In October 2012, I chaired the Committee that organized Dr. Alex Ekwueme’s 80th birthday ceremonies. On the 16th of October, we organized an international colloquium on “Nigerian Federalism: Building on the Ekwueme Legacy” at the ThisDay Dome Abuja—and this was the highpoint of the 80th birthday anniversary. After some five years and three months, I am here today, at the Federal Polytechnic Oko that has Alex Ekwueme’s imprimatur, to speak as we bid him farewell. For me, the loss is huge and the grief very deep. May his giant soul rest in peace! Yes, Dr. (Chief) Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, GCON (Ide Aguata na Orumba) is dead. As it is usual with a moment like this, tributes from foes and friends will suffocate space. It is a fleeting moment of hyperboles that usually end on the Sunday of the outing service. Thereafter, the deceased joins the list of the forgotten dead or occasionally but perfunctorily remembered in sombre memorial events, while the living move on with their lives. It is the fate of all mortals but I pray that Ide’s shall be substantively different. Ide was not God! He was human, with his own dose of human frailties and imperfections. But he was an exceptional human being. Tributes will pour in to celebrate Alex Ekwueme the architect, town planner and surveyor, lawyer, sociologist, historian, politician, philanthropist, Christian, husband, father and grandfather, technocrat, nation-builder, statesman, tennis lover and player, etc. Many will celebrate his uncommon intellect, his legendary character epitomized by integrity, his credentials as a thorough bred democrat and nationalistic federalist, or his humane, passionate commitment to people and his giant philanthropic strides. Like the proverbial elephant and the blind men, many will describe and miss him for different reasons.  Few humans have successfully juggled the demands of family, community, profession, and national service like Alex Ekwueme. I have come today to join in celebrating Ide Aguata na Orumba. But beyond the usual platitudes for an exceptionally eventful life, I want to devote this tribute as a message from Alex Ekwueme to all of us, the living. I was converted into a self-appointed apostle of Alex Ekwueme because of the message of his life. Growing up in this clime, the philanthropic exploits of the man better known around OAU as “Ekwueme Oko” was news and ennobling. As a pioneer student at Uga Boys Secondary School, one of Ekwueme’s beneficiaries, Cyprian Ifekanandu Okafor, was my classmate and he told many enchanting stories about this exceptional man. In August 1980 and as we were waiting for our JAMB results to go into the university, I was excited to join a crop of activist OAU students which included Romanus Achusi (Isuofia), Chidi Ezeaguba (Nanka), etc as foundation members of the EKWUEME MOVEMENT, and with Dr. Anene Uzuakpunwa as Coordinator. In 1981, I became the Secretary of NPN students’ wing at UNN, and later in 1982, the Chairman. Simultaneously, I was the chairman of OAU students’ wing of NPN from 1982 and coordinator students’ wing of NPN (old Anambra and Imo— current South East zone) in the 1983 presidential election. On the 19th December, 1982, I was miraculously saved from a ghastly motor accident along Oko-Ufuma road as we were traversing the communities of OAU campaigning for our own IDE. From 1980 until his death (37 years) I was a devoted student and apostle. We were there for him when he made his bids for Nigeria’s presidency, and remained sufficiently close to him until death. Why was I such an unapologetic devotee? The answer is simple: I saw in Alex Ekwueme a man who came before his time; a man who realized and lived out the full essence of life which is to leave society better than we met it; a man who refused to join them even when he could not beat them but instead insisted on fundamental principles as beacons for social progress; a man worthy of emulation in many respects. I am a devotee because Alex Ekwueme exemplified an impactful life. He impacted his environment— and it is evident that Oko, OAU, Anambra state and Nigeria became better because he lived. I must admit that Alex Ekwueme was one of the early influences on my life. I believe that our lives only make meaning when we live for others, and that at a macro level, public service is the best form of philanthropy. Alex Ekwueme exemplified these, and that’s part of why I was a devotee. It seems to me that American President Theodore Roosevelt foresaw the life and times of Alex Ekwueme when he spoke about “The Man in the Arena” at a speech he delivered on the 23rd April, 1910 in Sorbonne, Paris, France. According to Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat”. For much of his entire life, Alex Ekwueme was “the man in the arena”! But he was not just in the arena: he was in the arena with a purpose. Perhaps, Rick Warren knew of the life and times of Alex Ekwueme when he authored the bestselling book: “A Purpose Driven Life”. In his classic also, “The Wretched of the Earth”, Frantz Fanon observed that “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity,