Commentary Is On Life And Times Of Late Chief Josiah Chukwudi Anatune (the BIG JOE) -Onwa N’Awa
Sponsored By Soludo Promoters Forum, SPF, And Written By Okey Emmanuel
In the seren rural community of Awa town in Orumba North Local Government Area, Anambra State, dwelled a very unassuming, humane and God-fearing family – Chief and Mrs Gabriel Anatune.
In the nineteen fifty’s and sixty’s, Gabriel represented Awa as the town’s County Councilor – equivalent of today’s Ward Councilor. The family had one son and three daughters before their fifth child, Josiah was born. Later, God blessed them with one more daughter after Josiah.
The birth of Josiah was like the emergence of the early morning sun appearing from furthermost end of the earth, but without glamour or ostentatious attention. Baby Joe laced the mother earth on 28th April 1960 from the loins of Mrs Marinda Anatune, the wife of Chief Gabriel.
Joe or Big Joe, as Josiah would later be called, grew up under the tutelage of the father and the mother. He was like every other child in the village – running errands for the parents, following fellow boys in community adventures like fishing, setting of trap for rodents in the bush, climbing and cutting palm fruits, attending church and christian classes, and of course, going to school.
During Joe’s growing up days, some clear admirable attributes stood out in him: humility, sense of responsibility, street and academic intelligence. Again, Joe’s prominence in physical structure/body frame was remarkable from childhood.
These outstanding attributes endeared Joe to the parents. He was the darling of the father who was an enthusiast of Western Education.
The father had taken notice of his speedy development in life and thought, as good and watchful guardian, that Joe was naturally ahead of his age mates. So, as early as age 5 when his mates were still cuddling with, and taking care of their younger babies in their homes, his father enrolled him into primary one at Primary School Awa. It was such that most of his classmates were 3 to 5 years older than he, though his huge figure which was a family trait helped to make up his underage.
Joe’s growing up experience as a young boy was holistic. Though born in a palace environment of some sort: his father being the community’s political leader, and his Obunzekwe home then serving as the epicenter of Awa town – the political, cultural and social headquarters of the community – Joe would mix up friendly with everyone.
Academically, boy Joe was a star. He was always ahead of his peers in class, maintaining first position through all his primary school classes. He finished primary six with a Distinction Grade in the First School Leaving Certificate examination.
Thereafter, he went to Emekuku High School in the city of Owerri, Imo State in 1978. At Emekuku, Joe’s brilliance shown even more brightly. He was not only coming first in class but would also give his runner up a distant second.
Consequently, he was made the class captain in all his classes at Emekuku, and he ended up being the overall School Senior Prefect in his class five. Joe also won so many awards for the school, including the highly coveted prize in the nationwide NIPOST (then P&T – Post and Telegrams) organized Letter Writing Competition. He was the overall best in the whole of Eastern Region in the letter writing competition. Beside the mouth watering financial price attached to this, P&T also gave him automatic employment after his WAEC examination.
But Big Joe was not all bookish at school. According to Mr Boniface Nkemakolam, one of his classmates and a close pal of his from Owerri town, nobody socialized better than Joe in Owerri. He was so popular that even the natives got acquainted with him. He was bold and outgoing and he had the full feel of Owerri social life. Even many years after his graduation and attainment of high positions in life, Joe was still the man-about-town in Owerri.
Joe’s WAEC examination came out in distinction grade. He proceeded to the University of Nigeria Enugu campus to study marketing as his JAMB result which he took immediately after the secondary school came out successful. He graduated Second Class upper division – a feat that earned him automatic employment in Dawn Functions – a leading advertising agency in Nigeria. This was courtesy of Association Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria, AAPN, which was then in the habit of facilitating automatic employment for best graduating marketing students of Nigerian universities in their members’ advertising agencies.
In general, the entirety of Joe’s educational life – from primary school to the ivory towers – could be described as a voyage of brilliance, impact and touch of excellence.
Joe’s entry into the working career was in line with the wise saying of the ancient Roman philosopher, Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger who was quoted to have said, “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Looking at Joe’s Working Career, one would consider him lucky. He started with the automatic employment by P&T after taking his WAEC exams. And after his NYSC he got another automatic employment with Dawn Functions, this time facilitated by AAPN. Truly, his sound education preparations earned him beautiful employment opportunities.
Big Joe was among the indigenous Nigerian advertising eggheads that deepened the advertising industry in the country after taking over from the foreign agencies. He was an Executive Director at Dawn Functions, Enugu. With his bosses, Mr Tayo Adenaike and Okey Nwadinobi- the company’s Managing Director – leading industries in the south east like Golden Guinea, Avop, etc were in the coffers of Dawn Functions.
Joe’s outstanding performance as an Adman made Dawn Functions, DF, to send him to Lagos to establish a branch of the agency there. Thus, he became the leader of DF in Lagos as an Executive Director. Through his aggressive marketing drive, coupled with his ingenious human and resource management prowess, DF grew in leaps and bounds. DF could pitch for big accounts with the Lintas, Rosabels and STB McCanns of this world and emerge victorious.
From Dawn Functions Joe established b3 Communications in 2003. At b3 he built a formidable team of advertising practitioners and his clientale base was rising appreciably. b3 managed a string of juicy accounts, including those of Dansa Foods, May & Baker, Smarteks Electronics, Union Homes, as well as the corporate image of a number of government and political organizations.
Joe’s marketing prowess made him a moving engine and outstanding catalyst in any organization he belonged. At League of Anambra Professionals where he served as the Publicity Secretary, the body was one to reckon with, and became a very useful stakeholder in the developmental programmes of the state.
In 2019 Joe formed a formidable online platform of Ñdí Anambra – the Anambra Alliance, AA. He nurtured AA to a body of vibrant socio-political force of Anambra intelligentsia, with membership from home and in the diaspora. AA could boast of being a single Anambra’s largest organized body of who-is-who, cutting across the top echelon of men and women in political, business, religious and professional class, and the academia.
Simultaneously Joe spearheaded in 2020 the formation of Soludo Promoters Forum, SPF, a platform through which he led a radical mobilization of Anambra elites, community leaders and technocrats towards the enthronement of Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo CFR as the governor of Anambra State in 2021. Joe’s team at SPF would always address him as ” Big Joe – the great mobilizer”. For the first time in the political history of the state, Anambra elites, not only shunned their hitherto election apathy, but became active players in determining who became the governor state.
Through these organizations, and many more, Big Joe marketed the candidacy of Prof Soludo to Ndi Anambra as his Head of Media, leading to the outstanding victory of the former CBN governor at Anambra polls in 2021.
Consequently, Big Joe was appointed the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency, ANSAA. He was in this office when the Creator of Heaven and Earth called him to glory on April 30, 2023.
In his lifetime, Joe enjoyed a happy family of Hon. Mrs Ifeyinwa Anatune – his beloved wife. They had a son, Engr Chinedu Anatune and a daughter, Dr Ada Anatune.
That Commentary On Life And Times Of Late Chief Josiah Chukwudi Anatune (the BIG JOE) -Onwa N’Awa
Was Sponsored By Soludo Promoters Forum, SPF, And Written By Okey Emmanuel
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