Service And Advocacy Help Ogechi Akalegbere Live Out Love, And Her Faith, In Action

BY MARK ZIMMERMANN

THE CATHOLIC STANDARD

Ogechi Akalegbere, the Christian service coordinator at Connelly School of the Holy Child in Potomac, Maryland and a member of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Gaithersburg, received the 2021 Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award on Nov. 16 during the U.S. Catholic bishops’ fall meeting in Baltimore. Image: Connelly School of the Holy Child

Ogechi Akalegbere laughed as she reflected on the meaning of her name in the Igbo language of Nigeria, where she was born before immigrating to the United States as an infant with her family.

“My name Ogechi means ‘God’s time,’ which is funny, because I’m the most impatient person ever!” she said, joking about the irony of her name and the belief that things eventually unfold “in God’s time.”

Akalegbere, the Christian service coordinator at Connelly School of the Holy Child in Potomac, Maryland and the co-chair of the pastoral council at her home parish, St. Rose of Lima in Gaithersburg, also serves as a board member and community organizer for an advocacy group in her county, AIM (Action in Montgomery).

Interviewed for the Catholic Standard’s Black Catholic Voices series before receiving the 2021 Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award award at a Nov. 16 reception during the U.S. bishops’ fall meeting in Baltimore, Akalegbere reflected on her faith, her church and community service, and how her name ties it all together.

In 2020 before the pandemic, Ogechi Akalegbere got together with her mother and asked her why she and her two brothers and a sister all had Igbo names, while their parents were named Angela and Geoffrey. Her mother explained that after Nigeria gained its independence in 1960, she wanted her children’s names to reflect their Nigerian identity and their faith.

“I’ve grown to love it, because it makes me who I am, and it really melds together my faith and culture in just one simple name,” Akalegbere said.

And in mid-November, “in God’s time,” Akalegbere, who is 33, stepped forward to receive, the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award, which she said she accepted as a “proud Nigerian American.”

The award from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the anti-poverty program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, recognizes a young adult who demonstrates leadership in fighting poverty and injustice through community-based solutions. The honor is named for the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death 25 years ago from pancreatic cancer in November 1996. Cardinal Bernardin played a key role in CCHD’s founding and was also known for his leadership as the U.S. bishops in 1983 adopted a pastoral letter against nuclear warfare. He also spoke out strongly for a consistent ethic of life, where human life would be respected in all its stages and circumstances.

In the Black Catholic Voices interview, Akalegbere said it was a great honor to receive an award named for Cardinal Bernardin.

“To be recognized in such up a big way, especially a way that really ties in my faith, my service work and my passion for diversity and justice in a beautiful way is just a testament to how following God’s will and trying to just do your own part in God’s will, can really shape and encourage other people,” she said, later adding, “Cardinal Bernardin was a huge mover and shaker in the social justice movement. I almost wish like, could we look back at what he talked about it, and live it out today?”

After accepting the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award, Akalegbere said, “I grew up having an understanding of God through encounters with people that God has placed in my life… The Holy Spirit has pointed me along paths to serve the community around me.”

She noted that as a high school student, her first exposure to advocacy came at the end of Mass, when someone spoke about the DREAM Act that was being proposed in Maryland because some students were ineligible to pay in-state tuition because of their immigration status.

Later after returning home from college, she joined AIM, a CCHD-funded organization that she described as a “broad-based, non-partisan, multi-faith, multi-racial community organization rooted in Montgomery County’s neighborhoods and congregations.” With AIM, she trained low-income and immigrant parents to advocate for equitable access to school resources.

In her acceptance speech, Akalegbere said she learned lessons in community organizing that guide her social justice work, like “never do for others that which they could do for themselves,” which she said reflects the Catholic understanding of subsidiarity. She said she has also learned that the Holy Spirit emboldens people to hold leaders accountable and to point out social inequities.

Another lesson, she said, is the importance of encountering people and hearing their stories. “Stories told are windows into the experiences of our neighbors. How do we truly know our neighbors, if we don’t get to know them? What keeps them up at night? What prevents them from thriving?” she asked.

That work in community organizing has shaped her current role as a diversity, equity and inclusion speaker and trainer for parishes and schools. “I am honored that the Lord has seen fit that I do good things for others,” she said.

