THIS DAY INTERVIEW: Chris Ngige

Chris Ngige


BY ONYEBUCHI EZIGBO


Former governor of Anambra State and the current Minister of Labour and employment, Chris Ngige talks about his formative years with so much passion. Born in Enugu, Chris was son of a colonial civil servant, who got fired for leading a strike. This shoddy treatment in the hands of the colonialists influenced his father’s vow to give all his children quality education. He gave virtually all he had for their education. During the Nigerian civil war, the young Chris was conscripted into the Biafran army and was there for few months before he was discharged. He resumed secondary education after the war in 1970 and went on to study Medicine. He later went into politics and became a governor, and then Senator. This politician and medical doctor, who has never done private medical practice, shares the story of his life with Onyebuchi Ezigbo

Growing up in Enugu

I can remember my formative years in the ‘50s and ‘60s. I was born in Enugu and my parents, I remember my father, Pius Okonkwo Ngige was a civil servant. He was working in the then Public Works Department, called the PWD of the Eastern Regional Government. He was a trained carpenter who rose to become the chief adviser of carpenters in the PWD. PWD was an agency of government that is like the Ministry of Works and Housing we have today. My father left the PWD when he had some disagreement with the colonial masters, and with the technicians who were advising them at that time on their mode of payment to Africans and Nigerians at the PWD. There ought to be a part time pay and there was a disparity in payment given to Nigerians and Europeans and this segregation was what prompted my father and some others to do what they call ‘sit down’ strike and he then lost his job. After my father left service, he became a private person and started supplies to his former place of work.

My father gave his all for my education

My father gave his all for the education of his children. I don’t know how many parents today who can afford to give all they had for the education of their children. As a matter of fact, at the time I am talking about, a Volkswagen car was sold for 80 pounds and this was what my father was paying as school fees every term for four of us in secondary school. So, you can see that if my father had decided to be extravagant, he could afford to be changing cars every term. In those days, cars were issued at higher purchase so it wasn’t a big deal, but this man didn’t buy any car and decided to be taking taxi to his place of work, all in a bid to get his children educated. I had these parents I can tell you were role models, as far as I am concerned. They influenced my life by teaching me that hardwork doesn’t kill, being industrious doesn’t kill, being straight forward doesn’t kill or hurt and also being modest doesn’t hurt. So, those were the kind of parents I had. My secondary school was at St. John’s College, Alor in Anambra State and it is my home town and that was the school of my elder brother who was the first to go there and had a very sound education. I was there when the war erupted and they closed our school and asked us to go on break which we thought would be for some few days or weeks and it ran into days, weeks and months. My parents had to relocate from Enugu to the village with all of us. My mother started her business of trading again, but this time around, she had to put up a restaurant, an eatery at our market. Her eatery was one of the best and was booming. She also had some investment in textiles because our home town was the centre of textile trade in Biafra and my mother invested and had shops managed by some people for her. We did all these, and at some point, I was conscripted into the army and stayed very few months in the army before I was discharged again and we came back and started our school after the war in 1970.

My parents valued education

My parents valued education. There was a time some other parents were advising my parents: “Oh, you are not buying any car for yourself, you are not throwing parties like others” and so on and my father drove them away. Most of them were women who were coming to advise my mother, and my father sent them away and told them not to be visiting our home again. So, my father was a man who saw tomorrow, especially in investing in education, because he knew education was the key. After the civil war, I went back to school; many people didn’t know I was going to go back to school because when I was discharged from the army camp, I went into business. I joined my mother in business and it was there I met people like Arthur Eze. I had a little cash which enabled me to buy a motorcycle. So, when the war ended, I had a motorcycle. I also had a Mobilet which I bought; I had two motorcycles at the time. Most people were thinking I won’t go back to school because I already had some money and my father had to take my mobilet and motorcycle away from me. He gave the mobilet to his in-law to keep and the Honda was sold off. He told me to use the money realised to buy books; that he needed me to go back to school, which I did. I sat for WAEC exam again in 1972 and I also did the GCE ‘O’ level London as a precautionary measure which was the mistake they said I made in 1971. I came out with distinction and I also passed the University of Nigeria examination again, a more competitive exam where there were almost 3,000 of us looking for 90 spaces available in the Faculty of Medicine. I also passed University of Ibadan and University of Lagos, but I chose to go to Nsukka which was nearer home and where I had friends who also passed the exams in 1972. I entered the University in 1973 at the Nsukka campus. At Enugu campus, I played Student’s Union politics. I first was elected PRO Medical Students Association. Former Governor Peter Odili was my senior and was Speaker of the Association. I later contested and won a seat to represent my hostel in the UNEC Student’s Union as a parliamentarian. By the way, Medical Students, by an unwritten law in the Faculty, were not allowed to play in the General Students Union except in the MSA. Any Medical student who flouted this was deemed to have already opted not to be a Doctor. I broke the tradition and played in this game and not only that, I participated fully and represented B Hostel floor 15-30, a floor that housed many budding politicians like Paul Erokoro, SAN, then Secretary General of SUG, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, President of SUG later President NANS, Orji Nwafor-Orizu, to mention but a few.

Balancing my studies and student politics

I struck a balance between my studies and both MSA and SUG politics and passed my second MB exams and moved to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital to finish Medical training to the admiration of my parents and friends. I graduated June 1979 and left the UNTH and headed straight to General Hospital Onitsha for my Housemanship. I finished my one year Housemanship in Onitsha in July 1980 and headed straight to Lagos for my NYSC at National Assembly clinic. My senior friend, Joseph Wayas, whom I met with late Senator Chuba Okadigbo during our NANS/SUG politics at the UNN, Enugu Campus and their Constituent Assembly days in 1977/78 turned out to be a mentor. He was elected Senator and Senate President in October 1979. He assisted me to settle down in Lagos very quickly. I thank God for my never being in want since my childhood as you would have observed from all my narrations.

I was heartbroken going back to sit for school certificate exam

The most difficult thing that happened to me as a teenager was going back to sit for school certificate when the previous one I sat for was cancelled for no just cause. Few students were cheating and they cancelled the entire result of the whole school. I didn’t imagine myself going back one year and my mate would be a year ahead of me. I passed to enter the university that same year and I couldn’t go. So, for me, the temptation was to drop out of school because I took an examination that I knew I could easily surmount and make very good grades. In fact, in the mock exams we did, I was on-top of the class. When we went to do the federal government college qualifying exam for the best five students in the schools they chose, and I came out tops in my own school. That was why they sent me to Federal Government College Warri and gave the others Maiduguri. So, for me, I was very heart broken, it was very difficult for me to accept that I lost out in an exam that boys I worked better than were passing.

I married as an overgrown adult

I married as a full adult. Infact, I married as an overgrown adult. When I got married in Lagos, they were calling us very senior bachelors. The girls were not taking us seriously anymore. They felt that we didn’t want to get married, but then the truth of it was that it isn’t every time you are lucky. I was not comfortable with my dates, because we needed to date in other to get married. So, I had two conditions for dating and that took me into my 40s before I got married and by the time I got married 1993 I was already 41 years, but it wasn’t my fault. I had planned to marry much earlier. As a matter of fact, I made my first attempt at marriage on 31st December, 1983, which was the night of the Abacha coup. We had gone to see the family of the person I was to marry from my home town and we got there and it didn’t work for some reasons that had to do with religion. I wasn’t a Pentecostal or what some call born again Christian. From 1984 to 1985, it was family discussions of converting me to a born again or the marriage will breakup and at the end of the day the marriage had to. I couldn’t continue. Then in 1986, 1988, I started trying again and again the marriage couldn’t go through, again because of some differences. So, it was in 1992 that I saw my present wife; I saw and liked her and she saw me and liked me but we didn’t date for long like the other cases and we got married in 1993 and the children started coming.

I don’t think I made any major mistake in life

From my story, I don’t think I made any major mistake. I corrected any deficiencies that came my way very quickly and took good decisions but the only thing is that when you sit with people, they can tell you that you are making a mistake or you have made mistake along the line but that is their own perception which is different from yours. Perception and reality have a very thin line and you know one man’s meat is another man’s poison. I think some of my friends earlier on in 2007, 2008 said I made a mistake that when I was governor of Anambra State, I shouldn’t have fought President Obasanjo, that no one fights a president and wins. Some would say ‘oh, you would have listened to the Ubas and not fight them, that it portrayed you as someone who was ungrateful’ and things like that. For them it was a mistake I made but for me, up till today, it wasn’t a mistake. I took my decision and it was simple. The choices were clear; either for me to be with the people of Anambra State or forsake them and their interest and go to the other side and continue to become governor and end up spending eight years and achieve nothing. So, for me it was clear.

