Tony Nnachetta pays tribute to Ndubuisi Kanu, principled officer and former military governor of Lagos State
It is with a deep sense of personal and institutional loss that Aka Ikenga recoils to present a summarised tribute to the times of Ugwumba Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu, a pristine manifestation of what the Ndigbo Ikenga portrays.
The passage of Rear Admiral Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu is the uprooting of an Iroko in Igboland, the reduction in Nigeria of the very few good men left who would speak truth to power without batting an eye lid. Ugwumba a titan of man, multiple times his physical size as a man of indomitable spirit, a stalwart of hard convictions, a man not given to cant,
and loose talk, a man who will never be said to suffer fools gladly, has ascended, rather early, to join the Igbo pantheons. What a loss! What a gain to the Ancestors
Aka Ikenga, in our 35-year history, has no strategic collaborator more formidable and committed than Ugwumba Ndubuisi Kanu. He would counsel and cajole and caution and attend to all issues we throw up. It is to his eternal glory that he sacrificed so much time and resource as Aka Ikenga’s ally’ to give birth to Ndigbo Lagos.
The concept was shared and refined in his living room. The contacts and hostings were in his home for years and ultimately, he provided the office for Ndigbo Lagos. Several initiatives and forays for the benefit of Ndigbo Worldwide, not just Lagos and Nigeria, sprung from the wellsprings of his time, talent and treasures.
Ugwumba Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu, consummate sailor, with all the accolades of the sea and the state, and with the comfort available to a man of his achievements, made himself a servant for the people. A man who after risking his life as a combatant military officer went ahead to provide a rallying point, a bedrock, a refuge and spokesman for democratic Nigeria.
Ndigbo welcomes Nigeria to mourn the passage of one its greatest unsung heroes. a bastion of the democratic struggle, suffering tea gas and 24-hour surveillance.
A man of gigantic sacrifices, who refused to be cowed by the military junta, who looked death in the eye several times, who was arrested in his home in Lagos, ransacked, ruffled and searched, bundled into a vehicle and driven 500 miles to his country home at Ovim, Abia State, where it was all ransacked and then routed back to Lagos, a non- stop 48-hour ordeal and he said nothing. And called no public attention to intimidation.
Aka Ikenga mourns the passage of a lion of a man. A man to go to war with.
May the Good Lord grant him eternal rest. May the Good Lord welcome him and may He also console and counsel the family and all of us he has left behind.
Farewell, Ugwumba, you lived true to your name; Ugwumba, our pride, our totem, our Ikenga, Dike na agha, Dike na Udo, Rear Admiral of the Fleet. May your kind increase.
Ogbuefi Nnachetta is
President, Aka Ikenga
