The Sullivan Chime Era

Sullivan Chime. 

Title: An Honour to Serve: Enugu State in the Sullivan Years
Publisher: Bookcraft, Ibadan
Editor: Tony Onyima
Year of Publication: 2018
Pagination: 456

REVIEWED BY HENRY AKUBUIRO

Comely, humane, urbane and self-effacing: such qualities are usually associated with the make-believe world where the artist has the latitude to delineate an ideal hero without hubris. Among the Nigerian political class, it is almost a wishful thinking to find such real-life archetype to lionise, for our politicians, going by recent precedents, tend more towards the nondescript character whose dispositions and actions elicit odium and ridicules.

However, Barrister Sullivan Iheanacho Chime, former Enugu State Governor, is one of the few exceptions. “I saw a beautiful Enugu as a child and I later saw it go down. I knew we had the capacity to rebuild Enugu. That was the passion that drove my government,” the ex-governor admits on page 29 of a new book documenting his eight years in the Lion Building, Enugu State (May 29, 2007 – May 29, 2015), edited by Tony Onyima, an accomplished media practitioner.

In a 456-page and 14-chapter glossy package, the book recounts that the Sullivan Chime administration was predicated on a Four-Point Agenda, the details of which are fleshed out in the fourth chapter of the book –“The Promise”. They include Physical Infrastructure (comprising road, housing, water and electricity), Economic Expansion and Employment, Rural Development, and Service Delivery. From the fifth to the thirteenth chapter, the reader is regaled with giant strides of the highflyer with accompanying pictorial evidences.

By 2015, when he left office, the promise had been fulfilled to a very large extent, according to the book. Chime, working in concert with a team of committed commissioners and aides, left indelible footprints to serve as a model in modern-day statecraft. Chime easily stands out in the class of 2007-2015 governors with his many innovative and groundbreaking initiatives. Some of these outstanding achievements can be highlighted under his Four-Point agenda.

His Enugu urban renewal under the Physical Infrastructure agenda still attracts accolades even years after leaving office. From its previous colonial outlook, Chime gave Enugu metropolis a total makeover in terms of look and feel. Most of the major roads in the metropolis were expanded and re-developed. The massive road construction and re-development was complemented with construction of modern bridges, such as Nyama Bridge, Zik Avenue Twin Bridge, and underpass at Enugu-Abakiliki Road. Akwata, a challenging terrain in Enugu metropolis, was transformed, against all expectations.

The book recounts that all the roads constructed were also fitted with modern road furniture such as signs, markings, drainages, reflective road guards, bus shelters, etc. The success of the accompanying “Light Up Enugu” was so groundbreaking that it led to Enugu being recognised as the city in the country with the highest number of streetlights. At the end of his eight-year tenure, Chime’s administration constructed over 1,159 kilometers of urban and rural roads. Out of this figure, the different local governments collectively constructed and asphalted 232.596 kilometers of roads while the state government collaborated with the local councils to construct 299.4 kilometers of roads. The state government alone constructed 295 kilometers of urban roads and 332 kilometers of rural roads.

Chime’s physical infrastructural revolution, details the book, also touched the housing sector tremendously. He initiated and supervised the building of twenty-four housing estates in the state, the first of its kind in the history of Enugu State. In most of these estates, his government provided sites and services like roads (59 kilometers of asphalted), drainages (111 kilometers), streetlights, walkways, electricity (38 transformers), water reticulation, etcetera. Some of the estates include Coal City Gardens, Liberty Estates (Phases 1 and 2), Greenland Estate, Maryland Estate, Palm Beach Estate, Sunrise Estate, Ekulu East and the Centenary City. Just as he was developing housing estates in Enugu city and across the state, he didn’t leave public buildings behind.

Also, a new state-of-the art State Secretariat with thirteen complex structures housing all the ministries was built. He not only constructed a new Governor’s Office (The Lion Building) in Enugu but also constructed a Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja. Today, when you navigate the major streets of Enugu on Google, it is thanks to the “Enugu Virtual Streets” project embarked by his administration, working in tandem with Google.

In implementing his Four-Point Agenda, the Sullivan Chime administration, chronicles the book, brought many innovations to bear on governance. His government carried out a comprehensive reform of land administration by digitally archiving every single file. The Ministry of Lands was repositioned for increased efficiency; the process of transfer of titles and mortgages was enhanced; while all land titles in the state were revalidated. Needless to say, he ensured that the foundation for Enugu State Geoid was laid by establishing Geodetic Controls.

Under the title of “Service to the People”, chapter six of the book details Chime administration’s strides in transportation, health, waste management, education and security. With a revamped road infrastructure, the administration introduced the Enugu Taxi Scheme, which was popularly called “Sullivan Taxi”. All the 720 vehicles in the scheme were given out to unemployed youths under an incentivized repayment arrangement. A color scheme and numbering system was initiated for the taxi scheme, while the state-owned transport company, ENTRACO, was revamped.

Likewise, the Coal City Transport Services was given a massive boost with 50 air-conditioned buses. Under its Strategic Health Development plan, government paid for all expenses for care of the pregnant woman, child delivery and the child till age of five. As a consequence, there was a surge in maternal care attendance in the state. This maternal and child care scheme was unique to Enugu State, because, in other states, only child delivery was free, families paid for antenatal and child immunization. The state also established the Enugu State Medical Emergency Response Team (ESMERT). Equipped with 25 state-of-the-art Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances, ESMERT was used to respond to road traffic and home medical emergencies.

As part of its Strategic Health Development Plan, the Chime administration, in 2009, started the construction of an ultra-modern diagnostic center in Enugu, named after Dr. Simon Ezevue Onwu, an Enugu native and the first person of Igbo extraction to be qualified as a medical doctor. The administration also upgraded the Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital, Park Lane, which went on to graduate its first set of medical doctors after many years of being in the limbo. In addition, he implemented the district health system as adopted by the National Council of Health, dividing the state into seven health districts for efficiency. His administration engaged 1,000 health officers, renovated old and built new heath centers across the state.

The Chime administration, according to the book, re-organised the state’s waste management authority to sanitise and enforce cleanliness in the state. The state purchased a total of 37 quality heavy-duty compactors used in ridding the streets of filth of all sorts, such as household refuse, abandoned vehicles, industrial and drainage wastes, etc. The state acquired three heavy-duty road sweepers and thus became the first state in Nigeria to use street sweepers to improve efficiency and make street cleaning work easier.

The chroniclers of An Honour to Serve: Enugu State in the Sullivan Years do not leave anybody in doubt about the giant strides recorded in education. Chime’s administration, we learn, initiated the Volunteer Teachers’ Scheme in which retired school teachers were recruited to teach in underserved communities, as well as the School Linkage Programme, which partnered schools in the UK with a select number of schools in Enugu. Thirty thousand new primary and secondary school teachers were recruited, while over 10,000 teachers in all the 1,223 public primary schools received one-year training. Under his watch, still, Enugu State became the first state to carry out a statewide school-based deworming exercise for its public school pupils.

In addition, the Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board (ENSUBEB) made it a priority to distribute textbooks and other teaching materials to schools. The book informs us that he made education free from primary to junior secondary in the state. It also recounts that the state tertiary institutions were repositioned, with Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) and Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) as major beneficiaries. In the same vein, he established the College of Education Technical, Enugu State, which is now fully accredited. College of Agriculture, Iwollo was also set up.

In designing its development agenda, the Sullivan Chime administration was guided by international best practices. One of its 4-point agenda, service delivery and good governance forms the thrust of chapter seven of the book. Specifically, the administration set out to revamp law and order, general security, public service empowerment, citizens’ participation in governance, promotion of transparency in fiscal management and institutional reforms. In securing the state, the administration built strong partnerships with security agencies such as the police, army, air force and the Department of State Security.

The most important outcome of this partnership was that Enugu State was adjudged the state with the least crime rate in the country in 2013 by Alhaji M. D. Abubakar, the then Inspector-General of Police. Also Security Watch Africa, a non-governmental organisation, at her annual awards held in Dubai on November 14, 2014, picked Enugu State’s Neighborhood Watch as the “most outstanding community policing in West Africa”. It is on record that Enugu State, during Chime’s tenure, was the first state in Nigeria to make kidnapping a capital offence. With the support of Justice for All (J4A), an intervention program run by DfID, Enugu State became the first state to establish a Witness Support Unit. The Sexual Assault Referral Centre was also established.

Perhaps his background as a lawyer helped much, as Enugu State became the first to establish the Bail Information Center. Under Chime’s watch as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, the state’s laws were revised. This chapter also details citizens’ inclusion initiative of Chime administration such as the unique Visit Every Community aimed at ascertaining the immediate needs of communities; involvement of town unions in governance process and recognition of traditional rulers as central pillars in societal engineering. He also constituted the Council of Elders, comprising of eminent citizens from the state, who met periodically to rub minds and offer ideas to the governor.

One of the sore points of governance in Nigeria today is consistent inability of most state governments to regularly conduct elections into local government administrations. Enugu State under Chime was perhaps the only outstanding exception, as we find discover here. “We conducted the first local government election few months after my inauguration in 2007. We conducted four of such elections every two years before we left office – 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013. It was also a way of ensuring citizens’ inclusion; of ensuring that the people were allowed to have their real representatives at the local government level,” Chime is quoted as saying in the book.

In contrast to what is happening in most of the states, Chime ensured the autonomy of local governments in Enugu State as prescribed by the constitution and the state law, which enabled the LGAs to embark on accelerated provision of infrastructure, using the state’s Economic Planning Commission as an interface to approve projects jointly executed by the state and the third tier of government. The Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) was established by law by the Chime administration to be the implementation and regulatory arm of all the agencies that had anything to do with urban development.

