THE 6 MEN WHO BROUGHT CIVILIZATION TO ABIRIBA. No2: LATE CHIEF IGWO ELEANYA KALU ( ETE IGWO) 1900 -1976.

Late Chief Igwo Eleanya Kalu alias Ete Igwo Kalu Ogba,was one of the foremost Igbo businessman in Nigeria fondly called by his close friends as: "Heaven",a translation into English of his Abiriba name. He was born into the family of Late Chief Eleanya Kalu of Nde Aja compound, Amogudu Abiriba.

His age-grade, Nchina Age grade (Uke Compini) "compini" stands for "Company" performed their Uche Ceremony in the year 1956. Many people, especially, we the younger generations heard about this great Abiriba son without meeting him alive. We only hear and see his 3-storey mansion built many decades ago when most villages were still in darkness. 

It is on record that he was registered into the famous DUKE TOWN PRIMARY SCHOOL in Calabar where he passed his Elementary Six without repeating a class, and until his death, no one in Nigeria accused him of crime neither did he practice on anyone what is known as 419. His stockfish and other business ventures made him one of the Richest Nigerians of his time that he became the 1st African to purchase a brand new motor car for personal use in 1947. A long Sleek Ford Limousine, a post 2nd World War car that has never been seen in Calabar before.

A fashion conscious gentleman who, although he had gold chains but hardly wore it. During the building of Enuda Secondary School in 1948 ( Now Enuda High School) one of the First community Schools in Igboland,Ete Igwo was said to have donated the sum of Four Hundred Pound Sterling. An amount the people of Abiriba called NNU PONG which meant about 1 Billion Naira in the imagination of untutored average Abiriba man of the 1940s. The amount, it is recorded was more than double what any other Abiriba man contributed to the Enuda Secondary School Building Fund. He is reputed to have donated far more than any other Abiriba man to funding A.C.I.U Scholarship Fund too. He sold the hottest commodity,stockfish, which he was far away the biggest importer in Nigeria to many Abiriba business men on CREDIT to help them make progress,thereby tying up a great deal of his capital in order to help his towns people,some of who did not honour their pledge to pay back those monies to him.

SOME OF HIS ACHIEVEMENTS:

1: In June,1934, he became the First Abiriba man to build a country home with Cement block which were very expensive in those days. The building, a 3-Storey built mansion built around June,1934 is added here for all to see and it is 81 years this year.

2: He,alongside his Elder Bros was the first to import goods in ship loads from abroad instead of buying from big European firms in Calabar.

3: He was the first Abiriba man to purchase a brand new motor car in 1947.

4: He was the first Abirina man to own and live in a Two Storey building outside Abiriba. A house he built in Calabar in 1945.

5: In 1945, he became the first Abiriba man to send an Abiriba man abroad to study medicine (Dr. K.N. Oji),the last born of his sister.

6: He was the first Abiriba man to set-up a trading partnership business with his brother (J.K & I KALU EBIRIBA MERCHANTS without a single quarrel with his brother.

7: He was the first Abiriba man to build a mansion with electric lights powered by generator in 1954. Originally the largest private home in all Igboland which hosted Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the Igbo Union Annual General Meeting in 1960. The building remains one of the latest buildings in Abiriba today. Uluo Elu Ete Igwo.

8: He was the First Abiriba man to make A WILL in or around 1965. He was also the first man to build his own tomb in Abiriba with P.O.P Ceilings.

He died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Umuahia on July 31,1976 @ the age of 76. Therefore, our people did not start today to make the Abiriba community in particular, Igboland and Nigerian in general proud. So, those of us who believe that our people, especially, our forefathers made money out of dubious or ritual means should know the history before going to town with our stories and stop giving outsiders wrong impressions about our founding fathers who made money early before civilization came to Nigeria.
The magic word our forefathers used in making Abiriba proud was UNITY, LOVE and TRUST. They used their wealth to better the lots of fellow Abiribarians and the community in general.