In An Apostle of Humility and Service, authors Abdulkarim Abdulmalik, Emmanuel Omadivi, and Rakiya Yusuf recount the blessings of Chief Joshua Ozigi Omuya—a brilliant accountant, scholar, and teacher; popular author of three well-regarded books in accountancy; successful businessman; philanthropist; devout Christian; selfless community leader; loving and caring husband and father; and politician by association—who turns 60 on February 9th, 2014.

Born in 1954 to Daniel Okuku Omuya and his younger wife, Rebecca Enimire, in Okene, Kogi State, Chief Omuya has done very well for himself, his community, and the nation. Since February 2006, he has been the Director of Finance of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He was, from 2005 to 2013, one of the five non-executive directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He is one of Nigeria’s foremost chartered accountants. He has taught accounting at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, worked as a principal consultant in Dr. Hamza Zayyad’s private firm, and held senior management positions at the defunct Bank of the North and Savannah Bank Plc.

By any measure, Chief Omuya’s life has been illustrious and extraordinary. It has been a blessed life. And Chief Omuya attributes his successes in life to divine favors. This is why he likes to address himself simply as “Blessed J. O. Omuya.”

The authors of The Apostle of Humility and Service have meticulously counted those blessings—one by one—in this 309-page book. They include having a father and an older brother who knew the value of education, being endowed with the mind of a genius, and meeting at critical periods of his life men and women that some benevolent forces had positioned along the way in the journey of life to help him surmount obstacles and seize opportunities.

This book celebrates Chief Omuya as a man who has lived his life “so that the preacher won’t have to lie at his funeral for 60 years to come.” He believes that true happiness does not come from what we get but from what we give. The authors present Chief Omuya as a man whose personal values of hard work, trust, decency, selflessness, compassion, and faith in God are worthy of emulation. Chief Omuya’s greatness emanates not just from having done great things in life but also from the way he has conducted himself, his relationships with others, and his relentless strive to live a virtuous life.

In his foreword to the book, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi calls the book “inimitable and surely a work to treasure by anyone who yearns to imbibe the tenets of rising through the rungs to positions of leadership.” Sanusi hails Omuya as someone who “puts his personal interests nowhere near those of the system.”

The Apostle of Humility and Service’s story is not that of a saint. In fact, what makes this book interesting is that it humanizes Chief Omuya. The authors admire him not because he has no personal failings but because, on aggregate, his admirable qualities are greater. Readers are presented with the facts of a remarkable life and then invited to emulate it if they can.

Chief Omuya, the seventh child in a family of ten children (four men and six women), has always stood out. He was breastfed by his biological mother, Enimire, and his stepmother, Ozohu, until he was seven years old. Even after he had been enrolled in primary school in 1961, Chief Omuya would race home to suck whichever breasts were available. His friends would later joke that Chief Omuya owed his exceptional brilliance to his prolonged breast-feeding as a child, and of course, research has proven the uncountable benefits of prolonged breast-feeding.

Although his father did not go to school, he knew the importance of education. He enrolled his first son, Ibrahim Uhuada Omuya, in school, but he later dropped out and took up farming. The next son, David Eneji Omuya, was then enrolled. He did well, and he became a teacher. Having tasted the fountain of knowledge, Eneji persuaded his father to allow him to enroll his younger brother, Ozigi, who was by then assisting the eldest brother, Uhuada, on the farm at Owo.

Chief Omuya’s parents were among the early converts to Christianity in their community. They belonged to the Anglican Church denomination. For the elder Omuya, who sold hand-woven cloths in and outside Ebiraland, the epiphany came during a crusade where his wife’s string of infant mortalities ended suddenly after drinking “holy water.” Outside Ebiraland, the epiphany came during a crusade, where his wife’s string of infant mortalities ended suddenly after drinking “holy water.” But his younger wife, Chief Omuya’s mother, didn’t totally surrender herself to the new religion. Her faith in the protective powers of charms and amulets remained until she was won over by her son.

Chief Omuya attended St. Andrew’s School in Okene, where his brother Eneji taught. When Eneji was later transferred to St. Paul’s Primary School in Ege, Ozigi followed him. He stayed in Ege until 1965, when he returned to St. Andrew’s Okene to complete his primary education. Chief Omuya completed his primary schooling the same year he lost his father.

As a young boy in Okene and Ege, a village on the outskirts of Okene, Chief Omuya was known for his intelligence, obedience, and hard work. He fetched water from the stream, washed, cleaned, and cooked for his brother. He was very creative and resourceful. He made baskets, brooms, trays, and knitted caps to survive. He knitted caps even while at the university on scholarship. He used to carry mud bricks with his mother to construction sites to earn some money to sustain the family. He would also accompany his mother to the farm in Akoko, Edo. He was a serious, bookish boy who didn’t have time to play soccer, wrestle, or follow masquerades around town during festivities like his peers.

Eneji was so impressed and proud of his younger brother’s sense of duty, intelligence, and moral conduct that he used to pray for him thus: “Wind of favor will locate you wherever you are; you will dig and find water; cultivate and harvest plenty; and doors of opportunity will never be shut against you.” God answered Eneji’s prayers. Favor locates Chief Omuya. He dug and found water. He cultivated and harvested plenty. Doors of opportunity opened for him at every moment of his life.

From a very early age, Chief Omuya had a sense of self. He was comfortable with himself and with his social status. He did not bemoan his humble birth. Not being comfortable with one’s self leads to a feeling of inadequacy, low self-esteem, depression, and underperformance. Ozigi accepted where fate had landed him in life and worked hard to develop himself and “realize one’s nature perfectly,” as the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde once put it. He dreaded failure.

After completing his primary school, Chief Omuya gained admission to Government Secondary School Okene (now Abdul Azeez Atta Memorial College) in 1968. He graduated from the school in 1972 with the best overall result in the then-Kwara State for that year. He won prizes in accounting, economics, health science, history, and more. His uncommon performance was the talk of the town in Ebiraland. Most people could not believe that such a smallish young man could set such an all-time record. Chief Omuya is the quintessential dynamite that comes in small packages.