In this recent interview with Chika Chukwudile, the Vice President, Nnewi Community Meeting in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) who spoke on behalf of his President, tells Abba -Eku Onyeka that the Dist Sen Ifeanyi Ubah hasn’t only made a profound impact on every aspect of people’s lives, but also a significant, far-reaching, and positive influence on their lives too, by affecting various aspects of their well-being, relationships, personal growth, and more. He adds that Nnewi, Anambra and Nigeria in general have lost a rare breed in the senator. Excerpts.
Until his death, Distinguished Senator Ifeanyi Ubah was from your community, Nnewi, and he represented Anambra South Senatorial District at the National Assembly, how would you describe him as a person?I
feanyi, the Ebubechukwuzor was an exceptional human being in all ramifications, a rare breed and generations have people like him once. In terms of philanthropy, he is a proper definition of philanthropy, even at his very younger age, if he had a ball of akara, he would like to share it with everyone.
However, the same Ifeanyi, if he sees you take a ball of akara from any one child, around where he is, he will pursue you to wherever and ensure that he gets it from you and ensures that the rightful owner gets it back. So it was exceptionally inborn in him and everyone has his or her gift.
What would you like people to learn from him?
This is an interesting question. Our times are in God’s hands. Every one of us has an assignment from God and we shouldn’t hesitate in doing it. Ifeanyi is a baby, having lived 52, he is still a baby, but you can see people who lived up to 90 or 100, barely came across what he has achieved, in all ramifications, just mention them. Talking about philanthropy, there is no facet of life he didn’t cover, within this his short period.
Before his death, I was with him sitting down somewhere here in Abuja, on Tuesday 22nd July 2024. But the news of his death came in between, on 26 and it was on the opening of erosion by one of our indigenes here in Nnewi, and he was there with us.
You see people trooping in to see him and he attends to them with empathy, one after the other. What he can do, he will tell you, but if he can’t, he will tell you what to do next. As a leader from Nnewi, I know many people who have been coming to me, crying and telling me what Ifeanyi Ubah promised to do for them, as soon as he comes back from the UK.
He does neither discriminate, nor look at class or whatever. The way he is affecting lives, could only be of a person sent by God for that purpose. Like the question on his life and time, tells us that we have no time of our own. He has gone and it is amazing. Some time, I wonder when we shall wake up from this kind of nightmare, but that is life.
Behind every good things, there are bad ones, are you saying that there aren’t things he didn’t do well that you will not like others to emulate?
I am yet to know or point out those things. So I will rather talk of the good things Ifeanyi did. I don’t know what he didn’t do well. At a time, he said that God has empowered him to do this, and wants everybody to partake of it. So all inclusiveness is what I tell my people including myself. Don’t be the only champion, gather others around you. Let it be our thing, because a tree can’t make a forest. Now that he is no longer there, God can’t be frustrated. There must always be a man who will be there.
He was in a position to create and generate meaningful employments, would you say he did so?
As a community leader, people come with their CVs to me and all you need to do is to send them to him, that is all and you get it and he will not even need to see your face or know who you are. Let me give you an instance, a man was said to be stranded in India, and it was in social media that he saw it and all he did was to send a relief and ensure that he was brought home. Igbo man in Congo, Brazzaville China, anywhere you have problem, in the UK, anywhere in the world, and he hears about it, it is as well as done.
Well, he created a lot of employments, because you are a staff of the Authority Newspaper and yet Ifeanyi wasn’t a journalist. When he started the newspaper, you see the the Authority Newspaper’s newsstand in every nooks and crannies. As the owner of the Authority Newspaper, the Authority Radio, Capital Oil, Ifeanyi Ubah Football Club, among others, these organizations gave employments to many in this country and they are fending for their families through them. His foot mark must continue to be indelible. The way the newspaper vendors display the news, you will think that the Authority Newspaper is the only newspaper in Nigeria.
: It is one thing to make all sorts of noise about a particular subject matter, and another to make real thing happen, how prepared are Nnewi people in his burial funeral?
Our people say an emergency can wrestle a powerful man, but it is also during an emergency that you will know who is a powerful man. Let me say it in Igbo language: Mberede nyiri dike, ma obu mberede ka eji ama dike. So Nnewi can never be taken unawares, because it isn’t possible. And then, for a personality like Ebubechukwuzor na Nnewi, where will that be that we can’t get it? There is nowhere, even if it is in heaven, we ask God to give us.
On a final note, I ask God to rest his soul. You know, as I was thinking of Ifeanyi and the life we have now, that is the reality of death. I can tell you that at this cross from the other side is joy unspeakable, because, if not, the Ifeanyi I know would say know. When you put him there, he will come back. But I can tell you that life from the other side is for a man who has lived his life for the people. It is a beautiful life, that he will say, well I have done my part, I am sure that my brothers will take off from me and we are here.