Nkem Ekeopara

I was overwhelmed with shock when I learned of the transition of Senator Patrick Emeka Echeruo (1939-2002), the Okigwe-born Nigerian Envoy to Germany, who died on July 10, 2002, a day short of his 63rd birthday. That news filled me with emotion and awesome reverence for a man that most of my generation, Ndiigbo Generation 60-70+, held up like we do with Chris Okigbo, as a symbol of great sacrifice made at the time of most need.

I have read a number of tributes to this great man, including one written by Obi Nwakanma, an award winning poet, a journalist and scholar, currently a Writing Fellow at Washington University in St Louis, USA. That tribute was published in the Houston-based USAfricaonline.com. And I thought it proper that as many as that rarity of a being, Senator Echeruo touched, should go public about it, especially in these times when there seem to be little attachment to values, for the late Senator Emeka Echeruo was a man who preached and lived for the best of values.

I believe that most writers want to write about love, love and nothing but love. Most writers would want to celebrate life in life and not death in after life. But, time and time again, we are faced with the reality. There is always that painful pass. There is always that moment of grief. There is always that time to write about a sudden departure, the departure of a loved one. And there is always that time to write about someone who was a professional and political success and a model of immense proportion to a generation. Therefore it is with great pain that I pen this deserving tribute to Senator Patrick Chukwuemeka Echeruo, who was planted among us, but now plucked by God, nonetheless leaving in the wake of his hasty departure bold imprints on the sands of time.

The departure of the amiable and humble Engineer, Senator and Envoy, has widened a vacuum already existing in a space yawning for models of his stature. The late Senator Emeka Echeruo touched so many lives, including mine. He hit no gongs about it. I feel a deep sense of loss as I pay this tribute to this pathfinder whose path crossed with mine in an area of knowledge, Agricultural Engineering, that he earned respect for his distinction in application of the knowledge he gained to providing for human needs. I had the privilege of training in the same department and University, Agricultural Engineering Department, University of Nigeria, where he had his foundation training before proceeding to University of Minnesota, USA, for further studies.

When I heard about Senator Emeka Echeruo's death, I wondered aloud: "Heaven must be as beautiful as we deem it to be, that our loved ones and community-minded people, those dear and near to us, the best of the human stock, keep flying away to it so hastily." For if it were not so, I tried to reason, why do good people always die generally much younger than those that society reviles? Why must it be Senator Echeruo and why now? Only God knows!

In Senator Chukwuemeka Echeruo, I lost a portrait I pinned to my heart, ever since I first met him in the mid eighties at the Nsukka Campus of the University of Nigeria. And I am sure most of my peers who knew him fairly well will express the same sense of loss. I met him, like my peers, as he came with another Patrick, Patrick Okedinachi Utomi (Dr), a Director of the Lagos Business School (LBS). They were at Nsukka as concerned and committed members of the Alumni Association of the University. They came in search of peace that unfortunately still eludes UNN till this day.

We took exceptional pride in Senator Echeruo as a pioneer in our department, a success by any measure and a God fearing man, who paid his dues in Biafra as the Director of Engineering, Biafran Land Army, that we may live.

It is to the credit of the late Senator Echeruo, Dr Pat Utomi, along with some others that peace later prevailed at UNN at the time. It is sad though to note that the news of his death came at the same time one received the news of the latest convulsion at UNN in which 18 innocent students were heartlessly gunned down in broad daylight. It is most disheartening that a once glorious place of knowledge for 'science, arts and all that is sublime' that trained men of no mean worth like Senator Echeruo, could be caught up in the insecurity that hallmarks the Nigerian State presently.

I carry with me, a portrait of a man whose brilliance shown like a bald head that made you wished for one. I carry with me a portrait I pinned to my heart from that first day, of a man who is a study in joviality, humility and humanity.

Ndiigbo yet have lost one of its best. Senator Emeka Echeruo loomed large in my professional life and my passion, poetry, since I always associated him with Professor MJC Echeruo, the great poet and world-class literary critic.

I join my generation whom he observed in a conversation with Mr Nwakanma, would be faced with the challenge of "the real fight for the soul of this country .....," to mourn him. I condole Professor Michael Echeruo and his family, for I know, here is one occasion, he would need us all to complement the comfort that he gets having met 'Sophia.'

Adieu our dear illustrious Senator and we pray that your unassuming, pleasant and generous soul will rest in the Lord's bosom!