Remembering Daniel Ogbonnaya Okoro (1937-2014)

AONE year ago in the early hours of Monday, May 19, 2014, the Okoro Uwaekwe family of Umuodeche in Isi-ala Ngwa North Local Government Area of Abia State lost one of their illustrious sons, Daniel Ogbonnaya Okoro, aged 77 years.

The family still remembers him with fond memory of the good times they shared. The late Okoro was an accomplished electrical engineer who lived and practiced his trade in Lagos between 1962 and 2012 before old age and ill-health forced him to retire to his hometown.

He was a man who believed in himself, and never sought for employment in any organisation but established himself and remained self-employed all his active life.

He trained, and established many young men in electrical and technical works and most of them are today holding out on their own in different parts of Nigeria.

In the family circle, he cared for his amiable wife Alice’ and saw to the education of all his children who are all university graduates in different professional fields — Nnamdi (a Stock Broker), Irene (a Public Administrator), Helen (a Linguist), Chima (a Geophysist) and Ogechi (an Accountant).

He also saw all the children settle down to their respective family life with lovely grand children to the glory of God. In him the community had a dependable leader and promoter of development projects — water, electricity, roads and even church, on which legacy the children are building upon.

In memory of their father one year after his demise, the children are planning a modest ceremony at their Umuodeche country home to relive and immortalise the life and times of their great father. Ogwumike, a lawyer and son-in-law, lives in Abuja.