A traditional ruler (Onye Eze) is like a star, that rises and sets. He enjoys the worship of the whole world but repose not. (Onye-Eze) occupies a very important position in our society. His deeds cannot be hidden from the watchful eyes of his people. An Eze can build or destroy his people. His personal displeasure is much akin to that of an adverse star breeding disaster, poverty and ruin. On the other hand, his favor attracts prosperity and advancement like that of a fortunate star. The Igbo society adores “Onye-Eze” because homage is his inalienable right. The ministers in a political system come and go or at times change portfolios, a nation may rise and fall, but a traditional ruler (Onye-Eze) is always on duty and cannot relay or drop the burden of responsibility till he joins his ancestors in the great world beyond. On Saturday June 11, 2005 His Royal Highness, Eze Geoffrey Chukwumaihe Agwubue joined his ancestors.
Eze Agwubue was born on November 12, 1937 into the family of onye Nze Duruagwubue, Omekwe and Lolo-Nze Nwanyigwe Agwubue, of Umuele Amazano, in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State. He was a very enterprising boy highly determined to live a successful life. Geoffrey possessed the charisma and humor that produced comical relief over very grave and tense situations.
In 1944, Geoffrey Chukumaihe Agwubue started his primary school at St. Matthew’s C.M.S School, Umuele Amazano. His bewitching nature attracted the then head of school, Mr. Emmanuel Onyekwere, who picked him as his house-boy. In 1946, when Mr. Onyekwere was transferred to Achara-Umuaka, Geoffrey went with him. In 1946 and 1947, he attended the St Paul's C.M.S. school, Achara- Umuakah. When his master was transferred to Akokwa, he then continued his primary school education at St. Peter's C.M.S school, Akokwa, in 1948 and 1949. Geoffrey remained faithful and obedient in serving his master. In 1951, he completed his primary education at the Holy Trinity C.M.S School Amaigbo.
In 1956 Geoffrey Chukumaihe Agwubue secured an employment with the Lever Brothers (Nig) Ltd as a salesman in Ibadan when he was living with his sister, Victoria Igegburunwa. No sooner did he get the employment than he realized the need for a better education. He saw this as a challenge and was determined to invest in his future. Thus; in 1964, he enrolled in the London University General Certificate of education as a private student and passed at the Ordinary Level.
In 1965, he was transferred to Kano, and with the rumors of war between Biafra and Nigeria; he was transferred to Aba. His sales adventures which took him to the nooks and crannies of the Western and Northern regions exposed him to the people and their languages. Geoffrey therefore, learned the Yoruba and Hausa languages and became proficient in these languages. As salesman, he made returns ever marched by any other salesman in the company. Geoffrey rose from the rank and had a brilliant and challenging career in Liver Brothers. After the civil war in 1970, he was made the marketing manager. He held this position until 1982, when he retired from the company. Geoffrey Chukwumaihe Agwubue lived a good life. He had two wives; Ugoeze Fidelia Agwubue and the late, Hellen Agwubue.
He served as the chairman of the Umuaka Development Union, Aba Branch for eight years. He used his skills as a salesman in his relationship with the people. His social interaction and friendship with people knew no boundary. He was excellent in handling auspicious occasions as the master of the ceremony. He became the best Master of Ceremony (MC) ever produced in Umuaka. His mouth was full of humor and his face was always wearing smiles. He was a man of peace. Indeed, Geoffrey possessed an unparallel gift of humor. He was such a brilliant master of ceremony at the foundation laying of the St. Matthew’s church Umuele, Amazano that the Anglican Prelate, late Most Rev. Dr. Benjamin C. Nwankiti openly said, “we very happily note that we have in this Diocese, such a wonderful talent and Director of program in the person of the handsome young man handling the microphone” With the early appearance of gray hair on his head, Geoffrey adopted the name “Young-Okongwu” and saw himself as a young old man. He also answered “Aja-Uwa” because he believed that one day man would become sand.
