To my murdered friend, the technocrat Kenneth Nwosu. By KC Asagwara

To my murdered friend, the technocrat Kenneth Nwosu                                                                                                     By Dr. KC Prince Ngozi Asagwara, contributing editor of USAfrica in Canada

Special to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine,  and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston.                             Follow USAfrica at Facebook.com/USAfricaChido , Facebook.com/USAfrica247 and Twitter.com/Chido247

He was like my blood brother. Kenneth Nwosu, Ph.D., was buried on August 29th 2014. He trained as an agronomist and Research Scientist. He was former Director-General, National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCI), Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria. At the time of his death, he was the Commissioner for Agriculture in Abia State, Nigeria. He was a great administrator and an acclaimed public servant who in the course of his many public service years garnered various awards and recognitions among which was, Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) of Nigeria. He was born in October, 1948 in Amizi Village, Olokoro, Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. He was only 66 years old when he left this wicked world.

It was on July 10th 2014, from a kinsman in my home town Olokoro in Abia State, Nigeria wanting to know if I heard that my dear friend, Dr. Kenneth Nwosu was shot the night before, July 9th killers. I screamed and said no; went on to inquire how that could be and by whom? The person that called me had no answers to my questions. I said to him, “I will call you back later” and hung up the phone. Following which, I phoned two reliable contacts, my cousin Chief Prince Vincent Ogbulafor and another friend, Mr. Mike Obi Apugo; both confirmed, my dear friend, Dr. Kenneth Nwosu was indeed, shot the night before but that he was still alive in the hospital receiving treatment. Both opined we should remain in prayers as his condition was very critical.

I phoned two among the five doctors I was told were involved in his surgery

and care, Drs. Mbanaso and Barai Santosh who also confirmed what my

two earlier contacts told me and also, opined to remain in serious prayers for his recovery as his condition remained very critical. I requested that he be flown to Canada for treatment and that I will see to whatever that may be involved in order to save his life. The doctors told me that would be after his condition is stabilized. I was told two other friends of ours have also, 2014 at 2PM Canadian time that I got a phone call, 2014 on his way home after work by some unknown hired made similar request. Immediately, I started prayer vigil fervently asking “God please, don’t let my dear friend die….”

Six days later, July 15th me that my dear friend, good man Dr. Kenneth Nwosu passed on the night before. I shouted, “how come, how can that be”? Reason being that the day before when I phoned for update on his condition, I was informed, he was making a hopeful recovery. Since the news of his death, I have remained inconsolable. My heart is broken; I have been enmeshed in mourning for my dear friend Dr. Kenneth Nwosu, who was brutally murdered by evil men.

Frankly, I do not know where to begin nor end in paying tribute to him as I doubt that anything said would suffice for the name and memory of a man who lived in service of humanity. The passing on of a beloved one even in old age can be traumatic. It becomes more so, if it is an unnecessary death of a good man murdered in his prime of life; a beloved father, husband, friend, colleague, etc., whom many expected to spend many more years with. Yes; it is said, “death is a necessary end that comes when it will”. That aphorism stands to reason if, one fell sick and succumbed to death. Or if one went in at night and failed to wake up the next day. Or that one had some car/vehicle accident or heart-attack and died. But how do we accept as a necessary end for one, my dear friend Dr. Kenneth Nwosu who was shot by hired killers on his way home from his office on that fateful day, July, 2014? An untimely death, I say!

One can imagine the pain and agony in the hearts of those of us that loved him and that he loved in these trying times of our bereavement and mourning. The emotional pain in my life since his death is the kind of thing that can tax to the limit, the endurance of any stoic man. My head is bowed and my heart remains broken; I no longer know which hand to use in support of my grief stricken spinning head.

It is very hard to comprehend it when the life of a good man who would give the shirt on his back to the needy was so senselessly murdered for reason(s) we are yet to know. But I know and understand that in whatever times, God remains in control. In His infinite knowledge and wondrous works, He will wipe away our tears.