In her Black Catholic Voices interview, Akalegbere spoke about her work as the Christian service coordinator at Connelly School of the Holy Child.

“I think that service is one of the ways that I can live out love in action, and being able to encourage students, and young girls especially, to figure out how they can use their gifts in service for others is a real blessing,” she said.

Some of Akalegbere’s favorite service projects at her school include an intergenerational Zoom call that students join with the elderly and continue friendships with them. She especially enjoys the opportunities for students to go out into the community and serve meals and have a game night and other activities with women at the Saint Josephine Bakhita Shelter in Washington, which she said allows students “to recognize there is humanity even in those that are so often deemed voiceless or invisible by society.”

Serving her parish community on its pastoral council and serving the larger community through AIM are experiences that have helped her grow as a Catholic, she said, adding, “That has really helped shape why I am Catholic and how I can live out that faith in a tangible way, and I’ve also grown as a citizen in my community, really recognizing the inequities that are around me.”

In response to the nationwide protests in 2020 following the killings of unarmed Black men and women by police, Akalegbere has been very active as an organizer with the group Catholics United for Black Lives. She said working for racial justice through a Catholic lens helps “teach others that organizing and social movements are not in conflict at all with our Catholic call, in fact, it’s one of the most beautiful ways we can live that out.”

Akalegbere said the fact that people of color – Blacks, Latinos and Indigenous people – were hardest hit by the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on longstanding inequities and how a “throwaway culture” victimizes the poor and vulnerable.

“Our health, our value, everybody’s value is intertwined, and my hope is that as we move towards whatever this new normal looks like, we remember the lessons learned and we remember the people left behind and forgotten and hurt the hardest,” she said.

The Synod process underway in the Catholic Church around the world will provide important opportunities for people to encounter one another and hear and learn from their stories, Akalegbere said.

“If you don’t know your neighbor, you cannot advocate for and recognize the humanity of that neighbor, and so for the Catholic Church collectively, the Synod is a great step, if we invite everyone that is often voiceless to the table… If we continue to have those encounters and conversations and really listen and really do the work of seeking reconciliation with one another, we can start to solve the problem of racism, but understanding that just listening is not the end step. Listening is actually the beginning to a process of reconciliation and personal change and systemic change, as well.”

Akalegbere said in her prayer life she tries to be open to how the Holy Spirit is leading her, and in recent years that led her to volunteer to serve as a catechist, which she said has deepened her understanding of the Catholic faith, “because I have to be able to explain it to middle school students.”

She recommends that young adults try to find a home parish if they don’t have one. For her, that has been St. Rose of Lima, which she has attended since she was young. “This parish has really shaped who I am… I just call this place home,” she said, explaining that she has received most of her sacraments there, from her First Communion through matrimony.

As young adults navigate life in a transient area like Washington, Akalegbere said finding a home parish can help them “grow roots and friendships and relationships” that help sustain their faith. She also encouraged them to become more involved at their parish, and join a program or group or even start one.

When she accepted the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award, Akalegbere also had advice for the nation’s bishops, and for others engaged in working for justice.

“The Holy Spirit challenges all of us gathered here today. Dear bishops, I ask that you never grow comfortable. We all must never, ever grow comfortable. Tension and discomfort marked so much of the Gospels,” she said, adding, “We look to you all for hope and guidance. In your leadership be a witness to solidarity and subsidiarity, get in the trenches of your dioceses, and truly engage in deep encounters with people of all backgrounds and cultures. Not for an event or a moment but deep encounters and exchanges that elicit the depths of the other’s humanity. Be a weaver, not a shredder of the beautiful tapestry of our faith.”

The young woman whose name means “God’s time” emphasized, “Disciples will never be comfortable if we are doing justice right. Listen to the stirring of the Holy Spirit and act with strength and courage.”

The Nwelue Legacy: Emancipation Of Slaves And Their Education

BY ONYEKA NWELUE

In 1821, centuries after the Portuguese first arrived and met with the Igbo people in the 15th century, as my recently deceased grand-uncle Nze Christopher Nnadum would tell me, my paternal great-great-grandfather, Nze Ukwu Nnadum, asked that Nwangborie Iwundu, a woman from Umuezeala Nsu, who was sold into slavery to the Portuguese merchants, be allowed to return to Nsu, from where she had been taken as a slave and sold to the Portuguese.

