As a Teacher…
We were all living together. At a time when there was nobody in the church, you would see him kneeling before a statue of Our Lady. He would talk with her as a child talks to his mother. He thought no one was there. At that time he was preparing for some teachers’ examination. He went early to bed, around 7 p.m. When everything was quiet, you would see him with his rosary.
– Brother Michael Okoye, in Onitsha
I was happy that everyday when he came back from school, he would help me in preparing the meal. After we had prepared the meal, we went to the church to pray. He said so many litanies and so many pieces of rosary that in the midst of it I fell asleep. Bt the time we came out, the food was cold. In the evening, it was time again for prayer. I became so tired that I wanted to go home to rest, but he insisted that I should stay.
– Michael Meze Idigo of Aguleri
With his peering eyes, he would survey the whole class to make sure that at every stage in the solution of a problem, every one of us was following. No student escaped his attention. He made sure that every stage was understood before he proceeded on to the next stage. In the process he would occasionally sing in Igbo: “Okwe agaba, a iyo-o-owe“. We nicknamed him “Mathematics Made Easy”.
– F.A.N. Tagbo
As a headmaster…
The school children were then very happy. School was more or less like a home, for the teachers knew their work…. Teachers were ordered by him to prepare their lessons every evening, in the Father’s house…. Every evening, he collected the teachers for Adoration…. When the education officers came to school…they gave him: “Sharp and keen”.
– Cletus Asike, in Aguleri
