Colonel Jude Ogugua: Decorated For God And Humanity

This 1985 set/class became unique in many ways. One of the most significant is that the province of Onitsha celebrated in that year, the centenary (100 years) of the advent of Christianity to that part of the country. So, the1985 set became known as the “Centenary Set.”

Most of the boys in that set were aged 10 to 12 years, very tender, small and undefined. They were innocent and had future awaiting to define them. There were very few about 10 who were aged above 20, who had ventured into different spheres of life but felt the fire of vocation and abandoned their first love to answer the divine call (the Sahendrin).

The seminary formation is a mysterious process. Its rigour began immediately to redefine these 300 boys and young men that by 1989 when we got to All Hallows, the basic outlines of the persons we would become in the future had been formed.

Jude Ogugua was one of the most reserved of our set. He was hadly visible except that he was a member of the Odogwu cultural group and beat the “ekwe”. He spoke rarely especially in the company of very trusted friends. It was during the one year apostolic work after class six that he was posted to work as the co-ordinator of the Onitsha young Catholic Students (ONYCAS), Omabala zone, that covered most of the secondary schools in the present Aguleri diocese that the present configuration began to manifest.

His work demanded that he was to use a motor bike to cover most of the towns. It was a very risky job but was done in faith and the strongest determination characteristic of evangelization in difficult terrains.

He began to demonstrate resilience and the ability to survive in very difficult missions. I worked closely with him then and would accompany him in a number of his risky missions on the bike. God saved us miraculously a number of times. Jude would normally do strenous personal exercises in the field. He ran marathons. We, his apostolic work set, would pay dearly for these exercises at the refectory especially if you ventured to come late to the table. Little did we know that he had his vision.

The journey to the priesthood through the major seminaries was smooth for him. He is intelligent, docile, very friendly, and obedient. He was ordained with his set in 2002. It was few years after  ordination that the shocker happened. We heard that Jude had joined the Nigerian Army. No one saw this coming. It was like a thunderbolt from the blues. He disappeared completely from the radar. We saw few pictures of his commissioning from the NDA. We rarely heard of his movement from one military formation to another, from national to international missions. He is characteristically reserved.

He rose in ranks and splendour, a gallant soldier of Christ and the nation. Armed with his weapon of faith and the gospel and the sophisticated mastery of kinetic instruments that defines a well trained officer. The Centenary set, a unique and distinguished brotherhood celebrates your promotion and decoration as a “Colonel” in Nigerian Army.

This is a great honour to us your providential family. One in which you believe in word and deed. I felt so honoured seeing that on your decoration that you celebrated with the C-Set Lagos branch as your family. It is a very great honour and message to us. We have come of age. You, like many others, have put us on the national stage.

This year alone the C-Set has so much to celebrate. Two of us were raised to the status of full professorship in UNN. We have many of our members making us proud as leading contenders in the business world, noble priests and pastors, celebrated captains of industry, scholars of repute, seasoned politicians, and dignified gentlemen of sort who contribute immensely to the growth of humanity globally.

We celebrate you, Colonel Jude Ogugua and pray you attain greater heights. May God continue to decorate you for himself, for us and for humanity.