Recently, Christ The King Catholic Church, G.R.A. Enugu, in preparation for its Silver Jubilee Celebration, organised a Special Jubilee Recognition (Pillars of the Jubilee). The event was tagged Award or Recognition of Distinguished members of our parish and society.
The Parish Priest, the Parish Pastoral Council and the entire Congregation instituted the award to show their appreciation and recognition of the individual so selected.
Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa was awarded the recognition of Icon of the Jubilee. In his citation read by the Church, Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa’s philanthropy was extolled. The Church said of him,
“… apart from being a quintessential civil servant, Sir Chinyeaka is also a committed community and religious leader. He is not known to shirk an assignment or duck a challenge…The essential humanity of this man is clearer in his selfless response to issues that confront our daily life. Conciliation comes so naturally to him. He has the unique gift of being able to cut through issues, to find that median point where all parties can find something that they can identify with.
“And he would never accept that anyone is totally bad. He says it so often, that there is good in all, and what one needs is to relate with that good in people, to make them even better.
He has raised funds from his personal friends and associates for numerous religious and communities’ projects, and attracted numerous federal and state government infrastructures to different communities in Enugu state.
He was the immediate past Lay President, Methodist Church Nigeria, Agbani Diocese. He is a Knight of John Wesley. But there is no discriminating about what you profess or where you are from, when you come across Sir Chinyeaka. He stood by you through all situations, looking for every means to take you out of any difficulty with his incredible staying power when there is a cause he is convinced about. He spares no resources, nor himself, and deploys the full artillery of his incredibly wide network of contacts to achieve a result.
It is marveling how, and from where, Sir Chinyeaka got endowed with such an incredibly large and most generous heart that enables him to always know how to offer a hand, never abandoning people in times of distress and anticipating at every turn, the good that needed to be done, for this or that person. Sometimes, it might be glaring that the first step to address the mental and emotional health, as well as other critical needs of this or that person, is the provision of shelter, Sir Chinyeaka would readily undertake the task of constructing at least a low cost house for whoever might be involved. Over time, this gave birth to his pet program, “Shelter-Gives-Dignity”, a program that runs like shelter-for-the-indigent, through which, without much ado, he has erected houses, homes that are much more than just roofs, for several vulnerable people, faced with inequalities and poverty.
Sir Chinyeaka has assisted more than one thousand young people, many of whom are from Enugu state to secure jobs, or advance their careers, in state and federal civil service.
While he was Permanent Secretary of Federal Capital Territory Authority, FCTA, he was able to rectify the imbalance in the FCTA workforce as he ensured the proper implementation of the federal character principle in FCTA which culminated in the employment of several south easterners and people from other geo-political zones that were hitherto marginalized in the workforce of the Federal Capital Territory.
These, and more, validate people’s testimony to the fact that Sir Chinyeaka is so benevolent, deeply compassionate a man that he would hold an umbrella over a duck in a shower of rain. Suffice it to say that his ability to render assistance to people has remained as constant as what William Shakespeare called, “the northern star, of whose true fixture, and resting quality,” there are few in the firmament. We have no doubt that he is eminently qualified for this honour.”
It is worthy to note that there has been a galore of honour for, and celebration of the selfless philanthropy and good public service record of, Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa since he disengaged from the federal civil service early this year. A grassroot man, he is one of the front runners in the 2023 Enugu governoship race.
Former governor of Abia state, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu was one of the awardees while Chief Nnia Nwodo, former President-General of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo Worldwide was the chairman of the occasion.
