5 January 2006

Nnewi, Nigeria --   At a colourful ceremony that celebrated Isaac Moghalu’s life of dedicated public service and the values he exemplified in his lifetime, the Isaac Moghalu Foundation (IMOF), a non-profit organization that supports education and literacy in rural communities in Nigeria, was formally inaugurated at Nnewi, Anambra State on December 30, 2005.

A former Head of State of Nigeria, Gen. Dr. Yakubu Gowon (rtd.) presided over the ceremony, held at the Foundation’s headquarters in Akaboezem Community in Nnewi’s Uruagu Quarter. “I am delighted to support the Isaac Moghalu Foundation”, Gowon said in his remarks at the ceremony.  “It is a worthy cause that all and sundry must support, and I urge all Nigerians, Anambra State and the Nnewi community to do so”.

The event drew several prominent leaders from across the country -- clergy, traditional rulers, politicians, diplomats, professionals, and the Nnewi community.  In addition to Gowon, personalities that attended the event included Nigeria’s former Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige represented by Deputy Governor Sir Ugochukwu Nwankwo, and the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Kalu represented by Deputy Governor Dr. Chima Nwafor.

Others were the Bishop of the Grace of God Mission, Rev. Dr. Paul Nwachukwu, the Igwe of Nnewi, His Royal Highness Kenneth Orizu III, Nigeria’s former Ambassador to the United Nations, Chief Arthur Mbanefo, Senator Onyeabo Obi, former Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Eugene Ubezonu (rtd.), Ambassador Emeka Azikiwe, and the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Professor Edwin Nwogugu.  Hundreds of members of the Akaboezem community and friends of the Moghalu family were present.

The Founder of IMOF, Dr. Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu said that the Foundation was dedicated to investing in human capacity targeting underprivileged children and youth in rural areas, and the creation of a knowledge society.  Decrying the misplaced values that prevent many youth in rural communities from getting an education and have instead led them to pursue quick wealth, Moghalu emphasized: “the most powerful kind of wealth, the wealth that makes the difference between developed and underdeveloped societies, is the wealth of knowledge.  The knowledge society is the society of the future, while a society of consumers that do not generate knowledge is a backward society – an illiterate society”.

Dr. Moghalu announced the first recipients of the Foundation’s Isaac Moghalu Memorial Scholarships for secondary school and university education.  Two girls, Miss Chinaza Nkemelu and Miss Onyinye Ukatu, both from homes with incomes below the poverty line, were awarded full scholarships covering tuition, accommodation and board for six years for education at the Federal

Government College, Ibusa in Delta State.  Mr. Arinze Onwujuba won IMOF’s scholarship to study Microbiology at the Enugu State University of Technology.  Moghalu, who is also a senior official in the United Nations system, noted that expanding the beneficiaries of the scholarships and constructing and establishing a comprehensive Isaac Moghalu Memorial Library at Nnewi were immediate priorities of IMOF.  He called on all men and women of goodwill to support the Foundation with financial resources.

The former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku extolled IMOF as “an imaginative and welcome initiative in honour of a man who, in the life of our present-day Nigeria, was a most uncommon man”.  Remembering the late Isaac Moghalu, one of Nigeria’s pioneer diplomats after the country’s independence in 1960, Anyaoku recalled “the established rectitude and efficiency” that the man in whose memory IMOF was established brought to his duties in the Consular Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lagos, where both men were colleagues.  Isaac Moghalu subsequently served as a Foreign Service Officer in Geneva and Washington and later became a Permanent Secretary in Anambra State before his retirement in 1984.   “Today we salute the courage of Isaac Moghalu”, Gen. Gowon said in his own remarks.

Anyaoku and Gowon commended the Founder of IMOF, Kingsley Moghalu, the first son of the late Isaac Moghalu.  “I have followed with admiration Kingsley’s achievements in the international service in the family of the United Nations”, Anyaoku said, while former Head of State Gowon commended what he described as the “dint of hard work and intrinsic statesmanship” of IMOF’s Founder.

In her message of support to the inauguration event, Dr. Tamela Hultman, Strategy Director of AllAfrica Foundation in Washington, DC noted that “The Isaac Moghalu Foundation honours the teachings of parents who knew that service to others is the greatest good.  The Foundation’s dedication to creating knowledge networks and to building capacity, as well as its sensitivity to the untapped promise inherent in girls and young women, offers a model to all who care about the future of Nigeria and of Africa”.

For many members of the rural community where the Isaac Moghalu Foundation is headquartered, their encounter with several national and international figures who attended the event in solidarity with a grassroots organization focused on rural communities was a poignant – and historic – moment. “I shook hands with Gowon and took a picture with him” said an elated Jeremiah Nkemelu, an itinerant labourer and father of one of the Foundation’s scholarship recipients.  “I still can’t believe it”, he enthused.

“I have heard so much about Emeka Anyaoku” said another.  “It was good to see him with my own eyes and not on television”, he added.

Several persons who attended the event pledged or donated financial resources to the Isaac Moghalu Foundation, with pledges and donations totalling in excess of 2 million naira (USD20, 000).