Meet Mark Chijioke: Nigeria’s first electrical engineering Ph.D holder turns 95

…died June 19, 2024

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

That best describes Mark Chijioke, a native of Arochukwu kingdom, Isimkpu village to be precise, in Abia State.

Chijioke, born February 15, 1929, was a bundle of dreams growing up, and his belief in his dreams gave rise to his daring spirit and ambitious attitude to life.

“At the risk of being considered a modest man, I’m conscious of how much I can achieve; I have never believed that there are things impossible for me to achieve,” he told Tayo Oviosu in an interview.

Mark was such an enterprising teenager that at the age of five years he was already involved in his family business, selling boxes of matches which his father got from the Germans then, at Ozuakoli, the regional market.

Chijioke Elekwachi, his father was one of the founders of African Churches in Southeast, haven worked with the foreign missionaries.

This gave him the opportunity to be exposed to education early, according to the renowned poet, his education started at about five years, before he proceeded to the prestigious Methodist College, Ozuakoli for his secondary education.

From there he moved on to the University College, Ibadan, Zaria College of Science and Technology, now the Ahmadu Bello University, the University of London, and Queen Mary’s College.

His academic excellence paved the way for him to become the first Nigerian to earn a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1958.

Mark, though an engineer, was also a poet, and an addicted chess player. He started playing chess at about 15 years of age.

Besides, being a professor of electrical engineering, he held so many enviable academic positions and honours.

He was the first Nigerian dean of the school of engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and also the first Nigerian engineering professor in the country.

He earned many academic and professional honours including founding Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science (FNAS), founding member of the Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria (COREN), Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (FIET), Fellow of the Institute of Management and Technology (FIMT).

He was a founder, leader and teacher at multiple academic and technical institutions including: Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, USA; Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu.

Others are African Institute for Higher Technical Training and Research (AIHTTR), Nairobi, Kenya; University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN); Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu; Centre for Adaptation of Technology, Awka; and Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu.

The renowned engineer had wished that pre-independent Nigeria was allowed to thrive and glow.

“Nigeria was the most developing country among countries colonized by the British masters before the civil war,” he said.

According to Tayo Oviosu, “Mark had a great impact on Nigeria and the world. He led the engineer corps for Biafra during the civil war.”

Narrating his own account of the Nigerian-Biafra civil war, he said; “The war was declared by the Nigerian government, what Biafrans demanded was secession, citing an unbalanced democratic system of governance.”

Mark, a distinguished innovator, said he used his skill to help the Biafra side survive the Nigerian onslaught.

“I was one of the research and production unit engineers of the Biafra government. We produced technical gadgets,” he said.

Speaking on his civil war experiences, Mark said, “One of the miracles I witnessed in the face of the war was when I had to escape from Zaria, I left my two sons with my loyal steward from northern Nigeria, who took these children as his, and protected them from assassins.

“He told his fellow northern brothers who came to slaughter us that we had left, meanwhile he hid the children in the house.”

He held traditional honours as Ugwu Arochukwu and Ikenga and national patron of Isinkpu, Arochukwu.

Chijioke is survived by his wife, Mary Ellen- Chijioke; five sons: Chioli Pascal Chijioke, Ikenga Chijioke, Akobuije Chijioke, Eric Chijioke, and Chinezi Chijioke; one daughter: Olanna Chijioke.

Others are Hannah Akwule, his sister; 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.