Foremost Nigerian Permanent Secretary and the first Director-General, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Chief Gordian Chukwuemeka Oranika (Ochendo Abatete), died recently at the age of eighty-nine and will be buried on Friday this week.
Born April thirty, 1935, to late Mr. Evarist Oranika and Mrs. Agnes Oranika, from Umuebo, Agbaja Abatete, Chief Oranika started his primary school at St Dominic’s Catholic School, Abatete and completed at St Joseph’s Primary School, Onitsha. He attended Christ the King College, Onitsha, and, upon graduation, secured a job with the Nigerian Railway Corporation before travelling to Scotland for higher education. After obtaining both his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the University, he proceeded to the London School of Economics, United Kingdom, for a course in Foreign Service. He worked as a diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until the outbreak of the Nigeria–Biafra War when he transferred his service to the Eastern Nigerian Government. He rejoined the services of the Federal Government immediately after the war and rose to become a Permanent Secretary and the first Director General of the FCT, Abuja.
His appointment as the Director-General of the F.C.T. brought innovative ideas and expanded new frontiers of development in the city. Indeed, most developments that stand the Federal Capital Territory out today as a livable city were either started or completed under Oranika’s watch. It is a fact that the first mass recruitment of workers with Abuja’s attainment of the status of a federal capital was carried out by Oranika as the DG. Qualified Nigerians were employed without discrimination. His contributions to the hosting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit now African Union-AU in 1991 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, still resonates with the people.
He was a member of national and international organization’s including a Member of the National Institute, having attended a course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies Kuru, Jos. He was also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Directors and a Paul Harris Fellow. He won many awards and was heavily decorated.
Oranika was an active Roman Catholic Christian and a Knight of the Order of St. Mulumba and Knight of St. Sylvester and belonged to many Christian organizations. He trained priests, built churches and renovated dilapidated ones. He was also a community leader whose contributions to the development of his Abatete community have more profound expression in the title of Ochendo Abatete, genuinely conferred on him by the community’s traditional ruler. He gave many children and youths scholarship, jobs and sent many to overseas’ training. He had many titles from places other than his Abatete community in recognition of his contributions to their development. He was a member of the Igwe-in-Council of the Abatete Ancient Kingdom.
Oranika was a dedicated family man. He married Dr Mrs Uche Oranika and the marriage was blessed with seven children and twenty-five grandchildren. The death of Chief Oranika created a big vacuum. However, the fact that he lived a Christian life is a huge consolation to those he left behind. He will be sorely missed. May God grant his soul eternal rest.
PRINCE EMELIE ORANIKA
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