ECTDA’s achievements under Chime include the following: Enugu pay-and-display project for state traffic management system; special development control team on illegal buildings, buildings on water ways and street trading; and automation of the building plan approval process by capturing of all building plans in the system. Others include data gathering on the number of communication masts, petrol filling stations, and the number of banks and hotels. The high point was the enlistment of Enugu as one of the 100 Resilient Cities in the world by Rockefeller Foundation in 2014 out of the 331 cities applicants in the world.

Passionate about an Enugu State that worked, and determined to return her pride, Sullivan, with the benefit of experience both in life and in government, resolved to expand the state’s economy through serious planning, improving on her agriculture, tapping the cultural and tourism potentials, and industrialisation. Chime’s economic expansion agenda is aptly captured in chapter eight. The economy also boomed as the ex-governor created an avenue for private and public enterprises to thrive. State owned industries, like Sunrise Flour Mills, Niger Gas, the Presidential Hotel and Ikenga Hotels, were privatised.

The state, in addition, witnessed a micro, small and medium enterprises revolution during his tenure. According to the book, the Sullivan Chime administration, joining forces with local governments and the Central Bank of Nigeria, raised billions of naira to fund MSMEs in Enugu State, with a sizeable number of them going into packaging and value addition of products, which guaranteed exportability. The Enugu State Industrial Park, Emene and Enugu State Trade Free Zone came into existence, in partnership with a Chinese company, Golmark. With the commissioning of the Polo Park Mall in 2013 by the Sullivan Chime administration, it became the biggest mall in Nigeria, and the Enugu Power and Energy Industrial Zone around 9th Mile teed off, too

In this well researched publication, you will find everything you need to know about the Enugu commercial agriculture success story. Large scale agriculture got a fillip under his watch as the state governor. Thus, the Enugu San Carlos Farms, a large-scale pineapple grower meant to make the state a major exporter, stretching from Ihe through Amoli in Awgu LGA, Umuabi and Umuaga in Udi LGA to Achi in Oji River LGA, began to thrive. Also was the Songhai Agriculture initiative at Heneke, Ibinofia Ndi Uno in Ezeagu LGA. His era, in addition, witnessed the massive expansion and renovation of Adani Farm Settlement in Uzo Uwani LGA, with the establishment of a new rice mill there, together with a new road linking it, which resulted in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture designating Adani a staple crop-processing zone. Also, his government’s establishment of the College of Agriculture and Entrepreneurship in the state was recorded to be the first of its kind in Nigeria.

Reading this book, you will also be fascinated by the role the ex-governor played in upgrading the Akanu Ibiam Airport to an international airport. In 2009, he secured the approval of the extension of the runway from 2,400 to 3000 meters, and the width from 45 to 60 meters to accommodate wide-body aircraft, while re-asphalting the runway. A brand new terminal was also built in keeping with international standard. By August 23, 2013, an excited Chime witnessed the arrival of an Ethiopian Airlines flight at the airport, thus, crystallising to reality a struggle that began over five decades ago.

While he was in office, the former governor, the book tells us, ensured that civil servants were paid salaries on the 25th of every month as a way of strengthening the public service, and pension arrears owed to civil servants were cleared. His administration equally recalled 5,000 civil servants disengaged from service by the previous administration in the state. Civil servants deserving of promotions got just that in the course of regular promotion exercises. The Office of the Head of Service ensured that continuous training exercises were affected. A total of 524 housing units were provided for different cadres of civil servants. Above all, the state became the first in the country to pay the new minimum wage.

Prudence and strict fiscal management became his watchword, cognizant of the fact that the Enugu State monthly allocation was not comparable to Lagos, Port Harcourt or Rivers State. With Enugu State Pay-Direct Account System, he was able to block revenue leakages, hence, generating billions of naira within a short time of its implementation. In fact, many projects executed by his government, like the new Enugu State Secretariat, were funded with internally generated revenue account.

Under his tenure, Enugu also became a tourist destination. Nollywood harnessed the potentials of the state as an ideal location for shooting movies, the government having made it a secure and conducive place to inhabit and explore. Part of his vision to make Enugu an ideal destination for tourism was the creation of Ministry of Culture and Tourism out of the Ministry of Information. Thus, the Enugu Road Block, an annual event that showcased the best Nigerian talents in music and comedy, became a new national rave.

In the judicial sector, twenty-five new magistrates were appointed during his tenure in each of the 17 LGAs in the state as the customary courts in the state increased from under 60 to 150. Also, his administration established the Customary Court of Appeal and appointed a President and seven judges. Among others, it built a befitting edifice for the Judicial Service Commission and a massive auditorium within the High Court premises.

These achievements are just a tip of the iceberg. His tenure, from facts on ground, was nothing short of an Olympian spell. With the passage of time, memories can fade. But a well-documented vista lives with us and with generations unborn. This is what An Honour to Serve: Enugu State in the Sullivan Years, a book that chronicles a storied renaissance, intends to achieve.

Placed on the table of any aspiring Nigerian or African leader, it can get him cracking, for, as the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Professor Chinedu Nebo, pens in “The Renaissance of the Coal City”, a poem in the book: Coal City damsel… you now awake, groggy eyed, though/ Alluring looks, mimicking the famed portrait/ Of Mona Lisa legend.

SOURCE: SUN NEWS

Yankees ‘ll Not Kill Air Peace

Air Peace CEO Allen Onyema.

BY EMEKA OBASI

The United States represents an act of will. It is not a homogenous ethnic nation. It is not the heir to some historic Empire or monarch. It is not a unified religious community. It is not a simple linguistic group. It does not have a particular cultural tradition reaching back through several millennia ———W. Tapley Bernet [Jnr.]

Bernet was US Permanent Representative to NATO. Americans say they are one out of many and God’s own country. They adore the Star and Stripes and believe in the star spangled banner.

I love America and owe no apologies for this. I wish President Donald Trump could just add Nigeria as the 51st state of his country. What some British land grabbers from the Colonial Office destroyed could be salvaged from Washington D.C.

I also love Japan, land of the rising sun. When I see a Jap, I scream ‘Nipponski’ [I love Japan]. Many Nigerian governors have not considered that part of the world as the route to technological leap. They are all jumping to China.

Allen Ifechukwu Onyema is a lawyer, I am not here to defend him. He is a well known businessman. As a man of peace, he set up Air Peace in 2013. There is no doubt that he made money from his peace efforts in oil rich Niger Delta.

And his life is not paved with gold. This man was once a squatter in Oshodi, before being employed by Chief Vincent Nwizugbo, a lawyer from Achina, Anambra State. His office was on Lagos Island and monthly pay, 500 naira.

Onyema has some questions to answer in America concerning his investment. America, their America. It is also our America. The Air Peace boss is ready to defend himself.

I will not read any meaning to this yet. Onyema has not been tried and so remains innocent. Some of his admirers think that his Igbo background is working against him.

I strongly disagree with this reasoning. Onyema is one Nigeria. He hails from Mbosi, in the Ihiala area of Anambra State but was born In Benin City, Edo State 55 years ago.

His wife, Ojochide Alice Ejembi, is Igala from Kogi State. The man who gave Air Peace an Air Operator’s Certificate, Engr. Benjamin Adeyileka, is not from the South-East.

All those who played huge roles in his rise to the top came from different backgrounds. President Umaru Yaradua, Obong Victor Atta, Chief Timi Alaibe and even President Shehu Shagari recognized the worth of a mediator.

America is also Onyema’s America. He was received by President Barrack Obama and has bought enough airplanes from Boeing to add value to their economy. As an Igbo entrepreneur, I do not see the United States crashing his dream.

Mark my words here. America has been good to the Igbo spirit. There is Igbo Village in Virginia. The first Nigerian to graduate from an American University, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was Igbo.

The first African employee of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration [NASA], Austin Esogbue, was Igbo. The first Igbo man and first African to win two world boxing titles, Richard ‘Dick Tiger’ Ihetu, achieved that feat in America. To become NBA World Middleweight champion in 1962, he defeated Gene Fullmer at Candlestick Park, San Francisco.

When Dick Tiger climbed up to Light heavyweight, he knocked out Jose Torres at Madison Square Garden, New York in 1966 to take the belt. He was the only one to be voted Boxer of the Year twice, in that decade by the Ring magazine.

Nigeria’s first Olympic gold medal was won by Chioma Ajunwa in the United States. The Dream Team, led by Nwankwo Kanu, won Africa’s first Olympic gold medal in soccer about 24 hours later.

Americans sacrificed a lot for the Igbo in Biafra during the Civil War. There was Bruce Mayrock, the student who set himself ablaze at the United Nations to draw attention to the genocide.

The first African American commercial pilot, August Harvey Martin, died with his wife, Gladys, at the Uli Airport on a mission to send food to hungry Biafran kids. Captain David Brown was killed in the air as he flew relief materials to Biafra.

I have pointed out all this to encourage Onyema. No matter what it is, America cannot dismantle his business empire. The spirit of all those Igbo who helped shape American will guide him.

While Americans do their investigation, I will not rule out the fact that international trade politics is at play. Some foreign airlines know how huge the Nigerian market is. Air Peace is trying to compete with them.

At home, I know President Muhammadu Buhari has done Onyema a favour once. However, this idea of Air Nigeria is still being brewed. Experts say government should stay away from the business.

Capt. August Okpe, who was a Squadron Leader in the Biafra Air Force and served as chief pilot before joining Nigeria Airways where he ended up as Deputy Chief Pilot, hit the nail on the head.

Okpe said: “I think it was government involvement that killed Nigeria Airways. Government is only to regulate and take taxes.”

Capt. Rufus Orimoloye had earlier voiced his mind and blamed the Nigeria Air Force for driving the airline from the sky.

“The Air Force killed Nigeria Airways. They should never have introduced the Air Force into Nigeria Airways,” he lamented.

Orimoloye qualified as a pilot in 1962 after Capt. Bob Hayes blazed the trail by becoming the first Nigeria pilot in May 1955. Captains Joe Ajakaiye and Sam Ohioma, came after the pioneer.

