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By Derrick Osondu
Dr. Obiora Anthony Chukwuka is a master storyteller. His mind is a reservoir of recent history. His ability to remember dates and milestones as regards his life and that of his numerous businesses is truly remarkable. It was the circumstances of his birth that first gave credence to my belief that Dr. Chukwuka is a man in touch with destiny. His birth was indeed consequential, being the last of eight children, the seven elder siblings all being females.
He had told me that his parents had almost given up in their search for a male child and his conception had been by chance. As it is in most cultures in southern Nigeria, there is a special place for the male child in the family unit. So a man without a male child would most often feel inadequate in the comity of his peers. There would also be pressure from his family to marry a second wife. As the thought was rife at that time, it is the woman who is solely responsible for birthing female children. Never the man’s fault.
According to Dr. Chukwuka, his father was not spared the pressure to take another wife. But the senior Chukwuka was resolute in his refusal to take that route. Instead, he turned to a sure source: God. The elder Chukwuka was a devout Christian of the Catholic persuasion. He was in fact the local catechist and a man of deep faith and prayer. He was fully persuaded that the Lord would answer his prayer and would give him what his heart so desired: a son.
With his wife pregnant for the seventh time (having birthed a set of twin girls earlier), the elder Chukwuka revved up his prayers, seeking the intercessory power of the Patron Saint of lost things, Saint Anthony of Padua, imploring him to help find the male heir he so earnestly desired. Such was the joy that permeated the Dennis Ifedi Chukwuka household when the news filtered through, on that wet July evening in 1963, that Nneora Regina Ugoye Chukwuka had given birth to a male child, subsequently named after the Patron Saint who beyond the aforementioned is justly celebrated for being extraordinarily blessed of God and in possession of numerous charisms.
Another story that further cemented my belief that indeed Dr. Chukwuka had a date with destiny was how God saved his life during the Nigerian Civil War. As is the case with war, women and children are the ones who suffer the most from the pernicious effects of conflict. As the war raged on and families sought safety from the rapidly expanding frontline, non-combatant casualties began to mount, people fell more to starvation, exposure to the elements and disease than to the bullet by day or the missile by night.
The young Dr. Chukwuka soon fell to the pestilence. He had contracted bacterial hepatitis, which, with the benefit of hindsight I would put down to the cramped living and poor sanitary conditions that existed within those makeshift camps people were forced to live in as a result of internal displacement. He recounted to me that members of the International Red Cross had visited the camp with badly needed supplies that would help ameliorate the suffering of the people.
It was during their routine welfare check of the most vulnerable within the camp that one of the members of the IRC noticed the yellowness of the whites of Dr. Chukwuka’s eyes. Further examination of him confirmed what they had suspected all along was the issue, the young Dr. Chukwuka had hepatitis. They stayed long enough within the vicinity to help nurse him back to health as their intervention helped prevent irreversible liver damage as well as sure death. He said he owed a debt of gratitude to the IRC team for saving his life. He explained that for this reason he fell in love with the IRC and would go on to become a ranking member of the local chapter of the IRC during his later years in secondary school.
The war would drag on, eventually ending in January 1970, with over three million dead, destruction of critical infrastructure in the South-East and a once proud civilization reduced to a pile of rubble. The then Head of State, Gen. Yakubu ‘Jack’ Gowon, did announce that there was; ‘ No Victor, No Vanquished’, launching the three Rs, Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, in the wake of the war’s end. Whether this policy lived up to its billing is a conversation for another day.
With the war over, life gradually began to return to normal. Dr. Chukwuka, like many young Igbo children of school age whose school attendance had been disrupted by the war, was now able to continue with education. It was after completing his secondary education at the famous Oraukwu Grammar School, Orakwu, a town very close to Dr. Chukwuka’s homestead of Nnokwa, that he was faced with a dilemma: should he seek to further his education, by way of the university? Or should he choose a line of business and be apprenticed for some years, after which he would be in local parlance ‘settled’ thus becoming a business owner in his own right.
The latter pathway looked more realistic considering the fact that even though he desired more education he knew it would come at a cost to his parents. He also reasoned as the ‘Di Okpara’ of the family there was so much expectation as regards helping other family members to attain their dreams. The decision proved pivotal. It led Dr. Chukwuka down a route that turned out to be both rewarding and fulfilling. Today, he sits atop a massive business empire that spans pharmaceuticals, managed healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing.
As he turns 62 years today, let us raise our glasses in celebration as we felicitate this force of nature. Happy birthday, sir.
• Osondu, a pharmacist, writes from Lagos
