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| Ndukwe Uche Autobiography |
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Documentary
A Brief Sketch
I, Ndukwe Okoroafor Uche, also known as Nd, was born in the late fifties
to Late Mazi Mark Okoroafor Uche and Martha Uche of Igbere in modern
day Abia State of Nigeria.
I started primary school in Amokwe Item, continued at Akoli Imenyi, near
Uzuakoli and finished at Igbere in 1970 after some war interruptions.
For secondary education, I attended the Enuda High School, Abiriba,
between 1971 and 1975, finishing with Distinction in WASC, making A’s
in eight subjects.
In 1976, while waiting for University admission, I worked for the then
Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Enugu as a trainee Engineer.
There, I saved enough money from my meagre salary to start myself at
the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where I had eventually been offered
admission to read Electrical/Electronics Engineering. I actually made
what amounted to a big leap of faith because the Federal Scholarship I
applied for was yet to be granted and there was little hope for any other
means of funding my University Education. The Scholarship was
subsequently granted in my second term of the first year of University
and helped me through the rest of that first year.
At the end of the first year of University, my performance was such that
the University put my name forward to major companies for scholarship,
whereupon Elf Petroleum Company of Nigeria awarded me full
scholarship for the rest of my five-year degree programme, subject only
to continued good performance. I maintained high performance and
graduated in Electrical/Electronics with high honours in 1981.
Upon graduation, I had job offers from five leading companies including
UAC of Nigeria, NEPA and Shell Nigeria. I worked for a while at UAC
Foods Division in 1982 as an Electrical Engineering Manager in Training
before leaving same year for Shell where I have remained ever since.
In my 24-year long Shell career, I have worked in PortHarcourt, Warri and
Lagos in Nigeria. I have also worked in Holland and Malaysia and I am
currently working in The Sultanate of Oman, where I head up the
Information Technology Infrastructure organisation.
During my secondary school days, teachers said I showed intellectual
balance, doing as well in the sciences as in the Arts. This continued
throughout my University days where, while doing well in Engineering, I
was also quite active as a writer and actually led a literary group at the
same time as I was the President of the Electrical/Electronic
Engineering Department’s student body. I wrote and published essays,
plays and short stories in those Undergraduate days. My short story,
Together Forever, actually won a Radio Nigeria national Short Story
Competition in 1980 and was broadcast on national Radio and
published in the Radio/TV Times of that era. My two plays were used on
NTA channel 6 Aba. I have since published a collection of my early
poems, Ahead, and have completed the manuscript of a full-length
novel. I have not written much during my Shell years because of my full
official work load over and above the equally full load of raising a family.
I am also often accused of possessing strong leadership credentials
which I discharge mostly quietly, sometimes stubbornly. As indicated
above I led several student bodies in my University days, including
serving as the leader of Bende and Igbere students at Nsukka. Today, I
have the unique privilege of serving the interests of the Nigerian
Community in The Sultanate of Oman in the capacity of Community
Chairman.
To contribute to Community development back home in Nigeria, I have
single-handedly organised two public events on economic development
themes that featured some of the best minds my village has produced;
one event at the village itself and the other at Aba. I have learned
something about and regularly share my views on sustainable
development with anybody I can rob minds with on that kind of subject.
More recently, I teamed up with some great minds in Igbere to found a
Cooperative Society whose initial objective was to find work for idle
hands in the village.
While visiting home from Lagos in 1998, I noticed, like everybody else,
that a large section of my village was on the verge of being cut off from
the rest of the village by a major erosion problem. Deciding to act
immediately to arrest the situation, I teamed up with another Igbere son
and we spent huge amounts of our time and personal money on major
civil works that mended the road and redirected flood water. That
intervention sustained the road for over two years until Government
belatedly intervened.
As a family man, I am equally fulfilled. Married for the past nineteen
years, to beautiful Ngozi Uche, the second daughter of Late Chief P. I.
Chukwu, we are blessed with two special boys, Okoroafor and
Uchechukwu, who are doing very well indeed. The wife herself is doing
quite well and is currently an MBA student of Leicester University,
England.
I, Ndukwe Okoroafor Uche, also known as Nd, was born in the late fifties
to Late Mazi Mark Okoroafor Uche and Martha Uche of Igbere in modern
day Abia State of Nigeria.
