By CHUKS ILOEGBUNAM
When my phone rang one bright morning in April, nothing suggested that my friend Alfred Ugochukwu Nwosu was on the verge of exiting a world in which he had been a positive force to all who knew or interacted with him. But my anxiety level shot up the moment we started talking. He had been meaning to call me for a long time. I had sent him text and email messages to which no responses had come. (He was not into Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, X, and all of that). Alfred said he would start with a short story.
He was belatedly reading my tribute to our mutual friend, Jika Attoh, the ace broadcaster, who had died in October 2023 aged 67 years, and smiling broadly. His wife who was watching him asked why he was grinning from ear to ear. Replying, he said: “I am reading Chuks’ tribute to Jika and laughing because he has no inkling that, pretty soon, he will have to write my own obituary.” I was taken aback on hearing this. “What are you talking about?” I asked.
Alfred explained that he had been in poor health for quite some time. “If you see me now,” he said, “I have shrunk to half my size. The illness is why you haven’t heard from me for some time. But, today, I said I must call you.” When I commented on his strong voice, he countered that it was about the only aspect of his regular self that hadn’t taken a battering. I listened dumbfounded as Alfred detailed his condition and the measures he was taking in a valiant struggle to return to wholeness. I did an impromptu prayer for him and, from then on, phoned him at least once each week to monitor his state.
Soon, his treatment meant flying to Lagos in alternate weeks. Neither the hospitals nor the medical personnel for healing him was available in the Igbo country, I heard. Experts flew into Lagos each week from the United States to attend to a lengthy queue of sick folks from all over the country who regularly showed up to stave off death. That, to me, represented food for thought.
Early in July, I called Alfred but his phone rang out. I surmised that he was probably resting. I called again the following week and achieved the same result of non-response. Still, I didn’t fear for the worst. When we spoke weeks earlier, he had sounded lively although our conversation dwelt some on the dead. He mentioned that our mutual friend, the industrialist, and founder of Cutix Cables Plc, Chief Ajulu Uzodike, had died in Dallas, aged 75. He mentioned Uche Nwokedi, SAN, who had died in London, aged 62. Early this year, he presented me with a copy of Barrister Nwokedi’s memoir on the Nigerian civil war entitled A Shred of Fear. A week later, my concerned daughter called to ask if I had finally reached Alfred. I had not. His phone was no longer reachable. I had neither his wife’s nor his children’s numbers. But I promised her that I would contact mutual friends to ask how Alfred was fairing.
I made a WhatsApp call to Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Jr to ask for a picture I considered necessary for a new book on his father that I am about to publish. That was when the alarm set in for the icon on Emeka’s WhatsApp number bore Alfred’s image. Upon inquiry, he confirmed the worst. Alfred Nwosu, born October 2, 1957, passed on August 7, 2024. He was 67.
Alfred was one of my best friends, even though we never lived in the same town together. I first met him in 1988 when, as a Newswatch magazine reporter, I had travelled to Enugu for a story. I ran into him and some other young men of the media at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre on Rangers Avenue, and we hit it off immediately. His forte was advertising. He was lastly the boss of the advertising company Reads & Mark Ltd. Each time I found myself in the Coal City, I tried my best to catch up with him. He was closely attached to General Ojukwu’s family and because I gravitated to the former Biafran leader, we sometimes met in his house.
Another reason for my enduring friendship with Alfred was his abiding love for books, especially books on Nigerian political history. There is hardly a book on the Nigeria-Biafra war he didn’t buy and read, whether fiction or nonfiction. Beyond that, he seemed to mostly enjoy sharing ideas and information from books with his friends. “Chuks, have you read Colonel Patrick Anwunah’s memoirs titled The Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970),” he would ask, for instance. If I answered in the negative, he would say: “I bought two copies, you can have one” or “Come take my copy and read.”
When one day I met up with Prince Ralph Ndigwe, a book-loving engineer, at the Enugu Golf Course, he regretted that there was no biography of Sir Louis Phillip Ojukwu, the late, great entrepreneur. Ralph wondered why I shouldn’t take up the challenge of writing such a biography. I told him I would seek Alfred’s opinion on the matter. Within hours, I was driving to Alfred’s residence because he said a biography of the millionaire existed and I should come and pick it up. The book’s title is In Quest of Perpetuity: Bio-Sketches of Sir Odumegwu Ojukwu. It was written by the multimillionaire’s nephew who signed his name simply as Ifeze. For some reason, the biography has never been promoted in the country and cannot be found in any Nigerian bookshop or library.
But to return to Alfred. He appeared to have sold for me more copies of my biography of General Aguiyi-Ironsi than even some bookshops, without any profit to himself. Sometimes he would collect about half a dozen copies, pay for them, and give those who placed orders. During January, I think, Alfred asked me to autograph a copy of Ironsi for Professor A. B.C. Nwosu, his uncle. He had found out that the former Minister of Health had not read the book. I recall also that two years ago, well before the onset of his health challenges, he had asked for a copy of Ironsi for his son. “Can’t your son read your copy?” I asked. “No,” replied Alfred. “Every book I own will be donated to a library when I die. My son will have his copy of any of my books his fancies.”
After I launched The Promise of a New Era, my biography of Mr. Peter Obi in Enugu in December 2022, I was compelled to publicly acknowledge Alfred’s role in the success of the event. I added that anyone intent on organising a successful event in Enugu must seek the assistance of Alfred and another Nnewi son, Chief Ben Etiaba. The launch of my book was personal to them. Apart from helping to secure the venue, they accounted for a great number of those in attendance, pressing many of them to “launch” the book for me.
On Friday, September 13, 2024, Alfred will be committed to Mother Earth in Nnewi. To pass away at 67 is to die prematurely. There was a poignant statement made around 2008 by Bashorun J. K. Randle, the chartered accountant and famous author of The Godfather Never Sleeps that I must paraphrase since I don’t have the original. He had said something like this: his father died at 47 years in 1956. At that time, life expectancy in Nigeria was 52 years. In 2008, 52 years later, life expectancy in Nigeria still stood at 52 years! What a big disgrace.
Cancers, hypertension, diabetes, kidney failure, AIDS, kidnapping, starvation, pauperisation, avoidable and preventable road traffic accidents, terrorism, and other violent crimes are systematically eviscerating Nigeria. Those in authority turn their heads and, unconcernedly, look away. Meanwhile, wealthy Nigerians troop to America, Europe, and India for medical attention that should be readily available back here if there was a modicum of seriousness at the level of political leadership. The unwealthy sick auction land, and property to stampede to Lagos or Accra, Ghana, for chemotherapy. What a big disgrace.
May Alfed Nwosu find rest in the Lord’s bosom. May the Lord grant fortitude to his family and friends. Beyond the supplications, I owe three debts in Alfred’s loving memory. I will return to his family the Louis Ojukwu biography that he loaned to me. I will appeal to Alfred’s friends, many of whom are in the affluent bracket, to consider building a library in his name, for the storing of his large collection of books and the spreading of knowledge that he so cherished. I will remind Ndigbo that we hardly ever waited for governments to “do this and this and that and all those” for us. Therefore, the truly wealthy among us should go building and properly equipping hospitals throughout Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States. Just as the rest of the country learnt the miracle of Igba Boy or Child-Apprenticeship-To-Riches from us, they will eventually emulate us and escalate the building of hospitals in their communities. Waiting for action from stiff-necked governments with eyes trained only on plunder will serve no useful end. Everyone will ultimately pass, of course. But no Nigerian deserves to die for preventable and treatable medical conditions. The hemorrhage must be staunched.
•Source: Facebook, posted on 28 August 2024