My parents taught me how to stand on the path of the truth

Because of my background, my parents taught me how to be industrious and also taught me how to stand on the path of the truth all the time. You may suffer some inconveniences and setbacks but at the end of the day the truth will always prevail. That is my father’s motto and I live by that motto and I will not change. So, that is what a lot of people say is a mistake but they don’t give me the benefit of doubt that I didn’t go out of my way to start fighting Obasanjo as the president, I had to disagree with President Obasanjo when he said I had to fall in line with the Ubas and their group and I said ‘no’, I will not sir because I don’t think that was why I was assisted to become governor. I was assisted; nobody becomes a governor or president without anybody assisting him. People will assist you with material resources, people will assist you with the human capacity, people will assist you with even prayers so I was assisted and I became the governor of Anambra State. The day I took an oath and I swore by the constitution that the interest of this people would be first cardinal objective of the government and my service in government, was the day I ceased to be Chris Ngige as a person and dancing to the tunes of my person or my family or my friends. So, that is it. For some people, it was a mistake but it is not. If I had been governor as they wanted me, dance to their tunes, do all I was told to do, being tele-guided, make the state coffers, funds and the rest available for pilfering; at the end of the day, I would be the one that would be held accountable before God and man. So, I don’t think I have made any mistake that can make me say I regret. I didn’t do this or do that because God has taken care of me and I am grateful. He gave me the wisdom, the strength and knowledge to do what is right at all time.

I have experienced many high points in life

I am happy you said high points, because there are many in my life. Let’s start from my university days, one of the high points I experienced was getting admission to study medicine at the University of Nigeria and before then, the day I got my school certificate result at St. John’s, Alor. I stood at the board and read my result and the whole students, the entire school were jubilating and singing that I have done it and I felt God came down to assist me that I took the decision to go and re-do the school certificate. I was overwhelmed and the students carried me shoulder high because I was their senior prefect. I was the school captain the previous year before the school certificate. I felt God had heard my prayers. The second one was when I got admission to the University of Nigeria to study medicine. I remember Dr. Chike Chinyelu, who was my school mate at St. Theresa Nsukka where I was doing lower six before we entered the university, went to the University of Nigeria the previous day and read the list of those who were admitted. So, as he was coming to our house to announce the names of the people admitted, the vendors had given me a copy. I think it was the Daily Star Newspaper and I had seen my name there. We were very many at that exam and I was number 27 out of the 81 students that were admitted and the 3,000 students that fought for 90 chances. So as Dr. Chike was coming and announcing the news to me, the vendors were also coming to bring their newspapers, so we both knelt down on the road to thank God and people didn’t know what these two youngsters were doing that morning. Another high point in my life was the day I was appointed to be doctor to the great Nelson Mandela when he was visiting Nigeria. I was attached to him as his physician by the then Minister; Dr. Ransome Kuti. I was in the federal Ministry of Health and I was in charge of outdoor medical services in the Department of Hospital Services. My clinic was in the federal government guest house clinic and I was the doctor on morning duty. I was then delegated and I went round Nigeria with Mandela. I went to Otta Farm in a helicopter with him to see Obasanjo and we went to Enugu and some other cities. That was my first taste of international assignment as a medical doctor before the National Assembly work came in. Being a doctor to a colossus; world political colossus, world nationalist, Nelson Mandela and the wife Winney Mandela was a very big high point in my life. Thereafter, I was appointed to be the medical physician to a Nigerian group; the G15 economic-political council founded by President Ibrahim Babangida. We were to do a tour of the G15 countries, get what their economy looks like and see how Nigeria can meet up and even surpass those economies. The group took a tour of Malaysia, Indonesia, Venezuela and they made me a member of the committee in which MKO Abiola was our leader and that brought me close to MKO Abiola. When he now started his journey to become the president of Nigeria, many of us were involved in that journey. Another high point was when I got married in 1993 during the June 12 crises in Lagos, and the day I was sworn in as Governor of Anambra State.

I have an innate fear

Do I have any fear about things in life? The answer is yes! Fear of fights; no! Whether it is political or otherwise, I don’t fear. I have no fear but like my father who was a courageous man, I have an innate fear, that which whenever I remember, I say God let it not happen. That fear is me changing from who I am and what I am now to becoming another being, who is not Chris Ngige. That is the fear I always have, which comes like a flash and I pray God, let it not happen. I don’t want to be a sycophant. The fear of being a weakling, the fear of me ever being a liar, I don’t want to be a liar. The fear of me being a lazy man, I don’t want to be a lazy man. I like hard work. I believe in the principle of reward for hard work and I also don’t want my children to imbibe these other traits I said I don’t like. I pray, and by the grace of God. I have children today who are not liars, not afraid of speaking the truth at all times and have imbibed some culture from me like the culture of hard work. They have also imbibed the culture of respect from me and their mother.

I can still aspire for positions to serve our people better

Yes I am still a politician; I can still aspire for positions to serve our people better. I can also aspire to the pinnacle of international position to serve the international community. I don’t think it will be right for me to say that I don’t desire more. I desire to be the Secretary General of the United Nations or Director General of the ILO, which is an international position. I am the Minister of Labour today and if I am called up to do any other work, I will do it. If my people call me up and say they want me to be the councilor representing my ward when I retire from active politics, I will go and serve. So, for me, there is nothing I am desiring; anything that comes my way and I look at it and I see I can use it for service, I will do it. I don’t desire anything like material things; money, houses, cars and more wives. I don’t desire all those. God has blessed me.

Lessons life has taught me

The lessons I have learnt in life are that it pays to be honest, it pays to work hard. It pays to speak the truth at all times. It pays to be just to all without discrimination because the world is round as geographers will say and if we are being unjust today, we will meet tomorrow in another place or I’ll meet your brother or your relative and that injustice I served you will still come like a fresh wound every time we meet. So, it pays to be just, it pays for us to defend the defenseless. It pays to help those that we are above in terms of things of life either you give them directly or service for all.

I use my political office to serve

My motivation is simple; from my background I have told you, like my father always invested in human being, which was his own way of serving. For me, my own way of serving is using the political office to serve. First of all I served by giving medicine to humanity. I practiced my medicine without going to open my private practice, without charging money because I was in primary practice working in government hospitals. That is my idea of service to the people. But now, I am a politician and I have started getting political positions and it is on me again to serve humanity through service to the people of my community, local government, my state and the entire people of Nigeria, as well as internationally. This is my belief and this is what I want to be practicing all my life till God calls us all because, at the end of the day, we shall all go and render account of our service to humanity to God, be you big or small.

A Nigerian With A Dream Becomes A Priest In Switzerland

Father Gerald Chukwudi Ani. Image: Didier Ruef

BY LUIGI JORIO

As a child in rural Nigeria, Gerald Chukwudi Ani had to assume a man’s role at the age of five. He struggled to realise his dream and follow his religious calling, but now he is a Catholic priest in Switzerland.

During a soccer match, one of his team-mates sent him a deft pass in the penalty area. The 15-year-old Gerald could have kept the ball in front of him and taken a shot at goal. He would surely have scored and gone on to a promising career in football. But instead he tried a hair-raising overhead kick and fell heavily to the ground, injuring his back. This injury, as it turned out, put an end to football, but made room for God in his life.

So begins the story of Father Gerald, whom I meet at Saint Christopher’s parish in Grancia, a village near Lugano, in the southern canton of Ticino. He greets me with a smile that stays on his face as we talk. Now aged forty-five, he seems to remember every detail of his childhood in Nigeria and his later life in Europe, including names, dates, places and even what he was wearing on a particular occasion.

Son of an animist

Gerald Chukwudi Ani was born on December 15 1974 in Agbani, in the former Biafra in southeast Nigeria. His father was an animist priest, his mother worked in the fields and sold home-made food in front of the house. "There were so many of us. My father was a polygamist and had four wives. In all he had 21 children and about a hundred grandchildren," he recounts.

The family lived in a forest area. Gerald shared a mud and bamboo hut with his mother and eight siblings. "There were 24 cats and 12 dogs living there too. We could have filled Noah’s Ark," he laughs.

Every day, when the cock crowed for the second time, they got up to go to work – to the well to get water, or to the mill to grind corn and beans, an hour’s walk from home. Whenever the sowing and harvesting seasons were approaching, he went with his father into the forest, where he witnessed animist rituals, including animal sacrifice. "Life was hard,” he says. “But we had food to eat and we lived on what we produced, without much in the way of expectations.”