It was Nwangborie Iwundu who brought Christianity to my village and helped begin the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1903.

A scene played out in my people’s history. It is about Nwangborie Iwundu. When the envoy of Eze Nsu Palace travelled, they heard someone speak like them; in the same accent and intonation.

When my grand-uncle told me the story of my paternal great-great-grandfather, Nze Ukwu Nnadum, how he was the Royal Court Adjudicator at the King’s Palace and how he translated for the Palace when the Portuguese arrived in my town, I needed to know how he learnt to translate.

That question was never answered because nobody knew. It’s still a mystery that I am trying to understand today. However, I am quite sure that I belong to the Nze na Ozo caste, which is the caste of intellectuals.

According to this story published by Vanguard newspapers: ‘Imo community marks 100 years of Christianity’,

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/12/imo-community-marks-100-years-christianity/, “Madam Nwangborie Iwundu born on Orie day, the second market day in Igbo land was renowned as a woman who God used to introduce and advance Christianity in Ezeoke land and neighbouring towns. She was sold into slavery, waiting to be transported to the western world to serve in tobacco and sugar cane plantations.

As history has it, men from Ezeoke-Nsu notably oil merchants but nicknamed “Ndi Potokiri” (Ekeoba, Duru Ochie etc) travelled to Arochukwu to sell palm oil to the Portuguese; while these men were in the market, they came in contact with a woman called Nwangborie who spoke Igbo with Nsu accent. Through some interrogations, these men discovered that Nwangborie Iwundu was a native of Umuezeala-Nsu, a neighbouring town to Ezeoke-Nsu. She narrated that, she was sold into slavery by her own people as she then resided in the king’s palace as one of the king’s concubines.

Consequently, the men from Ezeoke-Nsu informed Madam Nwan-gborie that slavery had been abolished in their land and Madam Nwan-gborie showed immense interest to return home and settle with her people. She was given directions on how to locate home.”

Looking back at this time in history, one can afford to conclude that it was the power of language, the language of authenticity, the authenticity of the woman to even stick to her accent, that saved her.

Her authentic voice was her salvation.

Nze Ukwu Nnadum, my ancestor, as I was told, was the Royal Court Adjudicator who interpreted languages and laws for the people. He belonged to the Nze na Ozo caste, which is part of the Igbo caste system.

Today, they can be compared to the Senate and House of Representatives – or, broadly, as a member of the House of Parliament. As widely known, the Nze na Ozo society is the highest and most important spiritual, religious, and social grouping in the Igbo society of Southeast Nigeria. Initiation into the aristocratic Nze na Ozo society marks the person as nobility, but it is hereditary.

Other castes are not allowed into this sect because there is a certain way they communicate and carry themselves, with the utmost elegance, just like one conscious of his genealogy. The Nze na Ozo caste comes after the Diala caste – who are known to be the landowners.

Almost every 20th of December, or thereabouts, there is the Mbom Uzo (Ibo Uzo in Igbo Izugbe) Festival, which celebrates the homecoming of Urashi to Nsu. This festival was so elaborate in the past and observed by many, with the rituals that would take place before the procession of people to the market. Slowly, the traditions of Ezeoke Nsu began to fade away. Nothing much is practised there. Now, the question is, how do we restore the visibility of these gorgeous festivals.

With the advent of Christianity, there is a breakdown in the hierarchy, and people began to refuse to adhere to classification, which I assume is important in keeping society in check.

For the legacy of Nwelue Nnadum, we are doing our best to also remember his birth on 20th December every year.

Onyeka Nwelue is an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford’s African Studies Centre as well as the author of 11 books, including ‘The Strangers of Braamfontein.’

------------------VANGUARD

Failed State? Why Nigeria’s Fragile Democracy Is Facing An Uncertain Future

BY PETER BEUMONT

Dr Chike Akunyili, a prominent surgeon in Nigeria’s southern state of Anambra, was murdered along with his police guard last month


A series of overlapping security, political and economic crises has left Nigeria facing its worst instability since the end of the Biafran war in 1970.