Geoffrey Chukwumaihe served as the president of the Umuaka Youths Crusade for four years. He made Umuaka Youths Crusade become the envy of such other social clubs in Umuaka as the Umuaka Welfare Club; Chikwado Social Club; Oganiru Social Club; Umuaka Peoples Club; Orinandu Social Club; Odoziaku Social Club; Ezigbo Nne Social Club; Udodimma Social Club; and Di-Amaka Social Club of Umuaka.
On retirement from Liver Brothers in 1982, he established the CHALLAKA INVESTMENTS (NIG) Ltd. which supplied polythene bags to Umuaka and its environs. As the chief executive, he applied his managerial competence in the operations of the company with the result that the business flourished and remained a major source of polythene products in the area. Geoffrey was also a successful poultry farmer.
In December 1989, he was elected the President –General of the Umuaka Development Union. He vigorously pursued the electricity project for Umuaka, and realized it. As a responsible and responsive leader, he dropped his administration’s plan to establish a Leprosy and Disease Control Unit at the Umuaka Community Hospital, when the members of the community, demonstrated their displeasure on the project based on the stigma associated with Leprosy.
In 1994, Geoffrey Chukwumaihe was conferred with the chieftaincy title of Onunaekwuruoha 1 of Umuaka. In 1996 when the Amazano Autonomous Community was created out of Umuaka and with the sterling leadership qualities in him, he became the popular choice of his people. He was then made the Ozoano 1 of Amazano Kingdom. From childhood through his reign as a traditional ruler, Eze Agwubue devoted his life to the service of humanity. He was instrumental to the creation of other autonomous communities out of Umuaka and Amazano communities. He saw this as a way of attracting more political and economic fallouts from the governments. He also championed the creation of the proposed Njaba South Local Government Area. Eze Agwubue won the affection, admiration and acceptance of his people and was adored by them. He held other positions in the community. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Golf Company; and also one of the Directors of the Umuaka Community Bank Nig. Ltd. Eze Agwubue was appointed a member of the Imo State Council of “Ndi-Eze”.
Thus, looking closely at the life of His Royal Highness, Eze Geoffrey Chukwumaihe Agwubue, three parallels in history come to mind; the first is about the life of William Wilberforce who was identified as “God’s politician by his biographer, Garthan Leam. Wilberforce entered British Parliament at 21 and swiftly became the darling of British Parliament and London society. He became the closest friend of the famed William Pitt, the young, prime minister of Britain and his potential successor. But he preferred service to humanity to pomp and pageantry and spent the rest of his life fighting for the emancipation of Africans dehumanized and degraded by European slave trade.
The second is the wizard of non-violence, Mahatma Mohandad K. Ghandi of India, whose experiment with Truth marked him out as the greatest leader of his time and; he won India her political independence from Britain. His quickened spirit of sacrifice and service led to the birth of satyagraha-passive resistance- a word coined by Indians to designate their struggle for Liberation. This philosophy later influenced the thought of many other leaders of oppressed children of God in many parts of the world and very conspicuously the great American civil right leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Then came Albert Scheweitzer of Lambrene fame whose sanctuary of thought placed him on a height unprecedented by any one else of his time; whose struggle for truth and search for beauty, whose regard for the dignity of humanity and reverence for life and whose struggle for transformation of society, devotion to the religion of the spirit, and living ethics and regard for the sacredness of all that live, made him timeless and an immortal saint.
Great men and women of this category, very rare to come by, are usually characterized by their artistic combination of simplicity and profoundness. We of this confused age tend to believe that, that which is simple cannot be at the same time profound, we tend to love the complicated and pompous and regard it as profound. But it is perhaps this simplicity that generates in these great men the spiritual freedom that in turn makes great thinkers. Their minds are free from complications and material encumbrances. They are free; and civilization presupposes the emergence of free men for only by free men can civilization be thought out and brought to realization. It is, perhaps, the freedom of the spirit among other virtues that made Eze Geoffrey Chukwumaihe Agwubue the octopus and the giant he was. Tomorrow Friday, August 19 2005, his body will be laid to rest. He is survived by his wife, Ugoeze Fidelia Agwubue and sixteen children.