"The worst day of my life"

It was September 29 1979. Gerald was tired of work and was hoping to go to primary school, which usually starts at age six. His older sister went with him to the village school, where the principal was waiting to give him a “raised hand” test. "You had to raise your hand, put your forearm on your head and touch your ear with your finger. If you could do all that, it meant you were ready to learn," he explains.

Still too young, Gerald did not pass the test. "It seemed to me like the principal had squashed my dream of going to school." Feeling very troubled, he ran back home, seeking his father’s consolation. But when he got to the hut, he found his mother in tears, and learned that his father was dead. "At the very moment I needed my father the most, he wasn’t there,” says Gerald. “It was the worst day of my life."

It seemed the man had had a fall while working out in the fields. The hospital was two hours’ journey, and he died on the way.

Left alone with his mother and younger brothers (his sisters had now left home), Gerald became the man of the family at age 5. The following year, however, he finally got into primary school, and after a difficult start he was always one of the best in his class.

Then one night when he was 10, he had an experience that changed his life. "That was when it all began," he says.

A strange calling

"I had a peculiar dream: I had my arms outstretched and I was chanting something I did not understand. Only afterwards did I realise that I had been celebrating the Latin mass," he recalls. The dream came back night after night. His mother’s frightened reaction was to beat him. "She thought I was being haunted by the evil spirits that had killed my father."

She decided to bring Gerald to the witch-doctor for an exorcism. "As soon as he saw us coming, the witch-doctor fled. He called to my mother to take me away, saying he saw something in me. I felt normal, and I didn’t know what he was talking about."

Sometime later, a footballing friend who went to church suggested that Gerald come with him to Sunday mass. Gerald put on his best pair of shorts ("the pair with only one hole in them") and entered for the first time the huge building he had seen from afar. "The church was packed. I felt completely lost there."

When he heard the Latin mass being recited by the priest, and realised it was the same as what he had been saying in his dream, he screamed and ran out of the church. But a few days later the priest spoke with him, explaining that this was no illness, but a sign from God. "He told me I was called to become a priest."

From football to theology

A diligent pupil, Gerald continued to study and took catechism. "I did all kinds of little jobs to pay for my schooling,” he says. “I worked on building sites, I chopped wood, I picked fruit."

Any free time he had was devoted to his great passion, football. He played for his school, his village and his state, and he was even selected for the national youth team of Nigeria. That was until the ill-fated overhead kick at fifteen. "I was laid up for six months. I lost all my flexibility. Finally I decided to give up football and concentrate on my studies."

Gerald was baptised, and entered the seminary. He got a Latin diploma, studied the spirituality and doctrine of the Catholic Church, and took a degree in philosophy. Thanks to a scholarship, he was able to go to Italy where he studied theology first in Rome, then in Naples and Catanzaro. On August 16 2006, a call came from Switzerland: the bishop of Lugano at that time, Pier Giacomo Grampa, was asking him to come to his diocese.

Best country in the world

"In Ticino I was made very welcome,” says Father Gerald. “So many Nigerians tell me about racism, but I never experienced any of that. I never felt excluded because of the colour of my skin."

He has been parish priest of St Christopher’s in Grancia since 2016, and he also teaches history of religions in the local secondary schools. Between preaching a sermon and teaching a class, he still manages to keep up his love of football. "I often organise soccer tournaments myself. I never stop, and I never feel alone. I think I’ll probably spend the rest of my life here. But if the Bishop lets me, I might go back to Nigeria, which I still think is the best country in the world."

For the moment, he makes do with an annual visit to his homeland. The last trip was in summer 2019, and Swiss photographer Didier Ruef went with him. Gerald is always happy to reconnect with the culture, food, music and human warmth of his native land.

"With my small Swiss stipend, I always try to help out, especially when someone wants to go and study," he says. But he does not like being thought of as the local godfather and there is an aspect that bothers him. In his native village, everyone asks him for help, advice, money. Many people want him to take their children to Europe with him. "But that’s not the answer!" Father Gerald exclaims. "This role of the victim really bothers me. I was never one to sit around and wait for other people to do things. In Nigeria everybody asks for things, but no-one seems to do anything."

He is very much aware of the problems in his country, from ineffective government to corruption and inter-religious strife. But these things are no reason to stand around with your hands in your pockets, he says. "I always tell the people back home: do something for yourselves! And I keep on hoping that this will change for the better some day soon."

SOURCE: SWISS INFO

Thanks To Trump, I’m Using My ‘Foreign’ Name For The First Time In 8 Years

Oge Maduike. Image via Huffpost

BY OGE MADUIKE

Prior to high school, I’d never formally gone by Courtney, my English name — or my “white name,” as I like to call it. As a child growing up in downtown Los Angeles, everyone in my life called me Oge (pronounced oh-gay), short for Ogemdi, my Nigerian name. However, right before high school, my family moved to the suburbs of LA to a place where I remember thinking everyone looked like they belonged in a movie, or at the very least, a Hollister ad.


For the first time in my life, I had more than a handful of white classmates. Before we started high school in our new picturesque suburban hometown, my mom sat my sister and I down and explained that we could begin going by our English names if we wanted.

Typically in Igboland, the ethno-linguistic region in Southeastern Nigeria where my family is from, parents give their children names both in English and our native tongue of Igbo, also the namesake of our ethnic tribe. One name carries with it indigenous tradition and the melodious symphonies of our lively people; the other carries a history of colonialism and cultural expectations forced upon my family’s native land by the white man — two parts of the tumultuous story of our home country. On its own, Oge simply means “time” in my family’s native tongue. “Ogemdi” means “I’ve got my own time,” which my mother also translates to “destiny.” Unlike with my older sister, my mother’s pregnancy with me was unplanned, so my mom likes to say that since birth, I’ve always done things on “my own time,” whether the world was ready or not.


In Nigerian culture, a child’s name carries great significance. Names are not simply chosen because they sound nice or because parents like the name. They reflect what a newborn’s family may be going through at the time or the legacy a child’s family wishes for them. Yet as an impulsive preteen excited by the allure of taking on a new identity — after all, how many people get the opportunity to completely reinvent themselves before high school? — I jumped at the opportunity to begin going by my alter ego, Courtney, a name chosen at random by my parents because they liked the name.


In my new school, no one had any reason to question the name I’d given to them to call me. Yet I felt like I was keeping a part of me secret. I had lived this whole life in LA as Oge and was still my family and people from my past still called me by this name.


The transition, though tantalizing at first, always felt awkward to live out. By sophomore year of college, the novelty had finally worn off. I longed to be called by my Nigerian name once again. I didn’t want to be just another Courtney on campus, nor did I want to be referred to as “Black Courtney.”


I’m Black, but I’m also Nigerian. As a Nigerian American, being labeled as Black doesn’t encapsulate the fullness of my story. It obscures the tension and outright rejection I often felt growing up in a community distinct from the one forced on me from this country’s legacy of slavery and race-based discrimination — a community whose history, culture and linguistic habits were often foreign to me as the daughter of Black immigrants.




This country’s fascination with race in a way that centers whiteness and white culture is what led my high school classmates to call me “Black Courtney” when the only other Courtney on campus was also Black. Their insistence on calling me “Black Courtney” highlighted an unspoken (though spoken in certain instances) trauma baked into this country’s history — the name Courtney, like much of mainstream American culture, does not belong to me nor was it made for me.


I understood the confusion my revelation would create, so I started small and I revealed my Nigerian name, my real name, to only my sorority. Comforted by the promise of sisterhood, I thought surely my sisters would offer a supportive space where I could feel safe to begin testing my new (old?) name to a majority white audience for the first time. I was comically surprised at the confusion and resistance my news created. After knowing “Courtney” for less than a year, sisters remarked that it felt “weird” to call me by a “different name” as they struggled to wrap their minds and tongues around what I explained was my real name.



Many refused to call me by this new name. Others declined to even try and familiarize themselves with it, foreign to everyone’s tongue but my own. Instead, those sisters choose to ignore my request, glossing over the obvious tension this change created and forcing a part of my story back into obscurity in the process. Rather than insisting they get used to referring to me by my actual name, I ultimately relented to the confusion and outright refusal from sisters and continued going by Courtney. At the same time, I felt locked into an identity that never quite felt complete — an identity tethered to a name unintended for me or anyone who looks like me in its origin.




Courtney always felt like something people called me, simply a name. I had an existential understanding that people were referring to me when they uttered those two syllables, though they also could’ve been referring to an abstract box at the other end of the room. Courtney was just a name, a collection of letters used to identify a person, place or thing. Courtney was an ill-fitted coat I would pick up and put on to go out into the world. Then once I returned home, I could leave the moniker at the door and Oge remained.