With experts warning that large parts of the country are in effect becoming ungovernable, fears that the conflicts in Africa’s most populous state were bleeding over its borders were underlined last week by claims that armed Igbo secessionists in the country’s south-east were now cooperating with militants fighting for an independent state in the anglophone region of neighbouring Cameroon.



The mounting insecurity from banditry in the north-west, jihadist groups such as Boko Haram in the north-east, violent conflict between farmers and pastoralists across large swathes of Nigeria’s “middle belt”, and Igbo secessionists in the south-east calling for an independent Biafra once again, is driving a brain drain of young Nigerians. It has also seen the oil multinational Shell announce that it is planning to pull out of the country because of insecurity, theft and sabotage.

Among recent prominent victims of the lethal violence was Dr Chike Akunyili, a prominent physician in Nigeria’s southern state of Anambra, ambushed as he returned from a lecture to commemorate the life of his wife, Dora, who had been the head of the country’s national food and drug agency.

Who killed the widower and his police guard remains unclear. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an Igbo secessionist movement whose militancy has grown increasingly violent and which has vowed to prevent November’s elections for governor in Anambra state, has denied involvement. So too has the security agency, the Department of State Services. Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers, who also killed his driver, were shouting that there would be no elections in Anambra.

What is clear, however, is that Akunyili’s murder is far from an isolated event in Africa’s second-largest economy – a country facing multiple and overlapping challenges that have plunged many areas into violence and lawlessness.

From Boko Haram’s jihadist insurgency in the north, to the escalating conflict between farmers and pastoralists, a growing piracy crisis in the Gulf of Guinea and the newly emboldened Igbo secessionists, Nigeria – under the presidency of the retired army general Muhammadu Buhari since 2015 – is facing a mounting sense of crisis as elections approach in 2023.

Those security issues are in addition to a series of other problems, including rising levels of poverty, violent crime and corruption amid an increasing sense that the central government, in many places, is struggling to govern.

All of which has prompted dire warnings from some observers about the state of Nigeria’s democracy.

One of the bleakest was the analysis delivered by Robert Rotberg and John Campbell, two prominent US academics – the latter a former ambassador to Nigeria – in an essay for Foreign Policy in May that attracted considerable debate.

“Nigeria has long teetered on the precipice of failure,” they argued. “Unable to keep its citizens safe and secure, Nigeria has become a fully failed state of critical geopolitical concern. Its failure matters because the peace and prosperity of Africa and preventing the spread of disorder and militancy around the globe depend on a stronger Nigeria.”

Even among those who dispute the labelling of Nigeria as a fully failed state accept that insecurity is rising.

Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, accepts that insecurity exists but insists the country is winning the war against its various insurgents.

“I live in Nigeria, I work in Nigeria and I travel all around Nigeria and I can tell you Nigeria is not a failed state,” Mohammed told the BBC.

But if the murder of Chike Akunyili represents anything, it is the dangers facing Nigerians in many parts of the country. This has prompted some to argue that the country’s centralised federal model, a legacy of independence and the long years of military rule, is in need of reform.

While Nnamdi Obasi, who follows Nigeria for the International Crisis Group, would not yet brand Nigeria a failed state, he sees it as a fragile one with the potential for the situation to worsen without radical improvements in governance.

“I’d say the country is deeply challenged on several fronts,” he said from Abuja. “It’s challenged in terms of its economy and people’s livelihoods.

“There is a sense of disappointment in the fact that the country hasn’t developed as people had expected and has suffered reversals in poverty and youth unemployment. Then there’s the dearth of infrastructure and a generally very poor quality of services.

“On the security front there are several main areas of concern. The first is the north-east, which is where Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) are located.

“In the north-west there are armed groups who are generally referred to as bandits but who have, in a sense, grown beyond that definition of ‘bandit’. [Recently] they attacked a military camp in Sokoto state and killed 12 military personnel.

“Then there is the old problem in the Niger delta [Nigeria’s main oil-producing region], which remains unresolved.”

But the Niger delta’s bubbling disquiet has in recent years been eclipsed by other conflicts – particularly that between pastoral herders and farmers in Nigeria’s central belt, and the re-emergence of an armed Biafran nationalist movement in the Igbo south-east. This separatist activity is happening for the first time since the end of the Biafran war, from 1967 to 1970, which led to widespread starvation and left a million people dead.

