Andrew Ogbonna Foundation

AO was born into the family of Chikwendu Ikegwu and his wife Akaji (nee Ibekwe) from Amaogwugwu Ohuhu in the present day Umuahia North LGA of Abia State. His grandfather Ikegwu Ibeji was an only surviving child who was the youngest of six siblings made up of one girl and five boys. Ikegwu Ibeji had three sons, Chikwendu and his brothers Nwadinobi and Job. The recounting of his lineage is important because events in the life of AO would clearly prove the credence to the belief among the Igbos that “one’s name has a lot to do with destiny,” as name Chikwendu which translates to “God permits life and existence” clearly seemed to have guided and protected him in his journey through life.

The stranger than life story of the Chikwendu lineage followed the death of Ikegwu Ibeji’s father, Ibeji Akaeme who was a prominent and wealthy man blessed with five (5) sons and a daughter and vast lands and plenty of livestock. A member of the royal lineage of Uhueze ( the kindred of Kings) in Amaogwugwu, immediately Ibeji Akaeme died, his kinsmen proceeded to sell off all his five sons and their mother to slave traders. The sole aim of the dastardly act was to gain full access to Ibeji Akaemes’ vast wealth and resources. However, when Ibeji Akaemes’ first and only daughter who was the eldest of his children and had been married off to the Ogbudu family of the neighbouring village of Umuagu before her father’s death heard what happened, history records that she ran back to her father’s compound naked from her husband’s village in Umuagu and proceeded to perform a macabre dance at her ancestral compound that was expected to result in the death of any kindred who had participated in the sale of her immediate family. This macabre and bold act instantly achieved the intended objective as out of fear and to avoid the envisaged terrible consequences her kinsmen from Amaogwugwu hurriedly organized and dispatched a search party, to track and rescue the five sons of Ibeji Akaeme and their mother if possible. Of the five sons sold however, only Ikegwu was traced to Ubakala and returned home. The rest remained lost in the maze of slave trade history and the possibility is there that Martin Lurther king or any of the famous black Americans that we know could easily be one of AO’s long-lost uncles. Upon Ikegwu’s return, he got married and named his first son Chikwendu, (Chikwerendu). A fearless and courageous young man, his exploits in his struggle to recover his inheritance and protect his nuclear family against the unrelenting plots to annihilate him is still recounted till today as epics. History records that Ikeagwu’s first son Chikwendu became a renowned and feared slave trader and because of his impregnable operational structure, the British colonial government dispatched a special armed expedition to stop him from continuing the inhuman trade after the abolishment of slavery.

Born on the 16th of November 1916, Andrew Ogbonna Chikwendu, “AO”, as he was later to be famously known in life was the first son but second child of his parents Chikwendu Ikegwu and his wife Akaji Ikegwu, a well-respected, wealthy, and prominent couple highly revered in their community and respected for their industry and hard work. He had an only sister who was married off early to Opobo people in present day Rivers State. His father Chikwendu Ikegwu also had four other male children and a female from two other wives, Efughi, Ihemeotuojo, Ezuma, Ihesinauloeme and Ngbaziemenanwa, the girl.

The birth of AO coincided with the arrival of the Europeans with their religion and education, whose arrival and interactions with his parents changed his course of life in forsaking the trade of his wealthy parents (especially slave trading) to pursue the new pathways to economic prosperity in less demeaning economic pursuits. This did not go down well with his stern and wealthy father who was an accomplished slave trader and who had prepared his son emotionally, spiritually, and physically to take over the lucrative and flourishing family business. He not only saw the Whiteman’s new trade as utter foolishness, he saw his sons new move as as a mark of weakness, thus threatening hail and brimstone on the young but determined Andrew.

Akaji Chikwendu, AO’s mother was an equally prosperous woman and renowned farmer, a heroic and great personage in her own right and was easily the greatest influence in shaping the future of her beloved son. She called her husband’s bluff and on the counsel of the white men sent her prized son to school to the consternation of her husband who abdicated all responsibilities of paying AO’s school fees, which she gladly shouldered without any complaints. As a result, AO developed and sustained an uncommon bond, love and loyalty with his mother throughout his lifetime. His mothers’ wish was a command to him and her words final on any issue. An example of the influence she wielded on him was that at the height of the political succession issues concerning the Premiership in Eastern Nigeria in which AO her son was a leading contender, it became apparent to the National Congress of Nigeria and the Cameroun’s (NCNC) that AO, a significant stalwart of the party in Eastern Nigeria could be persuaded by the entreaties of the Chief Obafemi Awolowo lead Action Group (AG) to dump the NCNC and join the AG following the visit of Awo to AO in his home in Umuahia. To neutralize the impending tsunami Rt. Hon Nnamdi Azikiwe the national leader of NCNC on learning of AG maneuvers enacted a masterful counter move of his own by simply going straight to Amaogwugwu, to AO’s mother, by-passing AO and Awo in Umuahia to intimate her of the “dangerous political machinations” of the AG to gain a powerful in-road into Eastern Nigeria by wooing her son. History records that Akaji, AO’s mother profusely appealed to the great Zik to forgive her son any anxieties that he could have caused him to make him travel all the way from Lagos and assured him that the matter was closed and would never reoccur. She then sent a message in front of the great man himself to her son to banish that infantile thought of joining the AG and that was the end of matter. Such was her power and influence over her powerful and influential son.

