I drove 200 odd kilometres to the Presbyterian Church at Uwani, Enugu, for birthday thanksgiving Dr. Kalu Uke Kalu (KUK) at 80. It was difficult for me to locate the venue. The church building is one new landmark in Enugu, a sprawling metropolis now properly infrastructured.
Forty years ago, I could have boasted of good knowledge of my haunt from 1964 to 1975. My doing a circle through coal camp revealed praiseworthy renewal of Enugu in form and function. The Cathedral of Presbyterian Church of Nigeria (PCN) was full of people from the four winds and of all age groups who had come to honour a rare breed. KUK was as self-effacing as ever.
I had met him as a lecturer in the Department of Finance and Accounts of University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus where he taught accounting. One of my age-mates in the university, Zere Chris Onwuzo, had extensive chat on him and we reached a consensus on his inviolable character of love and concern for the human phenomenon through his spell with teaching. I had written of him when he celebrated 50 years of his marriage to his white wife. Professor Timothy Nwala had invited me to the event knowing what reverence I had for the subject.
I relished every minute I spent in the church, as people filed in from mid-morning on Sunday, February 22 till when service was concluded long after 1pm. When I arrived about 10.30am, I had to park my vehicle on Amokwe Street on which the church was economically located. Parking provided for relatively fewer members of congregation was full of state-of-the-art cars of all patents. Cars parked bespoke the quality of the guests. Very few guests belonged to the violent breed to whom money and possessions seem to be the sole meaning of life on earth. A large number of guests were senior citizens who strained to be there for unflinching faith in the celebrant and his family.
A lady preacher, Rev. Esther Alex Okoro, was acerbic about the Nigerian condition. She was so focused on fund-raising at the tail of her sermon on morality and uprightness in life that she earned some disappointment with her requests for graded donors to step forward for prayers. It was apparent that a critical majority shunned fanfare in church and would prefer being unobtrusive with donations to churches. I saw that I had substantial equivalents in avoidance of avarice and flamboyance in the House of God. At the end of her two-hour preachment, she took on the celebrant with fervour.
KUK’s story of commitment to the church was told. It was only one more of his established commitment to any organisation to which he belonged. It complemented what I had established as his signature tune.
We drove to the venue of reception at 3, Idemili Street, Independence Layout. A large air-conditioned canopy had been set up in the slope behind a main house to provide water, lunch and atmosphere for entertaining a wide array of guests. Meals were tailored to the preponderant age group. Music of the right quality for the majority was offered in recorded disks and live orchestra. A young man brilliantly rendered Louis Armstrong’s piece. The heirs of the celebrant offered beautiful tunes with orchestral instruments that earned shortchanged approval of the guests.
KUK had driven himself hard to educate young professionals at University of Nigeria. He was on the ground floor of Skoup and Company Limited where I could have worked in 1971 upon graduation. He is the only resident partner among the founders to stay with the company in loyalty and grace. It became apparent at the event that he had kept the common touch with his clan of origin and everywhere.
He had pioneered and driven Igbo cause up until the formation of Alaigbo Development Foundation which was midwifed by Igbo Colloquium of last March (2014). He had married into a noble English family during his sojourn for education in England and an escort to the life union, Dr. Uma Eleazu, himself a remarkably relevant octogenarian in the Nigeria project, spent valuable minutes narrating this unknown but hilarious episode of our celebrant’s life upon being summoned by modest and frugal age-mate of mine, cross-bearer and compeer at the event, Kevin Ejiofor, a retired broadcaster.
I had the benefit of extolling the qualities of the man in a short speech and drove the lesson of the entire event as an opportunity for all to live aright in our celebrant’s idiom of love and concern for fellow men, with rich doses of hard work buried in humble carriage. I was privileged to excite the large audience with folklore that appropriately showed that light through right conduct was most important in all human relationships.
Old Boys of Hope Waddell College Calabar, one of Nigeria’s heritage educational institutions, took centre stage and rubbed in their quintessence with a birthday present, not before a seasoned elder of humble stature properly relived quality of education in the 1940s and 50s with his grandiose anecdotes and quips in Queen’s English.
The event, which KUK described to me as informal, turned out leagues away from informality to a great event just as I made my exit back to my base in daylight. My heart was lifted despite time and distance offered in celebration of one who deserved it.