He will grant us that loved Dr. Kenneth Nwosu succour and solace as we have never known it before. It might be difficult for all of us grieving the murder of my dear friend Dr. Kenneth Nwosu to believe because of the pain in our hearts today. With time, God the healer of all wonders and broken hearts will avenge the senseless murder of my dear friend, husband, father; brother, uncle, our son, and colleague.

As we mourn and worry about what might have been had he not been murdered, let us not forget to praise God’s Holy name and say, God,

Thy Will be done.

Dr. Kenneth Nwosu no doubt, in his own way, loved us all mourning his death today. I believe that his love is what he left behind for us all that his  life touched. Therefore, as he has gone to rest in God’s bosom, you, me, we, his beloved ones should continue to love one another for his sake.

While we grieve, may it comfort us all to know that we, the ones he loved and that loved him will forever, treasure his memory and the good times he shared with us.

In God’s Holy Book, it is stated, there is a time for everything. A time for war, a time for peace, a time to sow and a time to reap; a time to enter the stage, a time to exit the stage; a time to be born and a time to die. Dr. Kenneth Nwosu’s time began on that fateful night of July 9th, 2014 when he was shot and ended on the night of July 15th breathe.

A poet once wrote:

“There comes a time in the life of a man when our physical features count

not; when our bank accounts never matter, when our fancy cars are

not remembered, when the beauty of our skin never glows. But who we

are, what we have lived for, the lives on earth that we have touched; the

human burden we willfully lifted, the hungry and thirsty that we fed, the

oppressed that we liberated, the hearts that we inspired to greatness; and

the patriotism we planted in the heart of our kinsmen”

These are all that remain and count, and such were what my dear friend, Dr. Kenneth Nwosu left with us.

My dear friend, good man Ken; you have entered eternity, and your loving memory remains with us stronger than ever. As you enter God’s Pearly Gates, we hope to meet you there when time comes for us to come that way. I know in your characteristic charming gap-toothed smile that you will say to us, welcome home, brothers and sister. I have been waiting for your arrival.

We loved you in life. We will not forget you in death. Adios “Ezi enyi m; Nwokeoma n’odi nma, La nkeoma”. Good-bye my dear friend, good man and brother. May God, grant you external rest in thy celestial Salem, in Jesus Name,

#Achebe USAfrica Founder Dr. Chido Nwangwu gets award for his works on#ThingsFallApart author Chinua Achebe from ASA-USA Dallas. Chido is completing the book on Mandela & Achebe: Footprints of Greatness. by Chido Nwangwu ISBN 978-0-9893970-0-1. www.MandelaAchebeChido.com

VIDEO of the CNN International broadcast/profile of USAfrica and CLASSmagazine Publisher Chido Nwangwu.   http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/29/mpa.african.media.bk.a.cnn  

 and friendship hold lessons for humanity and Africans, USAfrica Founder Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and consequence to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.”

He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being close to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.“I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that historic Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief executive of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when President Bill Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and came to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes  Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the internet, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/

IF any of the Nigerian President’s 100 advisers has the polite courage for the extraordinary task of reminding His Excellency of his foremost, sworn, constitutional obligation to the national interest about security and safety of Nigerians and all who sojourn in Nigeria, please whisper clearly to Mr. President that I said, respectfully: Nigerians, at home and abroad, are still concerned and afraid for living in what I call Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. FULL text of commentary, exclusively, at USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/

USAfrica: BOKO HARAM’s latest killings sharpen divide for security team at Nigeria’s presidency. By Chido Nwangwu
https://usafricaonline.com/2013/10/21/usafrica-boko-harams-latest-killings-sharpen-divide-for-security-team-at-nigerias-presidency-by-chido-nwangwu/

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Dancing with “ghosts” of BOKO HARAM, President Jonathan, Sultan Abubakar and Nigeria’s national security. By Dr. Chido Nwangwu
https://usafricaonline.com/2013/04/05/dancing-with-ghosts-of-boko-haram-president-jonathan-sultan-abubakar-and-nigerias-national-security-by-chido-nwangwu/