In the rural community of Awa in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State, dwelled a god-fearing family of Chief and Mrs Gabriel Anatune. Chief Anatune in the fifties and sixties represented Awa as the town’s county councilor – equivalent to today’s ward Councilor. He was the defacto political leader of the community. The family had a son and three daughters before their fifth child; Josiah Chukwudi Anatune was born on 28th April, 1960. Later, God blessed them with one more daughter after Josiah.
Joe or Big Joe, as Josiah would later be called, grew up under the tutelage his parents. Some admirable attributes stood out in him as he grew up: humility, sense of responsibility, street and academic intelligence. His father took notice of his remarkable intelligence and immediately enrolled him into primary school at just the age of five. In those days, it wasn’t a familiar sight to see a primary one pupil who was five. They were usually from eight and above. Joe made up with his shortcoming as the youngest in class with his huge body size and excellent academic performance. He maintained first position through out his primary school. Joe finished primary six with a Distinction Grade in the First School Leaving Certificate examination.
Thereafter, he went to Emekuku High School, Owerri, Imo State in 1978 for his secondary education. He continued to excel academically. He was the school’s Senior Prefect and won so many awards for the school, including the highly coveted prize in the nationwide P&T-Post and Telegrams’ Letter Writing Competition. Apart from the mouth watering financial prize attached to the award, P&T also gave him automatic employment after his WAEC examination.
With an excellent WAEC result, Joe was admitted into University of Nigeria, Enugu campus to study marketing. He graduated with Second Class Honours (Upper division) and gained automatic employment into Dawn Functions – a leading advertising agency in Nigeria. The employment was facilitated by Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria, AAPN. At the time, the association shops for best graduating marketing students from Nigerian universities for their members’ advertising agencies.
Big Joe was among the indigenous Nigerian advertising eggheads that deepened the
industry in the country after taking over from foreign agencies. Dawn Functions at the time managed the accounts of some leading companies in the South East such as Golden Guinea and Avop. Joe’s outstanding performance at Dawn Functions as an adman gained him as Executive Director and was charged with the responsibility of establishing the Lagos branch of the agency. Through his aggressive marketing drive and ingenious human and resource management prowess, the agency grew in leaps and bounds.
From Dawn Functions, Joe established b3 Communications in 2003. At b3, he built a formidable team of advertising practitioners and his clientale rose appreciably. b3 managed a string of juicy accounts, including those of Dansa Foods, May & Baker, Smarteks Electronics, Union Homes, as well as the corporate image of a number of government and political organizations.
Joe’s marketing prowess was an outstanding catalyst in any organization he belonged. At League of Anambra Professionals where he served as the Publicity Secretary, the body was one to reckon with and became an important stakeholder in the developmental programmes of the state.
In 2019, Joe formed a formidable online platform of Ñdà Anambra – the Anambra Alliance, AA. He nurtured AA to a body of vibrant socio-political force of Anambra intelligentsia, with membership from home and in the diaspora. Simultaneously, in 2020, Joe spearheaded the formation of Soludo Promoters Forum, SPF, a platform through which he led a radical mobilization of Anambra elites, community leaders and technocrats towards the election of Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo CFR as the governor of Anambra State in 2021. Through these organizations, and many more, Big Joe marketed the candidacy of Prof. Soludo to Ndi Anambra as his Head of Media. Consequently, Big Joe was appointed the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency, ANSAA. He was in active service when the creator of the heavens and the earth called him to glory on April 30, 2022.
In his lifetime, Joe enjoyed a happy family life. He was married to Hon. Mrs Ifeyinwa Anatune and the marriage was blessed with two children, Engineer Chinedu Anatune and Dr Ada Anatune.
Written by OKEY EMMANUEL ODEWAIWAI
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