Oge felt like the essence of my being, something that could be answered by me alone and that carried the weight of my culture, my heritage, my family and our country of origin — all of who I was — with its mere pronouncement. So less than halfway through college, where one’s private life and identity outside the home collide, I grew increasingly bothered that there was no longer a threshold where I could abandon this cloak and exist wholly as myself.


As the daughter of immigrants, this clear separation between my home and social life formed the foundation of my upbringing. My mother was quick to remind me and my siblings that while we may be born and raised in America, under her roof we were unquestionably Nigerian. Despite the construction of these two separate worlds, I learned this division was never a clean or easy split. Like many first-generation kids in America, inevitably parts of my home life spilled into my life outside the home and vice versa, informing the way I interacted and expressed myself in both worlds. These divisions created a psychological tension of who I could be and who I felt allowed to be, in addition to how I was received in either world.




Following my college graduation, I finally returned to going by my real name. Amidst the stress and uncertainty that accompanies graduating, finding a job, moving to a new city, and formally entering the real world for the first time, I found comfort in the familiarity of hearing my Nigerian name. Unlike Courtney, which could obscure my identity and ethnic background, I took pride in knowing that white people would be forced to accommodate me and my difference as they tried to wrap their tongues around my unapologetically Nigerian name.


My graduation coincided with the 2016 presidential election, which was an election that in many ways felt like a referendum on conversations regarding diversity and inclusion in this country. In Trump’s America, choosing to go by my Nigerian first name served as my daily act of resistance against the constant examples of racism and xenophobia permeating the public discourse in ways this country believed we’d defeated.


After college, I found myself in a supportive environment surrounded by colleagues committed to helping me bring my most authentic self to work. They encouraged me to go by my real name when I worried the change would create unnecessary confusion. This supportive reception stoked a renewed confidence to step into the fullness of my maturing voice as a baby adult. Now each time I choose to introduce myself as Oge or offer it up with my lunch order, it feels like a personal triumph — like I’m stepping into the meaning of my name and the legacy my family wished for me at birth.


The transition admittedly hasn’t been clean or easy. I have accounts and subscriptions in my old name, and fringe friends from high school and college who still refer to me as Courtney.


Encouraged by conversations regarding the value of authenticity in the workplace and the importance of building trust with teammates and clients, I made strides to bring my two worlds closer together. Calling someone by their name and making an effort to accurately pronounce it is one way our society can create space for and further normalize the experiences of non-Anglo persons in this country.




Amid continued calls for inclusion as we rapidly accelerate towards an increasingly majority-minority society, it is on each of us to at least lead with curiosity rather than sustained resistance and discomfort as we work to find ways to achieve harmony in this multiracial society.


SOURCE: HUFFPOST

Enugu Govt Awards Over N1.1 Billion Contracts For Urban, Rural Projects

Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. Image: Twitter

ENUGU (VANGUARD)--The Enugu State Executive Council (EXCO) yesterday awarded contracts for more infrastructural developments in the urban and rural areas, worth over N1.1 billion. This is in furtherance of the state government’s renewed vigour in providing democracy dividends to the people of the state.

It would be recalled that the state government in the last two months had awarded contracts for multiple development projects worth over N6.3 billion, which are ongoing.

Addressing newsmen after the meeting of the State Executive Council, yesterday, the Commissioner for Information, Nnanyelugo Chidi Aroh, disclosed that the Council directed the Head of Service and the State Civil Service Commission to immediately commence the processes for the recruitment of middle level and senior level cadre staff “to bring in sharp and fresh hands to strengthen the state’s public service, which is the driving force for the implementation of government policies”. 

On the road projects awarded for construction and rehabilitation, Aroh further disclosed that the council granted approval for the construction of Phase III of Amokwe road in Udi Local Government Area starting from Udi Station through Ibuzo Amokwe to Amokwe Station road at the cost of N383,020,112.90. The Commissioner added that the Council awarded contract for the extension of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Ezi Ukehe-Afia Four-Umurusi-Major General Ezugwu House-Umuoka Junction road in Igbo Etiti LGA at the cost of N153,208,045.16.

 He stated that approval was also granted for the construction/rehabilitation of Ojoto Crescent, Trans Ekulu, Enugu at the cost of N153,208,045.16. 

Other road projects that were approved for construction and reconstruction by the Council include Brown and Brown Crescent, Independence Layout, Enugu, completion of internal roads at Diamond City Estate, GRA, Enugu, Ozidem-Nrobo-Abbi-Nimbo road (Earth Road) in Uzo Uwani LGA, totaling N312,469,396.75.

 On public buildings, Aroh stated that the Council approved the requests from the state Ministry of Works and Infrastructure for the construction of perimeter fence for the five fire service stations in the state that were newly constructed by Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration as well as the perimeter fence, retaining walls and gate houses at Diamond City Estate, GRA, Enugu, at the sum cost of N69,208,006.34. 

He further stated that the requests for supply and installation of single-arm smart integrated solar powered street lights (80 watts) and solar powered borehole for the five (5) new fire service stations were equally approved. 

In line with the state government’s commitment to improve water supply in the state, Aroh revealed that the EXCO approved the advertisement for immediate rehabilitation of the 9th mile borehole project and construction of fresh boreholes in Nsukka and Obollo-Afor to enhance the supply of water to people of the state. 

On healthy living, the Commissioner said that EXCO directed the Ministry of Agriculture to immediately advertise for a Consultant to handle the technical processes for the construction of abattoirs in the state to ensure safety of meat consumption.

 He added that the Council called for “total reorganization of the Ministry of Health” which will include recruitment of new staff, consultants, nurses and other critical health personnel to enhance effective delivery of services in the health sector in the state.

Aroh maintained that the EXCO also approved the setting up of monitoring and evaluation team to evaluate and monitor the implementation of the 2020 budget in keeping with the state government’s commitment to accountability, transparency and fiscal responsibility.

SOURCE: VANGUARD

2023 Is Igbo’s Turn – Ohanaeze Reacts To Arewa Forum’s Position On Presidency

BY SEUN OPEJOBI

The apex Igbo socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo on Wednesday rubbished remarks by Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, on Igbo Presidency.

In a chat with DAILY POST, Ohanaeze’s Deputy spokesperson, Chuks Ibegbu insisted that those agitating for Biafra like the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, can’t stop the push for Igbo presidency in 2023.

ACF Secretary-General, Anthony Sani, had warned that Nigerians would be scared to elect a President from the Southeast if they are seen to be agitating for secession from Nigeria.

Sani had stressed that Igbo people are suffering from what he termed “superiority and inferiority complexes.”

According to the ACF scribe, the Southeast was playing both victim and entitled, while cautioning them that “democracy is a contest of ideas and reason and is never a bullfight.”

Sani had said: “Igbos suffer from both superiority and inferiority complexes.

“At one point, they tout their superiority by claiming to be over and above any other nationality in Nigeria because they are better at the use of their superior commercial acumen for trade.

“At another, they play the victim by crying of marginalization the most. Power in a multi-party democracy is never secured through threats and intimidation, nor is it obtained by jeremiads out of pity.

“This is because democracy is a contest of ideas and reason and is never a bullfight.

“Igbos cannot agitate for separation and hanker for president by still expecting the country would not be scared of voting them for the presidency.

“Igbos may wish to recall that Senator McCain lost the elections because he had [Mrs Palin] who was governor of the state of Alaska. This was also because her husband was accused of attending a meeting of separatists who wish the state of Alaska to leave [the] USA and join Russia.

“I do not see how somebody from Scotland, Catalan, Quebec, Aceh or Xinjiang could dream of being voted president of their countries. Reason: Such a person would most likely play Gorbachev.”

However, Ibegbu said: “What Sani said is rubbish because what Boko Haram is talking about, is it not secession?
Boko Haram is talking about Islamic Caliphate, but it did not stop Buhari from becoming a President.

“What Sani said has no meaning, its complete ‘brabadash.’ Boko Haram did not stop Buhari so those agitating for Biafra like IPOB can’t stop us from becoming President in 2023. I insist, 2023 is our turn to become president.”

On the issue of cabal in the presidency as admitted by President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, Ibegbu said: “You can’t stop cabal anywhere. Cabal can be found even in our houses.”

INTERVIEW: We Killed True Federalism In 1979 Constitution, Says Ahamba

Mike Ahamba. Image: SAN

BY COLLINS OSUJI

Chief Mike Ahamba is a maverick lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He was also a governorship aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 general elections. In this interview with COLLINS OSUJI, the legal luminary speaks on several pressing issues, including the controversial local government autonomy bill, border closure as well as the Hate Speech Bill.

