Dr. Emeka was decent in his dealings with others. For him, service to humanity was a way of life. Selfless giving was his religion. He worshipped God by being of service to fellow human beings, most times denying himself the comfort which he could easily afford for the sake of others. As a physician, he believed that it was ethically unjustifiable to provide a lower standard of care to some people because of their status in society.
On June 16, 2023, the mortal remains of Dr. Emeka Iwuagwu will be committed to mother earth in his hometown, Obohia, Ahiazu-Mbaise LGA, Imo State. It is a date dreaded by all because though he died almost a month ago, many are still not able to wrap their minds around the fact of his passing. His death is simply too difficult for many to process.
Immediately people got wind of the sad news in the early hours of Sunday, April 2, a crowd thronged the Mejex Hospital complex at Afor-Ogbe, where he was confirmed dead after suffering what, apparently, was a massive heart attack at his own hospital, barely one kilometre away.
“Almost everyone is here. We are waiting to take the corpse to the morgue,” Prince Ibe Anyanwu, who broke the sad news to me, said mournfully.
Since then, the people have been inconsolable. The entire Mbaise nation – even beyond – has been thrown into unprecedented mourning. The collective sense of loss is profound.
To appreciate why everyone is overwhelmed with grief is to know who and what Dr. Emeka was.
Born 65 years ago on September 17, 1957, he started his primary education at the All Saints Primary School Ikperejere, Ihitte Uboma, before coming back home to his bucolic Umungara village, Obohia to complete his primary education at the Community School.
Thereafter, he proceeded to the famous Mbaise Secondary School for his secondary education, graduating in 1975 with a distinction.
He got admission to read medicine at the University of Ibadan and graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree.
And it was at that relatively young age of 25 years that his rare devotion to community service crystallized. It became apparent that medicine was his calling and he devoted 40 years of his life to that vocation. He died in active practice, having just completed his ward round on that fateful Saturday, a routine that defined his life’s work, shortly before death came calling.
After graduation, Dr. Emeka did the mandatory Housemanship at the Owerri General Hospital and partook in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme at the Community Hospital, Umuaka Orlu.
Rather than seeking paid employment, he saw primary healthcare delivery as his own apostolate, where an innate desire to render selfless medical service to the people, particularly the hoi-polloi, trumped personal financial benefits. His mission was transcendental.
A starry-eyed young man still under his 30s, he bucked the trend when he opened his first medical facility, Uchenna Hospital, at Umumbiri, Oparanadim, a neighbouring community to his native Obohia, while also running a clinic in Logara, Ngor Okpala.
The Uchenna Hospital was an instant success. He became the community doctor with a laser focus on the primary healthcare needs of the rural population – a people long abandoned by irresponsible governments – assessing and evaluating their health needs and organising health services to meet those needs.
In the 40 years that ensued, no one was denied medical attention because of lack of money. Dr. Emeka gave both the rich and the poor quality medical care.
A die-hard progressive and lover of education, he took special interest in those of us who were still in secondary school when he graduated in 1982 and to whom he became known simply as Dr. Emeka. He seemed to know everyone and took special interest in what we were doing. Along the line, he became a counsellor, a role model and mentor.
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Few years later, as undergraduates, most of us enjoyed free medical services in his hospital. You will know that he had finished with you when after consultations and prescription, he tells you to greet your parents. The nurses knew what that meant. Your medical bill was on the house.
In the event of any health emergency like Lassa Fever, Chicken Pox, Yellow Fever, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, etc., that threatened the community, the people always looked up to him for guidance. He never disappointed.
Such was his incredible commitment and peerless devotion to community service, that when he relocated to Lagos in the 1990s, the people back home were distraught. But he never abandoned them completely. Dr. Ifeanyi Nwoko, his medical protégé, not necessarily by design, though, took over the facility after graduating from the University of Calabar and continued in his footsteps.
Today, Dr. Nwoko, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh, UK), and a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners is the GP at Southern Cross General Practice, a position he has occupied since 2018.
In Lagos, Dr. Emeka opened the Ikeja Central Hospital, on Shanu Street, in 1995, which sooner became another one-stop communal medical facility for folks. While running the hospital, he also consulted free for the hospitals of St. Leo’s Catholic Church, Ikeja and St. Sabina’s Catholic Church, Agege.
