Barely one year after the people of Benue state elected a Catholic priest, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia, as their governor, a community in Abia state has crowned another man of God, Apostle Dr Chibuzor Chinyere, as their first class king.
Like Father Alia who was popular among the Benue populace for his healing Masses across the state, Apostle Chibuzor Chinyere, the founder and General Overseer of the Omega Power Ministries, is a renowned pastor for his healing powers and philanthropy.
His Excellency Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia came to power on the premise that the administration of former Governor Samuel Ortom had performed so low that Benue state was practically grounded as salaries and pensions of workers and retirees were owed for many months.
On the other hand, farmers could not go to farm as herders and terrorists kept ambushing and killing them across the state. The emergence of Fr Alia as the APC governorship candidate re-engineered the hope of the people back to the 2011 era when a U.S based professor of management, Prof Steve Davies Torkuma Ugbah, was the governorship candidate of the ACN.
The people of Benue overwhelmingly voted for the APC to make sure the priest became their governor. Such was the same joy that greeted the Ikwuorie Autonomous Community in Ohanku Ndoki Ukwa East local government area of Abia state when one of their own, Apostle Dr Chibuzor Gift Chinyere, received his staff of office from the Governor of Abia state, Dr Alex Otti, as His Royal Majesty, IHIE 1 of Ikwuorie Autonomous Community.
For the past 11 years, Ikwuorie Autonomous Community has been without a king since the demise of their late king His Royal Highness Prof Isaac Nnanna Kanu in 2013. The vacuum created since then had become extremely difficult for the community to fill as the Onye Nweala, Chief Joseph Nwosu Nwakanma, and the entire community had been shopping for a replacement.
After all the consultations, the entire community chose Chibuzor Gift Chinyere to be their king. The choice of Apostle Chinyere was the main reason why the community has not had a king for the past 10 years because Apostle Chinyere bluntly rejected the position. His acceptance to be the king after rejecting it for almost 11 years brought joy, peace and great jubilation to the community.
Like Fr Alia who underwent a lot of attacks from different quarters for accepting to serve his people, Apostle Chinyere’s acceptance of the throne is another big sacrifice. It is indeed a sacrifice to liberate the people of his community and lead them to the knowledge of God. God’s plan for his people is always a good plan. Jeremiah 29:11 says; “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of prosperity, and not disaster to give you the future you hope for”.
Apostle Chinyere has always had good thoughts for his community even though he is in far away Port Harcourt, Rivers state. For instance, before he built 32 free schools in Nigeria, Benin Republic and Egypt, Apostle Chinyere built the first state-of-the-art free school in Ikwuorie Ohanku Autonomous Community.
These free schools enable children from the community to acquire basic knowledge free of charge. This comes with four pairs of school uniforms, shoes, books and other writing materials.
The man of God who is now the First Class King in his community, built the first state-of-the-art free hospital in his community before building another free hospital in Port Harcourt.
When it became obvious that the only secondary school in Ikwuorie Ohanku community, Ikwuorie Comprehensive Secondary School Ohanku, has been closed down because it is dilapidated, while the government has removed the WAEC center, the apostle turned his majesty, intervened. His interventions gave the school a facelift because he carried out major repairs, built more classrooms, constructed desks, constructed borehole, built corpers’ lodge, bought a big generator and restored the WAEC center in the school.
He did not just stop, he employed more than eight teachers to support other government paid teachers in the school. The school, which had only four students before now, currently has over 260 students. While he declared the school a free school, currently he pays school fees from JSS 1 to SS3. His contributions to his community are massive. No wonder, the people of Ikwuorie Autonomous Community waited for 11 years for him to be their king.
In the areas of university education, Chibuzor Gift Chinyere has offered international and local scholarships to indigent students in Ohanku community. Ohanku community comprises Ikwuorie Autonomous Community, Ujuru Autonomous Community and Okotoko Autonomous Community. But he considers the communities as one in all his humanitarian engagements.
No fewer than 60 children from Ohanku community are currently studying various degree courses in Poland, Turkey, Cyprus, United States of America, Canada and Benin Republic under Apostle Chinyere’s scholarship scheme. Many others are in various universities in Nigeria. The widows in the community are not left out as the people’s king has built many houses for widows and placed all widows in Ohanku on monthly allowances.
It is also pertinent to state that he wasn’t bringing all the development for any reward. All his humanitarian works are done free of charge. But his people see him as their hope, they see him as their light. No wonder, he became the IHIE, which means the light of the community, which is his title as a king. When water was lacking in his community, the man of God constructed a solar water system where people in the community have free access to water.
Apostle Chinyere is a man full of wisdom from God. This is what he deployed to restore peace which has lingered for more than 25 years in not less than 50 families. Some summoned each other in a shrine and this has killed and wiped out many families in the community. Since his intervention, those families have reconciled and this will end the level of death as peace has been fully restored in the community.
Currently, before accepting the throne, the apostle turned his majesty has paid for pre-paid meters to enable all the houses in Ohanku community to be metered to enable them have steady power supply. He has also brought in investors, directors of Maxxis Tyre, a tyre manufacturing company, to access the community and some places they want to start the construction of tyre manufacturing plant. His vision even before he was chosen by his people to be their king is to mordernise his community and lift them out of poverty.
What the people of Ikwuorie Autonomous Community saw in their man of God son Chibuzor Chinyere that made them insist on having him as their king is the exact thing the people of Benue state saw in their man of God son Rev Fr Dr Hyacinth Alia. Today, God has answered both the people of Benue state and Ikwuorie Autonomous Community. What these two leaders will do as they rule over their people is what history will tell.
Iorsamber Martin,
Peace Advocate/ Environment and Safety Consultant,
Abuja