The Federal Government remains grateful to Onyema for bringing back Nigerians from South Africa during the madness that engulfed the former apartheid enclave. I do not see Buhari’s hand in this.

Air Peace has sent some airlines gasping for breath. From the United States to South Africa, to the United Arab Emirates, Onyema is moving fast.

I believe in America. President Trump thought more about business interest when Saudi journalist Jamal Kashogi was murdered in 2018. It is possible he remembers the business behind Air Peace: Jobs for thousands and huge cash for American manufacturers.

SOURCE: VANGUARD

INTERVIEW: Igbo Don't Feel Sense Of Belonging In Nigeria

Igwe Chijioke Nwankwo

BY IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN

Igwe Chijioke Nwankwo is the traditional ruler of Nawfia in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State. He recently spoke with some journalists on national issues, advising the people of the state to vote for a candidate in the next governorship election that would bring the state back to the path of development. Iyobosa Uwugiaren was there.
Recently, there were reports that traditional rulers of Anambra South had insisted that the governorship position be given to the zone. You are a traditional ruler in the state; do you share that view?

No! I say emphatically that the answer to that question is no. I challenged the grounds upon which Governor Willie Obiano emerged in 2014. I almost had problems with the then governor, Peter Obi, for challenging that position. That position is constitutionally illegal. The Nigerian constitution prohibits zoning. But what I am looking at is if zoning must be done, it cannot be selective. It cannot be for only the governorship position. If we must adopt zoning, it must be across the board. If we must zone, it must go round including Senate, House of Representatives, State House of Assembly and even the traditional ruler. It is not about who can afford it. My position is for the best candidate, the most credible candidate. It must be said that Anambra South Senatorial zone has produced at least two governors. As it is, every zone of the state has produced the governor. However, we must note that in places where there is mutual agreement on zoning, there must be a section that has been cheated. I believe that there has been equitable and just distribution of political power in Anambra State. I don’t see any part of Anambra State that is a minority. No part of Anambra State is marginalised. Anambra North was said to have been cheated in the past. But with Governor Obiano, they are having eight years in power and he has developed the place and given more appointments to Anambra North than any governor in the history of Anambra State. So, I totally reject zoning. It is constitutionally illegal. If they must do it, without any malicious intention to disenfranchise anybody, then, it must go round and also be done in the council of traditional rulers, in the town unions, in the State House of Assembly, Senate, House of Representatives, Councillorship and so on so as to make it equitable and just.

Was there any time in the history of Anambra State that either traditional rulers or political elites met and agreed that there should be zoning of the governorship?
Well, we met when the Ohanaeze people came and suggested the idea of zoning, and I have this in writing. They brought a lot of professors to discuss it. At that meeting, I rejected the idea. All the professors that came there told us that zoning is illegal and continues to be illegal, but if all the people have an understanding, they can do what they want. However, the way Anambra is today suggests that we must bring someone who is eminently qualified to govern us. We must stop the idea of a few cabals bringing someone and insisting that he should govern us. We must stop that. Our problem, if you recall, Peter Obi asked ‘are we the cause or are we cursed’? At the end of his tenure, he said, we are the cause. But we know that it is how you make your bed that you lay on it. We must stop all these gang-ups that impose anybody on us. Let us go for our best candidate to fix Anambra. If you are scared that without zoning that you will not win, then, you are not qualified. Anambra has grown since 1999 and the people are mature enough to know what and who they want without rigging.

With seven local governments in each of the three senatorial zones, do you think the state lacks quality persons to manage its affairs?

I believe that many of the people running for the office of governor are qualified. But I think what they are looking at is a consensus on zoning. Anambra has people who are eminently qualified, from all the zones, to work for the common good. So, the answer is that we have qualified people to do the job and there is no need for zoning. If you look at it historically, you will know that Anambra South has produced two governors. Remember also that I had challenged the argument that the North had not produced leaders of the state. Where did Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ukpabi Asika come from? They were both of Anambra North. I said what we ought to be looking at is if Anambra North had been cheated of anything that rightly belongs to it from the state budget? I had warned that we should not create more problems while attempting to cure one. That was before Willie Obiano became governor.

Do you think that all the political parties can be persuaded to select their candidates from only one zone?

I don’t think so because the PDP had made it clear that it is not going with zoning. APC has also spoken in same direction that it will not go with zoning. So, among the three strong political parties in Anambra today, it is only APGA that is insisting on zoning. However, I believe that if the party goes over that decision again, it will see that the best it can do is to throw its doors open and let the people make their choice.

Don’t you think that the argument against zoning in Anambra will make nonsense of the clamour of the South East for the presidency?

Let me illustrate this with a corporate organisation. The law protects the minority in every corporate organisation especially at shareholder meetings. The reason I talk about equity is that if the Igbo are the minority, then, the law must protect them. However, if proper census is conducted, the Igbo will be shown to be the majority in Nigeria. If you go round Nigeria, you will discover that everywhere you go, after the indigenes, the next population is the Igbo. Therefore, the marginalisation that the Igbo talk about is real and there is no similarity with what is happening to the Igbo in Nigeria and what is happening in Anambra. No zone of Anambra State is marginalised the way the Igbo are marginalised in Nigeria. No one is marginalised here.

There has been a civil war in Nigeria against the Igbo and the Igbo have not been properly re-integrated, since after that war, to make them feel like they are part of same country; and that is what is fueling all the agitation. Nothing of such has ever happened in Anambra State.

Would you say that the ruling party in Anambra has given people of the state what they expect from governance?

The scorecard is yet to be completed. At this juncture, we are still waiting. There are two more years for us to see what will happen. But the way it is today, if you are not in APGA or you don’t agree with what they do, you become an outcast. A father must embrace all his children. He may give some more but he cannot exclude. I once told a commissioner in the state that they must change how they work because their policy is about exclusion and not inclusiveness. There must be equity even when there is no equilibrium. The difference cannot be much. You cannot run a state on the policy of divide and rule and divide the state along APGA and non-APGA especially in this Nawfia, where you have two presidents-general because the Igwe is outspoken. Elections were held and you cancel it and impose your own choice because you don’t like the Igwe. They must integrate and incorporate Anambra people into what they are doing whether they are APGA or not. There is no need to create division. You need to take advantage of the diversity and bring both those who voted for you and those that did not vote for you together for the good of the state because the resources, the money, are theirs regardless of their vote.

What you are essentially saying is that APGA has divided Anambra people the more…

As of today, there is more problem between the town unions and the traditional institution. You know that when there is a problem with the father of the house, it affects the children.

What did you mean that there is problem between town unions and traditional institution?
I call it divide and rule. There is not enough investigation when something is reported before action is taken. For instance, I once received a letter from the State Government about the vigilante group. They asked me to nominate 10 members and that Town Union leadership will nominate 10 members. I refused to do that. I said I will not do it. The law is very specific and unequivocal. The Anambra State Vigilante Law 2014, amended 2015, stated that the Igwe is the Chief Security Officer of the town. I asked them to follow the law. Theirs is to enforce the law. After so many squabbles, they eventually listened to me. But there are still issues. I have repeatedly told the governor that there must be division of labour. The Igwe has his job and the town unions have their jobs. That is the only way to move forward. You can only stay in office as governor for four years, at most eight years, but the problems you create can last for years if not centuries.

Don’t you think that your position on issues, especially on zoning, will pitch you against the political power in the state?

Thanks for that question. However, if you look at Egypt, only one person stood out in the square and there was a revolution which led to the Arab Spring. Sometimes, we have to sacrifice even at the point of death. Look at the life of Gani Fawehinmi. He stood alone till he died. I ask people to challenge me if what I am saying is false. I will keep saying the truth, God help me. I have been pitched against so many powers. I challenged Peter Obi. He was my schoolmate at CKC Onitsha. I was ahead of him by one year. Many people thought we were going to kill ourselves but he realised what I told him. You must look after your people. They are the people that put you there. Today, my primary function is the protection of the customs and tradition of Nawfia. If I don’t like the job, I resign from office. It does not have to be about me. Our people must know why they have a government. It is not for your pocket and not for your family. The people put you there. There was something you told the people that made them vote you ahead of others. You must achieve that thing.

So, how are you coping with issue of herdsmen in your domain and what is your take on the idea of resettling them whether through Ruga or other means?

I entirely don’t like the idea of Ruga. They say that Igbo people are settled all over Nigeria. Yes, look at Computer Village in Lagos, the Trade Fair complex (ASPAMDA) etc. I agree the Igbo developed them. But they spent their money to buy spaces and developed them. It is a free country. If you want to rear cattle, buy a piece of land and develop your business on it. Otherwise, you should as well give Igbo people lands where they would do business. Nobody gave Igbo traders the spaces they developed as markets. Yet, they are taxed heavily.

SOURCE: THIS DAY LIVE

In A Local Beer, A National Hero

Mitchel Emeka (right) and Chidiebere Kalu (left) at a bar in Lagos. Image: Linus Unah

BY LINUS UNAH


How Nigeria’s Hero Lager savvily entangled itself with the ideals of a secessionist leader — and built a brand in the process

TheThe 11-pointed star beams yellow, orange, and red, and from its place upon a dark green background, the pull is irresistible — especially since it calls from the label of a green, 60-centiliter bottle containing alcohol. That sun, which rose but never glowed for too long, means a lot to Mitchel Emeka, a manager with a transport and logistics company in Lagos. “Not like I am too keen about Biafra,” says Emeka, referring to the state that broke away from Nigeria in a secession attempt in 1967. “But seeing the rising sun on it, and learning that it is brewed in the [southeastern] town of Onitsha, hooked me.”

