By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

Chief Emeka Anyaoku is an active participant in the cultural life of his people. Is he not a red-cap chief in Obosi, which is his home town? The answer to this question is yes. And his building of the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre at Obosi attests to the fact that he is not deracinated. In fact, he is fully immersed in the ways of his people.

The Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre is located at Obosi, Anambra State. Obosi is the home town of such personages as Chief Osita Chidoka, Nigeria’s former aviation minister; Chief Mike Ajegbo, a onetime senator in the federal republic of Nigeria; Dan Chuke, a minister in the Chief Obasanjo’s political administration; and Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a former commonWealth secretary General. And the legendary Obosi-Onitsha war, which was caused by disputations over land, has etched the name, Obosi, in the people’s consciousness.

Siting the centre at the ancient town of Obosi is a judicious decision by Chief Emeka Anyaoku, whose motivations for building it are as varied as they are many. He built it to rekindle our youths’ interests in intellectual engagements. And, the existence of the centre will inspire the youth(s) to imbibe the positive personality traits of Chief Anyaoku in order that they can become as great as he is.

Again, he intends the centre to be a place for intellectual jousting by Nigerians from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. The centre will collaborate with the Emeka Anyaoku Institute For International Studies and Diplomacy at Unizik to organize lectures and seminars that will dwell on our country’s multifarious and hydra-headed problems, especially the one about our political leaders’ inability to manage our diversities.

Chief Emeka Anyaoku is fully aware that the greatness of Nigeria lies in her diversities; and that our country’s development is dependent on the existence of unity among the peoples of Nigeria. That explains one of his reasons for marrying across ethnic lines.

Again, the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre, which has both library and museum, is a salubrious place for students to conduct their educational researches. The centre has a library, which has three sections, in addition to having a repository. All the sections of the library are well stocked with books covering diverse fields of human learnings, such as literature, pure science, religion, philosophy, metaphysics, technologies, and others.

More so, the museum is part of the centre, too. Chief Emeka Anyaoku, who built the centre, is a great collector of artefacts. During his diplomatic international peregrinations as the Commonwealth Secretary General, he collected artefacts from the many different countries he visited. The stories and histories behind the artefacts will imbue us with the knowledge about the cultural lifestyles and belief systems of people, who belong to human races other than ours.

Thankfully, the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre is in the care of a well-educated, dutiful, and dependable arts curator, whose name is Miss Oluchi Nguzoro. A devout Christian of the Roman Catholic hue, Miss Nguzoro, who is strikingly fetching and young, does her work with uncommon grace, diligence, meticulousness, and mathematical precision. Her deep knowledge of arts curating and library science, which belies her age, comes in handy when she is doing her work.

The Inauguration/opening of the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre, Obosi will take place on January 18, 2024, which coincides with the 91^st birthday of Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a diplomat par excellence. It will be a momentous and historical event for Chief Anyaoku, who had pushed back the frontiers of knowledge in the areas of foreign affairs and international diplomacy. The opening of the centre on January 18, 2024 will be Chief Anyaoku’s realization of his dream about re-igniting intellectualism among the people of Obosi and other people, who live in surrounding towns.

Born on January 18, 1933, Chief Emeka Anyaoku attended the Merchants of Light School, Oba, Anambra State, for his post-primary school education. Later, he attended the University College, Ibadan, the school from which he earned a degree in Classics. As an international diplomat, he reached the apogee of his career when he became the Secretary General of the Commonwealth in 1990. And he served humanity as the secretary general of the commonwealth with utmost sense of duty, diligence, and meticulousness.

Chief Anyaoku’s possession of self-discipline and quality education aided him tremendously to gain international renown. That is why he is bequeathing his legacies to us by building the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre.So now that he is in the evening of his years on earth, he will look back at the past years, and beam with satisfaction and delight at his achievements and legacies.

Chief Emeka Anyaoku’s spry and sprightly gait belies his great age. He is in his early nineties, having been born on January 18, 1933. He attributes his longevity and good health to his disciplined lifestyle: he does everything in moderation, live in contentment, and engages in physical exercises.

I am wishing Chief Emeka Anyaoku a happy 91^st birthday and many, many happy returns.

•Chiedu Uche Okoye, a poet, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi.

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