Nwaobia, Isaac O. (1925–1995)

Isaac O. Nwaobia was an Adventist educator and church administrator in Nigeria. He was one of the seven pioneers of Adventist College of West Africa.¹

Early Life

Isaac Nwaobia was born in 1925 in the Umuonyengwa Village (the present-day Obingwa Local Government area of Abia State), Nigeria, to Nwaobia and Nwannediya Onyengwa. His parents attended the Anglican Church. Isaac was a teenager when his two parents died. This unpleasant incident led him to live with Obianta Nwaobia, his elder brother. His uncle, Barrister Ubani Ukoma, Sr., became his mentor and helped him acquire a western education. He began his early education at a Catholic school in Aba.²

Ministry

When he became an Adventist, Nwaobia joined the Adventist church work as a teacher in 1943 at the Adventist School in Umuocha, where he served for two years. In 1946 and 1947, he attended Teachers Training College in Ibadan, Nigeria, and then served as a teacher in Ubakala, Umuahia (1948), as a headmaster for the school in Eziama Nvosi (1949), and as a teacher in Ovom (1950) and Umuakpara (1953-1955). From 1956-1958, he served as the youth leader for the Aba East Conference.³ Nwaobia married Shepherdess Rebecca Nwaobia, a teacher, in 1949, and they had four daughters and two sons.⁴

In 1955, Isaac was selected as a delegate to the Stockholm Sweden Youth Congress at age 29, which was a turning point in his life. In his words: “I am happy that God had opened up the way for me to do the kind of work I loved.”⁵

To further enhance his ministerial calling, he attended the Adventist College of West Africa (ACWA) from 1959-1961, where he obtained his diploma in Theology.⁶ Upon his graduation from ACWA, he became an evangelist at Ihieoji Umuogele during the year of 1962. He was made a Bible teacher/district leader from 1963-1966 at Ihie. He was ordained into the gospel ministry on February 2, 1967. He then continued as a Bible teacher at Ihie from 1968-1972. During the Nigeria/Biafra civil war in 1967-1970, Pastor Nwaobia was the distributor of relief materials in the entire Isiala Ngwa Local Government of Abia State.⁷

He became the youth director in the then-East Nigeria Mission during the years of 1973-1976. He became the president of the East Nigeria Conference from 1977 to 1987, and then an evangelist for the Nigerian Union Mission from 1987 to 1990. He retired from active service at the end of 1990.⁸

During his time as the president of the now-defunct East Nigeria Conference, two major institutions were established: the Seventh-day Adventist hospital in Isi-Ugwu in Aba, and the Motherless Babies Home Aba.⁹

After his retirement, he took up farming to keep himself active until his death on October 3, 1995. He was buried on November 7, 1995.¹⁰

Sources

Ministerial Service Record, Aba East Conference of SDA Church; May 28, 2019.

Nwaobia, Chibuike. A write up about his father, May 31, 2019. From the author’s private collection.

West African Advent Messenger, August 1, 1962, and September 1, 1955.

Notes

1. West African Advent Messenger, September 1, 1955.↩

2. Chibuike Nwaobia, a write-up about his father, May 31, 2019.↩

3. Ministerial Service Record, Aba East Conference of SDA Church, May 28, 2019.↩

4. Chibuike Nwaobia, a write-up about his father, May 31, 2019.↩

5. West African Advent Messenger, September 1, 1955.↩

6. West African Advent Messenger, August 1, 1962.↩

7. Chibuike Nwaobia, a write-up about his father, May 31, 2019.↩

8. Ministerial Service Record, Aba East Conference of the SDA Church, May 28, 2019.↩

9. C. N. Okwuonu, interview by the author, Aba, May 27, 2019.↩

10. Ibid.↩