A philanthropist par excellence, Dr. Emeka was once president of Rotary Club of Ogba, District 9110, which is not surprising because the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise, defined his entire worldview.
It was also not a coincidence that when some of his mentees back home, most of them now highflying professionals, including his younger brother, Obi Iwuagwu, Professor of Economic History, University of Lagos, ace comedian Okey Bakassi, Catholic clergy, Monsignor Chibuike Onyeaghala, Barrister Emeka Ibe, Engr. Peter Osuji, Barrister Matthew Unanka, Reginald Umunnakwe, a retired Assistant Comptroller-General of Immigration, Dr. Nwoko and yours truly, among others, set up a not-for-profit organization – Destiny Humanitarian Foundation (DHF) – with the sole purpose of helping the underprivileged in Obohia, he became a patron. The idea of DHF was to do as a group basically what Dr. Emeka had done all his adult life as an individual.
But it was apparent to all who paid attention that it was only a matter of time before he went back home. It was not a surprise, therefore, when he told me of his decision in 2014 to go back. I agreed with the reasons he gave. And home, he went in 2014, 19 years after he moved to Lagos, to set up the Hope Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, Afor-Oru.
Though folks in Lagos were not quite happy, they eventually were the primary beneficiaries. While in Lagos, he was a family doctor to them, back home, he became, once again, the community doctor. Those who had always worried about the medical needs of their relations back home had no need to bother again. Dr. Emeka took care and bills were paid later.
Personally, my relationship with Dr. Emeka was deep. He was a friend and confidant. Above all, he was Nnam Ukwu. I admired his humility, sense of service and never-say-die spirit. He never gave up or got discouraged, no matter what.
I had no hesitation approaching him to sponsor my wedding in 2002. Characteristically, he was excited as if I did him a favour. That was the quintessential Dr. Emeka. He shared in the joy of others. I remember taking a bottle of wine to introduce my wife to him. He rejected it.
“Iyke, you, not me, need a lot of drinks for the wedding,” he said. Yet, a week later, he visited with an envelope which he handed over to my wife. “Madam, wedding could be an expensive venture and no amount of money is really enough.”
On the eve of the wedding, he showed up again with yet another envelope. When I told him that he had already done enough for us, he smiled. “I know you are good to go, but Keep it. You never know, there is always a last minute expense, most times unforeseen,” he said.
That’s the man death snatched from us on April 1, leaving all who had the good fortune of making his acquaintance in a paroxysm of pain. We had all wished and prayed when the news broke that it was an April Fool prank.
Sadly, it was not. Dr. Emeka Iwuagwu, the man who gave his all for his people has gone the way of all flesh.
He was decent in his dealings. For him, service to humanity was a way of life. Selfless giving was his religion. He worshipped God by being of service to fellow human beings, most times denying himself the comfort which he could easily afford for the sake of others. As a physician, he believed that it was ethically unjustifiable to provide a lower standard of care to some people because of their status in society.
Dr. Emeka was politically informed and socially conscious. He was saddened by the political shenanigans in the country. He called after the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections and was worried about the future of the country. We spoke for almost one hour and I felt how saddened he was at the turn of events.
When I went home for the burial of my brother-in-law, Linus Okahia’s wife on March 24, I had it in mind to see him at the hospital. Time didn’t permit me.
But I was not bothered because I had planned to travel again for the burial of my uncle’s wife, Lady Bernice Nwagwu on April 14. Her first son, Barrister Emeka Nwagwu, SAN, was Dr. Emeka’s bosom friend and best man at his wedding and he would be there, I assured myself.
How I wish I visited him in March. He died one week after I left the village and two weeks before the burial of Barrister Emeka’s mother.
When I drove past his hospital on April 15, a notice hung on the wall – “Doctor is available.” Of course, the doctor that was available was not Emeka Iwuagwu. Someone had come in to help. I shook my head in grief, not for the dead but the living. Nothing will be the same again.
It will neither be for his widow, Barrister Sylvia Iwuagwu and their two sons, nor the communities and people he served so selflessly with his immense talent in the last four decades.
May Dr. Emeka’s soul rest in peace and his memory be a blessing to all who mourn his sudden death.