Brother J.K. Chukwuemeka Igwe, 47, of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, was sustained in April 2015 general conference as a new area seventy for the Africa West Area. He is employed as CEO of Igwediebube Nigeria Ltd. Elder Igwe was serving as stake president of the Port Harcourt Nigeria Stake when he received his call as an area seventy. He has also served as a bishop and mission president’s counselor. Elder Igwe now has responsibility over the Nigeria Calabar Coordinating Council.
Elder Igwe and his wife, Elizabeth, are the parents of two daughters, Nancy Chidinma, born June 8, 2001 and Isabel Ngozichukwu, born June 7, 2003. One of the things Elder Igwe enjoys most is his family vacations.
Brother Igwe was a young man when he first learned about the Church. His conversion story is reminiscent of some of the conversion stories in the Book of Mormon and those in the early days of the restored Church.
In March of 1992, while traveling from Aba to Lagos on an early morning bus, Chukwuemeka Igwe met a missionary who was having a religious discussion with the people sitting behind him on the bus. The missionary had a copy of the Church News, which he gave to Brother Igwe to read. Going through it, he read the Articles of Faith of the Church. He asked the missionary if the Church taught people how to receive personal revelation, to which he answered yes. Because of his interest in this new Church, he collected the address of the Church at No. 2 Allen Avenue.
Many times he tried to visit the Church but ended up having his attention diverted one way or the other. On observation of this trend, he decided to make the visit, which he did. At the distribution center he collected a copy of the Book of Mormon and two copies of the Ensign magazine. The Ensign answered most of the questions that had come to his mind. Brother Igwe read the Book of Mormon day and night and finished it in about three or four days. By the time he was done, he had become a new person. His dispositions changed for good, and all desire to break the commandments of God was gone. He began writing his history and the history of his ancestors as he observed and as was told to him by his late father.
By the time he went back to the Church office in Lagos, he was fully converted and ready for baptism. He told Brother Christian Ugo, the distribution center supervisor, that he was ready for baptism. Brother Ugo asked Brother Igwe if he had read and received a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Brother Igwe replied in the affirmative and related to Brother Ugo how he had even documented his own history and that of his ancestors because of reading the book. After being told that he would still have to pass through the six missionary discussions before being baptized, he insisted on visiting the missionaries to hasten the process and be baptized as soon as possible. Elder Chukwe and Elder Olajuwon taught him the lessons, and on July 19, 1992 he was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Like King Benjamin’s people in the Book of Mormon who were converted and “had no more desire to do evil”, and King Lamoni who gave away all his sins, Elder Egwe has been forever changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.