By Tony Onyima Ph.D.
As he approaches his 60th birthday in November, Chief Olisa Metuh, lawyer, politician, and former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is not thinking about ballrooms, banquets, or the kind of opulent parties that often mark such milestones in Nigeria’s political class. Instead, he is thinking about prisons, young entrepreneurs, and universities.
It is a decision born of scars, survival, and gratitude. Metuh’s life, as he reflects, has been a long chain of what he calls “million little miracles” in a Facebook post. In 1992, he survived a ghastly motor accident while driving at 200 kilometres per hour, sustaining multiple broken ribs. Four years later, in 1996, he survived again—this time a gunshot wound during an armed robbery attack while driving with his mother, wife, and infant son.
“The bullet was lying at the tip of my heart,” he recalls. “Doctors later told me that if I had sneezed heavily, I would have died instantly.”
His story of survival did not end there. In 2016, he faced arrest and what he describes as “a massive state-sponsored persecution on trumped-up charges,” amplified by a relentless media trial. In 2020, he was sentenced to prison on a judgment later overturned on appeal the same year.
Looking back, Metuh summarises his journey in a single sentence: “Indeed, I have lived a life of survival due to millions of little miracles from God.” Against this backdrop of survival and grace, Metuh has chosen to mark his 60th birthday not with excess, but with endowment.
His birthday committee had proposed a budget running into “multiples of nine figures” for a lavish party. But Metuh declined. “How can I spend so much of the money contributed by my friends on venue, decorations, food, and drinks for the rich?” he asked.
Instead, he resolved to channel the goodwill into projects that will outlive him: Two well-equipped skill acquisition centres — one at Nnewi Prisons, another in Ebonyi State — to empower young people with vocational training; N60,000 each for 1,000 beneficiaries, to provide relief and support; N1 million each to 60 small-scale entrepreneurs, to strengthen businesses and livelihoods, and Endowments to universities, targeted at promoting academic excellence in specific disciplines. “This is my way of thanking God for His million miracles,” Metuh explained.
The university endowments stand out among these projects as a powerful legacy symbol. By investing in academic excellence, Metuh joins a growing movement of Nigerians channelling personal milestones into public good. Endowments, long practised in developed nations, create pools of resources that sustain learning and innovation. For Metuh, whose own career was built on education and advocacy, they are a way of lighting the path for others.
“Giving to universities ensures that long after the birthday candles are blown out, the impact continues,” he said. Still, Metuh is not discarding thanksgiving. On the evening of his birthday, he will host a quiet praise and worship session at his home. A formal thanksgiving service will follow at Guiding Light Assembly in Abuja and St. Peter Claver’s Church, Otolo, Nnewi.
To him, gratitude is inseparable from giving. “I thank my friends who have contributed massively to my birthday celebration,” he said. “May the Almighty God reward them exceedingly. I thank God for His mercies and His loving kindness, always.”
In a country where politicians’ milestone birthdays often make headlines for their grandeur, Metuh’s choice is refreshing. It reframes the idea of success from how much one can display to how much one can give.
By prioritising endowments, prison rehabilitation, and entrepreneurial support over excess, he offers a leadership model grounded in empathy, faith, and posterity.
At 60, Olisa Metuh is counting his blessings and multiplying them—transforming his survival story into an empowerment story for others.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about his plan is its ripple effect. A thousand people will receive financial assistance. Sixty small businesses will be lifted. Inmates and young people will gain skills. Students and scholars will find motivation in endowments that carry his name.
It is, in his words, “a thanksgiving measured not in cakes and fireworks, but in lives touched.”
For a man who has endured accidents, bullets, prison, and persecution, Olisa Metuh’s 60th birthday is not a party but a proclamation: that gratitude finds its highest expression in giving and that true celebration is legacy.
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