CHIEF ADOLBERT ONYIMA:
A SILENT ACHIEVER IN EDUCATIONAL AND HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT.
By Comrade Ngwonye Humphrey
Re-posted on Whatsapp by Barr. Gideon Obi.
August 25, 2024.
Monetarily, he is not the richest person in Oru East and West.
He is not the richest in Amiri land. He is also not even the richest in Nchoko community. However, I think he is the richest in terms of human capital and educational development in Oru, Amiri and Nchoko. Spiritually, he is also very rich.
This great man saw the infrastructural decay at his home primary school, where, perhaps, he schooled and decided to confront it headlong, without blowing any trumpet. I do not think that he even came home to see the dilapidated structure physically before embarking on the monumental stride of revamping the primary school long left unattended to by successive governments in Imo State.
A visit to United Primary School, Nchoko, Amiri, Oru East Local Government Area, Imo State, would clearly show the unprecedented personal contributions of Adolbert, one of the sons of Pa Cyril Onyima of the blessed memory, who carved a niche for himself in his life time and trained his children to be wonderful assets to society.
The school which was built through communal effort by Nchoko community during the colonial era, shares the same compound with St. John’s Catholic Church. Of course, the school is an establishment of the Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) more than nine decades now. It was a School established by the Church for the community.
After the unfortunate Nigeria/Biafra war, the defunct East Central State Government took over the school. Since then, the school, like other government schools, are no longer what it used to be when the Missionaries were in charge.
Today, this great man has changed the school from a ramshackle building to an ultra modern school with good classrooms, school hall, chairs and tables and with perimeter fencing, to secure the property there in. He did not stop there. He took the teachers’ welfare as a challenge and gives assistance from time to time, knowing full well that the current loss of value of our currency has made nonsense of their salaries.
This project is what could have taken groups, town unions and even government years to plan and execute. In some cases, the plan will remain on drawing board till eternity.
This show of love by Chief Adolbert Onyima to his kinsmen (without orchestra) is very uncommon among our people. I am not surprised, because, humble services to fellow kinsmen runs in the veins of the Onyimas. I remember vividly that, Adolbert’s elder or younger brother, Kenneth Onyima, in 1998, returned from the US and approached me as the Councillor of my Ward, Otulu, for the installation of electricity in Nchoko. He pleaded that I should allow them connect power from our transformer at Otulu to Nchoko. I obliged him, after consulting with my people then. Ken bore the cost of that installation alone, including the low tension poles and cables.
The Onyimas are not doing the service for wanting to get votes for elective offices in government. They are doing them as a social service to their fellow men and women, who are also gods, as written in Psalm 82 verse 6.
For helping to rebrand United Primary School, Nchoko, the children who are direct beneficiaries of Chief Adolbert Onyima’s benevolence, will never forget him. His children will equally reap the fruits of their father’s good work. The money he has been spending in that school, could have been used to erect physical buildings for personal benefits, if he wanted to. Rather he chose to build human mansions, which benefits will dovetail to generations unborn.
May God continue to bless Chief Adolbert Onyima, his wife and children, for the supportive role they play in human and educational development of Nchoko community and others.