THE ICONIC LIFE & TIMES OF CHIEF FELIX ONYEJIUWA CHIME – AGUNECHEIBE OF UDI ANCIENT KINGDOM
A light from our household is gone, a voice we love is stilled. A place is vacant in our hearts that never can be filled.
Felix was the first of six children of late Mr. Vincent and Ezinne Roseline Chime of Okunino Udi, in Udi LGA of Enugu State, all begotten in a perfect symphony of male and female succession. He was born on the 3rd of September in the year 1953 at Bukuru Jos, in the then Bauchi Plateau State of the present North Central Region of Nigeria. The joy that his birth heralded for the young family can only be imagined, but most important was that from hindsight, one could aver that it must have been a kairos moment to be born.
Young Felix was later to move further south to Barkin Ladi with his parents, where his late father opened a flourishing rice milling business, while his mum quickly settled down to carve a niche for herself as a seamstress of repute. His late mum combined her profession with a higher devotion to providing a nidus for grooming Felix and his immediate younger siblings. He attended St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School where he graduated in flying colours after Primary 7 (in line with the curriculum then) and gained admission into the choice Government College Vom, near Bukuru. Perhaps, due chiefly to the need to get him acquainted with his native roots of Igbo of the South Eastern part of the country, his parents opted to send him down to the South East for his secondary/high school education. At the behest of one Mr. John Eneh (late), he got admitted into the highly esteemed Christ the King College (C.K.C.) Onitsha.
As fate would have it, his early high school was rudely interrupted by the political instability of 1966 and the deleterious pogrom of 1967 that precipitated the Nigerian civil war (aka Biafran War). Felix quickly reconnected with the family at Umuahia after his parents were among the few lucky escapees from the Northern part of the country. During this ill-fated war, Felix was twice erroneously conscripted into the Biafran army as a child soldier, but twice an Nkanu Colonel was the Angel that God used to rescue him from going to the battle field, as he saw through him and realized that behind his big frame was a child at heart and indeed. At the end of war and cessation of hostilities, he returned to C.K.C. Onitsha to complete his high school and later sat for West African School Certificate and G.C.E. Advanced level examinations and acquitted himself with a flourish. He subsequently gained admission into the prestigious University of Nigeria Nsukka, where he studied Accountancy, after a brief stint as an Auxiliary Teacher at St. Patrick’s Secondary School Emene, Enugu. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Accountancy in 1979, and from then the real world of challenges and career beckoned.
After his Youth Service in the old Oyo State, FOC as he was now popularly called, secured employment with a leading multinational oil & gas company - Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. on December 1st, 1980 as Management and Professional (M&P) Trainee after working briefly for United African Company, UAC. There in Mobil, he cut his management teeth and by dint of hard work and diligence rose to executive management position after spending more than twenty-six years in the service of Mobil Oil Nig. Plc. During his early years in Mobil, he kept his focus and quickly enrolled and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He held various managerial positions in Accounting & Finance, Customer Service, and Fuels Marketing departments prior to his meritorious and voluntary retirement on December 31, 2006.
His unquenchable desire to succeed in all that he does egged him on and shot him to the pinnacle of his profession as Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN). With sound professional and management expertise under his belt and copious experiences from a multidisciplinary career, duty called once more when the then Enugu State Governor (His. Exc. Sullivan Iheanacho Chime) a cousin and friend invited FOC to bring his experiences to bear in revamping the Enugu State Board of Internal Revenue in 2007. Between 2007 and 2015, FOC was the Executive Chairman of Enugu State Board of Internal Revenue Service and a member of the Joint Tax Board. He worked tirelessly with his team to first digitize the Board’s operations to shore up its integrity, and subsequently ramped up her internally generated revenue (IGR) phenomenally, to rank amongst the top three IGR earning states in Nigeria. From 2016 to the time of his demise, he served as a member of FIRS Tax Advisory Committee, having been appointed by both the immediate past and current Executive Chairmen, Federal Inland Revenue Service. His career accomplishments are quite dizzying and it will be a disservice to his illustrious career to nibble at it.
During his highly eventful and momentous life, FOC made friends across tribal, ethnic and religious lines and buoyed them at the expense of his personal comfort. His Enugu home was a rendezvous for all his friends and colleagues who either visited or passed through the town. He would personally be at the airport to meet and pick his visitors and dropped them off at the most convenient locations after their visit, without making use of drivers and personal aids to perform such activities. At social events, FOC would bring along ‘nkwu enu’ (made-in-Udi undiluted palm wine), which he regaled his friends as the best in the country. His insouciance transcended boundaries as he was as lighthearted with the rich as well as the poor; the old as well as the young. He was fiercely loyal to his friends and would stick with them through thick and thin.
People who’ve related close to him can attest to the fact that despite his occasional unseemly mien, FOC was an easy-going person and did not know how to keep malice or bear grudges, even against people who hurt him. He was allergic to toxic environments and sour relationships, such that he could go to any length to put smiles on people’s faces. He detests being the source of anyone’s pain. Such was his nature. He often elects to be reticent or taciturn than to use expletives and denigrating words. He’s won’t to make fun of his initials – FOC, by saying that he didn’t like things obtained on FOC basis, which conventionally means “Free of Charge” but would rather prefer “Money for hand, back for ground”. At work, he maintained good working relationship with his superiors and subordinates alike. He was a dedicated and efficient worker as his performances were consistently rated amongst the best. He lived a very active social life and belonged to many social clubs, such as Mobil Pegasus Club, Enugu Sports Club etc.
FOC was a thorough family man, and was deeply invested in the care and proper upbringing of his four children. His love for his children was ineffable and only deferential to his strong transcendental connection to his God. He loved and stood with and by his relations too. He poured out his life like a libation for his own, and given the same opportunity he would do more for them. His eyes for details and knack for perfection is so outstanding that you’d be shocked at the extent he could go to get things done properly. His flair for tastefully built and exquisitely furnished homes speaks to the perfectionist in him.
Here lies the remains of a man who did his best to run a good race. He had his fair share of challenges and turbulence, because he lived in a real world. However, his adaptation to life’s issues evokes certain twists that upends those issues to work in his favour. Could it be in his star, or some other innate qualities that aren’t easily describable? Only his Creator can say. There’s however an indubitable conclusion that Felix Onyejiuwa Chime – Aguncheibe of Udi Ancient Kingdom was a great man. A rare icon and quintessential gentleman. Borrowing words from Shakespeare, one can only align with Mark Anthony while eulogizing Caesar in his famous novel – Julius Ceasar; “His life was gentle; and the elements so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!”
Today, we join nature in declaring to the world that Felix Onyejiuwa Chime WAS A MAN!
John Mur in the following famous quotes surmises his life and times:
“In every walk in with nature, one receives far more than he seeks” - You indeed got more!
“Going to the mountains is going home” – We mistook this mountain for a hill!
We miss you dearly beloved Dad, Grandpa, Brother, Uncle, Cousin and Friend!
Adieu Agunecheibe!
Obinna Vincent Chime
For the Family