Banner Online News

By Tony Eluemunor
Friday, 25 January 2019, the Isumpe quarters of the sleepy Utagba-Uno village, Ndokwa-West, LGA of Delta state was a special destination. Throngs of people poured into the village from the two local government areas of Ndokwa-West and Ndokwa-East plus thousands from the greater Warri metropolis and beyond, to pay their last respects to Mrs. Veronica Jane Nwanatulu Uvieghara (nee Osakwe) – who was buried that day.
The result is that both in life and in death, Mrs Uveighara helped redefine the concept of the hero and the heroine. Don’t kick yourself if on hearing of heroism, your mind rushed towards thoughts of mighty acts of rare physical bravery. Yes, heroism includes such but reaches beyond it.
Actually, heroism consists of putting others first, even at one’s peril. That is the beginning and the end of it. And Mrs Uveighara put others first all through her life, thus becoming a mother to a multitude, mentoring all the people she could mentor on her way through life, being a pioneer who beat a path in education and left a trail for others to follow. But she was not satisfied with just being a path-finder, she literally had to drag some laggards, dawdlers and not just slow coaches but unwilling ones too, along to ensure that they become useful to themselves and the society by acquiring good education and wholesome character.
MRS. V.J.N. Uvieghara, who died on October 28, 2018, at age 92 was one of the first women to be educated in Ndokwa-West and East Local Government Areas of Delta State. In fact, this woman who attended the University of Ibadan in the 1950s/1960s should be among the first Nigerian women to acquire tertiary education.
She was one of seven women who represented Nigeria at a programme in Israel when Mrs. Golder Meir was the Israeli Premier.
She was a teacher and educator for more than 40 years; she taught in several schools and was a School Inspector in the Warri area for several years. Beyond that, she and her husband (Chief Vincent Uvieghara, from Eku, near Warri) founded a school, Mid-West College, Warri but refused to hand it over to the Mid-West State Government when it took over all private schools, including mission ones. The celebrity movie actor, Richard Mofe-Damijo, their school but had to finish at Anglican Grammar School, Warri.
She was also passionate about the Nigerian Red Cross and was their leader in the Warri area for years. She was also very active in her church and community. The Ndokwa Women Federated Union bestowed on her the title of “Nne Oma Nachi Osa, ” meaning “Good mother who leads all” in the Ukwuani dialect of the Igbo language.
As an educational pioneer, she blazed the trail for not only women in her locality, but generally. For instance, she used a radio programme to preach the importance of educating the girl-child and encouraged women to seize the opportunity of adult education (when the Mid-West Government under the late Brig-Gen (Dr) Samuel Ogbemudia introduced adult-education) to better their lives. Her radio talks were so effective that many men threatened her to the extent that she became afraid for her life.
She passed on her emphasis on education to her nine children, each of whom attended university, and almost all of whom have advanced degrees. At least two of them (Greg and Fidelis) have PhD degrees.
One of them, Chris, gives an example of his mum’s tough love: “After Secondary School at I.C.C. (Immaculate Conception College), Benin-City, I attended H.S.C.(Higher School Certificate) at the defunct Advanced College, Igueben. I wanted to read Law, but could not gain admission into any University. I was 18 years old, at home alone in my late dad’s big house. No parental control. My older brothers were abroad. I had access to cars and a weekly allowance from the office of my dad’s business, and I thought my purpose in life was to party with my friends.
“Mummy and my junior ones lived at the other end of town, and I’ll go there daily for lunch and dinner as I was too lazy to cook.
“Mummy had the foresight to see that I was headed for destruction. One day, she sat me down and said: “Israel, you’re going to Kaduna.” I thought she was kidding. Two weeks later, Mummy and her driver took me to Benin Airport. No cell phones then, and no advance notice to my uncle. I flew to Kaduna with a note for my uncle, the late Colonel Godwin Enebeli. He was a Major in the Army then, and was the Registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy (N.D.A.), Kaduna.
“That was how I lived with my uncle in Kaduna for almost two (2) years. He and his wife were very nice to me, but living with the discipline of a military man, and away from my parents’ home humbled and shaped me.
“I later came back to Warri, and went on to have degrees in History and Law at the University of Benin. I have since had a Masters in Business and Corporate Law at the University of San Diego, California, School of Law, and I have been practicing Family Law in California for almost 22 years.
“Why am I saying all this? But for Mummy’s tough love and decisiveness at a crucial moment in my life, I’ll not be where I am today”.