I started primary school in Amokwe Item, continued at Akoli Imenyi, near
Uzuakoli and finished at Igbere in 1970 after some war interruptions.
For secondary education, I attended the Enuda High School, Abiriba,
between 1971 and 1975, finishing with Distinction in WASC, making A’s
in eight subjects.
In 1976, while waiting for University admission, I worked for the then
Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Enugu as a trainee Engineer.
There, I saved enough money from my meagre salary to start myself at
the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where I had eventually been offered
admission to read Electrical/Electronics Engineering. I actually made
what amounted to a big leap of faith because the Federal Scholarship I
applied for was yet to be granted and there was little hope for any other
means of funding my University Education. The Scholarship was
subsequently granted in my second term of the first year of University
and helped me through the rest of that first year.
At the end of the first year of University, my performance was such that
the University put my name forward to major companies for scholarship,
whereupon Elf Petroleum Company of Nigeria awarded me full
scholarship for the rest of my five-year degree programme, subject only
to continued good performance. I maintained high performance and
graduated in Electrical/Electronics with high honours in 1981.
Upon graduation, I had job offers from five leading companies including
UAC of Nigeria, NEPA and Shell Nigeria. I worked for a while at UAC
Foods Division in 1982 as an Electrical Engineering Manager in Training
before leaving same year for Shell where I have remained ever since.
In my 24-year long Shell career, I have worked in PortHarcourt, Warri and
Lagos in Nigeria. I have also worked in Holland and Malaysia and I am
currently working in The Sultanate of Oman, where I head up the
Information Technology Infrastructure organisation.
During my secondary school days, teachers said I showed intellectual
balance, doing as well in the sciences as in the Arts. This continued
throughout my University days where, while doing well in Engineering, I
was also quite active as a writer and actually led a literary group at the
same time as I was the President of the Electrical/Electronic
Engineering Department’s student body. I wrote and published essays,
plays and short stories in those Undergraduate days. My short story,
Together Forever, actually won a Radio Nigeria national Short Story
Competition in 1980 and was broadcast on national Radio and
published in the Radio/TV Times of that era. My two plays were used on
NTA channel 6 Aba. I have since published a collection of my early
poems, Ahead, and have completed the manuscript of a full-length
novel. I have not written much during my Shell years because of my full
official work load over and above the equally full load of raising a family.
I am also often accused of possessing strong leadership credentials
which I discharge mostly quietly, sometimes stubbornly. As indicated
above I led several student bodies in my University days, including
serving as the leader of Bende and Igbere students at Nsukka. Today, I
have the unique privilege of serving the interests of the Nigerian
Community in The Sultanate of Oman in the capacity of Community
Chairman.
To contribute to Community development back home in Nigeria, I have
single-handedly organised two public events on economic development
themes that featured some of the best minds my village has produced;
one event at the village itself and the other at Aba. I have learned
something about and regularly share my views on sustainable
development with anybody I can rob minds with on that kind of subject.
More recently, I teamed up with some great minds in Igbere to found a
Cooperative Society whose initial objective was to find work for idle
hands in the village.
While visiting home from Lagos in 1998, I noticed, like everybody else,
that a large section of my village was on the verge of being cut off from
the rest of the village by a major erosion problem. Deciding to act
immediately to arrest the situation, I teamed up with another Igbere son
and we spent huge amounts of our time and personal money on major
civil works that mended the road and redirected flood water. That
intervention sustained the road for over two years until Government
belatedly intervened.
As a family man, I am equally fulfilled. Married for the past nineteen
years, to beautiful Ngozi Uche, the second daughter of Late Chief P. I.
Chukwu, we are blessed with two special boys, Okoroafor and
Uchechukwu, who are doing very well indeed. The wife herself is doing
quite well and is currently an MBA student of Leicester University,
England.
About the Author
An Electrical/Electronics
Engineer currently based
in the
Middle East. This novel is
Nd's second published
book. The first is "Ahead" -
a collection of poems,
published in 1997. He has
also written and published
numerous essays, short
stories and plays.
An Electrical/Electronics
Engineer currently based
in the
Middle East. This novel is
Nd's second published
book. The first is "Ahead" -
a collection of poems,
published in 1997. He has
also written and published
numerous essays, short
stories and plays.
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