Sir, there has been a consistent clamour for local government autonomy. What is your view about the recent passage of a bill seeking to grant local government autonomy as well as empowering INEC to conduct local government elections?

Has INEC done well in the ones it has conducted so far? There is something we do in this country that hurts me. First, we believe that the change of name will change attitude. So, if electricity is not stable, you change the relevant agency’s name from ECN to NEPA and when NEPA fails, you change the name to PHNC. If that fails too, you change it to EDDC. But who has changed the attitude of those operating it under whatever name it is called? What then is the difference in the names? What has happened to the internal organization? I am saying because that I don’t feel we still have a federation because federal institutions should take care of state affairs. We cannot be talking about true federalism and at the same time, operating unitary system. It is because those doing this don’t understand the meaning of federalism. If they do, they shouldn’t have created a federation with one constitution in 1979. We killed true federation in the 1979 Constitution, and that was done by the public. Nobody should accuse the military of that because we had a constituent assembly that passed the law, which brought the local government into federal affairs, contrary to every known definition of what a federation is

Do we consider why our local governments are failing? I have written memo to the National Assembly about it. All we need do is just change one section of the constitution. The section that states that “the constitution created a democratically elected local government” and that “the state assembly has powers to make laws over the structure, management and establishment of local government.” That is the law they are misusing. All we need do is amend that section to say that so long that the law does not include undemocratic provisions like the appointment of sole administrators, interim management committee and all that. If that is proscribed, except where there is an internal crisis in the state, the governor can be given authority to do this. But my concern is that we have taken the local government into the federal structure when every known definition of a federation I have seen puts local affairs under the state government. So, all we need to do is to introduce a new system of the federation. We are free to do that; at least, let us give something new to the world which has three tiers. Every other federation in the world has only two tiers, the national and the state governments.

Now, we have a local government but the worst thing we can do is to tamper with those local governments because people like them. So what do we do? We have to ensure that state governments don’t take over local governments and everything will start to move smoothly.

But I don’t know the level of publicity given to that bill. You said there was a one-day public hearing. How can they hold one-day public hearing towards constitution amendment? In any case, who gave the National Assembly power to amend the constitution? The National Assembly has the power to alter provisions of the constitution. There is nowhere in the constitution where the National Assembly is empowered to amend the constitution. They are only empowered to alter provisions of the constitution. If you give me the power to tamper with just a part of a thing, that doesn’t give me the power to tamper with the whole. You tamper with the whole when you start putting things that can change the structure of the whole. So, since we are sure that what is on now is not satisfying us, when shall we think about a constituent assembly established with the laws of the Federal Government where we can look at all these anomalies and correct them for the peace, order and good government of Nigeria?

What is your take on the closure of Nigerian borders with neighbouring countries by the Federal Government?

The first responsibility of every government is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of citizens. There are certain things that ought to have been done for a long time but are yet to be done, and if you impose them suddenly, they will create traumatic effects on the people. I believe that the closure of Nigerian borders is targeted at rice and a few other products. But such policy will not affect the elite because they can afford the products irrespective of the cost. But others may no longer have enough to give to the poor. Those who used to give rice out to their people may begin to avoid them now because they cannot afford a bag for N35, 000. I have always advocated that we should try to look inwards and fend for ourselves but when you are talking about agricultural produce, it is a thing of years. You cannot plant palm tree today and it begins to yield tomorrow. If you want to base an economy on palm oil, you have to give a time of five years. Talking about rice, you think of about two or three farming seasons to do what you want to do. But what bothers me most in this country is that when we want to solve a problem, we don’t look at the source. Closing the border is a vote of no confidence on our border security. I have not heard that any official in that segment of our society has been reprimanded or even reposted or retired so that a new person can try. You don’t have to close the border completely because you have put the wrong people to be in charge. This is exactly what is happening. If you have an honest immigration, an honest custom and other security agencies there and if Mr. President will also be honest to himself, to know whether they are the right people to be there or not, the first thing would have been to readjust personnel at the borders and see whether a new set of personnel would be able to block the porous borders.

We have been shouting for a long time that our borders, particularly at the northern side, are porous. There are so many illegal immigrants roaming in this country. There was a time even the Federal Government said that those who were killing farmers were immigrants from Libya and other West African countries. So, if that was the case, was anybody put in charge of that place sanctioned? No. So, the people who will now take the punishment are the poor masses. And that is not the objective of governance.

Even though the hate speech bill appears to have suffered a setback, do you subscribe to the bill?
Well, in a democracy, you don’t have unsolicited comments because I have a right to talk foolishly and you have a right to refuse to accept my foolish talk. But what you don’t have a right to do is to stop me from saying my foolish talk. Now, who determines what hate speech is? Is it the one directed from the government to the people or the one directed from the people at a failing official? So, the way it is, it looks like gagging. All they could have done would have been to reinforce the existing laws. If you say anything I don’t like, I sue you. But if you are supposed to stop a particular type of comment like somebody comes up to accuse Mike Ahamba of committing murder when you know I did not commit murder, send it viral on social media and people are shouting about it, if you get that kind of person, he will face some punishment because it is destabilizing the society. But the punishment for such a thing should not be as harsh as it is being done right now. I understand they have removed the death penalty. The way it is being done, it appears it is aimed at self- protectionism. Like EFCC is also self-protectionist. It is obvious that PDP members constitute 90 per cent of EFCC customers. Are we saying that those who moved from PDP to APC committed no offences? These are some of the things I am talking about, the right thing is done the wrong way. I worked for Buhari for eight years and I firmly believed that if there was a way to get Buhari back to power at the federal level, corruption would be substantially reduced. And to be candid, I was allowed to address a group then on behalf of Buhari and I convinced them that they had a duty to support Buhari because all of them agreed with me that the biggest challenge confronting Nigeria was corruption and the candidate likely to address the situation was Buhari. But unfortunately, the way things are done under Buhari is disappointing to me.

What if the bill is to stop a person or group of persons inciting a particular tribe against another through the social media with their hate speech?

I think something should be done to stop that. I have seen false things on the mass media – fake pictures where people are being slaughtered in order to invite people from a part of the country against another. Such deceits should be seen as incitement against society. But when you use the word speech, which one is hateful? How do you define hate? If I speak against you, that doesn’t mean I hate you. I might even be speaking to you when I hate you. Which one is hateful? Is it the one you don’t like or the one the society doesn’t like? Who determines which one is hateful? It is a difficult situation that can only give a particular set of people the opportunity to exploit the other. And in any case, it is unconstitutional. You see, the National Assembly is the biggest democratic institution in Nigeria, even though the judiciary is the most important because it controls both the executive and the legislature. They must know that their power is not large. It is circumscribed to making of laws for peace, order and good government, which laws must be consistent with provisions of the constitution. Any law made by the National Assembly which is not consistent with the provision of the constitution is dead on arrival. So, if you enact a law that makes any individual judge whether I speak well or not, has that not affected my right to freedom of speech under the constitution? If what I say is seditious, the punishment is there. If it is defamatory, the individual defamed has every right to take legal steps. So, why do we want to make a law that will lock up people for making speeches that favour the whole country except one person? As it is now, we are back to where we were in 1962.

I was in secondary school then. In fact, that was in my class three but I was interested in national affairs. I knew when the parliament at that time tried to bring in what they called Preventive Detention Act and people raised their voices against it. Students also went on demonstrations. They were trying to copy Kwame Nkruma of Ghana by creating laws that will make government detain people they suspect are likely to cause trouble.

The argument was that when they said it could be used as it was being used in Ghana, the protagonist of that act said that Alhaji Tarfawa Belewa was a gentleman and would not misuse it. Correct, everybody knew that he was a gentleman but he was a human being who could go to bed in the night and not wake up in the morning. Then another person who may not be a gentleman will take over. When you make law, you don’t consider the fact that the present incumbent may not misuse it, you think about the possibility of subsequent incumbents misusing it because a law is not for one person, it is for ages. I hope Nigerians are listening to the impeachment proceedings in America. That is where civilization works; where they relate their actions to laws made 178 years ago in their constitution. So, the National Assembly should be looking at that rather than take actions that are beyond their powers.

You said you regretted supporting the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari given the fact that he failed on your expectations. Do you still hold that view?

Well it has continued to be so. I believe that a victim of what is wrong should be the first solution if that person has the opportunity of solving the problem. Unfortunately, Mr. President who suffered greatly from the negative system in the country when I was working with him has allowed the system to continue.

