By Chris Okeke
The news break on the passage of erudite scholar, Professor Peter Uchenna Nwangwu, has taught me yet another crucial, unforgettable lesson about the vanity of this world. I cannot but remember Mark Anthony’s quote upon the demise of Caesar as portrayed by Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, when he said:
O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.
I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else in rank …
Professor Uchenna Nwangwu came; he conquered; he glorified in his conquest; he triumphed, enjoyed his awards and accolades and, finally, as a mortal, succumbed to the vicissitudes and call of nature. From dust we came and to dust shall we return.
As I ruminate over the passage of this intellectual, whom I first met 15 years ago, precisely in 2005, I am awed by the simple fact that, in the four winds of this world, different generations of mankind have inadvertently produced some illustrious personalities who are similarly destined to project their people, nations, their race – Igbo in this case – and this planet, earth, to greatness and distinction. Such are the people who leave their footprints on the sands of time as they depart this world, making it a better place for those coming behind. Professor Peter Nwangwu is certainly one of the few. His scientific inventions in the field of medicine have made this world a better place for mankind.
As the days go by, words would continue to elude me as I imagine how we could roll on without Professor Uchenna Nwangwu. I feel disappointed at the possibility that we shall no longer behold his radiant face demonstrating, with blissful sagacity, his academic prowess, laced with intellectual depth and glossy accomplishments in the medical profession, locally and in the Diaspora during his lifetime.
Professor Peter Nwangwu is a man of great accomplishment, one member of the very few Nigerian Diaspora breed who has distinguished himself in the area of clinical pharmacology research and a reference point among his professional colleagues in the area of biotechnology as well as medicine.
He is, of course, a black Nigerian, African American, originally from Ogidi in Anambra state of Nigeria. Though he lived in Nebraska and Midland Texas, home of the former Presidents George Bush, he was home in Nigeria in 2005 to serve his fatherland as the executive assistant to the Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the University of Nigeria Research and Economic Development (UNRED) foundation.
The much I know is that, in September 27, 2006, he was honoured with American 2006 Congressional Medal of Distinction award. However, before this, he had been a beneficiary of the 2005 Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal from the National Representative Congressional Committee as well as the Businessman of the Year 2005 awarded by the Business Advisory Council. We were told that Professor Nwangwu was selected for the awards based on the unyielding support of the Republican Party for his outstanding leadership in business, several inventions in the field of medicine and pharmacology and contributions to the local economy. He was one of the 12 men to receive the distinguished honour of the prestigious awards and one of the top 10 most educated pharmacologists in the world.
These accolades did not surprise many as Professor Nwangwu and his inventions had elevated him to a higher pedestal and then regarded as an intellectual gift to the world in the area of pharmacy.
Again, Nwangwu, as earlier stated, was a pharmaceutical scientist and professor of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Clinical Pharmacy. He lived in the United States of America for over 45 years where he invented two new research techniques in pharmacology which are still used worldwide, and invented seven new drugs that are protected by U.S patents. He was the first scientist in the world to document and publish murine ventricular tachycardia in a single surface electrocardiogram which has become a murine model of human cardiomyopathy for studies in cardiovascular disease worldwide. Renowned scientists, including professors at Harvard Medical School who currently use this model, cite Professor Nwangwu in their research publications as the medical scientist who first discovered and published murine ventricular tachycardia. In a recent article in a peer-reviewed European scientific journal, the scientists cited Nwangwu as “a world-renowned clinical pharmacologist who ranks among the top ten pharmacologists in the world”.
Having distinguished and accomplished part of his life goals, Professor Nwangwu, well-armed as a man of God, returned to Nigeria to impact the social life of his people through social, philanthropic and poverty-alleviating programmes. He embarked on a project he called Clean Nigeria. During the launch of the New Clean Nigeria project in Abuja, he stated that he was moved to launch the project by the enormous rot and twisted mindsets in the Nigerian society which, he observed, was increasingly turning the nation into a wild jungle of corruption and lawlessness. According to Nwangwu, perhaps 90 to 95% of those who voted in the 2019 elections were paid for their votes through vote-buying by unscrupulous candidates and political parties. He felt the best way to reverse the trend was through the formation of a political party as a vehicle for his active participation in politics. It was for this reason that he launched a political party called WE THE PEOPLE NIGERIA (WTPN). His party took a very firm position against vote buying and bluntly refused to have anything to do with the practice. Unfortunately, and expectedly, WTPN lost many votes from that principled decision against such corrupt practices. Nwangwu said that his sad experience before, during and after the just-concluded (2019) general elections motivated his desire to launch the nationwide, mindset re-engineering project because the level of moral decadence in Nigeria was very tragic and palpable and would get worse if nothing concrete was done about it. “We have, therefore, decided to embark on this project to educate and engage the grassroots in mindset re-engineering, to grow a new breed of upright citizens, by cleaning up Nigeria from bottom to top.”
Besides the Clean Nigeria project, which he initiated as a grassroots project and his contribution to the transformation of the leadership, he also initiated a poverty alleviation project through the Fanafi Worldwide Ventures.
According to Professor Nwangwu, “This compelling project stands on three distinct legs; an NGO, “People’s Grassroots Association for Corruption-free Nigeria”, which is a nonpolitical educational entity committed to cleaning the Nigerian bottom through mindset re-engineering of the Nigerian grassroots at the ward-level nationwide. It purposed to grow a new breed of accountable, corruption-free, and lawful Nigerian grassroots. The second leg is a commercial company, “Fanafi Worldwide Ventures, Ltd,” engaged in empowerment programmes and job creation for needy unemployed Nigerian grassroots while the third leg is a registered political party, “We the People Nigeria”, out to mobilise, unite and empower 50 million new-breed, clean Nigerians at the grassroots and guide them to use due process and the power of their votes to dismantle and evacuate corrupt and inept politicians, replacing them with clean God-fearing and decent Nigerians with integrity. This is with a view to birthing a new clean Nigeria for the benefit of the Nigerian grassroots permanently.
According to Nwangwu, “government-induced poverty has reduced Nigeria to the poverty capital of the world. This level of abject poverty is responsible for the Nigerian grassroots who collect money and rice to vote for unscrupulous candidates. Some Nigerians sold their votes for as little as N500 in the 2019 elections.”
We have lost a gem and genius in Professor Nwangwu. We have lost a man with master’s degree in medical chemistry and pharmacognosy; we have lost a rare talent that made a doctorate in pharmacodynamics and toxicology, a doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree in clinical pharmacy and biopharmaceutics and another doctor of philosophy degree in medical sciences with specialisation in cardiovascular pharmacology.
We, in Orient Daily, say goodbye to the Anambra-born Fellow of the American College of Clinical pharmacology. A member of the prestigious US Scientific and Technology Think Tank group of experts and a member of the Council of Healthcare and Biotechnology advisors Genson Lehman Group, New York.
Adieu Professor Uchenna Nwangwu (Ph.D Pharm) (1949-2020)