AO started junior primary schooling at Amaogwugwu and thereafter went to Umuda-Isingwu for senior primary in the early twenties. By 1929 he enrolled in secondary school at the prestigious Methodist Institute of Education now the Methodist College Uzuakoli. Andrew’s brilliance was quite evident from primary school, so it was easy for his teachers to spot him and monitor his progress. He was an all-rounder who excelled in academics, sports, and other extra-curricular activities. He was the Head-boy of the College during his time and the football team’s captain which got him the nickname “Chain” because he never let the ball pass him. In 1935, he graduated with flying colours from Uzuakoli and was quickly admitted as a teacher which was one of the lucrative jobs available at that time. In 1940, Andrew was admitted into the prestigious Yaba Higher College to study pharmacy from where he graduated as a “chemist” and “druggist” (as the pharmacy degree was known as at the time) in 1944.

After resigning from the colonial service and starting his own business, AO started developing an interest in politics because of the growing agitation for independence of the Country from British Imperial rule. He didn’t waste time therefore in teaming up with his kins man and old school mate at Methodist College, Uzuakoli Dr. M. I. Okpara (later to become the second Premier of Eastern Nigeria) and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the leader of the nationalist movement for independence at that time, in the struggle for independence and appointment of qualified Africans into positions in government. It was his sojourn in politics and his political exploits that earned him the sobriquet “AO”, an abbreviation of his two names Andrew and Ogbonna which would become the moniker with which he would then be famously known and remembered throughout his lifetime and beyond. AO’s attempt in seeking public office through the ballot box was an immediate success as he won the local council elections and became the first elected Chairman of the Umuahia Urban County Council under Bende Division between 1951 and 1959. Thereafter he ran and won elections into the Eastern Nigeria Regional House of Parliament in Enugu. He repeatedly won elections into the Eastern House until the 1959 general elections. The story of the 1959 general elections which AO lost to Dr. J.O.J Okezie in an epic electoral fight and the circumstances before and after it epitomizes AO’s sacrifice and collaborative politics, qualities that are rare to find in today’s politics and quest for power amongst politicians. To guarantee that his kinsman Dr. M.I. Okpara (M.I.Power) returned to the Regional House in Enugu and retain his position as Premier, a position to which he has been appointed into by Dr. Nmamdi Azikwe who had elected to go to the Federal House, AO graciously swapped his traditional and safe constituency with Okpara and chose to fight the elections in the Umuahia Urban Constituency where Dr. Okezie, running as an independent candidate after leaving the NCNC had mobilized his Ibeku people against the NCNC using clan sentiments.The outcome of the election was predictable and disastrous for AO, as he lost. However, he won the more significant victory by ensuring that Dr. Okpara got re-elected to the Regional House from a safe constituency and therefore retained the Premiership. Such was the history of selfless politics of that era which was played based on the best interest of the party and the people, in this case the NCNC and the Ohuhu people.

After the elections, AO was appointed first as the Provincial Commissioner for Ogoja Province with headquarters at Abakaliki and by 1st January 1960 he was appointed the Provincial Commissioner for Owerri province. He remained in this appointed position in Owerri till January 1966 when the first military coup took place.

Following the military coup, AO returned to Umuahia as a private citizen to reignite his pharmacy business and pay more attention to his businesses that included poultry farms, palm plantations and palm oil milling as well as a hotel business in Port Harcourt. However, by 1967, the political crisis following the first military coup had blossomed into a full-blown civil war and AO found himself supporting the war-efforts, family and other dependents. The war was a very trying period for all including AO who had his two eldest sons Obioma and Azubuike in active service with the Biafran armed forces. The war ended in January 1970 and the military government after declaring no victor, no vanquished retained the ban on politics and AO had to start life afresh first by going back to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Umuahia as Chief Pharmacist, a job he left in 1950 to establish his own pharmacy business. However in spite of these challenges, AO’s keen interest in politics never waned and as soon as the civil war ended in 1970, he embarked on a struggle to sensitize and mobilize his Ohuhu people for effective participation in government in the absence of their leader M.I. Okpara who had gone into exile at the end of the war.