This beer, Hero Lager, is consumed around Nigeria, where bargoers and those drinking at backyard parties down it mostly from bottles, enjoying its hoppy and slightly bitter taste. Perhaps more important than its social function, though, is the fact that Hero Lager has become an inspirational symbol in Nigeria since it was launched in 2012, tapping into positive associations with the southeast region’s loyalties, struggles, traditions, and tastes — a beer for locals, by locals. According to Lagos-based beer industry analyst David Masifon, the brand enjoys a certain “‘this is our own’ factor, which makes other brands seem alien,” he says. What helps it even further is its “association with Igbo culture and nationalist sentiments, [which] played a key role in helping the brand usurp pre-existing brands in the East.”

At another bar in the southeastern town of Nsukka, photo and video journalist Alphonsus Ogili had just finished a bottle of Hero Lager. “When I look at this bottle it reminds me of our heroes that fought for Biafra, especially Ojukwu,” he says. Across plastic tables on the bar, Hero rested alongside other drinks. “The war has ended, but another war is here with us — demands for self-determination are still there.”

In May 1967, seven years after Nigeria’s independence from Britain, military officer Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Eastern Region’s secession from the rest of the country. The move was in response to a series of military coups that fueled ethnic rivalries and resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Igbo people; Ojukwu’s breakaway region was deemed the Republic of Biafra. Ojukwu’s act led to a bloody civil war that lasted until January 1970 and resulted in the deaths of more than 1 million people in the eastern region, primarily from starvation, fighting, and disease.

The war’s outcome nonetheless, Ojukwu was widely seen as a regional hero for daring to challenge the federal government: Throughout his life, in much of Southeast Nigeria, Ojukwu was celebrated for standing up for the country’s southeastern region and its predominantly Igbo population. (Ojukwu went into exile after the war ended, but returned 1982 when former president Shehu Shagari granted him an unconditional pardon.)

When Ojukwu died November 2011 at the age of 78, his casket, covered in a Nigerian flag, was flown around the country and to his birthplace, Zungeru in northern Nigeria. He was buried in March 2012 in his hometown of Nnewi with full military honors. Former president Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Nigerian author and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, and other governors and politicians were among the crowd at his funeral, which took place about 20 kilometers away from Onitsha — a city that happened to be home to a burgeoning brewery.

In February 2011, London-based beer giant SAB Miller Plc (now part of Anheuser-Busch InBev) invested an initial $100 million to build a brewery in Onitsha, the commercial hub of the southeastern state of Anambra. The brewery would officially open in August 2012, on the banks of the 4,100-kilometer Niger River, and coming in the wake of Ojukwu’s burial, the brewery christened its flagship beer “Hero.” The heroic branding was hammered home even further with a label featuring a rising sun, a reference to Biafra’s flag, a horizontal tricolor of red, black, and green with a rising sun in the middle.

Given the timing and symbolism, Igbos believed that “Hero” referred to Ojukwu and almost immediately nicknamed the beer “Oh Mpa,” which in Igbo means “Oh my father,” in honor of the secessionist leader. It sold for 150 naira (roughly 90 cents then), below the price of major beers dominating the market. It was common to hear people asking their friends and relatives, “Have you had Oh Mpa?”

“Hero made people literally mad when it came into the market,” Emeka says of the craze. “This is because the beer was made in our region, by our people for our people.”

His friend, Chidiebere Kalu, chimes in. “When it came, it was a mania,” Kalu, an aspiring musician, says. “It gave us a sense of belonging; this is our own. Drinking it felt like you’re playing a role in Igbo struggle.” The beer quickly became popular in local pubs, bars, restaurants, lounges, clubs, and inns throughout Igboland.

According to Igboke Onyebuchi, project manager of Advocacy Partnership for Good Governance in Enugu, a city in the southeast, the brewery has savvy to allude to the fallen leader. “The brewer localized the brand and it gave the people a sense of ownership,” he says. “The brand has a common story with our history and struggle; we find ourselves and our cause in Hero Lager.”

As more Igbos accepted the brand, demand forced the producer to invest an extra $110 million to increase its Onitsha brewery’s capacity, expanding it from 700,000 to 2.1 million hectoliters in 2014.

That sense is still strong today. Almost 50 years after Biafra surrendered, calls for independence have only grown louder with each passing decade. People in the region say they are marginalized and punished for trying to secede. Several secessionist groups have emerged since 1999, including the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob), Biafran Zionist Movement (BZM), and, more recently, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which started in 2014 and has huge support among young generations of Igbos.

Renewed demands for self-determination — often in the form of peaceful protests and hoisting of the Biafran flag — have led to killings, torture, arrests, and detention. Massob’s leader, Ralph Uwazuruike, was detained and later released on several occasions. In October 2015, Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra and a charismatic leader of the IPOB who has a dual British and Nigerian citizenship, was arrested on treason charges before being released “on medical grounds” in April 2017. In September 2017, the Nigerian military declared IPOB a terrorist organization and raided Kanu’s home. His month-long disappearance fuelled more anger. A video of him praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem was widely shared online a month later, confirming he was safe and out of the country.

On a recent sweltering Tuesday afternoon in Onitsha, Radio Biafra aired on a cable-powered TV at a roadside bar and store in the Awada neighborhood. A phone-in program came on around 1:40 p.m., just after the Biafran anthem played. The presenter talked about “senseless killings” in Nigeria, calling the country a “mess.” Three of the five men in the bar were drinking Hero Lager.

“When Biafra comes, we are going to have a direction of our own,” a man in the bar says, a bottle of Hero resting between his legs. The bar’s owner says she sells up to 20 plastic beer crates of Hero, at 12 bottles a crate, per week.

For Hero, maintaining its reputation among consumers requires becoming immersed in what makes them tick: Hero retains a strong presence in local cultural celebrations. “Everything about their advertising is usually promoting Igbo culture,” says Onyeka Okoro, who manages Favor Royal Bar in Enugu. “Hero is giving the other beer drinks a big gap in our bar: Nka bu nke Anyi [this is our own].”

“The first time we brought Hero here three years ago and hung a banner to announce the arrival, many Igbo people filled our bar,” says Obinna Eze, manager of a bar in the Yaba district of Lagos. Eze adds that he sells about 60 Hero beer crates per week, up from about 40 crates in 2016.

For the brewer, the race to remain in the consumer’s consciousness is an ever-evolving triangle in which innovation and aggressive marketing hold sway. In May 2018, Hero Lager was knighted with a new “red cap” crown cork to mimic the red cap worn by respected chiefs and elders in Igboland, which serves as a symbol of respect, achievement, and social recognition. It was during this event that the Obi of Onitsha, the city’s traditional leader, bestowed the beer with the title “Mmanya ejiri mara Igbo.” Literally translated, this means “the beer that identifies Igbos.”

For several decades, Nigeria’s beer market has thrived on an oligopolistic structure in which Heineken’s Nigerian Breweries (NB Plc) holds more than 60 percent of the market share and London-headquartered Diageo Group’s Guinness Nigeria controls over 25 percent, according to United Capital Plc, a Lagos-based financial and investment advisory. The makers of Hero Lager, Intafact Breweries, came third, with 7.3 percent share.

In late 2016, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, acquired SABMiller for over $100 billion. With the acquisition, Anheuser-Busch InBev became a majority shareholder in SABMiller’s subsidiaries in Nigeria, and later merged them into International Breweries Plc, making it Nigeria’s third-largest brewer with a combined capacity of 5.7 million hectoliters. In 2018, International Breweries completed a new $250 million plant in the southwestern town of Sagamu, its largest in the continent outside South Africa. International Breweries now has four plants across Nigeria, and offers a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages including Budweiser, Hero Lager, Castle Lite, Grandmalt, Stella Artois, and Eagle Stout.

Investment in the local beer industry remains attractive thanks to Nigeria’s growing population — about 200 million inhabitants and rising — coupled with an expanding middle class, rapid urbanization, and a currently low beer consumption per capita of 11 liters a year.

Proving that it understands its market — and in a play to stay regionally relevant — Hero’s brewery recently launched a campaign called “Echefula” — which roughly translates to “Never Forget Your Identity” — to promote cultural heritage and values, and to push for more appreciation of cultural traditions, a consideration that’s top of mind for many Nigerians: Recently, Igbo rappers Tobechukwu Ejiofor (known as IllBliss) and Owoh Chimaobi Chrismathner (Zoro) released an eponymous single extolling Igbo cultural traditions and exhorting listeners not to forget their cultural identity.

Since August, the campaign’s banners have sprawled across pedestrian bridges on the expressway in Onitsha and on walls in Enugu. Billboards loom large over streets in Onitsha, Enugu, Asaba, and on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja; a towering billboard with “NEVER FORGET YOUR IDENTITY” and #ECHEFULA written on it sits on the bank of the Niger River, adjacent to the brewery where Hero is made. There’s no better time to start a campaign like this, especially with older generations lamenting that younger people are losing touch with Igbo traditional culture and its language.

Hero’s brewer took the Echefula campaign a step further by introducing The People’s Hero, a 10-week reality TV show to celebrate the “richness and beauty” of the Igbo ethnic group, Tolulope Adedeji, marketing director at International Breweries Plc, told Lagos’s national newspaper, The Nation.

Auditions were held in the southeastern cities of Owerri and Enugu to select some 20 contestants out of a pool of about 2,000. They would engage in singing, acting, dancing, and spoken-word poetry to help judges rate their understanding of Igbo culture. A total prize of 10 million naira (around $28,000) has been earmarked for the winner and two runners-up.

Though competition continues to increase and Hero battles for dominance with other cheaper beers, its affinity with the culture and the Igbo cause still makes it a favorite.

“Everything about Hero Lager reminds me of home,” says transport and logistics manager Emeka, who is from the town of Nsukka. “I am drinking it now and will continue to take it always.”

