Iwuanyanwu: Have You Thought About ITU, Owerri?

Emma Agu

By the time you read this article, all would have been set for the obsequies of Chief Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, former president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the colossus that bestrode the Nigerian space for over half a century. He departed this mortal world on 25th July 2024. He was, among other things, publisher of Champion Newspapers Limited. The paper debuted in 1988, with headquarters in Lagos. I had the privilege of being the pioneer editor of the Daily Champion, the flagship title of the media house.

In 1991, we were conducting a recruitment exercise to fill vacancies in the editorial department of Champion Newspapers Limited at the company headquarters in Lagos. One of the candidates stood out, on all the criteria for recruitment that had been established by the company, under the leadership of the renowned newspaper manager, Prince Henry Olukayode Odukomaiya.

As his curriculum vitae showed, the candidate in question, a graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, where he studied history, had won the departmental award for each of the four years that he was a student at the university. To crown it all, he won the departmental award as the best graduating student in 1987. It was therefore not a surprise that he had beaten all other candidates both in the written assessment and the oral interview.

You will expect that such a candidate would have been employed automatically. It was not exactly so. The newspaper’s Chairman had established a recruitment template almost akin to the Federal Character principle of the Federal Government. All of Nigeria had to be recruited to work in Champion Newspapers. To his credit, the pioneer managing director/editor-in-chief, Prince Henry Odukomaiya did a terrific job of it. But on this occasion, something snapped which could have sacrificed the best candidate for other criteria to be satisfied.

Keen on not ruffling feathers in the system, but feathers were ruffled anyway, as pioneer editor of the newspaper’s flagship, I had to find a way out of the dilemma, of losing a promising hand. The candidate’s curriculum vitae provided the answer: apart from his several accolades, he was also a beneficiary of the Iwuanyanwu Educational Foundation Scholarship. Armed with that, the rest, according to popular language, is history. That was how Nosike Ogbuenyi, the candidate in question, got employed in Champion Newspapers.

Nosike Ogbuenyi represents the countless Nigerians who benefitted from the educational scholarship of the Iwuanyanwu Foundation. Many of them have had highly successful careers in both the private and public sectors. Without the scholarship, it is possible that their families and the country would have been denied the positive impact that some of them were to make and perhaps, are still making.

Nine years later, when I was appointed MD/E-I-C in February 2000, market dynamics dictated that, for Champion Newspapers  to match the competition in the industry, something had to give. And it had to be disruptive.. By then, full colour publication was beginning to redefine the competition particularly the advert market space where a number of newspapers, including Champion, were far behind. We needed a unique proposition that would confer some advantage on us. That proposition was located in what came to be known as “simultaneous printing”. Of course, it is a long established practice that you go for the low hanging fruits. Thus, the entire east became our target. Though it should be added that the highest sales came from Lagos.

However, to achieve our mission entailed procuring a new Press, a web offset press, that would cost an arm and a leg at the time. When the numbers were crunched, many members of the board felt that the idea should be dropped. It is instructive to add that though the newspaper’s management team had endorsed the proposal, it was not without reservation by some members of the team. Thus, at the Board meeting to address the issue, with some of the Board members unimpressed with the proposal, Chief Iwuanyanwu was almost certain to go along with them He did. But that was momentarily. He asked for the matter to be kept in abeyance.

However, as the meeting progressed, from nowhere in particular, he asked: “MD, beyond employment and improved copy sales in the nine states in the east, can I have any other justifications for pushing us into uncharted waters?”. Without hesitating, I said, “Yes Chairman” to which he retorted, “I am all ears”. If Iwuanyanwu told you I am all ears, it signalled disbelief, but also a demonstration of one of the qualities that endeared him to many of us, a willingness to give someone a second, third and even a fourth chance. “Chairman”, I started, (at this point, he was leaning towards me as if I was about to release a secret which only him should hear) “…given that there is no web offset press in Owerri, the envisioned operation would provide a ready place for practical training for Mass Comm and journalism students …” Before I could finish, he looked in the direction of Chief Bob Ogbuagu (Dee Bob) of blessed memory who was seated to his left and exclaimed: “Dee Bob, that is it. We will go with the project. Let that be our contribution to education”. Then facing the Group Finance Director, Chief Ben Ikejiaku (also of blessed memory), he intoned: “Ben, it is not all about money. Agreed we need the money, but we have to look at the bigger picture”. Case closed! That was the essential Chief Iwuanyanwu: education, human capital development, constituted to him, the bigger picture!

To Iwuanyanwu, education was unrivalled in his scale of priorities. He was prepared to sacrifice anything, indeed everything to support education. His Iwuanyanwu Educational Foundation granted scholarships to students from every part of the country and supported many educational institutions. I contacted Nosike Ogbuenyi as I wrote this piece, and he confirmed that a beneficiary emerged from each of the nineteen states of which Nigeria was made up in 1985, when he got the scholarship.

I got closer to Chief Iwuanyanwu between July 1997 and December 1999 (all of two and half years) when, as part of my twenty year-long service in Champion Newspapers, I was assigned to resuscitate National Post, a sister publication in Owerri. Part of the arrangement was that I would double as unofficial personal assistant (PA) to him. It was to dawn on me, much later, that Owerri was like a sounding board for Chief to appraise the next head of his newspaper.

For my part, the Owerri assignment provided an opportunity to witness first hand, his huge philanthropic disposition. Ever saw Chief Iwuanyanwu physically? You would say big. Perhaps Huge. In Owerri, I found out that his philanthropy, particularly his support of education, was bigger than his physical size.

Friday was Charity Day for Iwuanyanwu. He went to work with two pilot-like (not Ghana Must-Go) bags. But they did the same thing. The two bags were stuffed with naira. The needy would congregate at His Umudagu Crescent Village office (that was before he moved to the “Glass House”) as early as 7 am. Prior to his arrival, his ever-reliable secretary at the time, Patricia True Love Davis, would have taken notes of all requests for assistance, with educational requests definitely receiving special attention. It was a ritual that I loved to watch because it resonated well with my essence. I would like to add without any exaggeration that those two bags were emptied before Chief would leave the office at 5 pm or thereafter.

If you consider this a tribute to Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Aha Ejiagamba of Igboland, who passed away on July 25, 2024, that is okay by me. But that is just one part of the Owerri Home Boy who became an icon in Nigeria and beyond.

But how can I do a tribute on Chief without talking about my personal experience, about the man who, with a smile dancing all over his face, would call me E-mma-aaaa-nuel, always dragging the name as if he wanted a road into my soul? Of course, in spite of the many tales that were woven around him, he won my heart as an exceptional humanist, a tireless fighter for equity, fairness and justice, a compassionate and benevolent leader of men and women, a nationalist and statesmen of no mean order, yet an undisputed epitome of the Igbo reputation for fairness, industry, enterprise and boldness. By the grace of God, that tribute will come.

For now, I have recalled the above, to call attention to the essential Iwuanyanwu, a legend whose iconic contributions to education and human capital development, continue to define the lives and times of many Nigerians and ultimately, national development and survival. Finally, it is to unequivocally make the case, why the Federal Government should rename the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) after him. Think about Iwuanyanwu Technological University (ITU), Owerri Nigeria!

•Emma Agu, pioneer editor of the Daily Champion between 1988 and 1992 voluntarily disengaged from the newspaper after 20 years of service; the last eight years as managing director-editor-in-chief.