Emma Uche
I am sure most people reading this wouldn’t know me, as I was neither present in Emmanuel Uche’s post war period nor during his University years, and particularly not during his tenure of office as a distinguished lawyer nor his life-long service at the Surulere Church. The reason is that I left Nigeria permanently shortly after the end of the Briafan war almost 45 year ago, and I am still away! So I will start be briefly introducing myself.
My name is Adimchi Onyenadum, the 7th child of the late Rev. G. O. Akwarandu, a pioneer of the Assemblies of God Nigeria and the first Treasurer of the first General Council of AGM Nigeria (a post he held unopposed until his retirement and subsequent passing away in 1985). My mother, Mrs. (Rev) Fidelia U. Akwarandu also a pioneer of Assemblies of God Nigeria, passed away only 4 years ago at the ripe age of 97 years.
I met Emma for the first time in 1967 at Evangel High School, Old Umuahia. He was in class 4 then (a classmate of my elder brother, the late Dr. Ezemdi Onyenadum of the University of Nigeria), and I was in class 1. The war interrupted our schooling. After the war, I don’t remember meeting him as I was a war prisoner for one year and a half, during which years he and my deceased brother had graduated from Secondary School. When I finally came back from my captivity (I thank God for His protection) and went back to school, there I met Chijinkem. She was my classmate even though I am much older than her. Ha! Ha! She was to be Emma’s wife.
Shortly after my School Cert in the mid-seventies, I checked out abroad for studies and never came home for almost 6 years at a stretch. When I finally visited Nigeria. I think in late 1981, I met Emma at a wedding at Evangel High School hall (I don’t remember whose wedding it was). I then had my first conscious interaction with him. Our next meeting was in Greece a couple of years later, when I jointly hosted him with my late buddy and far cousin, Dr. Ugwum Ezeigbo, and his sweet wife, Barrister Joy Ezeigbo. It was an unforgettable visit. It was real joy to be with him as we visited Bible places in Greece, including Thessaloniki, Corinth, Athens Acropolis, etc. One phrase of his that remained with us was as he watched the Greeks walking around that summer with their women wearing their shorts and scanty dressing, He exclaimed: “Oh my God these people are milling around without knowing the Lord”. He said that in Igbo and it was really hilarious. That was Emma, the committed servant of God no matter where or what. We maintained contact thereafter.
Then he became sick. As a physician and medical oncologist (cancer specialist), I was consulted from the very start. After the diagnosis was established, I gave opinion as to the therapeutic path to follow. From that time and afterwards, I was actively involved with his management, as one of his overseas consultants. This involvement continued till the end. I had even invited him to come to Greece during the late stages of his disease to be treated in our University Hospital facilities, but that was not to be for various reasons. But I made sure I sourced for him many very expensive medications that he needed to take, including pain killers, etc. I thank all those who helped financially to ensure that he was not denied treatment because of cost. May the good Lord bless and replenish them.
I can’t finish this short write up on Emma without mentioning something touching he did for me even as he was nearing his end barely a year and half ago. After my mother died in 2016, I formed a Trust Fund in her honor and also in the honor of my late father to preserve and their spiritual legacy. I created it for the greater family, nephews and nieces, spouses and grandchildren. The aim was to create a Trust Fund for them to enable them to establish themselves in the future and to promote the ideals of my departed parents which were many and noble. I asked Emma if he could come and inaugurate the Fund for us while being both a board member and our legal advisor. He accepted with joy and enthusiasm. He dedicated the Christmas of 2018 for me and my family and drove all the way from Lagos to Umuahia with his wife Chijinkem for the occasion. He was looking weak and emaciated, but he kept his word. Among other things, he promised to stand in for my deceased bother’s only son, Gozies Onyenadum, in the Trust. The late Dr. Ezemdi Onyenadum was his bosom friend and he always remembered him fondly. He also promised to help garner financial support for the Fund. And even though we were late in the whole process that day and he needed to eat early and take his drugs, he waited stoically until food was served, without complaining. When I learned about it, I was humbled and overcome with shame.
Emma was a selfless person as many have ascertained. I saw that selflessness again when I visited him last summer in his house in Lagos. We went to service together at the Surulere Church. In the situation he was in, he shouldn’t have even gone to Church, but he did. Not only that, but he sat through the grueling children’s program that they had in the Church that Sunday. Some of the old boys I knew and met in the Church that day had discretely taken their leave when the program got into the endurance mode! But Emma was there, in the Elders quarters (yes they have such a section in the Church), no water, no food, no rest. As a medical professional, and knowing the dire situation he was in, I wriggled my way up to where he was sitting to see how he was doing. Once he saw me, he motioned to me to sit in a vacant seat next to him. You see, even the elders and board members were discretely beginning to check out of the “ordeal”. Lol! But not Emma! After the program, he spent what appeared to me to be ages, receiving countless members with their various needs and petitions. Whoa! We got home that day two hours later after an adventurous rigmarole through the streets of Lagos. The normal route which should not have been more than half an hour was choked up for some reason I never understood. It was the month of July and heat was swelting. I was really afraid of him that day; he looked pale and badly dehydrated. Despite my caution, the next day he was up and about, selflessly answering the call of duty. He went to various commitments and board meetings. I had never met a human being like him. I took it out on Chijinkem his wife for letting him suffer like that, but she swore she wasn’t responsible and that there was nothing she could do about the situation. That was Emma. Period!
I could go on and on like many other tributes here but I have to end. The fact that I wasn’t in Nigeria with the rest of his immediate and long - time contacts, and yet we all are saying the same things confirms that all the testimonies about him are true without exaggerations. Emma was somebody special in many ways and impacted the lives of many people in divers ways. We should blaze the trail he has left us and keep his memory burning and bequeath his paradigm to posterity.
Adieu Emma, Rest In God’s Perfect Peace!
Adimchi Onyenadum MD.
Physician, Medical Oncologist
Medical Director
University Hospital of Patras
Greece.