For many Nigeria experts, the lesson is not to be found in the individual parts of the crisis but in the way they are beginning to bleed into one another.

As Obasi points out, the conflicts between nomadic herders and farmers have been in part driven by the displacement south of pastoralists from the north-east and north-west by the insecurity in those regions, while a widening sense of impunity across Nigeria has driven people to arm themselves.

“Insecurity seems almost nationwide,” said Obasi. “People have difficulty moving from one city to another, with kidnappings and danger on the highways.

“It is going from a largely governed country with a few ungoverned spaces to a place where there are a few governed spaces while in the rest of the country governance has retreated.”

It bodes ill for Nigeria’s democratic system of civilian government, adopted in 1999 after long years of military rule that began in 1966 apart from a brief four-year interregnum during President Shehu Shagari’s second Nigerian republic, which ended in 1983.

It was Buhari – who now calls himself a “converted democrat” – who succeeded him as head of state after he overthrew Shagari’s government in a military coup.

While the 2011 elections were seen by the US as being among the “most credible and transparent elections since the country’s independence”, Nigeria’s politics have long been complicated by an unwritten agreement among its elites that power should rotate between a figure from the Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian south every two terms. With Buhari’s two terms due to end in 2023, power will then – in theory at least – rotate to the south.

Leena Koni Hoffman, a research associate at the Chatham House thinktank and a member of the Nigerian diaspora, says ordinary Nigerians feel “vulnerable” and “grim”, suggesting that the rotational system of government may no longer be fit for purpose.

“The agreement negotiated by the elites is broken. It is not inclusive and the democratic dividend is not being distributed,” she said.

The consequence, she adds, has been that Nigeria’s politics has fractured, with “people exploiting ethnic and religious differences to give people answers that match questions in any part of Nigeria”.

“To give you an idea of the scale of the conflict happening in Nigeria, I could show you a map coloured pink for where violence is happening – it is pink all over.

“For a country that has not been at war since the Biafran war that ended in 1970 – and in the middle of the longest stretch of civilian democracy – to be experiencing this scale of intense violence should be alarming,” she said.

“We knew a long time ago that the country’s rural population had little security, but now we understand they are being exposed to violent non-state actors who have worked out that the security apparatus is hollowed out.

“My family comes from the middle belt. My father is a retired accountant who wants to farm but he can’t be in his home town because it has been decimated by violence. You hear of incidents where 30 people are killed here, a dozen there. Villages attacked.

“More and more communities are seeing that the government is not stepping in with its security forces and are forming their own vigilante groups.”

Aggravating the sense of a state being hollowed out is an under-resourced and overwhelmed judicial system that has left ordinary Nigerians with little expectation of access to justice.

Writing on Facebook after his death, Akunyili’s daughter described their last conversation the day before his killing, with questions that many Nigerians are asking.

“I asked him if he was being careful and he assured me that he was, going on to add that he never went out any more and was sure to be home by six. Convinced, I reminded him to be even more careful and to take care of himself.

“We can choose a different path,” she added, referring to ubuntu, a concept of humanity and community based on the idea: “I am because we are.”

“This current [path] leads to more senseless death and pain for one too many,” she said.

---------------------------THE LONDON GUARDIAN OCTOBER 25, 2021

The World Finally Has A Malaria Vaccine. Now It Must Invest In It

BY NGOZI OKONJO IWEALA

A health worker prepares a malaria vaccination at Yala hospital in western Kenya in October. A widespread rollout could save tens of thousands of children’s lives. Photograph: Brian Ongoro/AFP/Getty



As an economist I know it makes financial as well as ethical sense to get this world-first vaccine to the millions who need it

vividly remember the day I learned a harsh lesson in the tragic burden of malaria that too many of us from the African continent have endured. I was 15, living amid the chaos of Nigeria’s Biafran war, when my three-year-old sister fell sick. Her body burning with fever, I tied her on my back and carried her to a medical clinic, a six-mile trek from my home.

