As a seminarian, the Bishop Emeritus was my teacher in C.I.C. in between 1944. When I was appointed a teacher in the same College in January, 1946 when I completed my Cambridge School Certificate programme in December, 1945, we worked together as co-teachers in the same College for some years before I left C.I.C. in December, 1949. Before I left, our Bishop Emeritus had been ordained a priest.

When in 1942, I was offered admission as a pioneer student in the then new College of the Immaculate Conception (C.I.C) Enugu, I found that one of the three seminarians who were drafted into the young Catholic College as our teachers, as was the practice in those days, was seminarian Michael U. Eneja. Also with him in the exercise were seminarian Stephen N. Ezeanya and Seminarian Akuchiama.

Seminarian M.U. Eneja taught us Scriptures and Geography. He did his job so well that when, at the end of my second year, as was the practice I those days, I entered for my Junior Cambridge Certificate Examination, his two subjects Scriptures and Geography, were among the seven subjects in which I obtained “alpha.” We all recognized him as a dutiful, very intelligent and hard-working secondary school teacher. He was also an excellent disciplinarian.

At the conclusion of my four year Cambridge School Certificate programme in December 1945, I wanted to pick up an available appointment as a Railway Traffic Warden. But some of my teachers, including Rev. M.U. Eneja, advised the Principal, Rev. Fr. P.F. McMahon, that he should rather offer me a teaching appointment to enable me to study privately for further examinations.

The Rev. Principal accepted the advice and I became a teacher in Biology and Scriptures in the College with effect from January, 1946. As a teacher in the College, I interacted with then Rev. Fr. Eneja till I left C.I.C. in December, 1949, within which period through private studies and postal tuition from Wolsey Hall Oxford, I passed my Teacher’s Higher Elementary Examination in December, 1947 and my Inter B.A. (London) in June, 1959.

By reason of my success in Inter B.A. (London), I got an exemption in English and History in the Senior Teachers’ Certificate. I remained ever grateful to Rev. Fr. M.U. Eneja, who was later ordained a Bishop for his encouragement and advice. From this track record, I have always seen Rev. Fr. Eneja (and later Bishop Eneja) as one of those who helped me to carve out a future in the field of education. This came to full fruition when after I passed my B.A (Hons) London in June 1951, I got appointed the Principal of Trinity High School, Oguta in January, 1952: a post I held until I decided to change my profession from Education to Law in December, 1957.

When I completed my present residence in Independence Layout, Enugu in 1983, though I was still performing my judicial functions in Lagos and Abuja, I started to use my present residence as my base in Enugu, I found to my gratitude to Almighty God that brought me once again under is Lordship M.U. Eneja, now Bishop Emeritus.

Though the circumstances I have outlined above kept Rev. Fr. and later Bishop Eneja and I apart from one another, we have worked together in life. I have always expressed my appreciation of the influence he had on me in life. He is an excellent evangelist ad and excellent character. True to the best demands of his chosen profession, he is a man of whom the exigencies of world affair mean nothing. He adroitly combines the qualities of inimitable holiness with admirable humility which adorns his clerical life and makes him a rare model difficult to emulate.

For the foregoing reasons, my prayer to Almighty God for him is that he should reap the benefit of longer life on earth and peaceful repose in God’s kingdom.