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By Obike Ukoh
Elder Anyim Ude, who died on May 15, this year, few days to his 82nd birthday, was born on June 1, 1941. He realised very early in life the imperative of setting achievable target. He was not a day dreamer.
When Ude left Hope Waddell Training Institution Calabar in 1959 and joined the public service, he had a clear idea of what he wanted in life.
Though Anyim Ude was a senator, a commissioner (Member of Ebonyi State Executive Council), a super Director-General, as he was at various times Chief Executive Officer of Imo Broadcasting Corporation (1985 to 1991), Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (1991 to 1996), Ebonyi State Broadcasting Corporation (EBBC), General Manager, Radio Nigeria, Owerri (1981 to 1985), his ambition when he joined service was to be a senior civil servant.
The veteran journalist and broadcast manager, told the story himself in 1997, when some journalists in Ebonyi went to congratulate him after he was appointed one of the pioneer commissioners of Ebonyi State Executive Council.
He said that he was very grateful for the way God had been blessing him. He, however, disclosed that his ambition when he entered service was to be a senior civil servant.
Anyim Ude said that, that dream came through in 1975 when he was elevated. He said that, incidentally, he was in the United Kingdom, as one of the participants in a course sponsored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), when he received the news.
He said: “I wrote a letter to my wife Grace, expressing my gratitude to Almighty God for His great favour.”
Elder Ude also stressed that all that happened in his life after attaining the status of a senior public servant were all additions.
His wife said when he was promoted News Editor on October 1, 1975, he wrote a letter to her. He wrote inter alia: “If I retire as an Editor on Grade Level 10, I will consider myself fulfilled.”
Remarkably, by dint of hard work and dedicated service, he surpassed that dream as he eventually retired as a Director General on Grade Level 17 in 1995.
Unarguably, Elder Anyim Ude’s sojourn on earth was remarkable and impactful.
He was a veteran journalist, broadcast manager, community leader, technocrat, and administrator with vast experience and solid track record in the Nigerian Public Service spanning over 51 years.
He entered the public service of former Eastern Nigeria as a clerk in 1960.
Ude later joined the Eastern Nigeria Information Service (printers and publishers of Nigerian Outlook) in May 1965 as a reporter.
At the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, he trained as a journalist and broadcaster, both in Nigeria and overseas.
He also worked with East Central State Broadcasting Service (ECBS), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Imo Broadcasting Service (now IBC), and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN).
Elder Ude, who was in 2007, elected as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), represented Ebonyi South Senatorial District, and served till 2011, also held several sensitive positions, which he used to impact positively on the lives of the people.
Anyim Ude, a prominent member of the defunct Ebonyi State Movement, and one of the members of the 50-man Ebonyi State Development Forum, was appointed the first Commissioner for Commerce, Industry & Tourism, Ebonyi State (1997 – 1999).
He held several appointments between 1984 and 2003. They included Director, Golden Guinea Breweries, Umuahia (1984 – 1987); Member, Special Advisory Committee to the Federal Government on Electronic Media Operations (1989 – 1993); Member, Central Working Committee, Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, BON (1987 – 1997).
Others were: Chairman, Zone ‘E’ of BON, comprising the Eastern States; and Chairman, Governing Council, Federal College of Education (Technical), Umunze in Anambra State (2000 – 2003).
Ude was also President-General of Old Afikpo Union (OAU), comprising today’s Ebonyi South Senatorial District.
Senator Anyim Ude, a devout Christian, was ordained as a Ruling Elder of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria in December 1987. He was a member of the Advisory Council to the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria.
He was decorated a Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in November 2000.
Senator Anyim Ude was one of the six delegates that represented Ebonyi State at the 2005 National Political Reform Conference.
During his era in the Senate, he was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation and later the Senate Committee on Works.
He also served in four other Senate Committees: Defence & Army; Land and Transport; Capital Market, and Culture & Tourism.
As Chairman of the Senate Aviation Committee, he investigated the disbursement and utilisation of the N19.5 billion intervention fund released by the Federal Government in 2006 for the rehabilitation and development of infrastructure in the aviation industry. The investigation revealed widespread corruption and led to the prosecution of those involved in the acts.
His wife, Elder Grace Anyim Ude is a retired Permanent Secretary of the Ebonyi State Government. Their marriage is blessed with six children-three males and three females, all doing well in their various fields of endeavour.
As Anyim Ude is buried on Friday, July 28, at Amuzu-Obegu, Iyioji Akaeze, Ivo Local Government, his departure is a glorious exit.
As he said in 2011, when he did not return to the Senate, that he will devote the rest of his life for the work of God, that was what he did. Being a Ruling Elder of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, he devoted his time for the work of God until the Almighty called him home on May 15, this year. May Distinguished Senator (Elder) Anyim Ude’s soul find rest in the bosom of the Lord!
•Ukoh, a former Deputy Editor-In-Chief, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) writes from Igbere, Abia State