In case you said that was no big deal, after all she was straightening up her biological son, read what follows: Mr. Godfrey Edaferierhi, wrote on a WhatsApp Forum: “I had the privilege to reside near mummy in the same compound in Eboh Road, Warri, in the early ‘80s. She inspired my coming to America. One day, after the usual consumption of her free food, she said to me, “Godfrey, as you couldn’t pass exams here, why don’t you consider travelling to America to further your studies? Or are you under a curse?” He took the advice and Mrs Uvieghara offered all necessary help. A few years back, in San Diego, California, USA, the same Godfrey, in gratitude reminded Mrs. Uvieghara of that consequential discussion, while she was visiting her children.
Just one more example of how she pushed others to walk further in the education lane; Mr. Justine Ossai wrote, “It was through the guidance of Madam Uvieghara that my mother was admitted into Nana College, Warri, where she trained as a teacher. My mother later retired from Delta State University Abraka”. Ossai added, rather needlessly: “Madam gave my mother her meal ticket in life”.
Talk about telegraphic memory, and Madam Uvieghara had just that. When in 1994 she accompanied her son Israel for a first time official visit to her would be parents-in-law, she turned a supposed formal affair into a reunion. Israel recounted: “Mummy looked at one of my wife, Frances’s aunts and said “I know you.” Her aunt could not recognize Mummy who then went on to describe how both of them were students at St. Agnes’s School, Lagos, in the 1940s. To the amazement of all in the room, Mummy remembered where Frances’s aunt’s bed was in the dormitory and who her friends were 50+ years prior. This broke the ice for our delegation right there and our future in-laws, the Ofili family, who had a reputation of being tough, embraced us from that point on”.
Everybody called her “Mummy.” It was difficult to identify her true biological children! Oh, she was truly fruitful; she is survived by nine children, many grandchildren and great grandchildren.
In the numerous gatherings in the US and Nigeria to pay her due homage, she was praised for promoting education. From such talks emerged the suggestion of setting up a scholarship fund in her honour: MRS. V.J.N. UVIEGHARA FOUNDATION. It was agreed that it would not be a family affair but should have a real and effective Board of Directors and will decide the criteria to decide the annual beneficiaries.
Mrs Ovieghara’s world view was straightforward: “For what if we should fatten our purses or rise to high office and yet, all the while remain ignorantly naïve, coarsely unfurnished in the mind, brutal in behaviour, unstable in character, chaotic in desire, and blindly miserable”?
She was addressing me and quoting from a book she had read long ago. I smiled and said as respectfully as I could, “yes, Mummy, I know that knowledge is power”.
She looked at me in a way that would only mean “what is he talking about”? Then, she gave the coup de grace: “Tony nwam (my son) knowledge may be power but wisdom is liberty. We all need the liberty which comes from that wisdom which only a well-rounded education could give”. I looked at her again and a new understanding dawned on me; I was in the presence of a sage.
That discussion between Mrs Ovieghara and I took place in Boston, Massachussettes, USA, around 1992. She had visited her son Gregory, who by then had acquired a PhD degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was in the elite AT&T team fine-tuning the video phone which you and I take for granted today. Dr. Greg (as his friends call him) lived in New Jersey and his mother came all the way from there to visit me in Boston some 226 miles and four hours away.
Yes, Mrs Ovieghara was my cousin. But I called her “Mummy” like thousands of others who were not even related to her by blood did. Many others called her …simply Madam! They were like her first and second names. She spent one week with me; a week I will never forget!
Madam Ovieghara’s mind was penetrating and passionate, though she was still genial and urbane; she was emotional (hey, remember that a multitude called her Mummy) and imaginative. It was easy to see that she was a “God-intoxicated woman” consumed with religious enthusiasm in the literal sense of this word- holding “a god within.” She was also a practical soul, easily given to laborious organisation. That appears to be taking us back to the very beginning of this article; that she was a heroine.
Someone wrote: “Heroes and heroines exceed what is expected of them, they make a positive impact on people’s lives, and they rise above and beyond the ordinary. The genuine heroes seek to help others; they don’t serve others to acquire material gain. True heroes are caring, compassionate individuals who want to save and improve people’s lives independent of external rewards”.
That squarely situates Madam Veronica J.N Uvieghara’s life. She lived for others…and that is why a profusion of tributes have poured out for her from everywhere.

• Tony Eluemunor is an Abuja-based journalist.