ASABA/Nigeria: Asaba community in Delta on last Friday, October 15, 2021 bade farewell to one of its sons, Mr Anthony Okwura, a retired Director in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, as he was laid to rest.
Okwura, an engineer, died on Sept. 3, 2021, in Lagos at the age of 83.
The retired director was buried in Asaba.
He was survived by wife, Winifred; two children and other family members.
Alhough they mourn his exit, Asaba people celebrated Okwura for his legacies and philanthropy.
Okwura, who was also known as Akukalia, played a major role in the establishment of the Peugeot Assembly Plant in Kaduna and other factories and companies when he was a Director and Inspector in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
Okwura was an entrepreneur.
He established Okanson Farm in Illah, Delta, to produce maize.
He also established Car Components Ltd. to manufacture parts for Peugeot, and a Cosmopolitan Company for film distribution.
He built a good industrial relationship between Nigeria and countries he visited while in the ministry.
Okwura was a traditional title holder.
He was also a devout Christian and a Knight of St. Sylvester.
In their tributes, his wife, daughter and son described his death as painful.
“Akukalia, it has been a 50-year race of touching lives, helping people and being helped in return,” Winifred said.
Chief Louis Chuke, Okwura’s nephew and a retired Senior Editor, described Okwura’s death as devastating.
He said that Okwura was a scholar, who secured Independence Scholarship to study abroad along with the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti and the late Alvan Ikoku, among others.
“Akukalia lived a fulfilled life, he was very humble and humane.
“He was a quiet philanthropist who paid rents, school fees and stipends as well as provided jobs to many,” Chuke said.
Earlier at a Requiem Mass, Rev. Fr. Peter Obilaz of the Catholic Church of Assumption, Asaba, admonished the bereaved family to take solace in the fact that Okwura lived a good life.
He reminded Christians that sermons were preached to the living for them to reflect on their ways and live righteously.
According to him, Okwura has finished his work on earth.
“We know that we shall all depart one day but how prepared are we?” he asked.
