For Uloma Rochas-Nwosu, the new Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide headquarters in Enugu is more than a building. It is an expression of identity, memory and the values she says have shaped her life.
As managing director of Walsh Blanc, a design company, Rochas-Nwosu was closely involved in translating the brief for the new Ohanaeze headquarters into a physical space designed to tell the story of the Igbo people.
But her connection to the project runs deeper than professional design.
She is the daughter of Rochas Okorocha, former governor of Imo State, who personally funded the construction of the new Ohanaeze headquarters. For Rochas-Nwosu, working on the project meant bringing together two parts of her identity: her profession as a creative designer and her upbringing in a family where roots, responsibility and social impact were central to daily life.
‘I am an entrepreneur and, most importantly, a creative designer. I design spaces and create experiences for people,’ she told BusinessDay.
That philosophy is evident throughout the new Ohanaeze complex, where architecture has been deliberately used to communicate history and identity.
Rochas-Nwosu said the inspiration for the project came from the brief given by her father. ‘His Excellency had asked us to create something that would tell the story about the Igbo nation,’ she said.
The result is a facility that combines offices, conference spaces, amphitheatres, memorabilia, audiovisual installations and design elements intended to evoke Igbo heritage.
For Rochas-Nwosu, however, the most important element of the project is not its scale or appearance.
It is what people will feel when they enter. ‘We wanted to create something that gave the Igbo people a sense of pride, a sense of belonging and beauty,’ she said.
A childhood built around impact
Rochas-Nwosu’s connection to her roots began long before she became a designer. She was born and raised in Jos, Plateau State, as the first of six children. Her childhood, was deliberately structured by her parents to ensure that their children understood the difference between privilege and entitlement, she recalled.
‘I grew up in a home where there were very strict rules about my roots and what is important,’ she said.
At the centre of that upbringing was a concept that has remained influential in her adult life: impact.
‘Most importantly, a life of impact and that is something that has guided everything I have done. Whether it is my business, whether it is just even designing spaces, it is a life of impact,’ she averred.
She remembers that her parents made a conscious effort to expose their children to realities outside their immediate environment.
Every Friday, she said, the family would visit Masallacin Juma’a in Jos to share food with less privileged children.
It was a routine that helped shape her understanding of privilege. ‘I grew up in a very modest environment. We didn’t have a lot of wealth or riches thrown at us or shown to us,’ she said.
That experience helped keep the children grounded, she believes, even as she added that, ‘It was very intentional to keep us grounded and to make us understand that there’s a real life.’
Her education also reflected that approach. Rochas-Nwosu attended both public and private schools, including Koman Secondary School in Jos.
For a child growing up in a prominent family, the experience was deliberately different from the stereotype of a privileged upbringing. ‘I had a beautiful childhood, but a very modest childhood,’ she said.
From family values to creative design
Those early lessons eventually found their way into her professional life. Rochas-Nwosu describes herself as an entrepreneur and creative designer, but her work goes beyond decorating buildings or selecting finishes.
For her, contemporary design is increasingly about storytelling. ‘Building and design has changed, has evolved. It is about telling a story,’ she added.
That philosophy shaped the Walsh Blanc approach to the Ohanaeze headquarters.
The building was designed to function not merely as an administrative centre but as a space where visitors can encounter aspects of Igbo history and culture.
One of Nwosu’s favourite features is the memorabilia section in the basement.
There, audiovisual installations, artworks, photographs and documentaries are expected to provide a historical experience for visitors. ‘The idea is to preserve history,’ she said.
The facility also has about 11 offices, including spaces for the president-general and deputy president-general of Ohanaeze, an ICT office and conference rooms.
But the design goes further. Seven pillars in the lobby represent the seven Igbo-speaking states, while the amphitheatres incorporate Igbo-inspired imagery and colours. One of the flooring designs carries the words ‘Igbo Kwenu’.
The objective, according to Rochas-Nwosu, is to make the building communicate its purpose without requiring visitors to be told what it represents.
‘The idea is that the walls themselves will speak to you once you come in,’ she said.
A building designed for 150 years
The project also looks backwards while trying to anticipate the future.
According to Rochas-Nwosu, the old Ohanaeze structure on the site has a history stretching back about 150 years.
Rather than erase that history completely, the design team intends to preserve part of it.
The major old structure is expected to be demolished, but a smaller building will be retained and developed into a museum-like space.
Old furniture, wooden floors, stairs, photographs and videos will be preserved and incorporated into the space.
For Rochas-Nwosu, this is important because development should not necessarily mean the disappearance of memory. ‘We are very intentional about keeping and preserving history,’ she said.
The new structure, meanwhile, has been designed with the next 150 years in mind. At about 85 percent completion at the time of the interview, the building was still receiving artworks, furnishings and other finishing elements.
Rochas-Nwosu said the intention was to create something that future generations could visit and use to understand where they came from.
The designer also sees possibilities beyond the immediate administrative functions of Ohanaeze. She believes, the new facility could, become a destination for young people and tourists interested in Igbo history.
She imagines schools bringing students to the facility for excursions and younger Nigerians using the building as an entry point into understanding their heritage. ‘What we did was create more room for experiences,’ she said.
For an organisation traditionally associated with meetings and decision-making, the new headquarters represents a broader concept of what an institutional space can become.
It can be a workplace, museum, educational facility and cultural destination at the same time.
A family legacy, a personal career
While the Ohanaeze headquarters is perhaps her most visible design project so far, Rochas-Nwosu is clear that it is not the only work emerging from her professional journey.
Walsh Blanc continues to receive projects, she said, particularly from people interested in using architecture and design to communicate stories.
Her professional trajectory also sits alongside the broader philanthropic history of her family.
Although the new Ohanaeze headquarters was personally funded by her father rather than by the Rochas Foundation, Rochas-Nwosu said the foundation has spent nearly three decades supporting education.
She said the foundation has provided free education, books, uniforms and tuition to less privileged children through schools across Nigeria.
She said more than 30,000 children have benefited, with some beneficiaries going on to become lawyers, doctors and professionals.
The foundation’s work has also extended beyond Nigeria, supporting children affected by conflict and crises in other African countries, including children who lost parents to Ebola or war.
For her, the built environment is simply another way of creating it. ‘I have watched my family, my parents grow and do things for people. And it was about impact and how they made people feel,’ she said.
Still connected to her roots
Perhaps the most revealing part of Rochas-Nwosu’s story is that, despite her access to privilege and an international-facing creative profession, she remains deeply connected to the environment in which she was raised.
She attributes that connection not to nostalgia alone but to the values instilled in her as a child.
Her parents taught her that privilege came with responsibility, and that achievement mattered most when it produced an impact beyond the individual.
That philosophy has followed her into design.
The Ohanaeze headquarters therefore becomes more than another commission for Walsh Blanc. It is a project in which her professional skill intersects with her personal history.
It is also an example of how Rochas-Nwosu views the future of design: not simply as the creation of beautiful spaces, but as the creation of places that make people remember, learn and feel connected.
At the new Ohanaeze headquarters, that ambition is written into the architecture.
The seven pillars, the amphitheatres, the memorabilia, the preserved elements of the old secretariat and the artworks all attempt to answer one question: how do you turn a building into a vessel for memory?
For Rochas-Nwosu, the answer is to make the space tell its own story and in doing so, she is telling part of her own story too; that of a daughter raised to understand that where she comes from matters, and that whatever she creates should leave something meaningful behind.