We arrived at the clinic to find a huge crowd trying to break through locked doors. I knew my sister’s condition could not wait. I dropped to the ground and crawled between legs, my sister propped listlessly on my back, until I reached an open window and climbed through. By the time I was inside, my sister was barely moving. The doctor worked rapidly, injecting antimalarial drugs and infusing her with fluids to rehydrate her body. In a few hours, she started to revive. If we had waited any longer, my sister might not have survived.

Thinking about that day, I consider how far we have traveled in the fight against malaria, with the recent historic announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO) recommending the world’s first malaria vaccine (RTS,S) to reduce illness and death across regions where children are at risk. As part of a package of interventions, tailored to local malaria conditions, the vaccine could save tens of thousands of young lives every year – especially among the most vulnerable, as my little sister was.

Since 2019, more than 800,000 African children have had at least one dose of the RTS,S vaccine as part of a pilot in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. Now, with the right investment, millions more children could be immunised and grow up with less malaria, fewer hospitalisations and healthier lives.

Malaria is emotional – it strikes suddenly and kills our children. But I am an economist, so I put emotion aside to consider whether the vaccine is a good investment.

Malaria impoverishes countries. A 2001 study estimated per capita income levels in malaria-endemic countries to be 70% lower, and malaria results in $12bn (£9bn) in lost productivity around the world each year. Some countries spend up to 40% of their public health budget treating the disease. This is the stark divide that malaria creates every day in Africa and one that a malaria vaccine can help close. Analysis of data from 180 countries demonstrates a clear link between a reduction in the burden of malaria and faster economic growth.
I urge the global health community to invest on a robust scale so that we may reap the fruits of this breakthrough

Malaria disproportionately affects the poor and hampers the economic development of communities. Malaria has pushed many a working family into poverty. So yes, as an economist, I can say that investment in a malaria vaccine is money well spent – for economic development, for poverty reduction and to reduce inequities.

I applaud the governments, the WHO, its partners and the funders that have supported the pilots that have brought us to this point. I was honoured to chair the board of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, in 2019, when we made important decisions on efforts to bring this vaccine forward. Today, in a different capacity but with the same passion, I urge the global health community to again be bold and invest in the malaria vaccine on a robust scale, so that we may reap the fruits of this breakthrough for children’s health.

My sister is now a doctor, working to save the lives of others, and the mother of three children. Saving children from malaria is about protecting Africa’s future. Despite progress against the disease, millions of Africans have died from malaria since 2000, most of them about the same age as my sister when she became sick. They will not have a chance to become doctors, teachers, farmers, computer programmers or play any other role, or to have and care for their own families.

But with the introduction of the world’s first malaria vaccine, and continued investment, we can curb this terrible disease. The RTS,S vaccine is a cost-effective new tool, something concrete we can act on now to give millions of boys and girls the chance to contribute – and ensure Africa’s economic progress is no longer slowed by malaria.

As the world witnesses tremendous inequities in access to vaccines, and we explore ways to bring vaccine development knowhow and capacity home to Africa, it is our collective responsibility to invest in the malaria vaccine now in our hands, and ensure that it reaches those who need it.


Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the director-general of the World Trade Organization

----------------------THE LONDON GUARDIAN

Mkpuru Mmiri - Drug Chaos In Igboland Escalates!

BY NNAMDI OJIEGO

VANGUARD

An epidemic has hit Igboland. No one is safe. Gory tales litter the space.

On October 19, 2021, a boy allegedly killed his father in Adazi Ani in Anambra State and took the father's N50, 000 just to buy Mkpuru mmiri. He was apprehended by youths of the community, beaten to stupor and burnt alive.

Another died in neighboring community as a result of debilitating effects of Mkpuru mmiri. In Umudioka, Anambra, two siblings, after taking Guzoro, chased their mother with machetes and prevented the woman from coming to the family house for three days until the village vigilante officials intervened.

There are numerous trending videos on social media platforms from different communities in Igbo land of young men, and in some cases, women and under-aged, being tied to beams and trees at public squares, beaten mercilessly for dealing in and taking Mkpuru mmiri. Information emanating from the zone shows that many Igbo youths are going insane, even as some have completely gone mad after drug use. And these are the future of the society.

According to population projections by the United Nations for 2020, about 43 per cent of the Nigerian population comprised children 0-14 years, 19 per cent aged 15-24 years and about 62 per cent are below age 25 years. By contrast, less than five per cent is aged 60 years and above. This makes Nigeria a youthful population with a median age of about 18 years, which is lower than African and world estimates of 20 and 29 respectively.