Are you saying that President Buhari has not provided solutions to Nigeria’s problems?
No, he has not. Although he still has time to do something, he is yet to provide any solution.

What is your assessment of Governor Emeka Ihedioha-led administration in Imo State? How would you compare it with that of Rochas Okorocha?

There is no comparison because while one aimed at destruction, the other aimed at rebuilding and it is foolhardy to assess the extent of rebuilding six months of coming to power when the destruction took eight years. It is not possible. But one thing I like about Ihedioha is that his approach is peculiar to him and he is very progressive. You can see him moving objectively. The result is yet to come fully but just like I told former Governor Ikedi Ohakim then, I won’t tell you that you are doing well in six months. I will only tell you that you are likely to do well with the way you are moving. I want to say that with what Ihedioha has done so far, my assessment at this stage is that he is in all probability going to do well because he is moving systematically. First, he has realized that the first thing is to save the human beings over whom you are going to preside. You know that some people call him the alert governor because pensioners stay in their homes, in their villages and receive alerts of payment of their pension on their telephones. No longer come and assemble in one field without protection. Ihedioha also showed that when you assemble elders, you take care of them.

At the time they were doing verification exercise, canopies were provided to protect these old people from the weather. He has shown that there is need to let the people know that the government cares for them and to let those coming behind to know that the state will care for them and the state is appreciative of the services rendered by them. I want to tell you that this will encourage those coming behind to work harder for the state. However, Ihedioha has been a victim of the general ignorance of the people. Most people don’t know that Owerri/Umuahia road, Owerri/Okigwe road, Owerri/Aba road and Owerri/Port-Harcourt road are all federal roads. None is his responsibility directly. So, when I hear people say that Ihedioah has not built these roads, I wonder their level of ignorance. But even though they are federal roads, he started working on them during the rain and most of us advised him to stop because the rains were likely to wash off everything. Now that the rains have stopped, go on these roads now and see how far they have gone. Also, with the Federal Government’s statement that they would not refund money, state governments are now very circumspect in investing too much money on federal roads. But at least, Ihedioha is now doing palliatives. Some roads that were impassable before are now passable. I told some people who took me on this argument to wait till February to see whether you will still have complaints. Ihedioha is not engaged in propaganda-driven leadership in Imo State. He is an action-driven leader of Imo State and I believe that this year when he must have about three or four months of no rain, those who are talking now will find another thing to say.

Just recently, Governor Ihedioha appealed to his opponents to sheathe their swords and join him in rebuilding the state rather than continued litigations. What is your reaction to that?

I have also made that calls on them even on the pages of newspapers. After the judgments, I said: “Look, you people know that Imo State has a peculiar problem. It is in a serious state of disaster. Now that we have gone through two tiers of court, why don’t we as patriotic citizens of this state, let the rest go and come together for us to rebuild the state because if we fail to rebuild, we will all suffer for it. I believe that Ihedioha would have done more but for these distractions. They should reconsider going further to the Supreme Court because speaking as a lawyer, I don’t see what they can achieve there.

STAGE REVIEW: Three Sisters At The National Theatre

The cast of Three Sisters. Image: Richard Davenport.

BY TIM WALKER

Quite possibly in response to the vacuity of the times in which we live, the National Theatre seems to have adopted a policy of staging very long, cerebral and earnest productions. Inua Ellams' adaptation of Chekov's Three Sisters - running to three and a quarter hours - is a prime example.

Ellams has relocated the story from provincial Russia at the turn of the century before last and plonked it down in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970 during Biafra's attempted secession. An interesting conceit, but I fear not one that can be altogether sustained. I've no doubt that Chekov, who wrote this play in 1900, would find it perplexing.

I don't say that Ellams hasn't got some interesting points to make about British neocolonialism, but it would have been a lot more straightforward, if not also honest, to have just started a new play from scratch than to try to weld all his ideas on to an existing classic. He may say it's a "new play" that he has written "after Chekhov", but it feels as if he just hasn't the courage of his own convictions to do his own play.

The setting is a village in Owerri, where three sisters, sitting on the porch of their home, think back longingly to their halcyon days in Lagos. The sisters are pretty much the same as the sisters in the original. There's Lolo, the teacher, played by Sarah Niles; Nne (Natalie Simpson), the married middle sister who is engaged in an affair with a military commander; and Udo, (Racheal Ofori), who is the youngest and slowly becoming reconciled to never fulfilling her potential.

A lot of the friction of the original was about social class, but it is now about tribal hostility. The failure of Nne's marriage is now down to the fact it was arranged in accordance with tribal tradition when she was 12. It may all be very clever, but it feels clever for the sake of being clever.

All of the conflict and violence that inevitably comes with the setting is hardly in keeping with the spirit of Chekhov. He was famous for writing plays in which not a lot happens but a sense of despair gradually descends upon his characters.

In Nadia Fall's production, the focus is less on the characters and the mood than all the stuff that is happening. 
The acting is uniformly excellent and Katrina Lindsay's sets and costumes are impressive, but ultimately it's the idea behind it all that just isn't strong enough.

I might add, too, in these bleak times, the National Theatre should be in the business at least just occasionally of instilling spirit and hope in the citizens of a largely disillusioned and demoralised capital. This was clearly never going to do that. I look ahead to the productions being staged in the New Year and I see no grounds for optimism. Opening towards the end of January is a show called Death of England.

SOURCE: THE NEW EUROPEAN

INTERVIEW: Imo Can Be Nigeria’s Tourism Hub

Amanze Obi. Image: Twitter

BY CHRIS UBA

The Director-General of the Ahiajoku Institute, Owerri, Imo State, Dr Amanze Obi, in this interview says the institute, modeled after the Goethe Institute and Instituto Italiano De Cultura, is a research and cultural centre and an offshoot of the 40-year old Ahiajoku Lecture Series. Obi, who is also a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy, as well Culture and Tourism in the state, is the author of two books – Perspectives in International Politics (1998) and Delicate Distress: An Interpreter’s Account of the Nigerian Dilemma (2013). He also says Imo State can actually become the cultural and intellectual hub of the country using the vehicle of the institute. Chris Uba provides the excerpts:
What is the Ahiajoku festival all about?

The Ahiajoku Festival has been on for 40 years. It started in 1979 under the governorship of Sam Mabakwe. It was started by Mbakwe in 1979.

What really is the concept and its objectives?
Now, on the whole concept of Ahiajoku. Ahiajoku is an Igbo word, which has to do with fertility and harvest. You know that in Igbo cosmology, yam is the king of crops. And when you are talking about fertility of crops, you are invariably talking about yam cultivation, fertility and harvest. So, Ahiajoku is like the goddess of fertility in Igbo cosmology. And so, in 1979, some Igbo leaders of thoughts, and some cultural enthusiasts as well as intellectuals came together and started asking questions: who are the Igbos? Where are they coming from? Where do we go from here? What is behind our history? Nine years after the civil war, how do we reinvigorate those things that we are known for? What is our contribution to the world civilization and the entire world view of mankind? What is Igbo perspective? It was based on interrogations such as these that the idea of Ahiajoku Festival came up. And so, the Ahiajoku Lecture started as a lecture series. It was supposed to be an annual intellectual harvest, where the best of the Igbo come together, one person comes up , gives a lecture on issues that have to do with Igbo culture and civilisation in the context of world affairs .

So, it has been on. The first lecture series was given by Professor M.J.S Echerue on November 30, 1979. And the title of his lecture was: A Mater of Identity. Forty years after, the same Echerue was invited to come and give the 40th Anniversary Lecture. What we did this year was to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Ahiajoku Festival. And we thought in our wisdom that the man who gave the lecture 40 years ago should come back to give this year’s lecture good enough, he was still alive and strong. And so, we invited him. He gave again the lecture that was held in November 30, this year. Ahaijoku Festival holds last weekend of every November. So, it does not have to be 30th of November, it could be 26th. It has to be the last weekend of every November. So, he gave this year’s lecture, which was entitled: “Ogueri Mba: We Shall Survive”. He gave the lecture and that his lecture marked the 40th Anniversary of Ahiajoku Festival.

In the 40-year-history of Ahiajoku Festival, the lecture has virtually every year. There were one or two misses under the military regime, for instance. But under Rochas Okorocha, for eight years he was in the saddle, for seven years, Ahiajoku Festival did not hold. So, the whole thing was forgotten. It was abandoned. And this is one festival that is the highest cultural intellectual festival that Igbos can boast of; it is more intellectual as I said earlier on than cultural. Because what we do there is to come and intellectualize on Igbo world view and civilization. The cultural angle was just something that was added after some years. When it started, it was a one-day event.

