Who Am I

I am Chidi Anyaeche, a native of Ukpor in Anambra state, Nigeria. I was born in January 2 nd 1964 in Manchester, United Kingdom to late Engr (Chief) Jim C. O Anyaeche, CEng. KSJ, the Owelle of Ukpor and Dorothy Anyaeche. Dad was a University of Salford, Manchester trained civil engineer and up until his death in January 2005 was one of the finest engineers Nigeria has ever produced. Mum is a retired UK trained nurse, specialised in ophthalmic nursing at Moorefields Eye Hospital, London, UK and was the pioneer chief nursing officer at Guinness Eye Hospital, Onitsha. I am the second of six children; five boys and a girl.

Though born in the UK, I grew up in what was then romantic Nigeria before it got desecrated by reprobates in power like Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Sanni Abacha and the rest of them.

My early memory of Nigeria was attending nursery school at Holy Trinity Primary School, Onitsha just before the civil war. Holy Trinity then was a Catholic run school and the nursery and staffed by cosmopolitan staff; Igbo’s, Irish, Ibibio’s, etc. For a little boy just back from the UK, nursery school in 1960’s Nigeria was bliss with pupils as cosmopolitan as the staff. After the civil war every thing changed and for the worse and still deteriorating forty years after. I will leave this bit for another day.

advertisement

After the war, in 1970 I was at the age of six initiated into the prestigious Ozo Society in my home town as Ezike Odenigbo – Custodian of Igbo values. So you can see my fight for better government in Nigeria in general and Igboland in particular is celestial. It is not a chance or opportunistic thing like we get people doing these days. I shall make no further comment on this.

Primary school education after the civil war took us to where dad was posted as a civil servant with then East Central State government. Firstly at Onitsha between 1970 and 1972 and finally at Enugu from 1972 onwards at then prestigious Ekulu Primary School. Sadly, Ekulu Primary School like most things Nigeria is no longer prestigious. It is rather pathetic as a school right now. Most Igbo’s of elite parentage like myself passed through Ekulu one way or the other. But in Igboland like the rest of Nigeria, the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

My secondary school education from 1974 to 1979 was at the College of Immaculate Conception (CIC) Enugu. A school set up by Irish Missionaries of Catholic background making CIC a very decent school with catholic ethos, making the school one of the finest in Nigeria. It is said that a fruit tells a tree. The fruits of CIC can be seen towering in all arena of life world-wide. Where there are ten successful Nigerians, at least one must be a CIC product and this is a fact. CIC has produced more governors than any school in Nigeria. The current incumbent in Enugu state is an Alma matter.

My first university education between 1980 to 1986 was at University of Benin, Benin City. Great Uniben as it was and still known. I graduated with honours in Biochemistry. Again Uniben is one of the elite universities in Nigeria with graduates strutting their stuff majestically, world-wide. Governor Fashola of Lagos state, to name a few, being one of us.

After the mandatory youth service, which I served with delight in Kaduna, I found myself back to United Kingdom where my career blossomed straight way. In 1988, I was employed as a scientific officer with the UK Blood Transfusion Service as part of the Department of Health, UK team that researched into the incidence of Hepatitis-C amongst blood donors. My next career call was as a research assistant working in the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer at The Royal London Hospital, London from there I moved on and up as a clinical biochemist with the Cancer Research UK Laboratories working on tumour markers. This was from 1989 to 1998.

In between my working life from 1988 to 1998, I equally had the time to squiz in post-graduate education and starting a family. From 1991 to 1993, I studied for a master’s program in clinical biochemistry at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School now Imperial College Medical School, University of London, UK and from 1994 to 1996, another M.Sc. program in quality management from Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK. Imperial College and Cranfield being in a class of their own university speaking, worldwide.

advertisement

Professionally, I am a member of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry inc. (AACC) and Association of Clinical Biochemists (ACB), UK.

All these exposures; academic and otherwise contributing in making Odenigbo a thorough-bred.

In 1994 I got married to my wife, Ebere (nee Okoro). Eby as she is fondly called by all who know her is originally from Arochukwu in Abia state, Nigeria. The marriage is blessed with three children – a boy, Jideofo and two girls, Adaobi and Ekenenna. Eby is a wife in a million for it is not easy being Odenigbo’s wife, a career woman and a mother of three children in the western world. The saying that besides every successful man is a woman is simply true as far as I am concerned. I also make haste to state that it is a blessing to marry an Aro woman.

I left the research world in 1998 to seek pastures anew in the commercial world, firstly as a product manager with the UK subsidiary of the French diagnostic company, CIS Diagnostics Ltd. CIS was then the healthcare arm of France Atomic Energy Authority – there is an overlap between nuclear fusion and in-vitro diagnostics in areas like radio-isotopes like Iodine 125 and 131, etc.

From CIS, I strutted my stuff in other enterprises and very successfully too including being a consultant to a UK company with business interest in Nigeria where I was responsible for the Nigerian operation. This greatly exposed me to Nigeria, far from the ordinary.

Currently, I work as a Diagnostics Sales Manager with a top UK company as well as a consultant to another UK based diagnostic company covering Africa and the Middle East.

Besides family life and work, I equally play a role in the community. Here in the UK, I am the vice chairman of the Nnewi Catholic Diocese and in Nigeria in 2006, I was made a patron of the Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) Enugu Diocese reflecting my strong Christian and Catholic faith and upbringing.

The Lord Jesus in the scriptures mandated us to “Love one another as he has loved us”. This message though simple as it seems is one of the most difficult of human tasks to accomplish for the world and indeed Nigeria would have been a much better place if we show love to one another: No more racism, tribalism, corruption to name a few of the vices that infect us.

As Odenigbo – Custodian of Igbo values, my celestial mission and passion is to see my people love one another thereby eliminating the ills of our society so that we all can live a life, fulfilled. It is not too much to seek. I aim to achieve it.

Pasted below are pictures of my loving family holidaying in Turkey in April this year.

From left is our last daughter, Ekenenna followed by my loving wife Eby, our first daughter Adaobi and our son Jidefofo.

From left: Ekenenna, Jideofo and Adaobi.

 

To God be the glory.

Odenigbo Chidi Anyaeche

London

UK