Prof Oguakwa, 1992 Noble Prize Chemistry Nominee, to be buried Friday

By KGB Oguakwa, Esq

Ozo Professor James Udengene Oguakwa was born into the prominent Oguakwa Family of the Umuoha Kindred, of the Oronato Clan of the Umuome-Inyi, Agbada Kingdom waa born on 5th of May, 1936.

His father, Ozo Oguakwa Onyekwere (Jidereikwunibe), son of Ayiri, son of Igwe, (and whose mother was Aham – a famed traditional midwife), was renowned for foretelling events of the immediate future in the lives of sundary individuals in the community during his time with startling accuracy and his predictive exploits are still legend in the rich folklore of ndi-Inyi.

A man of means in his time, he ensured that, aside from himself, (and just like his own father, before him), his three sons namely, Ozo Jerome, Ozo Michael, and of course Ozo Professor Jim, each participated in the Igba abia ceremony, as mere lads, earning thereby, traditional titles, revered much higher native crowns than its today’s somewhat quasi equivalent, the prestigious Ozo Inyi traditional title.

Ozo Professor Oguakwa began his education at the Sacred Heart Primary School, Inyi, and continued to the renowned College of the Immaculate Conception (C.I.C) Enugu for his Secondary School Certificate, then to Christ the King College (C.K.C.) Onitsha for his HSC, and thereafter, having qualified for an Eastern Nigeria Government Scholarship, proceeded to the University College, Ibadan, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree honours in Chemistry. It is noteworthy that throughout his primary, secondary and university education, Professor Oguakwa, apart from prowess in his academics, is reputed to have been a top-class athlete and sportsman. He won several school sprint competitions and participated in competitive sports against the selected bests of other schools, in the old Awgu Division, in Enugu, and of course, in the Old Eastern Region of Nigeria.

It was during his days as a student at the University of Ibadan that the “teacher” in Professor Oguakwa came to the fore. He was always involved in teaching upcoming students during the holidays and eventually also taught in some secondary schools thus contributing, even in his earliest years, to the education of so many others.

It was a measure of the academic brilliance exhibited by him that Professor Oguakwa was one of the very few considered as qualified for a post-graduate Scholarship by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and he proceeded to the highly rated Moscow State University, in the USSR-Russia Federation, where, apart from obtaining a Doctorate degree in Chemistry, he also became the first black person to have isolated an antibiotic.

Professor Oguakwa married a daughter of the equally renowned Mbaoji Family of Umuome Inyi, the late Professor (Chief) Mrs. T.A.C Oguakwa, Ph.D. He is survived by their three children, KGB, Dr. Ifesinachi, and Amaka. Professor Oguakwa is also blessed with eight grandchildren.

With a Ph.D firmly under his belt, Professor Oguakwa returned to Nigeria from the Soviet Union in 1969 and his contributions to the now legendary Research and Production (RAP) arm of the defunct Republic of Biafra where, his team’s breathlessly heroic exploits, including, vigorously participating in developing and making the famed ogbunigwe bombs, refining petroleum products from raw crude oil to keep our army and other critical war infrastructure constantly supplied are as recorded in his memoirs. After the Nigerian Civil War, he joined the services of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where, from humble beginnings as a Lecturer, by dint of hardwork, relentless research and scholarly publications in world-rated academic journals in his field, he rose to become Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Professor of Chemistry in the University of Nigeria. He was also a Visiting Professor to various other Universities in Nigeria during his lifetime.

Ozo Professor Oguakwa is reputed to have assisted numerous applicants to gain and complete university education, in fact, there is no village in Oji-River LGA which does not have scores of its indigenes who benefited from his helping hands, at the University of Nigeria, from the 1970s till his passing.

Always in relentless search for academic and research excellence, with over 30 scientific publications to his name, and with multiple published intellectual collaborations with other scientists in Europe, Asia and the Americas, Ozo Professor Oguakwa also won the prestigious Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) Fellowship, tenable at the University of Upsala, Sweden, and attended Faculty there from September 1973 to June 1974 and obtained a post-Doctoral Diploma in Chemistry.

In Sweden, he investigated the now famous rare specie known as Erythrophleum Couminga, leading to his several acclaimed academic and research publications in professional journals in his field.

He participated at the creation of the first World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine in 1979 at the invitation from Istituto Italo-Africano, Rome, an active research collaboration which continued until his demise.

Today mourned and missed by his nuclear family, by his step-siblings and by many other relatives and friends, Professor Oguakwa served the University of Nigeria in capacities too numerous to mention including as Head of Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry; Dean, Faculty of Physical Sciences; Coordinator, Division of General Studies; Dean, School of Post-Graduate Studies; and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics).

Professor Oguakwa also served the Federal Republic of Nigeria as an accredited Food and Drugs Analyst, having also served the nation as Project Coordinator, Medicinal Plants Research Project, under the Nigerian Science andTechnology Development Agency (NSTDA).

He, even after retiring meritoriously from service, continued the heritage of his forbears via his extensive research into the medicinal plant species which abound in Africa, under the platform of his African Medicinal Plants Research Project (AMPRO) in collaboration with Istituto Italo Africano, Rome, Italy.

Professor Oguakwa received international recognition for his pioneering work in his rare field. He was listed in numerous Academic Foundations across the world including the American Biographical Institute Inc.

In 1992, he was among scientists in the shortlist of nominees by the prestigious Alfred Nobel Institute of Sweden and considered for that year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Not many academics in this clime get shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Honoured by his native Agbada Autonomous Community of Inyi, Nigeria, with the traditional title of Ozo’Igbo’Ndu in 2011, Ozo Professor Oguakwa served humanity with dignity and with honour.

A quintessentially versatile all-round academic, eternally at home in the core Sciences as with liberal Arts.

“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.” – William Shakespeare, (Hamlet).;
“Seaward ho, hang the treasure. It is the glory of the sea that has turned my head.” – Captain Trelawney in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”, were his most favourite quotes from two youngsters’ novels which Professor Oguakwa read while in secondary school in the early 1950s and which quotes he still recollected with fascinating exactitude and infectious excitement till life’s end.

A giant of a distinguished academic, a peaceful, quiet and gracious gentleman, a patient listener, a selflessly kind and generous mortal, his father’s pride, an extraordinarily loving husband, an incredible father, a doting grandpa, an abiding son of the omnipotent God, Professor James Udengene Oguakwa, surrounded by his family’s love, and true to the legacy of his fulfilled life amongst us, departed peacefully at the break of dawn, quietly joining the immortal league of the Saints Triumphant, aged 88.

Indeed, a Distinguished Academic, a true man of peace, a plain, quiet and simple honourable man, departs.