Born at Nnokwa, in Onitsha Archdiocese on 31 March, 1921, he attended Christ the King College (C.K.C.) Onitsha from 1940 to 1943 for his junior seminary and got Senior Cambridge School Certificate.

After two years probation during which he taught in the College of Immaculate Conception (C.I.C.) Enugu from 1944 to 1945, he entered Senior Seminary, Okpala in Owerri diocese and studied Scholastic Philosophy from 1946 to 1948. He started theology in the same seminary and in September 1950 Archbishop Charles Heerey sent him to Rome for further studies.

He was ordained priest on December 20 1953. He completed his theological studies at the Pontifical Urban University, Rome, with a doctorate degree in 1956.

He returned to Nigeria the same year and was appointed tutor in St. Theresa's College Nsukka in 1957. From 1958 to 1960 he was Principal of Awgu County Secondary School Nenwe which was opened by him.

In 1960/61 he did the Post Graduate Certificate course in Education at the University of Ibadan. In September 1961, he was appointed lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he continued to serve until 1980, with a break in 1974/75 when he served as Secretary to His Lordship the late Rt. Rev. Godfrey Okoye, the then Bishop of Enugu. He attained the rank of Professor in the University and was for several years Head of Department of Religion and Chaplain of the Catholic Community of the University of Nigeria.

In 1980, he was appointed first Rector of the Higher Institute of Ecclesiastical Studies, now the Catholic Institute of West Africa in Port Harcourt by the Association of the Episcopal Conferences of Anglophone West Africa (AECAWA). He has been serving there as Rector until his appointment as Archbishop of Onitsha.

He was ordained and installed Archbishop of Onitsha and Metropolitan of the Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province on 11 May. 1985.

He retired in 1995 and died on 12 November, 1996