Anambra celebrates geotechnical engineer, Chris Okoye, at 70
Anambra government has congratulated one of Nigeria’s leading civil and geotechnical engineers, Mr Chris Okoye, on the attainment of 70 years of age.
Mr C. Don Adinuba, Anambra Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, sent the congratulatory message in Awka, in a press release he signed and made available to the Newsmen
Adinuba described Okoye, a member of the Anambra State Elders Council, as a blessing to Anambra who became 70 years on Tuesday, December 21.
“His selfless contributions to the growth of our dear state are not just robust but indelible in the history of Anambra State,” the statement said.
The commissioner said that Okoye is not a politician, yet he played a critical role in the formation of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) due to his disenchantment with the main political parties at the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1999.
“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Peoples Party (APP), according to him, are not guided by any vision of development.
“He joined forces with other progressive Nigerians to form a development-driven party, APGA,” the statement said.
He said the forces were inspired by the examples of Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea which have practically no mineral deposits, but through the development of their human resources have within 30 years risen to the pinnacle of global development.
“Even Dubai, an Arab and Muslim territory, has joined the league of fully developed places, with such nations as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand on the way,” he said.
The commissioner said that Anambra Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, appointed Okoye a member of the Anambra State Vision 2070 Committee, on account of his acute development consciousness.
He said that he set up in December, 2019, the Vision 2070 Committee to develop a strategic plan for the transformation of Anambra State into a fully developed place in the next 50 years.
According to the statement, Vision 2070 Committee is headed by an internationally-recognised economist, Prof. Charles Soludo, a former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, who on November 6 was resoundingly elected the Anambra State governor on the APGA platform.
Adinuba expressed the government’s appreciation of Okoye’s key role in the development of both engineering education and practice in the country, recalling how he led the Local Content Committee of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) which helped develop the Nigerian Content Law in the Petroleum industry, creating unprecedented opportunities for indigenous businesses.
He also lauded Okoye’s contributions to the reopening in August, 2020, of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu and worked closely with the Ministry of Aviation to ensure that the airport was rehabilitated and upgraded on time and budget, despite the grave challenges posed by COVID-19.
Adinuba described how Okoye, as a young engineer in 1978, turned down an offer from a leading American engineering firm, Harding Lawson and Associates of Houston, to head its office in London and convinced it to rather open a Nigerian subsidiary which he managed successfully.
Okoye, a civil and geotechnical graduate of the University of Wisconsin and the University of Texas, is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Metallurgical Society of Nigeria, and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
