That was the Providential arrangement which brought me in contact with Gbole Nwikina. I "fagged" for all of them until they, as would be expected, finished their secondary school and, as it were, went their various ways. With time, I also finished my course at the College. Did I say "finished". That will be a gratuitous statement because, circumstances beyond my control, terminated my seven-year sojourn in Uzuakoli by three weeks!

However, lost in the quest for jobs and other vocations, I did not make contact with Gbole Nwikina until many years after when I ran into the "Group" in Lagos, - Dr. Okpara, Kanu Okorie, Gbole Nwikina and Obidike Kanu. As fate would have it, Gbole Nwikina had an enterprising spirit and this was manifest in his going to train at the Moore Plantation in Ibadan as an Assistant Agricultural Officer, as soon as he left Uzuakoli. Ibadan could not contain his spirit. Gbole moved to Lagos to work for the then Nigerian Marine Services with an eye at becoming a Marine Engineer which would be in tandem with his Kono, Ogoni waterfront home upbringing.

Even there, Mr. Nwikina could not stay until God opened his eyes and luck when he joined the British Council in Lagos as a Library Assistant. This was his natural mould and it was in this area of endeavour that Gbole accumulated all the accolades and laurels that thrust him to stunning heights in the Public Service.

Gbole’s brilliance opened the floodgates of scholarships with his proceeding to college on government scholarship, for further education, at Loughborough, Leicestershire, England to study Library Science in 1949 and subsequently studying School Librarianship in Manchester College of Science and Technology, thus graduating in 1952.

From then on, Gbole Nwikina became the second Nigerian and third West African registered in the British Register of Chartered (Professional) Librarians. On his return to Nigeria, Gbole Nwikina got a job with the United States Information Services (USIS) in Lagos in 1952 as the first Nigerian professional Librarian, moving on, in 1954, to the Federal Ministry of Information as the first Nigerian to hold the position of a professional Librarian. Over the years, Gbole Nwikina had, like twins, developed the profession of Librarianship, with his longstanding friend and colleague, Chief Kalu Okorie as both of them gave the profession the stature and acceptability that opened inestimable opportunities for others.

In 1957, Rt. Hon. Dr. M.I. Okpara, who was by now a Minister in the Eastern Nigeria Government, and their colleague at the Methodist College, Uzuakoli, was instrumental to inviting them to set up the Eastern Region Library Services. Chief Kalu Okorie was Director and Gbole Nwikina was Deputy Director.

The duo established what became the best-run and managed library services in Nigeria then. Gbole Nwikina in his exceptional humility and unspeakable commitment, directly supervised the planning, designing and construction of the first ever purpose - built Library Board anywhere in Nigeria by 1958 with Kalu Okorie at the helm of affairs.

Actively encouraged by Rt. Hon. Dr. M.I. Okpara, who had now become premier, Eastern Nigeria, the development of Library Services assumed very momentous proportions. In a determined and unflagging zeal, Kalu Okorie and Gbole Nwikina launched out with the planning, designing and construction of the exotic and, even today, eye-catching Regional Central Library Building in Enugu. Like wildfire, similar structures were soon accomplished with the building of Divisional and Branch Library buildings in Port Harcourt, Umuahia, Ikot Ekpene, Onitsha and Owerri. These structures, to date, still remain monumental reminders of the proficiency, vision and wisdom of their progenitors, Gbole Nwikina and his boss Kalu Okorie.

Then came the totally unnecessary carnage resulting from the thirty-month civil war in Nigeria. When the guns fell silent in 1970 and the three Rs (Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction) proclaimed policy of the General Gowon Federal government was ushered in, for Gbole Nwikina, it was another clarion call for very active public service. This time round, in Rivers State where he was appointed the first Director of Library Services and Consultant, to the Rivers State Library Board.

In keeping with his character, Gbole Nwikina promptly initiated the introduction of the first purpose-built mobile boat Library Services in Africa in 1978. He certainly left his name on marble as was manifested in an unseemingly endless string of public appointments.

After retiring from the Services of the Rivers State government, Gbole Nwikina was appointed Chairman, Rivers State Library Board in 1984 and he served until 1986. From 1988 to 1990, Gbole Nwikina was Consultant Librarian to the Directorate of Social Mobilization (MAMSER), Abuja, serving also in some private sector organisations. He was a member of the Governing Council, Rivers State College of Science and Technology for the period 1978 - 1980.

It is the life and times of this distinguished public officer and exquisite icon of the Library Services profession that was celebrated on Saturday, August 16, 2003 in his Kono residence in Ke-Khana District of the Khana local government area of Rivers State. It is the life of this Library Administrator per excellence, that attracted a large concourse of Nigerians from various states of the federation to lay him to rest.

Gbole was a collosus of his own, distinctively cast in his personal mould of humanity and honesty by Almighty God. This Library Administration guru was regularly polished and up-dated in courses in the United Kingdom and the United States of America earning the UNESCO Fellowship in Advance Library Administration way back in 1957-58. He was also Honorary Fellow, Nigeria Library Association (FNLA); Member of the British Library Association, Foundation Member of the West African as well as the Nigerian Library Association; Member of the American Library Association and International Association for Development of Documentation of Libraries and Archives in Africa (AIDLA). Gbole was listed in ‘Who is Who’ in the world, the International Register of profiles, "Who is Who" in the Commonwealth, "Who is Who" in Africa and Biographica Nigeriana.

As I go down memory lane and ruminate on my "College Father" who, by some act of fate, became my principal in-law as Dr. Eddy Nwikina, his ward, married my first daughter, Ada, and he, Gbole, supervised the marriage ceremonies at Umukabia.

Gbole Nwikina stood shoulder - high above his peers and compatriots. There was no dull moment in his life. His presence in any gathering sent powerful "electrifying" signals of joy, happiness and laughter. His humour was catholic and he never lost it even in the grip of ill-health. "Mr. Librarian", as he was fondly called, had very little patience with anyone who grumbled about anything. He loved his Queens College, Lagos, English-trained Nursing Matron wife, Winifred (Winnie) and his four children, with an inextinguishable passion.

Indeed, on retirement, Gbole Nwikina, rejected the attractions of the Garden City, Port Harcourt, and retired to his one-story petit building at Kono deliberately sited very close to the Rev. Paul Kingston Methodist Church. Winnie, his wife, exchanged her sparkling white Matron’s outfit for the hoe and shovel, growing very robust food crops including cassava. Their home was a ready hospitality venue and Gbole cherished entertaining guests and joining in with them.

Gbole was, infinitely, an embodiment of humility and uprightness and consistently debunked the decadence of our utterly corrupt society and this was reflected throughout his public service career. For him, the spirit of satisfaction was his anchor sheet. For most of his life, Gbole Nwikina played his earthly role with an indomitable spirit. He was classless to a fault; valued and respected friendships.

With his demise, one of the adorable chips of the old Uzuakoli Methodist College block has joined the Saints Triumphant. His cricket-playing days may have come to an end but his sporting records with the Rivers State Sports Council will continually bear an indelible legacy of a great man with a profound penchant for doing good. And as Gbole Nanu Nwikina JP returns to His Creator, "earth to earth, and dust to dust!"....Nigeria has lost a pristine trailblazer and humanist. Ogoni Kingdom will miss a peerless pioneer, the Old Boys of the Methodist College, Uzuakoli sang for him, for the last time, the hair-raising hymn, "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation". Yes, "as we feebly struggle, they in glory shine."