umuchie, a Catholic station was established in Umuchie under Emekuku Parish. From Umuchie, Catholicism spread to new stations in the community - Umugagwo, Umuokoro and Umubachi and later Eke-Umugo. Coincidentally, our father was born in 1933, the same year of the great economic depression that affected the global economy and the colonial government and the church and led to irregular payment of church and school teachers’ salaries. However, to correct the trend and to build a strong school, the leaders decided to merge the stations together to have one central station. So, a portion of land covered by sword grass was acquired at the heart of Eziama town. Hence the station was known as St Finbar’s (Okpala) Achara station and later elevated to a parish status as St Patrick’s Okpala Parish. It was, however, moved to Mbutu-Okohia as St Patrick’s Parish Mbutu-Okohia in 1942 .This church that started in Umuchie in 1916 ,which with other stations were merged at Achara in 1933 gave birth to Catholic stations in Uvuru, Mbutu and Uzunorji Mbaise and most parts of Etche in today’s Rivers State from Igbodo to Egwii and had boundaries with Aba, Emekuku and Port Harcourt parishes. Unfortunately, Jim Nwoko, the father of Geoffrey whose pioneering efforts led to the spread of Catholicism in Ngor-Okpala and adjoining areas and the acquisition of land for the Okpala seminary from the Azunna family in Umuogbe , died in 1936 at the youthful age of 42. His mother also died the next year, ensuring that at the age of four, Geoffrey was an orphan. The responsibility to bring up the young lad fell on his famous uncle, Eze Ukwuoma Nwoko-Olea popularly called POWER and one of his wives, Nwanyiugo Ukwuoma-Nwoko (nee Okoroafor Mgbakwo from Umuewere in Nguru-Umuaro community in Ngor-Okpala. Eze Ukwuoma Nwoko did not allow Geoffrey to suffer the harsh reality of an orphanage. He made efforts to train him in school and cared for him alongside our father’s contemporaries like Chief Festus Ezimozo Nwoko, also known as OMEGO. Sadly again, on 1st of March 1948, Eze Ukwuoma Nwoko passed on. With his death, there was no other place of refuge for our father. He dropped out of school and subsequently travelled the rough road of life. He had not only fended for himself, but also guided himself through his youthful age. That is why we said our father’s life was one lived in contrast. A man of noble parentage ended up surviving on the streets as an orphan due to misfortunes imposed by sudden deaths. With little or no guardian of a father figure left to guide and direct his growing up, life became extremely rough for him and he had to eke out a living, depending on goodwill and personal efforts. He was a struggling man in every sense of the word, who learnt to do things for himself very early in life. He tried his hands at different trades and careers in cities like Port Harcourt where he worked with Germans and with the Railway Corporation in the colonial era; in Aba where he tried to learn skills in refrigeration from his friends and started his rice business. He also spent times in Asaba with his late brother, Augustine Anuonye Jim-Nwoko who was in a flourishing timber business. My father did not like blue-collar jobs available to the not very well educated. His lack of education and professional skills made survival in cities difficult and the absence of a viable home in the village compelled him to commence the process of relocation back to the village to establish a family of his own in the mid-sixties. This process culminated in his marriage to our mother in 1967. By this time, he was a wholesale rice dealer and was prosperous to the extent that he trained some of his friends in the business. He supplied food stuffs to schools before and after the Biafra/Nigeria Civil War among which were Okpala Seminary, Okpala Secondary School and the Teacher’s College, Azaraegbelu Emekuku among others. Abakiliki was his major business route. He was a devout Catholic from the very beginning till the end. He served in the 1970s and 80s as a member of the Achara Catholic Station Council and the Church Building Committee and till death a member of the Catholic Men’s Organization. His Catholic faith was strong and he never wavered. He abhorred all forms of fetish and pagan practices and did not identify with occult values. He was an ardent believer in the spiritual efficacy of the Holy Rosary and always recited or wore his chaplet in the face of challenges from evil men, and these challenges were many and came in different forms. In Eziama and Umuchie his village, he initiated the building of the Umuchie Village Hall. He was an outspoken leader, teacher and philosopher. His wise counsels and utterances are today quotable quotes