We often joked about the public service blood in us, which we abandoned for the lure of the corporate world. When the unsolicited invitation to serve as a Commissioner in Enugu State came he took me into confidence, and we reviewed it in-depth. It was an opportunity for him to serve, so, the murky waters of politics could not scare him. I was worried for him because he was too innocent to navigate the shark-infested water of politics. However we ended up agreeing that we cannot continue to sit out and complain. He moved down to Enugu and was given the poverty alleviation portfolio. I am sure that he contributed immensely to the good record the state government has with various donor agencies. I remember how happily he talked about the one meal a day programme for school children partly sponsored by DFID. He was passionate about poverty reduction and private sector driven wealth creation and was well grounded in Business strategy having passed through PriceWaterhouseCoopers and lectured at Nigeria's Ivy League business school, the Lagos Business School.

  

  While serving in Enugu he got married to a top banker (Uloma). I was so happy for him given that Uloma was a perfect complement for the Ogbonna that I knew. In her was this jovial person that could bring out the deep man in Ogbonna. They became soul mates.

  

  He was subsequently moved to the Ministry of Lands to sanitize a ministry that played host to four Commissioners in five years. I recall the passion with which he talked about the re-certification of the Certificate of Occupancy to make Enugu land easily tradable and less controversial. This, he believed, will make land in Enugu attractive as an investment option and enhance government revenue. He often reminded me that Enugu was the fourth most vibrant property market after Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. He wanted to make it easier for people to transact with proper titles. Already he streamlined operations and reduced drastically the period of time it took to get consent on commercial transactions that involved land. He pursued the private sector involvement in housing development with a single-minded determination and admired the guts of Nasir El Rufai as regards putting things right.

  

  Ogbonna had zero tolerance for corruption, which is institutionalized in every land ministry in Nigeria. I remember in one of my visits to Enugu to see my parents, we discussed into the night on his experience and the kind of leadership that will emerge from our generation that was raised in a chequered period of Nigeria's history, bedeviled by military rule, corruption, advance fee fraud, tribalism, drug trafficking and mediocrity. Those were the things that occupied his mind.

  

  The last time I saw Ogbonna was late November 2005 before joining my family for the Christmas. During the visit, we discussed about private sector led property development in Enugu, and Ogbonna's concern was mostly for civil servants who would not be able to service even 25-year mortgages given their meager salaries. How to provide housing for the poorest of us was priority for him because he believed that the rich had the resources to acquire property at any going market value. He was brainstorming on how to use the interventionist role of government to ensure that the poor were not shut out from home ownership, by providing land and controlling the price at which developers will sell the houses. He was also concerned about providing mortgages and carried poverty alleviation like a burden.

  

  I once asked him his biggest challenge in government; and his response was that "the negative intrigues limit ability to move faster with programmes" and as such that he wished the intrigues could be minimized.

  

  Ogbonna died in his sleep three days after his re-certification project was advertised in various national newspapers. He was thirty-five years old and had no known medical condition that could necessitate such an untimely and sudden exit.  I have lost a very true friend; one who provided me the mirror to look at myself. Maybe our society does not really deserve people like Buwee. He was just too bright, too strong willed, too caring, too hardworking, too incorruptible, too selfless, too idealist and just too good to be true. To Uloma, his mother, brothers, sisters and Frank Nneji, his brother-in-law who he served on the board of his company ABC Transport as director, I say a big "NDO NNU" on behalf of my family. But who will console me for your loss Buwee? Who? Who? If only the dead could hear. Adieu my dear friend! Rest in Peace till we meet again.