By C. DON ADINUBA

Oyibo Victor Chukwu, Owelle of Nkanu, had a presence. He could not enter a place or leave without people noticing that a man of stature visited, even when he did not utter a word. He was robust in the true sense of the word - in physique, in pulchritude, in rhetoric, and in self-assuredness.

Oyibo’s traditional sobriquet or title of Owelle was fitting. He had so much in common with The Great Zik of Africa who, more than any person in living memory, popularised this traditional title. Even the peteri, or the free-flowing gown worn mostly on ceremonial occasions by titled men in the Southeast and South-south geopolitical zones of the country, looked resplendent on him as it did The Great Zik.

At the conferment of the highly prestigious title of Aka Ji Oku Ndi Igbo on Professor Bart Nnaji, CON, NNONM, FAS, then-the Special Presidential Adviser on Power and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power, by the Eze Nri at Agukwu Nri in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State in February 2011, Oyibo almost stole the show with his spectacular looks. He wore an immaculate white peteri, an immaculate white traditional dress on top, a pair of white socks, a pair of bespoke white ceremonial shoes, a special ceremonial cap often associated with high chiefs in and around Onitsha, and held a fancy fan with an unmistakable aristocratic panache. He kept a royal mien throughout and walked with measured steps. Most people thought he was the person being honoured rather than being a member of the large Nnaji delegation which comprised, among others, a former Inspector General of Police, Ogbonnia Onovo, and a former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group General Manager, Chief David Ogbodo.

Oyibo was an Nnaji follower through and through. Three days before his cowardly assassination, he walked into Nnaji’s residence in GRA Enugu with his dedicated personal assistant, Sunday Igwesi, and spoke glowingly about his PA; Sunday was going to be killed and incinerated with him in their Sienna van at Amechi Awkunanaw, Enugu South Local Government Area. I would have gone to my room to sleep because I was travelling back to Lagos the following day very early but I had to wait for him in the living room downstairs. He came at about midnight, straight from a campaign tour, thoroughly exhausted. He just had to come because he had told Nnaji he would visit him, however late. Nnaji, he said repeatedly, was not a person he could disappoint over any issue, no matter how infinitesimal. Little did I know that it was the last time I would see Oyibo alive when I left him, Sunday, Nnaji and Chima Atu who was running successfully for a House of Representatives seat in the living room.

Oyibo and I enjoyed a special relationship. We used to argue, disagree, and agree on sundry issues, and we delighted in the strong but cultured debates. He was a lively conversationalist and a clever debater, quite knowledgeable. Still, he always deferred to me as “my nna m ochie”. His aged mother hails from Oraukwu, and Oyibo, who returns to mother earth this weekend, was eminently proud of his Anambra roots. I am still to reconcile myself to the cold reality of his passing, all the more so the manner of his death.

Requiescat in pace, my dear friend and great nwadiana.

•C. Don Adinuba was Commissioner for Information & Public Enlightenment, Anambra State (2017-22).

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