Opinion
By Ajiri-Oghene Oreh
I have encountered trained engineers in Delta, Lagos States, and at Abuja. They came across to me cerebral, thriving as critical and analytical thinkers. Engineer Jonathan Ajirioghene Ukodhiko in whom this tribute is for, on his 48th birth anniversary, is one of the nation’s brightest and analytical minds I have encountered.
A wizard of nuts and bolts, Ukodhiko, born on March 25, 1975 in his hometown, Erawha-Owhe in Isoko North Local Government Area, exudes an ebullient faith in the engineering profession, and he has made a name for himself as a first-class production and mechanical engineer with his Joeny Holdings Ltd.
I first knew Engr. Jonathan Ukodhiko in 2020, three years ago as a businessman, philanthropist with global fame and great achievements. He was a much-talked about personality in superlatively positive terms and, I became quite eager to encounter him physically when I discovered he was from the same Otibio Ward with me.
It was a year later in 2021 that my paths crossed his, occasionally, when I served as press secretary to the Isoko North Council chairman. He is and has remained infectiously likeable and charismatic.
Last year 2022, I was privileged to be appointed by the famous engineer, to serve as one of his media aides for his House of Representatives aspiration, to represent Isoko Federal Constituency, and he became my boss!
As a boss to me, for more than a year, he displayed an exemplary leadership. He is fair and treated everyone fairly. He is a merciful boss, and he reposed so much confidence in us who work and worked with him.
Highly disciplined and firm, Ukodhiko is ever considerate and he gives pep talks to his staff. He is a workaholic, punctual, and he is ever leading by example. An exemplary of good conducts, he loves smartness, and challenges his workers to always think creatively. He is jovial but not flippant.
Ukodhiko is an ideal boss and as one of his media aides, I enjoyed an excellent working relationship him during the electioneering periods. He is meticulous almost to a point of finicality. Yes, he is very detailed, practical, he loves clarity of thoughts and expressions. Severally, he drew my attention to some errors and omissions in my reports. He counseled me privately.
Hardworking, Engr. Jonathan Ukodhiko is a man of many capabilities. He has an active intelligence and he is good at coming up with many ideas, and having, indefatigable energies to do so many things at a given time. In him, I had a boss who constantly challenged me to do better and be more productive as a media man.
Yes, in Engr Jonathan Ukodhiko, I encountered a man, a boss, who is very diligent, dedicated, and time conscious. I recall as I pen this tribute, how I spent some times with him while he served as Delta Energy Commissioner. He had an excellent attitude to work, and this quality was not lost on those who he worked with in the State Government. He was punctual and articulated, appearing neat and smart.
Engr. Ukodhiko has presence and he was found everywhere working hard to ensure things went well, and are done rightly. His presence was well felt in the astonishingly beautiful and imposing Delta State Secretariat in Asaba. He chaired and attended meetings and conferences.
Ukodhiko, a Pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), has a saintly character, and he is very refined. By words and actions, he has had cause to show and unwittingly teach humanity the good ideals of life which is all about doing good to others as one would do to himself or herself. He has shown by examples what the Holy Book of the Lord enjoined and instructed mankind to do, simply to love our neighbors unconditionally and render assistances with a good heart.
Working for Engr. Ukodhiko, I took time to observe and study him in my quite moments. He is receptive to ideas. He dislikes lies, dishonesty. He’s results oriented. He’s a unifier. He is genial. He is one who has an enormous energy. He is a dreamer and doer. He has great aspirations and he is prodigiously creative and highly imaginative. He is not given to sycophancy and mediocrity. He is a reformer and an upright Nigerian politician.
Engr. Jonathan Ukodhiko belongs to the lamentably small segment of the Nigeria’s political class, who according to the inimitable poet and scholar, Niyi Osundare said, are endowed with virtues of principle and positive intelligence.
Ukodhiko’s national aspiration is about our dear country Nigeria enjoying an industrial peace, the revamping and establishments of factories that work in full capacities and, seeing to it that there is enabling environment for both local and foreign industrialists to jump over one another to splash their investments for the overall economic growth and opportunities for the people particularly, the teeming youths.
No exaggeration, Engr. Jonathan Ukodhiko is a good man and one of the best men I have encountered and he has, undoubtedly, made an enduring positive impacts on those he has encountered in his now forty-eight years. He’s one of the most selfless Nigerians. He is patient with a listening ear.
Today, he gears up to put his diligence and knowledge in the service of people of Isoko and the nation, Nigeria as a member of the Federal House of Representatives in Abuja. He is a symbolic of hope and regeneration. He embodies the aspirations of the people, and he is committed to selfless service.
For now, let Nigerians rise, and join me in toasting to everything good to my dear boss, Engr. Jonathan Ajirioghene Ukodhiko at forty-eight. Congratulations, sir!!!
KN
Tags: Engineer Jonathan Ajirioghene Ukodhiko
