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

Thinking it was the usual off-and-on old age sickness, I instructed that he should be taken 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 had the history of my people of Arondizuogu at 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 that 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. Such a trip had become a must for me as well as my other siblings.

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

My father’s transition to join the saints triumphant is one event that has made so much impact on 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 moulding and shaping me to become the professional writer that I am now. He used to send me on errand to pick up his newspapers on daily basis. This 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 from 4am - 6am to list to global news on Voice of America and British Broadcasting Corporation, 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 encomium on this great but simple man who bequeathed the legacies of truth and simplicity to whomsoever met him during his 87 years sojourn on earth.

Deputy Senate President 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. His burial has been scheduled for Friday March 7, 2014 in Ndiuche-etiti, Arondizuogu, Onu-Imo Local Government Area of Imo State.

Christopher, his first son and a lawyer of over 30 years post-call, wrote the following biography of our father:

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 third of five children: two males (late Mark, his elder brother) and three 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, because of the early death of his 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 both parents when he was only a teenager.

Mazi Cyprian Onwubiko started his work life, after dropping out from school due to the early demise of his parents, as an apprentice-mason with Mazi Bonny Enechukwu of Ndi-Uwakonye Aniche, Arondizuogu. He did so well in the trade that within a short space of time he was granted 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. As a result, within five years of his 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. Within a short time, he diversified into produce and general trading.

Thereafter, he settled down and got married to his soul-mate, Madam Caroline Ada Udensi Okoronkwo from Ndi-Uche Ofe-Ndima, Arondizuogu. As his trading business progressed, he began to build houses and invest in real estate. He bought properties 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 them are now graduates in various fields ranging from law, journalism to engineering and philosophy.

He was a very liberal man who assisted others sometimes to the detriment of his family. Consequently, 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 endeavour.

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 practising Catholic, both at Kafanchan and Arondizuogu. He was until his death chairman of Group 2 of the CMO (Catholic Men’s Organisation) at St. Joseph’s 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 rulership.

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 January 13, 2014, at St. Anthony’s 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 four males and three females, 17 grand children, two great grand children.

•RIGHTSVIEW appears thrice a week: Mondays, Wednesday and Saturdays. The columnist, a popular activist, Emmanuel Onwubiko, is a former Federal Commissioner of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission and presently National Coordinator of Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA).

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