In his lifetime, ‘AO’ made significant contributions to enrich his immediate community and country in general in the fields of education and public service. Firstly, as a teacher and pharmacist; as an elected official winning repeated elections into the local council as Council Chairman and subsequently as Honourable member of the Eastern Nigeria Regional House of Assembly and then as an Administrator in an Executive capacity both as Parliamentary Secretary in the Eastern House, and Provincial Commissioner for the Ogoja and Owerri Provinces when Provinces were the basis of the administration states as we have them today. AO was a government recognized Clan Head and highly regarded second class Chief, who also served in the Eastern Nigeria House of Chiefs and a representative of the Eastern Nigeria House of Chiefs at the Federal House of Chiefs in Lagos at several occasions. In his various iterations in life, AO, an urban, cosmopolitan, educated, and cultured man who was steeped in the traditions of his Igbo people made significant contributions in the advancement of family, community, and the society at large. He paid great attention and respect to the culture and tradition of his people and made efforts to advance them. He loved his family and his Ohuhu people without any reservation and went to great lengths to protect their interests. He had an authentic pan Nigerian outlook and view, with wives from the different Igbo states of Abia, Anambra, and Imo. His two first wives Emily and Bessie were pioneers in women education, the first being a graduate of the famous Ovim Girls Secondary school, Ovim in Isiukwuato and the second Bessy a renowned nurse/midwife, public officer (Head Midwife of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Umuahia) and proprietress of Bessie Chikwendu Maternity Home Umuahia, a facility in which most of the wives of the elite and ordinary people of Umuahia and its neigbouring communities delivered their children of that time. He lived most of his life across the different regions of Nigeria and in the process built a formidable national network of friends and relationships that cut across tribes and religion.

Today, his children and grandchildren including a retired Head of Service of a State and a Retired Permanent Secretary are married across Nigerian different tribes. In the field of education, he was a pioneer of higher education at home, and encouraged others to follow suit. He facilitated mass education of his people by helping to establish the Ohuhu Community Grammar School at his home-town, Amaogwugwu and aided many to acquire scholarships to tertiary institutions. He alongside his friends, Dr.E.N Njaka and Chief Akpaka (both of blessed memories) established two secondary schools at that time, one at Akokwa (Ernest James) and the other at Umunwanwa, all in the present day Imo and Abia States respectively (both schools were later taken over by the then East Central State Government) His community service initiatives included being instrumental to the upgrading of the Okpara road passing through Amaogwugwu to Okigwe, a major road artery leading to Enugu from that axis at the time ( a road which one of his sons is now instrumental to rehabilitating by mobilizing funds from friends from all across the country and beyond to reconstruct and restore one of the collapsed bridge crossings on the road at Umuagu/Umungasi) as well as attracting the secondary school and dispensary at his hometown. Both his pharmacy and poultry businesses including his wife’s maternity clinic were in Umuahia and his village to provide health services to his people and to offer employment to them. He was an active member of the Uzoakoli Old Boys Association, his famous alma mater, which he led as President General world-wide after the civil war, and in 1973, organized the Golden Jubilee Anniversary of the College during the time of Mr. Obinna Onokala as principal. He also sent two of his sons Obioma Christopher Chikwendu (of blessed memory) and Azubuike Chikwendu (Don Tee) to the same college. As Clan Head of Umuhu Umuchieze of Ohuhu, he helped to galvanize support for his kinsman Dr.M.I. Okpara as Premier of Eastern Nigeria and helped to boost the image of the Ohuhu man wherever he was found. His activities and actions in politics and government were no less remarkable. He was an active participant in the pre-independence movement for the political awakening of his people and the fight for independence. A strong and loyal party man, he was an NCNC stalwart and as a parliamentarian in the Eastern Nigeria House of Assembly, provided strong backing to Dr. M.I Opkara’s government and policies during the period. At Abakiliki as Provincial Commissioner, he was in charge when the Obudu Cattle Ranch was inaugurated and in Owerri, he donated his personal land for the establishment of the Catering Rest House (now Imo Hotels) in Owerri. He established the modern shoe factory in Owerri during his time as Provincial Commissioner to produce safety shoes for the refinery workers in Port-Harcourt and established the rubber plantations at Eweabian, Elele, Etche and Ahoada for supply of raw materials for the shoe factory as well as the cashew farms in Orlu. As part of his unique legacy in public service, AO is reputed to have ensured that the quality of meals served to students in the public secondary schools in Owerri during his time is of the highest standard by having his own sons sample the meals before the meals are served to students. Such is the life and times of the man in whose memory a foundation is being established.

AO died on the 19th of December 1979 from natural causes as a result of illness. Thankfully his story is not finished yet, as he was blessed with children who are now set to restore his name and legacy for posterity. The AOC Foundation shall be publicly presented on Friday, 3rd June 2022 at the 50th birthday National Colloquium of Kingston Ezeugo Chikwendu (one of AO’s sons) on the themeConversations Towards Social Rebirth and a keynote lecture on the topic of Building the Framework for Social Inclusion and Returning Nigeria to the Path of Prosperity in the Covid Context by Professor (Mrs) Ngozi Nwosu, Dean Faculty of Education Nassarawa State University at the International Conference Centre Umuahia by 10 a.m