SOURCE: EATER

Imo Govt Awards N40bn Contracts for Road Rehabilitation

Governor Emeka Ihedioha. Image via This Day

BY AMBY UNEZE

OIWERRI (THIS DAY)--Imo State Government yesterday said it has awarded over N40 billion contracts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of dilapidated roads in the state, especially the major roads that link the state capital to other zones.

Governor Emeka Ihedioha, who disclosed this at a parley with newsmen in Owerri, said 25 of the road contracts had been awarded with the first 19 road network already completed, while 15 per cent mobilisation fee paid to the contractors as they have satisfied the state’s requirements for the Advance Payment Guarantee (APG).

For the avoidance of doubt on the identity of the contractors, the governor ordered them to mount sign boards indicating names, addresses, etc of the contractors for public consumption, adding that his intention was to establish good governance through the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).

The governor explained that the commission of inquiry put in place by his administration on contract review and forceful acquisition of lands by the immediate past administration in the state was in response to deluge of petitions by aggrieved individuals.

“We selected professionals, without a single politician as members of the commission. My administration’s charge towards them is to do the needful without fear or favour. I did not set up the committee to witch-hunt anybody. The Bureau for Public Procurement is already working transparently to serve the state well,” he said.

The governor, who justified the introduction of a Single Treasury Account (TSA) in the state, said though the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) has increased to N877 million, Imo State’s monthly wage bill stood at N2.7 billion, just as about N1.1 billion was being deducted monthly from the federation account consequent upon the bailout funds.

Ihedioha added that N280 million was being saved monthly from pension scheme, which was paid to ghost pensioners previously while the monthly payment for pension gulped around N680 million, describing the pension verification exercise as the best thing that happened to the state.

Professing his determination to run a transparent government with the principle of separation of power in place, the governor said 16 companies of high repute are already working in the state, just as 10 youths from each of the 27 local government areas of the state are being trained on batch basis on modern agricultural techniques as part of his administration’s youth empowerment package.

He also explained that Imo State was set to bid for the National Sports Festival with over N200 million injected in the renovation of the Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri, while ultra- modern sporting facilities were being installed to bring the sporting arena to an international standard.

“Without a strong economy, you cannot advance the growth of Imo State and institutional building is about resources,” adding that he’s working round the clock to revamp the state’s education sector and to renovate its decayed infrastructure.

SOURCE: THIS DAY

Ihedioha Directs Imo AG To Plan Release Of Child Prisoners

Governor Emeka Ihedioha

BY DAMIAN DURUIHEOMA

OWERRI (THE NATION)--Governor Emeka Ihedioha of Imo State has directed the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to look into the cases of juvenile prisoners with a view to releasing them from jail.

Ihedioha, who gave the directive Tuesday when he declared open the Reformation and Reorientation programme for juvenile offenders at the Owerri Custodian Centre of the Nigeria Correctional Service, said he would not hesitate action to release the children held under various charges in custody.

According to the governor, “I thank God that I came here today and I hope our visit here will touch your mind to become responsible members of the society when you come out.

“I’ve directed the Attorney General of the state to liaise with the officials of the Correctional Service to look into the cases of the juvenile prisoners and advise government appropriately. I would not hesitate action on releasing any of them”.

Ihedioha reiterated his commitment to reasonable reforms in the correctional system, especially measures that seek to “correct and not condemn, rehabilitate and not reject, restore and not cast away.

“The necessity to salvage our young ones from the dark clutches of perpetual delinquency cannot be overemphasized”.

While stating that the youths are assets that must be nurtured, treasured and harnessed for national development, the governor called upon the church, faith-based and non-governmental organizations to lend their hands in the efforts to make convicted offenders, especially the juveniles among them, better members of society.

Earlier, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Information and Advocacy, Adaora Onyechere, highlighted the cardinal objectives of the Save Them Young programme which according to her was centred on reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of juvenile offenders.

She stated that action must be taken for the development of appropriate correctional programmes like civic education, skills acquisition, remand homes and other non-custodial facilities to assist young offenders.

She traced the factors that lead the youths into crimes to include lack of opportunities, inequality and exclusion.

SOURCE: THE NATION

2019 Ahiajoku Lecture: Covering The Lost Grounds

Governor Emeka Ihedioha inaugurates the Ahiajoku Lecture Committee with former Governor Ikedi Ohakim as Chairman of the Planning Committee at the Sam Mbakwe Executive Chambers, Government House, Owerri, Wednesday, October 16, 2019.

BY ETHELBERT OKERE

Fourty years ago, 1979 to be precise, the government of Imo state, then presided over by the late Sam Mbakwe, came up with the idea of an annual Ahiajoku lecture. Underlying that idea was the need to make deliberate efforts to articulate and project Igbo culture. Specifically the government outlined the objectives of the lecture series thus: To define aspects of Igbo culture and relate them to the main corpus of Nigerian culture as well as to African and world civilization; to create a challenging situation for scholars to undertake relevant research on Igbo culture, especially the more basic and fundamental ones; to relate the research to Igbo world view and total human development and, fourthly, to establish a diachronic relationship in each discipline as regard Igbo human development.

And why the title, Ahiajoku Lecture? According to a citation on the lecture series by the then ministry of information, youths and sports, “this title is an Igbo conceptual reference to cultivation, fertility and harvest. Yam being the prestige and culturally important crop of the Igbo people that it is, its cultivation and harvesting are traditionally linked with Ahiajoku which is also variously called in Igbo land, Ufiejoku, Ifejioku, Njokuji, Ihinjoku, Ahiajoku, Ahajoku, Fijiku, Ajoku, Aja Njoku Or Ajaamajia”.

The citation further stated that “the Ahiajoku lecture series is essentially an annual harvest of thought. All Igbo people and indeed all Nigerians and the world at large are invited to join the civilization, harvest and feast….Scholars, men and women of all fields of endeavour should come forth and show Igbo contribution to the Nigerian, nay, world civilization”.

To kick start the search for the actualization of these broad objectives, the state government invited erudite scholars and professor of English Language, Michael Joseph Chukwudalu Echeruo, to deliver the very first lecture in the series on Friday, November 30, 1979 at the multipurpose hall, government house, Owerri.

A citation of Professor Echeruo read at the occasion by another scholar and historian, Professor Adiele Afigbo, now of the blessed memory, said of Echeruo, among other things, thus: “Michael Echeruo’s national and international standing as a scholar is indeed a source of pride and inspiration to his friends.

And the important point is that this international standing derives not just from his ability as a teacher or just from his achievement as an academic … It derives, first and foremost, from his productivity as a scholar. And this productivity has been marked by happy versatility, rich variety, unfailing originality and incisiveness, as by limpidity of style and cold, unwavering logic. Michael Echeruo is one practitioner of his craft on the African continent that I know of today who is at home in creative writing and literary criticism, in African literature, American literature and English literature. He is the only one on the continent I know of who has made significant contributions to the study of some of the seminal minds in English and African literature”.

In attendance at the lecture were numerous Igbo sons and daughters, especially scholars who came from various parts of the country. Of course, Professor Echeruo, who was at that time professor of English language at Nigerian premier university, the University of Ibadan, lived up to expectations. He delivered a lecture that has remained a reference point forty years after. His lecture was entitled, “A Matter Of Identity” which he chose himself because the organizers of the lecture series made it clear from the beginning that each lecturer is free to choose his or her own topic and language of delivery.

Exactly forty years after, Professor MJC Echeruo, now emeritus professor of Syracuse University, an Ivy League institution in the United States of America and also Williams Safire professor of Modern Letters emeritus, is billed to deliver the 2019 lecture on November 30, at the Ahiajoku center, Owerri.

In the period between the first lecture in 1979 and now, the Ahiajoku lecture series have featured other renowned scholars as lecturers. They include the late eminent economist, Dr. Pius Okigbo, Professors Ben Nwabueze, Adiele Afigbo, Anya O. Anya, Donatus Nwoga, Emenanjo, Cyril Onwumechili, Ogbonnaya Uche etc.

Perhaps the very climax of the lecture series was the 2009 lecture which was delivered by the late literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe. The 2009 lecture, however, turned out to be the last since that date as the administration that took over in 2011 could not organize the lecture for the eight-year period it was in charge. It is how to regalvanze the interest of Ndigbo and Nigerians generally following this eight-year long lacuna that poses the major challenge to the current administration in the state which has vowed to revive the lecture series and reposition it for achieving the goals which its founding fathers had in mind.

Incidentally, two key personalities who are currently involved in this task were also the very brains behind the 2009 lecture delivered by Achebe and which, perhaps next only to the inaugural of 1979, is considered the most memorable so far. The two fellows are former governor of the state, His Excellency, Chief Ikedi Ohakim and his then commissioner for information and culture, Dr. Amanze Obi. For the 2019 lecture, Dr. Ohakim is the chairman of the planning committee set up by the incumbent governor, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, while Obi is the Director-General of the Ahijoku Institute which he supervised as commissioner eight years ago.

As the DG of the Ahiajoku Institute, the day-to-day task of ensuring a successful outing this year falls on Dr. Obi. In a recent newspaper interview, Dr. Ohakim noted that his committee is looking beyond the eight-year set back and working to recover every lost ground that arose therefrom. In this bid, the lecture series, according to the former governor, now transcends the Igbo nation; and has now been “elevated to a pan Eastern Nigeria event”. He explains further: “The 2019 lecture is bringing together the people in the former Eastern region who though may be speaking different tongues, have a common historical experience”. Ohakim further hinted that the governors of Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states have indicated interest to attend the November 30, 2019 event in Owerri.

This is a grand plan but isn’t the Ahiajoku lecture series just another talking platform which many Nigerians believe are already too many in the country? It may appear so but the organizers of this year’s lecture are quite optimistic that it is capable of rekindling the interest of the Igbo generally to avail themselves opportunities for robust discourse on matters concerning their welfare as a people and their relationship with their follow compatriots across the country.

