High Chief Osondu Nwoye was the richest Igbo businessman based in Ivory Coast before yesterday, but what the late Anambra-born billionaire did not see coming Is watching his darling Super Eagles play yesterday in Ivory Coast, where he lives and runs his flourishing business, going to ultimately cost him his life?
By this time yesterday, High Chief Osondu was still alive, hale, and hearty.
He travelled to Bourke, the city that hosted the Super Eagles match yesterday, to watch his darling Super Eagles play.
He loves football and is patriotic for his home country.
According to eyewitnesses, the High Chief was on top of the moon, shouting on top of voice, when Victor Osimen scored that second goal, which was later cancelled by VAR.
May be the shock of seeing the goal cancelled and penalty awarded to South Africa was too much to bear for his fragile heart, which failed immediately, which resulted in the High Chief collapsing inside the stadium.
All the frenetic efforts to revive him failed, as he was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
While the whole country was rejoicing yesterday, the people of the Amanuike community in Anambra State, where he came from, were mourning.
They just lost an illustrious person, the richest man in the community, who was an iroko who provided shelter, shade, and succour to many in that community.
During his lifetime, his title name was Nwachinemelu of Amanuike.
His immediate family is in mourning too.
They just lost a friend, a father, and a benefactor.
A reminder to the rest of us suffering from underlying illnesses like high blood pressure. to stay away from watching tension-soaked Super Eagles matches.
At the end of the day, it is not worth it.
Because the late Chief was not an outlier, many people slumped to death watching the match yesterday, and this includes a serving youth corper serving in Adamawa.
The other side of watching football, which we wouldn’t discuss well enough,
May their souls rest in peace.
The late Nwoye Osondu Angus Osondu Nwoye (The Person in Black Cap) was among the first Nigerians to arrive in the beautiful country of Ivory Coast in the 1990s, when many people were not paying attention.
It was the same country where he struck gold and riches.
His niche and business were auto spare parts, so he went ahead and founded a business called Groupe Auto Promotion, the biggest motor spare parts business in the whole of Ivory Coast.
He later diversified into real estate, and to his credit, he owned the biggest high-rise buildings in Abidjan.
A proper Odogwu and a philanthropist who cared so much about the poor in the community in Anambra State
No wonder; his titled name was Nwachinemelu of the Amanuike community.
He loves football; he was passionate about it and so sad and a paradox that he died inside the stadium as I wrote earlier watching the team that he loved so much, which is the Super Eagles, playing yesterday against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, because of heart failure.
The debt we owe his memory is to regularly check our blood pressure and then take exercise seriously.
Please, I beg you in the name of God, on Sunday before the finals of AFCON, check your blood pressure.
Don’t be too stubborn and wicked to yourself to join other football fans to watch the finals of the competition with the knowledge that your blood pressure is above normal.
The AFCON finals will come and go, but you need to stay alive for your family.
Once more, may his soul rest in peace.
