Tribute to Emman Chuks Oyeka, Our Chairman, Our Leader
Even with the passage of time since the staggering news broke, the shock refuses to go, the trauma persists, disbelief lingers. How do we get to grips with the irreversible reality that our own dear Dr. Emman, the charismatic Chairman of the Alor Dinma Initiative, is no more? Our solace lies only in the fact that the grave is man’s inescapable destination. The mystery is the timing for each individual. Dr. Emman’s time came a wee bit too early.
To us in ADI, this loss is one too many, given that we have still been reeling in the agony inflicted by two earlier closely spaced passings from among us. And now this!! Just what has invaded our fullness? Enough, Oh Lord, enough, no more.
Emman hailed from a cerebral ancestry, being a scion of Maazi Richard Oyeka, a very prominent intellectual dignitary of the olden Alor. It is no surprise, therefore, that at a relatively tender age,
Emman effortlessly glided through the primary and secondary schooling stages and took on medical studies at the University of Nigeria. Even with the rigours of clinical courses, he had time for medical students’ politics and went on to serve as the President of the African Association of Medical Students. On qualifying as a medical doctor, he proceeded to specialise in the sphere of Public Health. Never really working for any organisation, he invoked his remarkable management aptitude to establish a private medical facility (Ceo Clinic) at Onitsha, in partnership with a professional colleague. Their success is there for all to see. It has been such a pleasure to count Dr. Emman as one of the public health experts from Alor, a town commonly relegated by detractors to the discreditable occupation characterised by hussleful mercantilism.