Feelers have it that the organizers are poised to make the event far more memorable than it had ever been, more so being the 40th anniversary of the series and attracting no less a personality like Professor Echeruo, as lecturer. The event will be co-chaired by two other prominent Igbo personalities: The Obi of Onitsha, Alfred Achebe (Agbogidi) and former number two citizen of the country and former military governor of Lagos state, Ochiagha Ebitu Ukiwe. The state government is said to be leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the event records a new success.

While inaugurating the planning committee, Governor Ihedioha charged its members to see the assignment as an opportunity to help in rewriting some of the not so palatable aspects of Igbo history.

SOURCE: SUN NEWS

GUARDIAN INTERVIEW: ‘Breast Cancer Screening Should Start At Age 40 For Women’

Mathew Obinna Nwanneri, MD. Image: University of Iowa

BY IJEOMA THOMAS-ODIA

Dr. Matthew Obinna Nwaneri is an Associate Professor at Carver College of Medicine and Medical Director, Iowa Oncology Network, medical oncologist at University of Iowa Health Care (UIHC), and part of the Breast, Colo-rectal and Genitourinary Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards. Having worked with diverse cancer cases and grown through the ranks in his over 30 years of practice, he speaks with IJEOMA THOMAS-ODIA in this interview on the need for people, especially women to pay attention to their breasts alongside their general wellness.

What is responsible for breast cancer in women?

Breast cancer is the abnormal growth of cells in the breasts. Just as cancer is the abnormal growth of cells in the body; and this can occur in any part of the body, whether bone, brain, skin, breasts, bladder. All the tissues in the body can develop cancer. It is due to uncontrolled/abnormal cell growth. Breast cancer occurs in men (with worse outcomes due to delay in getting medical care). Women have more breast tissue than men; breast cancer ratio is about 100 in women, 1 in men (100:1).

How is breast cancer discovered, diagnosed and treated?

We have three main ways to treat diagnosed breast cancer – chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. Most women find a breast mass, which is then reviewed with a mammogram and a breast ultrasound. The best way today (as of October 2019) is to first take a very small piece of the breast mass, called a Tru-Cut biopsy. This is evaluated in the laboratory to determine the best treatment options to use. The testing is expensive but is the most important part of the treatment because it tells the doctors the best treatments to use and is used to plan for this. Then for most of my patients, we now recommend giving chemotherapy first to shrink the breast mass so that the surgery (to remove the breast mass) will be easier and much easier to perform. Many surgeons, some of whom are not breast expert surgeons, frighten women to go to surgery first. This is wrong. Any woman or man diagnosed with breast cancer should spend time and money to get a second opinion from an academic (university) centre or a specialist medical centre – even if you will eventually see your regular doctor. This will give you the whole picture and a different perspective of the treatments. It is not an easy thing to have your breast cut off. It is also always good to go with trusted and objective people to see the doctors (good friend, close relative or most importantly, your spouse). Take many notes in all the visits, ask questions, and do your homework.

Are there natural/alternative remedies to tackling breasts cancer besides chemotherapy?

Beyond chemotherapy, there are several current biological or targeted therapies (also technically chemotherapy), which have much less side effects and hormonal therapies (which still have less side effects). The best option I know is that there are many different types of chemicals used, which are generally called chemotherapy – chemical therapy. Most people associate chemotherapy with medicines that cause hair loss and low blood counts, however, chemical therapy is a very general term. There is always a lot of fear associated with chemotherapy, but these medications have changed the outlook for millions of breast cancer patients and survivors today. The term chemotherapy includes your commonly used Panadol, ibuprofen and even multivitamins. There are many alternative therapies, and many are undergoing clinical trials today. Once these have been tested, proved that they work, they are then approved by such organizations like NAFDAC in Nigeria and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA. These are then available for general sale and use by the general public. Many people sell all sorts of concoctions/supplements of no proven value. The only thing common about these supplements and varied preparations is that they are not free. They should be bought with caution and carefully assessed before use. It is also best to review these with your doctors before using them. If you cannot discuss these with your doctors then look for doctors you can trust and be truthful with, this is your life.

Are there different treatments for African women compared to European women?

Everyone gets the same treatment whether African or European; there is just less than one percent difference in races, which is mostly in skin type/colour. We do not treat women of African descent different from women of European descent.

Is the number of victims rising or declining and what is responsible?

I feel that this is currently on the rise because people are living longer. Cancer is generally a disease of older individuals. Additionally, I think there are environmental chemicals affecting all of us, people are also more aware, some are also delaying childbirth – women who delay childbirth are at slightly more risk to develop breast cancer, and some women do not have any children at all.

Do you think there are more survivors compared to victims?

People are living longer and there are more breast cancer survivors. Our treatments and outcomes are much better than 30 years ago when I graduated from University of Nigeria, Enugu.

How can women who had mastectomy cope with living with this?

The way to help people cope with this is to first have a very long discussion and support before the surgery of cutting off the breast (mastectomy) is done. This is done so the patient is ready (in mind and spirit) and is aware of what they need to do and how they can cope with making the choice. The ability to shrink the breast cancer, remove the lump and perform radiation to the breast has reduced the number of women undergoing mastectomy. The issue of whether one of their breasts should be removed or not is very serious, and so the women need to talk to their doctor who will give all the detailed information they need. This is a very important discussion. A great reason for a second opinion, always.

Following the theme of this year’s breast cancer awareness month, ‘Give hope, save life’, how relevant is this?

I guess this is a good idea, because early detection does save lives so, this is not something that can be treated at the primary health care unit, they must go to a specialist. This is expensive; there is no cheap way of taking care of this situation or is there a cheap healthcare. A lot of people do not go to the best they can afford, it is not about buying the best cars, but paying close attention to their health. So if you have a lump, have it checked out by a specialist.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women, is there any other form of cancer people should be wary about?

Worldwide, lung cancer kills more women, that is why breast cancer is number two. In Nigeria, cervical cancer is also very common. This can be prevented with immunisation with Gardasil 9. This immunisation is 99 per cent effective for all females and males aged: 9 to 45 years and requires two doses given 6 months apart. Immunisation for Hepatitis B – 3 doses; is also very protective for liver cancer.

There are also cases of cancer in children, what is responsible?

All cancer is uncontrolled/abnormal cell growth – lymphomas, sarcomas, and leukemias are quite common in children. Children are more likely to be cured and recover fully when diagnosed and treated promptly and appropriately.

Do you think the government should substitute the effort of numerous NGOs fighting this cause and how can they effectively lend their support?

The best government healthcare facilities in Nigeria are not patronised by the people in charge of funding the facilities. Individuals who can afford should have some form of health insurance to prepare for any health calamity, which is usually unpredictable. No government in any part of the world is able to take care of allits people with health challenges. Individuals should always be prepared for the unknown. People have car insurance (mandatory by law). Some have life insurance. Healthcare bankruptcy is the number one reason people lose their life savings. Sadly, hopes and prayers do not stop illness. People do not leave their doors open and pray that thieves do not come, be prepared. NGOs are dependent on foreign and domestic donors; if the donor is broke, then the NGO is unable to function. Many NGOs in Nigeria today dealing with cancer are one-man organisations which are not sustainable. My recommendation for any persons, companies or governments supporting any NGO are to give support to those organisations that are large and have a clear/demonstrated national reach. Many current Nigerian NGOs are sadly suboptimal. Appropriate due diligence must be done before such support is afforded. Some are doing good work, but many are not. Nigerian NGOs should be able to raise funds within Nigeria for Nigerians. That in my mind will be the true test. An NGO that is unable to garner local Nigerian support because of the visible good work they do have no business soliciting for funds outside Nigeria. Their work must speak. NGOs should be supported by philanthropy (we have many millionaires in Nigeria) and the evidence of the good work they do; and NOT the government-federal, state or local.

You talked about getting proper medical care from a specialist even as cancer treatment doesn’t come cheap, what is the way out?

I agree that this is not cheap. However, I remain of the opinion that any woman or man diagnosed with breast cancer, or any cancer, should spend time and the money to get a second opinion from an academic (university) centre or a specialist medical centre – even if they will eventually see their regular doctor. It is a life and death matter. A cancer diagnosis may be the time to get the best care you can afford. There should be no excuses or regrets for not getting your best care possible. Breast cancer screening should start at age 40 years for most women. All women should perform breast self-examinations periodically, at least monthly annual physical examination by a health care professional properly trained on how to examine and detect abnormalities in the breasts – nurse, midwife, nurse practitioner, medical doctor for women with an average breast cancer risk and who can afford it, a mammogram should be done annually starting at age 40. After 15 years of normal examinations or age 55, consider doing the mammogram every other year, based on discussion with your health care provider. Women with a first or second degree relative with breast cancer should start screening at least 10 years before the relative’s age of diagnosis. For example, if the relative was diagnosed at age 45, start screening at age 35. There are no standard breast cancer screening recommendations for men. Your healthcare provider should check out any abnormality immediately, at any age.

Reinventing Imo Tertiary Education System

Emeka Ihedioha. Image via Goodread Biography

BY AUSTEN UGANWA

ASSISTANT, IMO GOVT, DOCUMENTATION

Imo State Governor, Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha Wednesday, 13 November took a decisive step towards sanitizing and reinventing the tertiary education system in the state. Inside the Sam Mbakwe expanded executive council chamber he inaugurated three distinct but manifestly formidable panels to critically examine the activities and operations of the three major tertiary institutions owned by the state. The schools are: Imo State University, Owerri; Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo and Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu.

Not a few Imo people perceive this interventionist move by government as an unassailable but timely measure to reform and transform the schools for enhanced academic outputs. The initiative was inherently audacious and historic for two reasons. One, this was the first time in the history of the state that visitation panels would be raised concurrently for all the institutions of higher learning. Two, top caliber of individuals make up the panels, some of whom are not indigenes of the state. For instance, Professor Chinedu Nebo who heads the Imo State University Visitation Panel is former Minister of Power, former Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria Nsukka and hails from Enugu State.

