Even he agrees that he has not been fair to Onicha Ugbo! Not because he did not pay the full price for our lands very legally acquired. He paid fully and in cash, a typical Ned in-your-face style that causes envy amongst most little minded fellows who hate to see another person out shine them, not even because they were forced to sell (none was).

If anything, on that joyous day in September 2020 when countless bullion vans found their way to the King’s Palace in Onicha Ugbo, the 23 or so families who sold their land came as common folk but they all left as Naira millionaires with their humongous cash running into hundreds of millions.
Can one then blame these largely Umuolo families for selling their patrimony?
We will not as everyone reserves the right to deal with their assets anyway they please. Our investigations reveals that most reinvested it well in real estate, international relocation and even better education. Many solved long standing health issues and paid off embarrassing debts. A good number painfully though, acquired more liabilities :cars, clothes and wives.
DETAILS OF DEED OF TRANSFER BY FAMILIES IN ONICHA-UGBO IN FAVOUR OF HON. PRINCE NED NWOKO


Is that Ned’s fault?
But this publication will sue Ned if upon completion of this entrepreneurial S. T. A. R. S. university ( that acronym should not fool you as the curriculum extends to Science, Technology, Agriculture, Research, Sports, etc.) he says it is located in Ugboko. It is located chiefly on Onicha Ugbo ground.

That a very worthy Ugboko Prince bought land does not change its location any more than any ibo man buying Lagos land and then renaming that place Nnewi just because it is his birth place. The few 10 or so Ugboko elites challenging this acquisition are really being more Catholic than the Pope. They are crying more than the bereaved.
Onicha Ugbo looks forward to the very laudable University and Golf courses, hostels and hotels that will come forth. But Ned himself confessed to us that a new town has indeed been born, called ‘Onicha Ugboko’. We cannot agree more.
A tour of the still under construction edifice which took hours last week will shock and awe anyone especially as private capital is being deployed all the way. No bank loan. Ned does not do loans or overdraft as most rich people do.

He seems to have learnt a lot from the bitter experience of two late scions of Anioma’s prime town who died last year and whose assets are currently being sold off by banks that are merciless in the recovery of their shareholders funds.

Expatriates and locals were seen working round the clock to meet what must be a looming deadline as Ned is a workaholic who plays and works hard. Nothing is impossible with him. If your mind can conceive it, then you can achieve it.
Nothing transforms a town and people like a University. If still in doubt then visit Ife, Ekpoma, Otta, Nsukka, Oxford and even Harvard. The interdependence of town and gown is there writ large.

Universities are a legacy far beyond what a petrol or gas station or country club or hospital or bank can ever hope to be. It outlives the founder and forever engrains the visioner in not only the hearts of men but also in history perpetually.

For this project many shall forgive Ned any sin as we are sure that he is not building a place for Boko Haram or where hatred will be taught. It is not an Islamic university or a fulani herdsmen colony. It is a heritage for mankind. On Anioma land. In Onicha Ugboko. Even he will have to live with that.
Ndi iwe mali kwa ife wa bu na obi. STARS university bu ife lin ma. Chukwu ya gozie. Isee.
A classic and good example of Aku lue uno. We should all commit to transforming our towns. Like Hon Prince Chinedu Nwoko.
By Tonnie Oganah, a lawyer, Publisher and Anioma community leader.