By Godwin Onyeacholem
In a way that sort of confounds, he still retains some pretty good springs in his steps, and his handshake amazingly grips firmly while he joyfully enacts a random squeeze on the handshake as he fixes a powerful gaze on anyone meeting him.
At 95, Charles Jimmy Ekpe Owen, a retired commander in the Nigerian Navy, and apparently the oldest surviving retired naval officer, is not done yet. He remains an embodiment of determination, courage and spirit. On December 9, he marked his birthday with family and friends in Abuja, with lots of good food and drinks as well as sweet memories.
At every moment on that occasion, he affectionately responded to comments and played the magnificent paternal role expected of someone of his age and status who is blessed with the strength and keen intelligence to do so. Commander CJE Owen, the old soldier who sprang from Usung Inyang, a prominent village known for its role in early Eket history, particularly in signing treaties with the British, is undoubtedly a jolly good fellow. And so said all on that occasion of his birthday.
The journey into the navy began unconsciously. With a good grade in the 1956 school certificate exams at the Holy Family College Abak, a boys-only secondary school founded by the catholic diocese in Calabar in 1942, Owen journeyed to Lagos to seek the fabled greener pastures. And that was where fortune fell on his laps. The Nigerian Naval Force (NNF), as it was then known, beckoned, thanks to Henry Akinloye, then a lieutenant-commander and an illustrious indigene of Akure, in the old western region, whom Owen met fortuitously.
Lietenant-Commander Akinloye was then in charge of accounts and budgets in the NNS BEECROFT, a navy ship launched in Lagos in 1930. It remains today the premier Base of the Nigerian Navy and used to be the headquarters of the Nigerian naval force which kicked off in 1956. Akinloye spotted the spectacular talents in the young Owen and drafted him to work with him in the management of the finances of the navy of that pre-independence era.
Owen practically learnt all the rudiments of accounting and budgeting at the feet of Akinloye his direct boss, and perfected the nuances of the trade as he grew in the service. Indeed, it is to Owen’s eternal credit, as a character with a deep sense of appreciation, that whenever he has a chance to talk about the navy in which he served, he will often preface his comments with a glowing tribute to the goodwill gestures and competence of Lieutenant-Commander Henry Akinloye, the man who brought him into the navy.
Commander Owen worked in Lagos for some years before he was transferred to NNS ANANSA, the naval base in Calabar now called NNS VICTORY. Owen opened the accounts and budget department in that naval base. It was from there that he was sent to Southampton, England, to establish the accounts department of NNS NIGERIA, now known as NNS OBUMA, which was then in Southampton. The ship was built at the cost of 3.5m pounds sterling and commissioned in September 1966. Unfortunately, the ship is now a hulk stationed at the Nigerian Navy College of Engineering, Sapele, Delta State.
The naval job also took Commander Owen to Brazil, The Netherlands, and Trinidad & Tobago and other important places. When Akinloye left as his boss, he remembers working under a succession of others including Ifejika (whose first name he’d forgotten) and Onwura Chiazor, both of whom he described as equally truly professional as Akinloye.
Two British officers he remembers working with were Commander Wiseman, then commanding the NNS BEECROFT, and Captain James Rawe, who played a major role in the formation and development of the Royal Nigerian Navy. Rawe left Nigeria in 1969. And on his last day at the Naval Base, Apapa, he was well celebrated. He died in 2024 at the age of 97.
Commander Owen was serving at the Eastern Naval Command in Port Harcourt when he was retired in 1982 with the rank of commander at the of 52. At the time he sailed out, he had put in 26 years of glorious service for his fatherland. Interestingly, he never regrets any moment of his time in the service of the Nigerian Navy. As he always loves to put it, he had a good time all through.
Commander Owen, who friends and well-wishers fondly call King Neptune Jimmy Roy, a nickname he earned in secondary school, is indeed a many of many parts. In addition to being an accountant, he was a tough boxer, a chorister with a mellifluous voice, and proficient actor of dramatic plays.
He owes his longevity to the grace of God, even though he drank beer heavily while in service and many years after, and smoked Erinmore tobacco in a pipe. He recalls those times with not a small amount of nostalgia.
His son, Emmanuel Ekpe Owen, organized the birthday celebration to honour his father whom he described as “an extraordinary human being.” Incidentally, the younger Owen also fairly recently retired from the Nigerian Navy as a captain, one rank above his father’s. As a matter of fact, Captain Owen was forcibly pushed out of the navy because of his unwavering moral strength and integrity, for sticking to honest and ethical principles of transparency and accountability. The top echelon navy didn’t like him for this, so they pushed him out.
Judging from the steadfast character of the retired commander CJE Owen, it is easy to conclude that his son Captain Owen drew the strong moral strength from his father. It is worthy of note that a significant enduring legacy of Commander Owen is facilitating the establishment of the Naval Dockyard on Wilmort Point road, Apapa. Commander Owen was the one who released funds for the dockyard to be built.
The welfare of retired personnel of such towering credential should be of primary concern to the Nigerian Navy. A token, from time to time, for such an old, retired man who rarely falls sick, will be in perfect order, at least to enable him continue to keep body and soul together.
95 salutes for Cdr CJE Owen on his birthday, and for his indomitable spirit. May God continue to keep him.
Onyeacholem is a journalist and civil society advocate.