In his speech during the inauguration of the panels the governor provided insight into the reason that stimulated the higher institutions enquiry. He submitted: “At the inception of this administration, we were inundated with a plethora of complaints on education sector in the state especially at the tertiary level. And as a responsive government, we felt that we would be abdicating our obligation to the people, if we do not look into these complaints. For these reasons, we deemed it necessary to respond to these hues and cries by looking into the operations of these critical institutions.”

The terms of reference given to the three panels were the same, unmistakable and penetrating. They included: to identify the strength and problems of the institutions thereby making appropriate recommendations to the visitor and to ascertain the operations of various departments and units. Others are: to look into cases of procurement and issues bordering on gangs and cultism and to investigate students’ complaints on various issues as well as conducting internal audits on institutions’ finances.

Ihedioha however noted that the ultimate tendency of his government is to rebuild the tertiary institutions in the state towards achieving effective academic governance structure desirable to strengthen the educational services delivery system. “Today, therefore, we are inaugurating the visitation panels to these Imo State flagship institutions of higher learning to salvage them from sliding down the precipice of total collapse”, he added.

The governor’s mission towards reclaiming the tertiary institutions in the state is largely understandable and imperative. This is largely because of the ruinous nature of the tertiary institutions resulting from years of neglect. This development was made worse by the jaded and deceitful manner the free education was run in the state by the immediate past administration headed by Owelle Rochas Okorocha.

To this end, specific scenarios would eloquently, neatly and explicitly drive the above point home. For instance, the 2018 National Universities Commission rankings of Nigeria Universities, Imo State University was placed 58 out of 100. It also glided uncharacteristically downwards when juxtaposed with other state universities in the country. Sadly too, in the last couple of years, the university has suffered a major setback in courses accreditation as some of the institution’s programmes were de-accredited by the NUC due to lack of basic academic facilities and poor funding. Faculties of Education, Law and College of Medicine have remained the worst hit.

These realities contrast sharply with the university’s delightful scholarship and academic excellence 10 to 15 years ago shortly before the past administration made its debut. The university was ranked 1st among all state universities in Nigeria and the 10th overall among both state and federal universities. According to the university’s performance records posted on its website, which can easily be verified, the institution scored 100 per cent in 2006 and 2007 accreditation visit, with all programmes visited getting NUC’s authorization. All the 19 programmes visited in 2007 were fully endorsed. Also, during the NUC accreditation visit of MBA programmes in 2006, Imo State University was among the few universities that got the universities regulatory body’s nod.

This flowery situation has regrettably changed for worse in the past few years of sham free education. Correspondingly, Imo State Polytechnic and the State University Teaching Hospital have been following similar reclining trends arising from lack of basic educational tools and equipment resulting in accreditation challenges. This explained why it took the Medical College of the University almost 10 years to recently graduate the first set of medical students

These evidenced-based anomalies hamstringing the tertiary institutions in the state lie at the heart of the move undertaken by Ihedioha-led government to set up visitation panels towards revitalizing the sector. Moreover, this development is in clear fulfillment of the promises made by Ihedioha during his campaigns and his inauguration speech May 29 this year that he would fix the school system and enthrone qualitative and functional education.

Ihedioha’s action finds further validation in the fact that education is the mainstay of Imo. Consequently, it is incumbent on any responsible government to accord the sector a priority attention. In his keynote speech at the inauguration lecture that ushered in Ihedioha as Imo Governor, Chief Nnia Nwodo, President-General Ohaneze, underscored the frontline position of Imo in education and the imperative need of strengthening the sector. “Imo State is the most educated state in Igboland, so I canvass here the need for you as the new governor to democratize education and change the emphasis to education leveraging on technology,” Nwodo stated. He advised Ihedioha to revamp the education system by retraining teachers and providing students hands-on skills that are relevant in the contemporary world.

SOURCE: THIS DAY LIVE

Return Of Ahiajoku Lecture 9 Years After

Imo Governor Emeka Ihedioh unveils logo for the 2019 Ahiajoku Lecture' Image via Anaedo

BY HENRY AKUBUIRO

After a nine-year lull for the exciting forum for Igbo intellectual harvest and cultural renaissance founded by the government of Sam Mbakwe in 1979 of Imo State, the Ahiajoku Lecture series is staging a comeback.

The 2019 edition is significant in many ways. For one, it marks the fortieth anniversary of the pan Igbo cultural assembly. Again, forty years after he presented the inaugural lecture, “A Matter of Identity”, the Emeritus Professor of English, M.J.C. Echeruo, will, for the second time, mount the rostrum in the Imo State capital, Owerri, on Saturday, November 30, as he headlines this year’s lecture.

He will be reflecting on the journey so far with an offering “which promises to be a brilliant and unique synthesis of the lecture series in its four decades-long journey,” informed Dr. Amanze Obi, the Director General of the Ahiajoku Institute, Owerri.

While Professor Bede Okigbo presented the 1980 lecture series on “Plants and Food in Igbo Culture”, Adiele Afigbo, in 1981, spoke on “The Age of Innocence: The Igbo and their Neighbours in Pre-colonial times”.

Other eminent Igbo scholar who have presented the lecture series included Prof Donatus Nwoga, Prof Ben Nwabueze, Professor Pius Okigbo, Professor Emmanuel Obiechina, M.A. Onwuejiogu, V.C. Uchendu, Professor Chinua Achebe, Professor Chinedu Nebo, among others.

The Lecture Series, explained Obi, was initiated as an intellectual festival which celebrates Igbo civilisation, culture and worldview in the context of world affairs. The current Imo State Governor, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, has taken it upon himself to revive the almost moribund lecture series as part of his intervention in culture and tourism in the state.

“Significantly, Governor Ihedioha who has undertaken the onerous task of rebuilding Imo after the years of the locust, is also seeing to the rebirth of Ahiajoku after its regrettable abandonment eight years ago. The revival of the festival is in line with the determination of the present administration in Imo state to reposition the state’s cultural and tourism subsector,” said Obi.

This year’s lecture will hold at the Ahiajoku Convention Centre, New Owerri, on Saturday, November 30th. A day before, on Friday, November 29, there will be preliminary activities that make the festival a unique whole, including the Ahiajoku colloquium, where a college of intellectuals and researchers will gather to ex-ray the leadership challenges facing Nigeria with particular reference to the Igbo nation, and a cultural night, where the rich Igbo culture and heritage will be given a fillip.

Explaining the significance of the lecture series, the DG of the Ahiajoku Institute told Daily Sun, “The series takes its roots from the goddess of Ahiajoku which, in Igbo cosmogony, relates to cultivation, fertility and harvesting.

“The Igbo belong to a dietary group normally referred to as the yam culture which extends from Ivory Coast to the eastern boundary of the Cameroon mountains. It is entrenched in the forest areas of the guinea savannah and has defined the political economy of the Igbo ever since.

“But the lecture series, strictly speaking, is not about cultivation or fertility. Rather, it is an intellectual harvest of sorts which seeks to underpin the contributions the Igbo have made and are still making to culture, civilisation and humanity.

“To underline the preeminent position of the Igbo in this regard, we must re-establish our identity as a people. This involves a dynamic interaction with our environment and our neighbours. It compels us to understand that we do not live in an isolated world. We live in a human community where our identity must be forged and made to stand shoulder to shoulder with those of other groups and civilisations,” he added.

Speaking on the Ahiajoku Instuute, which he heads, Obi said it was conceived “as an extra-ministerial department established by the Government of Imo State for the purposes of harnessing all the cultural activities of the state,” fashioned like the Goethe Institut –the German cultural association, and Instituto Italiano De Cultura –the Italian cultural institute.

“The institute,” he hinted, “when set up, will be the first of its kind in Nigeria. With it in place, Imo will become a cultural hub. Its activities and programmes will make Imo the cultural epicentre of Nigeria to which Igbos and, indeed, other Nigerians as well, as foreigners will converge periodically for epochal cultural events.”

Besides, it will take Ahiajoku out of mere talk shows and make it more celebratory. “It is envisioned that Ahiajoku will become a cultural carnival with various strands that will make it more engaging,” he echoed.

Among others, the institute will engage in cultural diplomacy by promoting the study of Igbo language and culture abroad, as well as encouraging international cultural exchanges and relations; serve as storehouse for providing information about Igbo civilisation, culture and society and will also function as a centre for the exchange of films, music, theatre and literature, etcetera.

For now, denizens of arts and culture cannot but wait with bated breath for the Ikolo to beat, once again, in the Imo State capital, Owerri, to summon the entire Igboland to the shrine of knowledge and cultural rebirth which the long awaited Ahiajoku Lecture series represents.

SOURCE: SUN NEWS

Ahiajoku: The Symbol Of Igbo Cultural Ideal

Sam Mbakwe Inaugurated the Ahiajoku Lecture Series. Image via Oblong Media

BY ROBERT OBIOHA

It is not in doubt that Governor Emeka Ihedioha is living up to his promise to holistically improve governance culture in Imo State. Besides his initiatives to revive the economy of the state, his resolve to revive the culture of Ndi Imo is gaining traction through the plan to bring back the hitherto abandoned Ahiajoku Lecture Series.

Without much ado, the inauguration of the Ahiajoku Lecture Series in 1979 can be regarded as one of the noblest achievements of the Sam Mbakwe administration, an administration generally adjudged as the best in the annals of the state.

The then governor used the lecture to remind Ndi Imo and indeed Ndi Igbo that they should not forget their culture in their socio-economic development. Mbakwe also used it to let Ndi Imo appreciate their rich cultural heritage. He demonstrated that governance can go side by side with cultural development. Mbakwe’s glorious administration had shown that good governance can only be achieved if based on the cultural imperatives of the people concerned.

