Without a doubt, as a man of peace, Uche Nworah is known for promoting peace both within the South East and in the same vein urging his brothers in Diaspora to be at peace with leaders in their host communities. Given the foregoing, there is no denying the fact that Uche Nworah is a peaceful message, bearer.
There is no denying the fact that the essence of peace was pragmatically illustrated in the scriptures by Jesus Christ as He teaches us about it through the person “who promotes peace” whom he mentioned in the gospel of Luke.
Thus, in Luke chapter 10 verse 5 we read these words: “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you.”
Explanatorily put, the foregoing passage was given as instruction by Jesus to the disciples, sent out in pairs, to give them encouragement and hope on their journey. The disciples were much like us in that they were still learning how to take baby steps. Short-sighted and often with little faith, they needed to be reminded often that their efforts were not a waste of time. Jesus’ words were instructive to the twelve, and they are still instructive to us today and still find expression in the personality of Chief, Dr. Uche Nworah, the “Ezeudo Enugwu-Ukwu na Umunri.”
Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “Now guys, if someone believes your message, your peace will rest on them.” Let’s face it, it’s rare that a person totally buys into a message of someone they have never met, especially after just one conversation. Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to note that I have never met Ezeudo but I have bought into his peaceful messages, and have concluded that he is truly a man of peace.
Against the foregoing backdrop, it is not out of place for anyone to ask, “What messages of peace has he been disseminating toward the betterment of humanity?” To this writer, the messages are copious, and their contents are unarguably in agreement with the meaning of the traditional title he holds, “Ezeudo”. For the benefit of readers that are not conversant with the meaning of the word “Ezeudo” in the Igbo dialect, it is explanatory to say in this context that it simply means, “King of peace or someone that makes/likes peace”, or aptly put, “Peacemaker”.
With the benefits of hindsight, it is expedient to recall in this context that when Uche Nworah was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) that he and his wife were honored by his community, Enugwu-Ukwu in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State with the chieftaincy title of Ezeudo Enugwu-Ukwu na Umunri and was inducted into the Enugwu-Ukwu traditional cabinet on the 5th of January, 2019, while his wife, Uchechi was honored with the title of Ugomba Enugwu-Ukwu na Umunri and inducted into the Royal Otu Odu Eze Society.
The pair were honored for outstanding positive contributions and selfless services to the Enugwu-Ukwu community in Anambra State and Nigeria.
As they say that the character of a writer can be inferred from the tone of his writings. The foregoing cannot be said to be an exaggeration in this context as Uche Nworah is averse to war. Without any iota of exaggeration, the foregoing fact be buttressed through his writings where he has for the umpteenth time written against war as he always preaches about peaceful co-existence.
At this juncture, it is germane to opine that when Mehmet Murat Ildan, said “The easiest way to forget about the people who are dying in wars right now is to close our eyes and ears! And this is also the ugliest and the vilest way” that he may have projected that he would have a philosophical ally in Ezeudo Uche Nworah who is unarguably averse to war being a peaceful man.
Unarguably expressing his aversion to war, he, in a write-up a few years ago published an article titled, “There is a country” in Gamji (an online newspaper). He wrote, “My father was living in Aba when the war broke out. He was a poultry farmer at the time and also had a big building material shop at the John Holt town shop. He told of how he had to abandon his shop, the chickens, and pigs on the farm and fled with my mother and elder brother George who was barely 3 months old at the time.
“I was to be born a year into the war thus adding to their already difficult situation. I could easily have been one of the victims of the Kwashiorkor disease but many thanks to Magistrate Ike family of Ndikelionwu and Eli Okeke family of Omogho towns of Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra state where they took refuge and were given acres of land to farm. The family would survive the war on vegetables and other products from the farm and were also able to batter some of their products for other essential supplies.
“He also told of how he was captured one night by the Biafran soldiers and conscripted into the Biafran army with my mother wailing and clutching two starry-eyed toddlers, not knowing if she would ever see her husband again. Having survived the war, he would start life all over again with nothing but sheer determination and raw grit, plus the miserly twenty pounds the Nigerian government had approved for all Igbo depositors of the Nigerian currency regardless of the amount they may have deposited in the banks.
“This coupled with the Indigenization decree which was to follow, and the ban by the Nigerian government on the importation of second-hand clothing and stock fish, items mainly traded by Ndigbo in the market towns of Onitsha, Aba, and Nnewi were ruthless attempts at economically disenfranchising Ndigbo and a crude sadistic experiment in wealth re-distribution in Nigeria. In Achebe’s words “If there was ever a measure put in place to stunt, or even obliterate, the economy of a people this was it”.
In fact, up to this moment, Uche Nworah has been kicking against war, and disagreement among Nigerians. For instance, unarguably urging some of his kinsmen that flouted traditional tenets to become “Eze Ndigbo” in the Diaspora, he recently at a media parley said, “They should always maintain the strictest decorum and decency so as not to disgrace the traditional institution or bring shame to their communities and people. It is expected that traditional rulers conduct themselves always in ways that do not promote social friction. This is the reason why most states in Nigeria have Ministries of local government and Chieftaincy matters. They have a council of traditional rulers and as the 4th tier of government help in promoting developmental policies in their respective domains”.
Without a doubt, as a man of peace, Uche Nworah is known for promoting peace both within the South East and in the same vein urging his brothers in Diaspora to be at peace with leaders in their host communities. Given the foregoing, there is no denying the fact that Uche Nworah is a peaceful message, bearer.