Bob Ogbuagu: The teacher’s son clocks 90

The crowd was that of who is who in the media, public relations and advertising. He was elated and thanked the Almighty God for sparing his life to witness his 80th birthday. But this time (May 25), we all cannot be in Umuahia where he is celebrating his 90 years but we join him in […]

The crowd was that of who is who in the media, public relations and advertising. He was elated and thanked the Almighty God for sparing his life to witness his 80th birthday. But this time (May 25), we all cannot be in Umuahia where he is celebrating his 90 years but we join him in spirit thanking the Almighty God again for sparing the life of this swashbuckling man to witness his 90th birthday. I guess the next birthday for Ogbuagu, God willing, will be 100 years and on and on, after some of us have long left the scene and returned to our Almighty Creator.
Ogbuagu’s swashbuckling nature tells us a lot about this Teacher’s son, as people referred to him in those good old days. He is notoriously noted for working in the main professions, religious and political institutions and he seems to have made travelling his professional hobby as he travelled to all the continents of the world. It would be hard to write about him without appearing to write a book, as Mr Inomah remarked at his 80th birthday celebration in Lagos ten years ago.
Ogbuagu loves presentation of papers at PR functions. Why? It is because this allows him the latitude to be himself, to express himself and to crack his professional jokes for which he is well known. He often tells a story of a man who goes to a party and enjoys himself very well. He returns home to tell his wife about it. After he tells her all the good things he finds at the party, he says that he had a swell time and wished ‘you were her(e)’. But actually he meant that he wished his wife were at the party. There are many of those jokes that Mr Ogbuagu used to tell and many PR professionals, including yours sincerely, remember him today for that. Any wonder that he later wrote a book entitled Amazing Grace?
Amazingly, Ogbuagu has an amazing family: he has been married to Cecelia Chinyere Ogbuagu since 1950. They have six children – three sons and three daughters – as well as many grandchildren and still counting. Have a great birthday Chief Bob Ogbuagu.

Kabiru Dangoggo, Kaduna <[email protected]>