NEKEDE ANCIENT KINGDOM REMEMBERS GOODWILL THAT RUNS IN FAMILY

On Tuesday 23rd December,2024, the streets were agog as His Royal Highness, Eze (Dr.) Stephen Kemjika Agunmanu IV, the Ede 11of Nekede Ancient Kingdom and Ishi Obi of Uzii Na Aboshi clan in Owerri  West Local Government Area, celebrated the 10th Anniversary of his coronation.

Day and night-long festivities highlighted the events such as the 21 gun salute ceremony, traditional and bongo music performances, dances by various women group dances  and the enthronement of nine new traditional chiefs in the kingdom 

These are young vibrant men who have distinguished themselves one way or the other in the society. They were all gorgeously dressed in their new traditional chieftaincy attires and each would march forward with his retinue of supporters as the names are called out one after the other.

One particular recipient appeared to stand out as a toast of the crowd when the mention of his name, drew loud ecstatic jubilation and voice approval.

“Everybody knows Frank,” His Royal Highness had began as the young man gently knelt before him. He was accompanied to the Eze’s presence at the ADC Field by hundreds of supporters. The Eze continued. “Frank is a very young man but he has done many things for this community.”   It was indeed a long story which he nonetheless, did well to encapsulate.

The young man, Franklin Ifeanyichukwu Ngere is the Chief Executive and initiator of Frank Ngere Foundation, an NGO based in both the United States of America and in Nigeria. Very recently, the Foundation brought back life and succour to the dilapidation at the Umualum Primary and Secondary School, Nekede. The Nekede Ancient Kingdom is very Close to Owerri Municipal where the seat of Imo State government reigns. However, the infrastructural decay in this community with of high density population was astronomical.

The Nekede Zoo, The Songhai Farm and the Botanical Gardenall of which were locoted at Old Road, Nekede, ‘Are All Gone.’  Umualum Primary And Secondary School lies in the same vicinity. But for the intervention of the Foundation, the fate of the School could not have been different today.

Using the platform of the Foundation, the young Frank had mobilized sons and daughters of Nekede both in the United States of America and Europe as well as other humanitarian groups and individuals the world over, to re-write the story of Umualum Primary And Secondary School. Over-night, new solid classroom blocks and other facilities were erected within a period of not later than three months.

The Charity work at Umualum Primary and Secondary School may have dwarfed other but certainly not the only charity work by the Foundation at Nekede and its environs. There has been countless outreach programmes including the distribution of books and other writing aids to pupils and students of St Theresa’s Primary And Secondary School, Umuejechi, Nekede and Ihiagwa Secondary School, Free eye clinic and seminar at Naze and Emii, Emekuku and distribution of food items to community women groups and other indigent people in Imo State and at Jos, Plateau State.

The charity work embarked by the Franklin Ngere Foundation has made the Foundation a popular name amoung the communities and the initiator himself, Franklin, a man of the people.

… And It Runs In The Family

Eze Agunmanu the 1V recounted that the good deed done by his new chief did not start from Franklin rather, it started from Franklin’s Father.

According to him, Franklin’s father, the Late Assistant Commissioner of Police, Martin Ngere was one of the statesmen Nekede Ancient Kingdom once had who made so many useful contributions to the community before he died. “He (the late Martin Ngere) was one of the people who worked for the peace and unity we enjoy here today, “the Eze stated. “ He brought peace, honour and respect to our community before God called him. Death did not allow us to honour him”

The late Police chief died before the community would appreciate him for his selfless sacrifices for Nekede Ancient Kingdom both in terms of providing needed security from his own personal resources, contact and connections, to the role of peace maker he played  during many crises and tussles that brewed in the Ancient Kingdom.

Now, the EBUBECHI 1 of Nekede, Chief Franklin Ifeanyichukwu Ngere is stepping into a goodwill his own charity and the charity of his late father built.

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