Born in the thick of the Harmattan season, as the 6th child into the family of Late Pa. Lawrence and Madam Philomena Ozoemena, Nnatchey was an illustrious son of the Oyiogu Dynasty in Umu-Ajima kingdom of Uwelle Amakofia Village of Ukehe, in Igbo-Etiti L.G.A of Enugu State. Having been born into a Christian family, he was given the name Francis. As a child, Francis was known by his peers to be energetic, charming, witty, and kind. He began his primary school education, like most other children of that era, when his hand could reach across his head to touch his ear on the other side. He traversed a number of elementary schools, starting at St. Michael’s Catholic primary school, and finishing at St. Michael’s primary school, Adani. Through this period, he had lived and served under his eldest brother, Late Pa. Ignatius Ozoemena, as a teacher in these schools at one time or another for that period of time. Francis’ time under the tutelage of his brother and other school teachers paid off as he obtained a credit in the First School Leaving Certificate (FLSC), and achieved the best result in the school that year. Following the retirement of his father, he had to return home at the end of his primary school education, to decide what path to be taken (continued education or trade). The disturbance caused by the war was not of any help to the situation either. Francis and his immediate elder brother Late. Emeka Ozoemena, found that they had to start doing some menial jobs to help assuage the situation in which they found themselves. Also, most of his older siblings were already in Higher Institutions and the family had deemed it morally unacceptable to halt the primary school education of his 2 younger siblings (both ladies) just so he and Emeka could continue secondary school education. They first of took to the job of stone-hewing and stone-crushing at Oguike Stone Crushing Industry Nig. Ltd, and after a while he (Francis) went on to be employed at an eatery to wash plates and run errands for customers. The rest, as they say, best be left as history. The Scholar Fortunately, within a few years of this hard labour, one of their elder brothers, Engr. Okechukwu Ozoemena PhD. graduated from the University as an Engineer and secured a job with the now-defunct NEPA. At this point, it was insisted that they (Francis and Emeka) both go back to school to complete their secondary school education. But they both felt they had become too old to be starting secondary, as they were already men, let alone having to pass through the usual custom of ’tail-cutting’, which was reserved for first-year ‘toads’ in secondary school. Their elder brother discussed the situation with the then Parish Priest and Principal of Premier School, Ukehe. It was agreed upon that they could start as intermediates (Class III), and progress through school provided they pass the term exams or to continue repeating the class till they could. As a testament to his intelligent nature, Francis took the 2nd position in the 2nd term and 1st position by the end of the 3rd term. He served as the school Head Prefect and Disciplinarian in his senior years, and passed very well the West African School Certificate, obtaining Distinction with an aggregate 16.