9th March, 2017
A retired diplomat, Mr Oseloka Obaze, has described late Adinoyi Onukaba, a veteran journalist who died in a car crash recently as ‘a patriotic Nigerian and a gifted writer’.
Obaze, a former Secretary to Anambra Government, who said this in a tribute on Thursday, noted that Onukaba was his friend with whom he had a long working relationship while in mission service.
Obaze said the late journalist was also a man of courage who confronted the various military junta and worked for freedom of the oppressed through the pen profession.
“Ojo was courageous, blunt and a trenchant critic of Nigerian leaders who lifted below their weight.
“Ojo alongside Tunji Lardner, Sonola Olumhense, Dan Akerejah, Yewande Ordia, and I, were Nigerian Diaspora friends in New York at the time he served as President Obasanjo’s aide before he joined the United Nations and served in Somalia.
“As a person and professional, he always spoke truth to power, once publicly challenged former military generals for their taciturnity.
“He was a patriot, gifted writer, and more so as a playwright, it was a thing of joy to engage Ojo in a debate or discourse, his mind was incisive and his worldview ennobling. He will be sorely missed,” he said.
Obaze prayed for the repose of the soul of the deceased and God’s grace upon his family to bear the irreparable loss.