And a lecture would just hold:

The Ahiajoku Lecture. But over the years, it was rebranded, from being a lecture series, it became a festival. So, under that festivalship, you will have a cultural mate; you have the colloquium and then you have the lecture. When I staged it in 2010, when I was the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, the then lecturer was Professor Chinedu Nebo, former Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria. He gave the lecture in 2010. We had all these strands. The colloquium was there. That was also what we had this year. But what has changed was that, this year, under the leadership of our new governor, Emeka Ihedioha, the lecture series has been elevated to an institute ,where a Director-General was appointed to oversee the affairs of the institute and I happen to be the Director –General. That is the first person that has been appointed as the DG of the institute. The institute has just been set up.

What are the duties of the institute?

The institute will now be responsible for holding of Ahiajoku Lecture. The institute has a lot of other things to do beyond Ahiajoku Festival. And so, now that we have done with Ahiajoku Festival we have other programmes in the New Year. We are going to have world conference on Igbo language and on Igbo world view. It is coming up, noted, but we are working on it. So, we are going to be having international conferences; we are going to be having workshops on films, on music, on literature, on theatre. We are going to be having cultural exchanges. We are going to be having language exchanges. We are going to be having a lot of things that will promote Igbo language and culture; things that will get Igbo language to mix with other languages. People can come from Germany or wherever, and come and learn Igbo language. We also send people to those places to also learn their languages.

That is the language and cultural exchange I was talking about. If you know Goethe Institute, in Lagos, and Italian Cultural Institute; if you know these two institutes, the Ahiajoku Institute is being modeled after these two institutes. And so, there are so many things, we will be doing. Most of the things we do we will do with partners in these areas that I have mentioned: in the area of music, in the area of literature; in the area of drama, in the area of photography and so on. So, from time-to-time, we will be inviting them to workshop so that we can know the areas they think we can research into and collaborate; and hold conferences or lectures or workshops as the case me be. So, the institute will be busy with issues like these. But then, we must remember that every November we will hold the annual Ahiajoku Lecture which is its fulcrum. It is the constant strand.

Does the Ahiajoku Concept have economic objectives? How are the activities of the institute funded?
Are you talking about revenue generation, or something? Ordinarily, I wouldn’t want to talk much about seeing it as revenue generating agency but I know it will generate something. Like the international I said we are going to have, of course, a lot of money will come into the programme. Companies, corporate bodies, and high net worth individuals will contribute money. We will depend on a lot of sponsorship; we will not depend solely on government to finance and fund all these programmes.

Government can fund Ahiajoku Festival but we don’t expect the government to fund every other thing we are doing. So, we are expecting that in partnership with corporate bodies and organisations and high net-worth individuals, a lot of money will flow and people will register for some of these things to be able to participate. So, at the end of the day, we will not just breakeven, we will make some money for the government, you know. But the whole idea is not about money making. Life and living is not necessarily about money making, but if you add value to the society, which is what the whole idea is all about. It is going to add a lot of value.

The tourism aspect?

Yes, that is the tourism aspect you are talking about because we also want to promote the Mbari cultural element; we have it here and so much can be done with that Mbari. So, when we have a cultural festival and we invite people from outside to come and see what we have to offer. And they come here and stay; we have a lot of hotels. If what they have seen interests them, they will come back another time. So, Imo can actually become the tourism, cultural and intellectual hub of this country if it uses the vehicle of Ahiajoku Institute to actualise some of the things we have put on the table.

Any plans to incorporate the Igbo Nollywood version into the institute’s programme?
They are covered by those things I listed. When I mentioned music, I mentioned theatre; they are all part of it. So, Nollywood will be part of the people we will be interested in what they do once in a while, we can invite them for a talk. So that they can give us an idea of the areas we can collaborate and work together, then, whether it is workshop or conference or anything we can do about the festival and organise it, we will work in collaboration with them. So, we have an open house where people can come and share ideas with us and based on those ideas we can implement something tangible. You must culture and language and if you don’t have a culture you don’t exist. These are the bases of human existence. And people must go back to their roots. To promote these things otherwise you will be floating on the surface of reality.

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

Harriet As Igbo

Cynthia Chinasaokwu Erivo as Harriet Tubman in a scene from "Harriet." Image: Glenn Wilson/Associated Press

BY BIKO AGOZINO

This is not a spoiler. “Harriet” is a film without spoilers because the audience already can tell how the movie was going to end. What I would like to comment on are the symbolic representations that the director, Kasi Lemmons, brought into the narrative that will not make sense to viewers who are not familiar with the background Igbo world views of both Harriet Tubman and the actress who played that role, Cynthia Chinasaokwu Erivo.

Some critics reportedly protested against the casting of the award-winning “British” actress and singer to play the role of the iconic African American hero but if only the protesters knew that it is a case of an Igbo woman being portrayed by another Igbo woman. Besides, African Americans have played the roles of Africans in Hollywood without protests from Africans, who simply admire good acting by our Black brothers and sisters.

There was a carving that the father of Minty, short for Araminta, gave her when she went to tell him that she was fleeing to freedom from slavery. She kept it with her always just as Frederick Douglass kept a piece of wood that an elderly enslaved man gave him after he was beaten by an overseer. According to Douglass, no one ever beat him again in his life for he kept that piece of wood with him, just as the old man told him.


The Igbo call such a piece of wood or carving, Ofo na Ogu, the symbol of innocence and blessings. The director, Kasi Lemmons, was probably reminding us throughout the movie that Harriet Tubman held Ofo and Ogu as a blessed innocent person and that that, in addition to her strong faith in God, was part of the reasons why she was bold in fighting for freedom from slavery for all, unlike Django who only went back to unchain his boo.

Harriet repeatedly claimed that she heard the voice of God but that was attributed, even by Black abolitionists, to “possible brain damage” from her head injury as a child when she was found in a barn with the white boy. The Igbo will agree with her claim that she heard the voice of God because the Igbo also believe that God is present in everyone as Chi, or God, a part of the Great God or Chiukwu, also known as Chineke, God the creator. Such a God or Chi would never subscribe to the pro-slavery gospel that the Black preacher was paid to preach to the congregation of the enslaved who were called upon to obey their masters and work hard for them as an honor to a white God. Harriet did not say amen to that prayer.

It is a shame that the leading actress, Cynthia Erivo, chose to go by her English first name when her Igbo name would have been more appropriate to the role. Chinasaokwu, the name that her Igbo parents gave her in England when she was born, means God answers accusations. Just as Minty dropped her slave name and chose a free name, perhaps to evade slave catchers who continued to search for runaway enslaved people especially after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, Cynthia should be challenged by her fans to drop the slave name and adopt her Igbo name, Chinasa, as her first name in honor of Harriet if not in honor of her own family. Her real last name, Erivo, literally translates as the unfed or the starving, a strange name that echoes memories of the mass starvation of the Igbo in Biafra, during which 3.1 million died. The actress owes it to herself to recover her Igbo name as her first name.

Incidentally, the name Harriet and her original slave name, Araminta, may have onomatopeic meanings in Igbo as Ha aya eti – they will never beat us – and Ala mu nta – my little land, or Aninta, a common Igbo name. Hayeti is, by coincidence, similar to the name that the Haitian Igbo revolutionaries gave to their new republic – Ayeti – and that is the way they still spell it in creole today, like the way that Harriet said that people pronounced Rit, her mother’s name that she took. It means in Igbo, they will never beat us. Even the name of the director of this movie, Kasi, also transliterates in Igbo as to console, suggesting the consolation for those who have suffered great injustice without being offered reparative justice.

Moreover, the name Moses that was attributed to Harriet by almost everyone, may also have an Igbo-sounding meaning – Moshishi, or the spirit said to say. The enslavers could not believe that an African woman was capable of leading such daring raids to free the enslaved and lead them to freedom in their hundreds. They claimed that she was a white abolitionist in “blackface,” which must have been a popular pastime of influential white men then and even now.

The Harriet model of womanist activism can be found in Ogu Umunwanyi, during which Igbo women declared war against colonialism in 1929, only 16 years after Harriet passed away; the Abeokuta women’s rebellion against taxation in 1945; the Kikuyu women’s uprising against forced labor in the 1950s; the South African women’s defiance against the pass laws of apartheid in the 1950s; and the Liberian women’s praying of the devil back to hell to end the bloody civil war in the 1990s.