The nexus between culture and development is well known and overtly documented. No society can really develop without its material culture. Great civilizations in history such as Western, Asian, Arabic and the Chinese have been modeled after their rich cultural background. Perhaps this was why the Sam Mbakwe administration established the Ahiajoku Lecture to serve as a think tank for the overall development of Imo State and by extension Igbo land.

Although Ahiajoku was formerly a cultural festival in honour of the god of yam and cocoyam, the major staples of Ndi Igbo, which culminated in the annual celebration of New Yam Festival in Igbo land, the Ahiajoku Lecture Series have transcended that ritual to embrace the projection of Igbo worldview through an annual intellectual harvest on some aspects of life in Igbo land including agriculture, economy, philosophy, art, religion and politics.

But whether Ahiajoku is celebrated in honour of the god of yam or as an intellectual harvest, it remains the veritable symbol of Igbo cultural ideal. In fact, it is one annual cultural celebration in which all Igbo are united including the Diaspora Igbo in West Indies and other places. It is one cultural celebration that survived colonialism, western education and religion tailored to denigrate and annihilate indigenous cultures. The mmonwu masquerade is another Igbo cultural icon that survived the colonial misadventure.

Unfortunately, the Ahiajoku Lecture Series suffered abject neglect in the hands of some administrations in the state notably the Col. Tanko Zubairu (rtd) and Rochas Okorocha administrations. Why that of Zubairu can be rationalized, nothing can explain why Okorocha, a cultural enthusiast, could abandon such worthy legacy of the Mbakwe administration. While the new bold initiative of the governor to revive the Ahiajoku Lecture Series is apt and commendable, it should go beyond its new mandate to accommodate some of the following suggestions.

Ahiajoku lecture can be used to enthrone a culture of transparency and accountability in governance. It can equally be used to improve the Igbo work ethic, belief system, mores and values, philosophy of live and let live, the extended family system as well as our social relations with other ethnic groups. Ahiajoku lecture can be used to check the pervading culture of crass materialism, greed and avarice in Igbo land as well as the escalating culture of anything goes and curb the current ‘do or die’ approach to politics across the Igbo nation.

The Ahiajoku Institute, which is conceived as an extra-ministerial department of Imo State Government to harness all its cultural activities, is modeled after the Goethe Institute of Germany and the Instituto Italiano De Cultura of Italy. The Ahiajoku Institute will make Imo State a cultural hub where Nigerians and foreigners will meet annually to celebrate Ahiajoku.

Its envisaged functions include to organize the annual Ahiajoku Lecture Series, providing a programme of cultural events for the state and ensure that the state’s cultural potentials are properly harnessed and celebrated, engagement in cultural diplomacy by promoting the study of Igbo language and culture abroad as well as encouraging international cultural exchanges and relations as well as exchange of films, music, theatre and literature etc. I suggest that the Ahiajoku Institute can also incorporate some aspects of the Chinese Confucius Institute now springing up in many Nigerian universities. Apart from whatever the government says the Ahiajoku Institute will do, it should be the purveyor and transmitter of Igbo culture, Igbo dance, films, arts and crafts. It should teach foreigners about Igbo foods, dishes and offer proficiency courses in Igbo language, especially courses tailored to meet the needs of foreign speakers of the language.

Efforts should be put in place to have Ahiajoku Institute in universities in Asia, Europe and America. The government of Imo State should turn into book or books past Ahiajoku lectures. There is indeed market for such publications. The first Ahiajoku Lecture entitled “A Matter of Identity” was delivered by Emeritus Professor of English, MJC Echeruo on November 30, 1979. It is instructive that 40 years later, the same Echeruo will deliver this year’s Ahiajoku Lecture scheduled to hold on November 30.

In the 1979 Ahiajoku lecture, Echeruo said much. The following are worth elaborate quoting: “We celebrate Ahiajoku, not because it would be impossible to acknowledge the new yam without the festival but because we become a little more aware of the larger significance of that event for our lives by celebrating it. Ceremony takes the rough edges out of command iteration, and allows practical minded people such as the Igbo people are, a little respectable frivolity. For many other peoples, ceremony is at the very heart of culture. For them true culture is represented in these details of communal behavior which are added to pure function.”

“The presentation of kola nut is a functional event in our society, but igo oji is a ceremony; and it is not uncommon to find commentators who assume that a people who devote some of their time to ceremony have a more genuine interest in culture than those who do not. There are absurdities in such conclusions, but it is probably true to say that it is to these details of ceremony that we have to go for concrete evidence of the life styles and values of any given society. The Igbo people, because they do not always cultivate ceremony, and are instinctively suspicious of mere decorativeness, are more liable than most other people to the charge of lacking culture and civilization.”

“Today, as we celebrate Ahiajoku, we are doing at least two things; giving formal recognition to a festival which we were almost in danger of losing, and taking the opportunity for serious reflection on ways of understanding the deepest cultural values of the Igbo people.”

Considering the standard Echeruo set in 1979, there is no doubt that the audience will be thrilled again. Past Ahiajoku lecturers include Prof. Bede Okigbo (1980), Prof. Adiele Afigbo (1981), Prof. Donatus Nwoga (1984) and Prof. Chinua Achebe (2008).

SOURCE: SUN NEWS

Achebe: The Doyen Of The African Idiom

 

Chinua Achebe

BY UZOR MAXIM UZOATU

T is well-nigh impossible for November 16 to go by without much of the world remembering that the date is the birthday of Chinua Achebe. It needs stressing that Achebe is arguably the most influential novelist who ever drew breath all over the world. The argument pitches him in the ranks of Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, James Joyce who wrote Ulysses, Franz Kafka who penned The Trial, Gabriel Garcia Marquez of One Hundred Years of Solitude fame etc.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a supreme classic. Achebe’s oeuvre is indeed intimidating starting from the legendary Things Fall Apart in 1958 and grandly lapping all the way through No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People, Anthills of the Savannah, Girls at War and Other Stories, Beware Soul Brother, Morning Yet on Creation Day, The Trouble with Nigeria, Chike and the River, Home and Exile, Hopes and Impediments, The Education of a British-Protected Child, There Was A Country etc.

Born in Ogidi in present-day Anambra State on November 16, 1930, Chinua Achebe who was baptized as Albert was indeed a child prodigy from the very beginning such that his academic feats was known far and wide culminating to his lifelong buddy Christian Chike Momah, alias Papa Ada, confessing that he and his mates were warned early in life that one Albert Achebe from Ogidi would send them to the cleaners in the regional school exams!

It was therefore no wonder that Achebe was early in life given this nickname: Dictionary. He passed his school certificate exams at the top of the class with five distinctions and one credit, and the one credit was paradoxically in literature that would eventually earn him worldwide fame. In the nationwide examination for entry into the University College, Ibadan which had just been established Achebe came first or second in the entire country and thus won a major scholarship. His alma mater Government College, Umuahia was so proud of his achievement that they put up a big sign that stayed on the wall for many years.

At barely 28 years of age Chinua Achebe published the novel Things Fall Apart in 1958, and it has in its 55 or so years of existence proven to be the single most important piece of literature out of Africa. The 50th anniversary of the 200-odd page novel was celebrated all over the world with festivals, readings, symposia, concerts etc.

The novel which has been likened to epic Greek tragedies has been translated to 50 languages and has sold over ten million copies. It is taught not just in literature classes but in history and anthropology departments in colleges and universities across the globe. The archetypal theme of the meeting of the white world and the black race makes Things Fall Apart an epochal event in the annals of world literature.

The book works at several levels, and can be read at any age from 10 to 100. As a child one can enjoy the incidents such as the match with Amalinze the Cat, Unoka’s dismissal of his creditor, Okonkwo’s attempted shooting of one of his wives, the visitation of the masked spirits etc.

Later in life the many ironies in the book come into play such as the joke on the District Commissioner thinking that Okonkwo’s story can only end up as a paragraph in his planned book, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger, without knowing that one Chinua Achebe had taken the thunder from him by giving Okonkwo an entire book in which the story is narrated from inside!

It is not for nothing that Achebe is celebrated as the father of African literature. He has changed the perspective of world literature from the gaudy picture of Africa as painted by Europeans such as Joseph Conrad, Joyce Cary and Sir Rider Haggard to the authentic telling of the tale by the Africans. Unlike earlier African writers like Guinea’s Camara Laye, author of The African Child, who painted a romantic picture of the continent, Achebe is relentlessly objective in his narration, telling it as it is, warts and all.

It is because of the remarkable success of Things Fall Apart that the publishers Heinemann UK launched the African Writers Series (AWS) in 1962 with Achebe’s first novel as the first title. For many years Achebe served as a non-remunerated Editorial Adviser of the series in which the majority of African writers got their breakthrough in publishing. Things Fall Apart reputedly accounted for 80 percent of the entire revenue of the AWS.

Former American President Jimmy Carter numbers Achebe as one of his favourite writers. The rave reviews for Achebe’s most famous novel have somewhat dwarfed his other novels such as No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe won the Man Booker Prize for his lifetime achievement in fiction writing, beating a formidable shortlist that included Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Ian McEwan etc. He equally won, as the first African, the American National Arts Club Medal of Honour for Literature in November 2007. Things Fall Apart has earned its uncommon distinction as a modern classic and was in 1992 adopted into the esteemed Everyman’s Library of world classics. The Igbo world of the late 19th and early 20th centuries which Achebe limned in Things Fall Apart has become the global picture of Africa writ large. At the turn of the 20th century the book was voted as Africa’s “novel of the century”.

Achebe has in the book given the world a new English language which paradoxically portrays African life without facetiousness or affectation. He lays bare the brute masculinity of the age without bending the knee to latter-day political correctness or gender balance. The truth happens to be Achebe’s sublime weapon in telling the immortal African story.

SOURCE: DAILY SUN