OPINION: Is Erondu Jr. a good man? - Paddy Anyatonwu
Posted by FN Editor | 2 years ago | 1,050 times
"Philanthropy is not about money, it's about feeling the pain of others and caring enough about their needs to help".
- Timothy Pina
In the course of my tortuous journey as a journalist, an author, and a social engineer, I have come across many political minds and public office holders.
I have also interacted with high profile political actors having been on a political desk in the days of yore.
Chief Erondu Uchenna Erondu Jr. (Igodo Igwe), an aide to the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu on Special Duties is a man I never knew too well until last month when events and circumstances orchestrated by the Cosmic Consciousness brought us together.
We met in Aba.
We interacted very closely.
We drank liquor.
We ate and joked lavishly.
His interpersonal skills are simply sweeping.
His choice of words is courteous. He is an accommodator of dissenting views.
Erondu Jr. as popularly called by his friends and foes was a Local Government Chairman of Obingwa.
He must have acquired emotional intelligence occasioned by experience from dealing with human beings at the grassroots level.
Addressing a large audience, Erondu Jr. is in his natural habitat, an orator in the mold of William Jennings Bryan, Alcibiades, Dim Emeka Ojukwu, Daniel Webster and Abraham Lincoln put together.
His charismatic tendencies are contagious.
Those close to him told me that he rarely gets angry.
For this writer, the best of Erondu Jr. manifested on October 21, 2018.
I happened to be in the same vehicle with him from Aba to Umuahia when we ran into a ghastly motor accident involving a-two-18-seater buses.
Corpses were littered.
Blood formed a small lake.
Accident victims were writhing in pains.
What did Erondi Jr. do?
He surrendered his vehicle to assist the victims to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC).
Perhaps, Og Mandino had Erondu Jr. in mind when he said this:
“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again”.
Testimonies abound about those he has touched their lives. Both young and old are points of contact of physical manifestation of his kindheartedness.
In the last couple of days of my being a tenant at the Government House Umuahia, I have had cause to aggressively engage Erondu Jr. and at the heat of the interchange, he will quietly ask me, “Dee Paddy, how do you think I can help in this matter. Just tell me and it will be done”?
For this writer, Erondu Uchenna Erondu Jr. is a blessing to mankind.
I humbly call on the God of his realization to enlarge his coast to enable him to continue to positively touch lives.
-Ijiriji.
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