An Udu son from Owhrode town named Ezekiel Noruchor Igho is truly recognised as the second Urhobo graduate and first Urhobo master's degree holder (postgraduate).
Born in 1915 at Owhrode town in Udu clan to the family of Mr. Kodi Igho and Mrs. Shehor Igho. He grew up in Owhrode where his brilliance, articulation, prodigious beginning from elementary school was the talk of all
So, when he entered Christ the King College (CKC), Onitsha, he caught the whole school in rapt attention. He did not only get a startling record breaking feat with his Cambridge Exams result gotten while still studying at CKC – a very rare feat in colonial days, but walked away from CKC as the best student.
Really ‘burning upstairs’, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) which had long been keeping track of him for his rare brilliance, quickly tapped him for a scholarship award, being one of the first two persons UPU awarded scholarship. While the other was to do a quick program that would prepare him for the pre-takeoff preparations and headship of the proposed Urhobo College being thought out by UPU, Ezekiel was to do a longer program which he would have finished at the take-off of Urhobo College.
Heading for the program in Cambridge and doing a stopover in Lisbon, and wanting to share his feel of Lisbon he wrote to his younger brother Viemudu Igho: ‘Lisbon is like a piece fallen down from heaven’. That is one just out of secondary school writing!
In Cambridge, he was one of the two black students in his class of about 90 but shone brightest. Graduating B.A. Natural Science from Downing College, Cambridge and M.A. Cantab, he is believed to be the first West African to hold the B.A. Natural Science. He also had Dip. Ed London to better prepare him for the Urhobo College work ahead. In each of those certificates it should be taken for granted by now that he came out with the best result.
On coming back after the ‘golden fleece’ he was made Vice Principal, Urhobo College, Effurun. His few years there remain memorable. His crave for excellence came to the fore. Probably one story may tell it: A student from his native town of Owhrode who gained admission to the College and who incidentally was staying with him was not academically promising and he shared his feelings with his aforementioned younger brother, Viemudu that is. Then another boy from the same village gained admission. He was real good with his books. Ezekiel was so elated sharing with his younger brother: ‘Now we got it!’ he said. This young man, John Tobor, made a national mark before he passed on.
Ezekiel, within the short time he lived after coming from Cambridge, was apparently a key figure at Western Nigerian Education Board, some think Chairperson, a key pioneer and pillar in Obafemi Awolowo’s free education programme at its inchoative stage before he sadly passed on in 1956, a young man.
Loved by Chief Obafemi Awolowo for his brilliance and cerebral contributions, Ezekiel was a member of Action Group’s think tank at the beginning of the party. This, Awolowo attested to years after Ezekiel’s death when he (Awolowo) had one of his rallies at Ezekiel’s Owhrode village partly to remember or honor him and partly to tell of that closeness with Ezekiel. He did a little tribute on him from the stage.
Ezekiel had a best friend in Chike Obi: A case of birds of a feather…! Being regular visitors and hosts to one another you wonder what brainstorming sessions both geniuses engaged in before Ezekiel left this world that early, not getting to global acclaim. Professor Chike Obi was not that unfortunate. Other of Ezekiel’s close friends include Anthony Enahoro, the Rewanes, Arthur Prest, Justice Samuel Ighodaro, who all became national names, then of course, McNeil Gabriel Ejaife of Urhobo College and Dr. Frederick Esiri, in whose hospital he passed on in 1956 apparently in September of that year.
Ezekiel was son-in-law to Mukoro Mowoe, and son-in-law to few others, so living as a polygamist unlike his godly father Igho Kodi, a staunch Christian of the Anglican mode. This spot of him plus his celebrity and social status probably combined to cause his early exit, for it was reported that a dark-hearted, inhuman being poisoned his glass. All efforts by Esiri and his medical staff to save the life of his friend was to no avail. And thus Urhobo was denied a global name in Ezekiel Noruchor Igho.
Nonetheless, 65 years after his exit, the Urhobo nation recognised and celebrated from Uwamuge to Owhrode in Udu Kingdom a rare feat of theirs week four, November 2021. That’s how both excellence of a departed and memory of the living aged can tack together, and challenge, enliven and set in upward motion for the young.
If only he had lived longer.
Source/Reference materials:
Pastor Eferovo Igho
Edited by:
Famous Akpojotor & Urhobo House
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