among the people, like: ANA EKUZIRILA GI IHE ECHEFUKWALA UCHE NKE AKA GI” Politically, he participated in the youth wing of the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) in the First Republic and an active member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic between 1979 and 1983. He was a great apostle and supporter of the great Sir S. Onyeso Nwachukwu political camp. He was good-natured and approachable; at home with men and women of all social strata, a great lover and motivator of the youth. His desire for success and prosperity of the young men and women of Umuchie was legendary and it showed in glaring excitements whenever he came in contact with young people who made efforts in education, professional careers and in business. He would call them UMUOMA. UMUOKPU UNU AMANA NMA OOOO and grateful young people never got tired of hailing him – Dee Geo! De Mongo!! De Mongo Geo!!! As a family man, he was stern and firm on the kind of family he wanted. He was always concerned with nurturing and building a family that could uphold and sustain the noble legacies of his great father and noble ancestors. He was passionate about this and found a pillar of support in my mother, who was always there for him in every sense of the word. They remained together till the end and she was there in the hospital with him till he breathed his last. On our part as his children, we did not bring him discomfort. He shared his experiences freely with us and he encouraged us to learn from them. He was liberal in abundance with us, but very frugal in times of lack. He loved good things but even loved good people the more. He never hid his feelings or opinions on issues of public interest. He did not avoid controversies in pursuit of truth and justice either for himself or for others. In fact to him, controversy was a necessary inconvenience in order to enthrone justice, equity and fairness. He was an opinion leader and fearless advocate for the oppressed. He loved the legal profession, admired lawyers (and many of them were his friends) because he considered them as the embodiment of the kind of knowledge he desired against traditional forces of oppression and injustice. I saw him defend widows, help orphans and challenged oppressive traditional institutions. He was very well exposed in his time beyond the confines of the village; a good dresser, a handsome man who was conscious of his good looks and insisted on maintaining it. Indeed, he was a ladies’ man. He had strong social network in far and near places. Our father was, however, not a perfect man. Just as perfection is near impossibility in life, he had his personal weaknesses that bordered on personal habits, lifestyles and we, his children, attributed them to his lack of sound parental upbringing and deprivations that occurred quite early in his life. These exposed him to the harsh realities of life and he learnt to fight for himself unlike some of his mates who had elder brothers and parents to fight for them. Geoffrey Jim-Nwoko was self-made man, and we, the children he left behind, gained our confidence from his struggles and battles for survival and against those who took undue advantage of his vulnerability. He was not defeated because He never allowed his background to relegate him to the background. A homeless man, who by dint of hard work and providence earned a happy home and a large family with 8 children, three daughters in-law, two sons in-law and 16 grand children . As you conclude your earthly journey and begin an eternal one back to your creator, we, your wife, children, relatives and numerous friends and well-wishers will continue to praise God who made it possible with Psalm 127. “Unless the LORD builds the house, In vain do builders build. Unless the LORD guards the city, In vain does the guard keep watch. It is vain for you to rise early and go late to bed, You who toil for food you eat— All this God gives to his beloved in sleep. Yes, children are a gift from the LORD, a blessing, the fruit of the womb. Indeed, the sons a man begot in his youth are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. Blessed is the warrior Who has many of these arrows! He will have no cause for shame, When he meets his enemies in battle.” From all of us members of your family, relatives and the numerous friends who have come from all over the country and beyond to pay you their last respect; we say good night, sleep well: DEE MONGO GEO, NWOKOMA ENYIOHA, STAINLESS, NYUYO (MIRROR) DI UMUCHIE JI AHU-UZO, MBEEKEE, OBELE NWA LAA N’ UDO ! KA CHINEKE NABATA GI’ ALA EZE YA! Ugo Jim-Nwoko For the family.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 17:51:44 +0000
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