Unlike Western feminist activists who seek gender-separatism, the Africana womanists are exemplary in the sense that their demands always included the interests of suffering men and women in articulation or intersectionality instead of seeking divisive gender essentialism. This is part of the reasons why Professor Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi theorized that womanism was more appropriate than feminism as a description of the interests of African women within cultures that also inevitably include men as allies who can also be opponents in some ways but cannot be pigeon-holed essentially as all the enemies of “womandom.” The film, “Harriet,” showed that not even all white men were enemies during slavery given the important role played by white abolitionists, though some white women were among the worst enslavers and some Black men worked for the slave catchers to earn some money.

Harriet was fond of singing the freedom song, “Go down, Moses, go down to Egypt land and tell old Pharaoh to let my people go,” as a rallying signal for the enslaved to join the underground railroad to freedom. The biblical Moses was called an Egyptian and so, Harriet was not a Black Moses – the biblical Moses was obviously not white. The fact that Harriet was suspected to be a man goes to challenge the Western invention of women as gendered in submissive relations under patriarchy whereas gender is not a central feature of the conception of people in African cultures where generation, not gender, is more deferential and hegemonic, according to Oyeronke Oyemumi in “The Invention of Women.”

Harriet carried a gun with her for protection and used it to threaten some of her own family members who were too scared to go with her to freedom. But when she had the opportunity to shoot and kill her enslavers, she chose not to kill. This may seem strange to many fans of Hollywood who have come to expect the hero to be a blood-thirsty maniac in Tarantino movies. However, to the Igbo who suffered genocide, pogroms and mass killings in Nigeria without resorting to retaliatory killings, it is normal to leave the gravest wrongs in the hands of our Chi and instead invest our energies into rebuilding our beloved communities in accordance with the African philosophy of nonviolence that Gandhi admitted that he was taught in Africa and Martin Luther King Jr. followed to lead the Civil Rights Movement.

A puzzle that the film tried to solve was why many poor whites who did not enslave Africans continued to fight in support of what the film called the “lost cause” of slavery even after the Africans had asserted their right to freedom as fellow human beings. W.E.B. Du Bois explained this with the theory of the psychological wages of whiteness.

However, the film differed slightly from the conventional interpretation of this theory by explaining that, according to Du Bois, it was not just psychological wages because there were huge structural privileges to even poor whites that they would like to defend – not to mention the hefty rewards placed on the heads of “Moses” and the runaway enslaved people to motivate poor whites to join the posse to try and recapture them.

Also, the young white men were motivated by their lust for the bodies of young Black girls who were gang raped even “before their first blood” perhaps because they were brought up to think of Black girls as “pigs to be sold or eaten” but never to be loved by white men who fathered children that looked exactly like them and still enslaved their own flesh and blood or sold them for money.

The film represented Harriet leading a unit of African American soldiers in battle during the Civil War at the historic Combahee River point of the Black Womanist Rebellion statement. This was the only time that a woman commanded men in battle during the Civil War. It came to pass in fulfillment of the vision that Harriet shared with the young white man who was trying to recapture her as his property even though she prayed for him to survive typhoid as a child.

She had disarmed him and made him climb down from his white horse, knelt him down and aimed his own rifle at him, and told him to listen to the coming sounds of the Civil War even before the war started. She prophesied that he was going to die with thousands of other young white men fighting for a lost cause.

Then she rode off on his white horse, which did not discriminate between a white male rider and a black female rider. That war soon took an estimated 750,000 lives but it could have been avoided if white people simply accepted the fact that Black people were equally human and not property. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Dr. Agozino is a Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Virginia Tech. He can be reached at agozino@vt.edu.

SOURCE: SAN FRANCISCO BAY VIEW

Ireland-Based Women Group Empowers Children With Disabilities

Image courtesy of Anambra State Association Women Ireland

BY OSIBEROHA OSIBE

AWKA, ANAMBRA (THE GUARDIAN)--A non-governmental organisation has empowered three special centres in Anambra State and tasked wealthy members of the public to see it as a challenge to give hope and succour to the less privileged.

The group, Anambra State Association Women Ireland (ASA WOMEN Ireland) presented school desks with chairs, wheel chairs, computers and accessories, among other educational equipment to Recdott Secondary School, Ozubulu, Diocesan Special Education Centre, Nnewi, and Special Education Centre, Umuchu, all in the state.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, the group’s President, Lady Theodora Ayagwu said the organisation, comprising of women of Anambra State descent, was formed and registered in 2012 to uplift the less privileged in the state.

Ayagwu said they mobilise for fund and materials abroad and channel them home to add value and give back to society. She said aside donating school materials, the group also carries out cancer awareness for women.Also, the group’s Vice President, Nonye Anuche said the gesture was to give children with disabilities a sense of belonging, especially during the festive period.

Anuche berated parents, who hide children with disabilities, urging them to bring them out for proper care.Delivering a paper entitled, World of Disability and Health, a lecturer with Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Dr. Ifeyinwa Iloh, said people should focus more on abilities, rather than disabilities of an individual, stressing that there is ability in any disability.

I Will Respect Independence Of Imo Judiciary ― Ihedioha

Emeka Ihedioha

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI, IMO STATE (VANGUARD)--Governor Emeka Ihedioha of Imo State, weekend, reiterated his campaign promise to “respect and uphold the independence of the State Judiciary”. Ihedioha, who stated this when he swore-in nine new Judges in Owerri, also reassured the citizenry that his administration would religiously stick to the rule of law.

“It is not in doubt that the twin factors of Independence of the Judiciary and full observance of the rule of law, are the panacea for good governance. This administration will observe and respect all of them”, Ihedioha said. While saying that “the three arms of government must coexist as separate organs of government independently, but collaboratively,”

Ihedioha equally disclosed that his administration has maintained a symbiotic relationship with other arms of government, assuring that plans were in top gear, to enhance the status of the judicial system in the State after several years of palpable neglect. “We have reconstituted the Judicial Service Commission. We have started the renovation of the Judges Quarters. We have also ensured payment of salaries and allowances of Judges as at when due and provided official guards for them”, Ihedioha said. He explained that his administration achieved these feats within a short period of time, despite the prevailing financial constraints. The Governor revealed that, of the 33 Judges recommended for an appointment across the federation by the National Judicial Council, NJC, nine Judges, the highest, was approved for Imo State. “The NJC approved nine Judges for Imo State, which is the highest, trailed by Rivers State, which got approval for four Judges. This is a testimony of our unwavering resolve to entrenching the tenets of rule of law in our State, which can be achieved with an efficient and formidable judiciary”, Ihedioha said.

He recalled steps taken by his administration on assumption of office to boost the State judiciary, which led to the appointment of magistrates, Inspectors of Court, bailiffs and other judicial staff. While noting that these measures were taken to ensure an effective justice delivery system in the State, the Governor advised the new Judges to discharge their duties fairly and ensure they do justice to all manner of people without fear or favour. Speaking earlier, the Chief Judge of Imo State, Justice Paschal Nnadi, said “Governor Emeka Ihedioha has revitalized the Judiciary in the State, and this has translated to numerous gains to the judicial system, including expeditious handling of cases”, Justice Nnadi said. He expressed gratitude to the Governor for “rejuvenating the judiciary and assured that the judiciary in the State, will continue to serve justice to all”. Justice Ihuoma Grace Chukwunyere, who spoke on behalf of the newly inaugurated Judges, assured that they will uphold the law at all times.

2020: Real Reasons Igbo Should Not Be talking Of Presidency Now – Sen. Abaribe

Enynnaya Abaribe. Image: Twitter

BY SEUN OPEJOBI

The Senate Minority Leader, Eyinnaya Abaribe, has pointed out reasons why the South East should not be talking about 2023 presidency now.

Abaribe stated that the South East should be talking about teaming up with others to make Nigeria a better place and not 2023 presidency.

The Abia South Senator in a chat with Vanguard also lamented that the structure of the country was very bad, hence the need to jettison calls for presidency.

He said: “I think what you are doing now is that you are also creating this same thing that we are decrying. We are saying that it is too early for anybody to be talking about who will take whatever and the times are very dire. And instead of looking at that you are asking other questions.

“OK, an Igbo becoming the next President, if it doesn’t change your life today, in what way will that help you? So, what we are interested in is how do we get this country to be better and I have made this point repeatedly before and let me repeat it: the structure of the country should be changed before we start thinking about who gets what and I believe and I stay on that.

“The structure is so bad that it is very difficult for you to make the country work. That’s the point. At the moment, the country has turned into a unitary government and we merely mouth federalism.

“And so, it makes it near impossible for you to even do mere security. A local government chairman can’t even secure his environment and he’s called the chief security officer of his local government. He can’t call a DPO to say ‘how do we secure our area?”

SOURCE: DAILY POST