By Mr C.Don Adinuba
I was at the burial of an auntie in
Okija, Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State, on Tuesday,
February 2, 2016, when Joseph Asike, on a leave of absence at Government
House in Awka from Howard University in Washington DC where he has been
the chair of the department of philosophy, called. Surprised that I was
in the state, he requested we meet. Soft spoken, self effacing and well
organised, Asike would have been a good priest if he had continued
with seminary studies. He was classmates with the outstanding Catholic
Bishop of Nnewi Diocese, Hilary Okeke, as well as my uncle and guardian,
Rev. Fr. Chris Adinuba, who is currently carrying out his pastoral
duties in the United States. Asike earned a doctorate in 1978 from the
University of Louvain, the top Jesuit university in Belgium set up by
the Catholic Church in the Medieval Age to rival the universities at
Oxford and Cambridge in protestant England.