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Perhaps, it was for such acts as these that through Sebastian for whose son Obinna, Ambu was willing to shed his blood, that God showed him mercy and gave him the great gift of a prepared Catholic Christian death through the reception of the sacrament of Final Anointing – Extreme unction. Once admitted to Holy Rosary Hospital Emekuku on the evening of January 4th , I telephoned to have a priest sent to him while Ambu still lingered on, but Sebastian already had the prescience to call a priest who prayed over, and anointed him. It is my belief that divine light already shines on him because in life Ambrose loved others, championed the cause of the
oppressed poor, visited the sick and dying, and willingly gave to others in need: “Lord, when did I see you hungry and not feed you, naked and not clothe you, or sick and not visit you?” And the Divine Master’s reply will always be: “as often as you do this to the least of my brethren, that you do unto Me.” Our Christ walks the earth wearing the many faces of poverty, oppression and wretchedness. At such a time as this, perhaps, we who have been given a little more time should do well to

The Man Called Ambrose: Hon. A.C.Mezu (1935- 2008)
Written by Dr. Rose Ure Mezu

remember that kindness and compassion may perhaps count more with Our Lord than daily, mechanical Church attendance. It is not the ritual but the heart. A personal responsibility towards the needy and suffering around us rests with each individual – in our homes, in our community, and in Church programs.
Our Christ walks the earth wearing the many faces of poverty, oppression and wretchedness. At such a time as this, perhaps, we who have been given a little more time should do well to remember that kindness and compassion may perhaps count more with Our Lord than daily, mechanical Church attendance. It is not the ritual but the heart. A personal responsibility towards the needy and suffering around us rests with each individual – in our homes, in our community, and in Church programs. Abu Bakir – a non-believer but a great humanist – one night, saw in his dream an angel writing on the wall. “What are you writing?” Abu Bakir asked.

“The names of those who love God,” the angel replied. Abu Bakir asked, “Please, see if my name is among those.” “No,” replied the angel. The next night, Abu Bakir had the same dream, and again asked the angel the same question, “What is it you are writing this time?” he asked. This time, replied the angel, “the names of those whom God loves.” “Please angel, see if my name is there?” Abu Bakir humbly asked. And lo! the angel replied, “Yours is the first name on the list.” Abu Bakir loved and helped his fellow human beings. The saintly John Paul II wrote about the Love and Responsibility (1960) to which each of us owes the other. Hon. Ambrose C. Mezu personally fulfilled his own evangelizing ministry to the poor, sick and oppressed. In the last six years, even though sick and partially disabled, he visited those sicker than he was. By
all accounts, he is universally acclaimed as a peoples’ man. He had love for others, and that has got to count with our divine and merciful Lord.

A great Socratic maxim says, “count no man fortunate until you see his end.” Indeed, Ambu’s end is fortunate. He knew that Sebastian and I were going away and within three days before our travel, he died, which we interpreted as a mandate to stay and see him buried honorably. He died surrounded by family and many in his larger family. He did not have to bury his own children. He discharged his familial responsibilities and his children are all grown. He reached to the height of his professional career in M.D.S. of U.A.C. Dr. Sebastian Okechukwu Mezu brought Ambrose into politics and thereafter, Ambu became a masterful and astute politician who never lost an electoral fight. Contemporaneously, while I was serving as the Hon. Commissioner for Social Welfare, the first woman to do so for the greater Imo State under Mbakwe’s civilian administration (1979-83), Ambrose was the first Hon. Member in the old Imo House of Assembly, representing creditably the Owerri North East Constituency. All of us
worked smoothly together to ensure amenities and government patronage for the people. Years later, as Special Adviser on Chieftaincy and Local Government in Gov. Udenwa’s first Administration, Ambu restructured the political map of many communities, including his own.

The Man Called Ambrose: Hon. A.C.Mezu (1935- 2008)
Written by Dr. Rose Ure Mezu
Until his death, at all levels, he was a political force to be reckoned with. If as St. Paul and the great St. Augustine declare, we are to be saved only by grace “because we are not under the law, but under grace (Romans 6:14), then Ambrose C. Mezu stands a good chance. Sometimes, we misguidedly seek love and security in earthly beings and things, whereas our journey through life is only a search for God, who is the sum total of the Highest Good, who is most Excellent, most Radiant and Resplendent. Towards the end of his life, frustrated by the inadequacy and stinginess of human love which in life he desired so ardently, Ambu, at the end must have realized, as we also before the end must come to understand, just as the erstwhile great sinner St. Augustine had understood and therefore declared, “I sought for You [God] outside, while all the time YOU were within me. . . Late have I loved You, O beauty, so Ancient yet so New!. . . You have made us for Yourself, Oh, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they
rest in You!” (The Confessions 1). Only the God of grace and mercy can satisfy our restless hearts at the end of our earthly odyssey, “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were”
(Romans 4: 17).