In a Facebook post he tagged “Allen Onyema, caught in the act”, Odegbami narrated his experience with the businessman in Lagos home.
Odegbami, who was an integral part of the Green Eagles team that won the 1980 African Cup of Nations, wrote:
Allen Onyema- caught in the act.
He is a gentleman to the core, a humanist, a patriot, a successful businessman and an uncommon philanthropist.
It is the midnight hour.
Ben Adeyileka and I are alone with him in a Lagos apartment – no stewards, no house helps, no servants. Just the 3 of us in conversation and sharing communion of food ordered from a nearby restaurant.
We do everything ourselves – bring out plates and cutleries, serve the food, fetch the drinks, clear the mess after, and even trash the litter. It is fun to behave again like bachelors.
At a point, I watch him closely. He cuts an interesting picture. I must capture it for posterity.
I pick up my phone and take what must be one of the shortest and rarest pictures of the great man as he dusts, clears and cleans the dining table by himself.
I am thinking. How can such a great and wealthy man, be so simple and humble at the same time?
Pictures do not lie.
Here is Allen Onyema caught in the act of simplicity and humility.
Allen Ifechukwu Onyema CON, born 1964, is a Nigerian lawyer and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of Air Peace, which he established in 2013.
He was born in March 1964 in Benin City to Michael and Helen Onyema as the first of nine children. He hails from Mbosi in Ihiala Local Government Area Anambra State, Nigeria.
Allen studied law at the University of Ibadan and graduated in 1987. He attended the Nigerian Law School and was called to Bar in 1989.
He attended several Schools including Government College, Ughelli, Delta state. He left Government College in 1984 having obtained his Higher School Certificate and was directly offered admission to read law at the Nigeria’s Premier University, The University of Ibadan in the same year.
It was in the University of Ibadan that his appetite for peace made him to lead a group of nine other students to travel to the ancient city of Zaria to quell a raging religious and ethnic riot that claimed lives. As a result of the publicity, he and his colleagues received on return to their campus, their enthusiasm grew, and this led to the formation of a group known then as Eminent Friends’ Group – a group formed with the objectives of promoting ethnic harmony amongst Nigeria’s diverse ethnic nationalities and fighting the incidence of violence of all forms.
Upon graduation from the university in 1987, he established branches of the organization in all the states of the federation. While in the Nigerian law school in 1987, he combined his studies with social activism bothering [clarification needed] on engendering peace in Nigeria. In 2013, he founded the Air Peace limited with its headquarters in Nigeria.