After these three gentlemen served out their terms in public office, not much has been ward about them again, thereby prompting the question of where they could be at the moment. IDACHABA SUNNY ELEOJO writes.
Onyema Ugochukwu
Chief Onyema Ugochukwu is an economist, journalist, politician and pioneer chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) at its creation in 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Ugochukwu had prior to this time served as the senior special adviser on communication to President Obasanjo.
On graduating from the prestigious University of Nigeria Nsukka, he worked briefly with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) but abandoned it for journalism. That was when he joined the Business Times group as economic analyst at inception. The flagship later blossomed into becoming the most influential financial newspaper in Nigeria before it went into distress. While there, he rose to become its editor. Much later in 1983, he joined the London-based West Africa magazine and became its editor in chief. Here, he wrote extensively on development issues and provided a better understanding of the African debt crisis. He eventually returned to Nigeria to become the editor in chief of the Daily Times of Nigeria and was subsequently appointed to its board as the executive director, manpower and development. He later retired from active conventional journalism in 1994 but remained active as a media consultant for a long time.
In the course of his career as a journalist, he had met and interracted with numerous statesmen like former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher; Nelson Mandela, Jamaican prime minister P. J. Patterson; former French president, Jacques Chirac; Ibrahim Babangida and many others. It’s on record that he had also presented papers on African economic and political development at various fora including Oxford University and others. What later gave him a major turning point was that with Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1998, this Abia state-born technocrat became the director of publicity at the ‘Obasanjo for President’ campaign organisation where he contributed immensely to the election of the former president. Thereafter, he was rewarded with the appointment of senior special assistant on national orientation and public affairs to the president. In this capacity, he spearheaded a national rebirth campaign aimed at instilling patriotic virtues into the citizen’s psyche ravaged by years of political instability, military rule and corruption. It was on this platform that he launched what was referred to as ‘The Nigerian Declaration of Human Responsibilities’ which declares in part that, “This character on human responsibilities seeks to bring freedom and responsibility into a better balance, highlight and increase awareness of the obligation which we owe each other and to our nation.”
Ugochukwu as NDDC chairman helped to articulate the president’s vision of sustainable development in the Niger Delta region as he developed a policy that encouraged partnership among stakeholders in the Niger-delta communities and their tribal chiefs, including youth militia, oil companies and their executives, the government, non-governmental organisations, and international organisations like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. During his tenure, NDDC focused mainly on economic revival and prosperity, environmental rehabilitation and the development of social and physical infrastructure. When he left office as NDDC chief, he contested the governorship election of Abia in 2008 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but eventually lost the bid to Theodore Orji after an appeal court in Port Harcourt declared that Orji of Uzor Kalu-led Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA) actually won that election. Since then, not much has been heard about him again.
Okwesilieze Nwodo
Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo is the former governor of Enugu state on the platform of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) during the aborted Third Republic. This was just before General Sani Abacha sacked all political appointees in the 1993 coup that removed him and others. Nwodo from Nsukka in Enugu state is a trained medical doctor. In the course of his political career after 1993, he joined the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and twice was elected its secretary general between 1999 and 2001. He was later elected chairman of the party during President Yar Adua’s regime. Before this time, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had announced that it was investigating Nwodo and others in connection with a multi-billion naira bribery scandal related to the national identity card scheme over allegation of corruption. He was however cleared of all the charges. While reflecting on the tenure of his father both as governor and as chairman of PDP, his son, Emmanuel Nwodo said, “At the time he was PDP chairman, some people came in through the back door and did not want change. They felt that what my father was proposing to do would remove them from their positions; hence they had to drag him out. With regards to his removal as governor by the Abacha regime, it was a different case, because there was a coup and all the governors were affected. But in the PDP, as its chairman, when he had issues with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and with the South-East caucus of the party, respectively, they believed he wanted to perpetuate himself to a certain level of power. But he was trying to give power back to the people. That was why they worked against him.” Since Nwodo left office as national chairman of PDP, not much have been heard about him again thereby prompting the question of where he could be at the moment.
Patrick Anwuzia
Pastor Anwuzia, as he was popularly called in the 90s, was one Nigerian clergy who mesmerised his members and adherents of his styled- preaching with miracles of prosperity when his church, Zoe Ministries Worldwide, was very popular in the country especially Lagos. This Delta state-born- charismatic preacher was a toast of many Christians and non-Christians alike. The headquarter of his church located along Jimoh Odutola street in Iganmu Lagos was usually a beehive of activities in the 90s as there were several miracle programmes almost everyday leading to heavy vehicular and human traffic that stretched from the Eric Moore end of the street up to Orile Iganmu. Pastor Anwuzia was not particularly sound in grammatical verbosity but the acrobatic style of his preaching was an attraction in itself. To this end, the sea of human heads that adorn his programmes in the days that televangelism was not popular was great. He was said to have returned to limelight sometimes but not much has been heard about him. According to a popular newspaper in 2016, “The Zoe Ministries pastor made no pretence about his predilection for prosperity and he truly practised what he preached as he cruised about town in exotic cars with customised number plates of Zoe 1, Zoe 2, Zoe 50, but like a forgotten Shea butter in the sun, Anwuzia disappeared suddenly from the scene with his ministry.” His disappearance was trailed to series of scandals and rumours revealed unavoidable impoverishment as the reason for his sudden disappearance. However, the Zoe Ministries pastor seemed to have regained his voice in recent times. Few months back, he started what seemed like a come-back telling everyone that he was back and better. Many months down the line, however, Anwuzia is yet to live up to his words as a preacher that he was in the 90s thereby promoting the question of where he could be at a time like this when the prosperity sermon the likes of him and others started has taken over the entire space. Some years back, precisely in 1998, there was an attempt on his life, a development that was allegedly linked to a fallout of a fraudulent business deal involving him and the assailants, an allegation he denied though. For a long while now, not much has been heard about him again.