Escalation

With the above statistics, it is believed that the energy that will power Nigeria into a prosperous future will come from her teeming, vibrant youths. However, with a worrisome escalation in the rate of drugs abuse in the country, this generation of youths may not live to achieve their God-given potentials.

Faced with this existential threat, many stakeholders and prominent individuals of Igbo extraction, including politicians, celebrities, and community leaders, have expressed concerns over the effects of deadly substances and lending their voices for a concerted effort to stem the tide that is capable of wiping a generation of Igbo from the surface of the earth. They are aware that if urgent action is not taken, the Igbo race could be annihilated and the land becomes desolate.

Methamphetamine

What is Mkpuru mmiri that has thrown the South-East into chaos? It is a hard drug called methamphetamine or meth for short. It is called Mkpuru mmiri or ice in local parlance because it looks like ice block. It is also called Guzoro because of euphoria effect one gets after taking it.

According to Wikipedia, methamphetamine is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity.

The US National Institute on Drug Abuse described methamphetamine as a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It takes the form of a white, odourless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol.

Meth was developed early in the 20th century from its parent drug, amphetamine, and was used originally in nasal decongestants and bronchial inhalers. Like amphetamine, methamphetamine causes increased activity and talkativeness, decreased appetite, and a pleasurable sense of well-being or euphoria.

However, methamphetamine differs from amphetamine in that, at comparable doses, much greater amounts of the drug get into the brain, making it a more potent stimulant. It also has longer-lasting and more harmful effects on the central nervous system. These characteristics make it a drug with a high potential for widespread misuse.

In time, it became clear that methamphetamine was dangerously addictive. In the 1970s, the drug was added to the Schedule II list of controlled substances and became illegal except when it is prescribed by a physician for a very limited number of medical conditions.

The activities of the drugs addicts and dealers have become so damaging that town unions and youths associations are taking drastic measures to stamp out the menace from their communities. The situation is made worse and dangerous because there is no quick cure or drug for the addiction. The only treatment is behavioral therapy which is not readily available in Nigeria.

Extreme Measures

Though some people have condemned the manner of punishment meted out to the addicts and peddlers, describing it as barbaric, inhuman and unacceptable, others were of the view that no punishment or measure is too much or harsh for drug abusers considering the havoc the new way of life of some youths is already wreaking in the society.

Miracle Chioma, a concerned Nigerian, in her reaction, described the action as barbaric, stressing that beating the abusers would not stop them from taking the substance.

"These are adults who are already addicted to a particular substance and drug addiction is a chronic disease characterized by compulsive or uncontrollable drug seeking and use despite its harmful consequences", Chioma stated.

"Addiction is a strong disease and these people can't stop taking Mkpuru mmiri by this act of beating them.

"Most drug addicts need long-term and repeated care from a behavioral counsellor or a therapist to stop using the drug completely and recover their lives."

Cane Deliverance

But Ugezu J. Ugezu, a celebrated movie actor and director, in a widely circulated video, supported what he termed 'Cane Deliverance' (flogging) and, specifically, urged all communities to adopt it to save Igbo youths.

According to him, town unions should not wait on government but take the bull by the horns in tackling the problem.

He said: "I want to lend my voice to a raging issue in our land and I am urging presidents-general of town unions, specifically, to wake up from their slumbers and take the bull by the horns.

"What I'm talking about is what is called Mkpuru mmiri that our youths are taking and they are neck-deep into it.

"We don't know how it started or who started it. It could be from those who want to destroy our land and our youths have ignorantly embraced it, little children, especially those who have nothing doing. "Even those that do menial jobs are now into it. You can see it's not a good thing. So I believe that it is through flogging that the madness can be driven out of them.

"I'm glad some communities have started already and I am saying that if your community's constitution does not have provisions for flogging errant youths, let the constitution be amended to make provision for flogging.

"If we leave these children on their own, all of them will be useless.

"The Igbo have structures like age grade, Umunna, etc., let's use these already existing structures to fight and correct these anomalies.

"If we don't take these drastic measures now, in the next three to five years, we will have a bigger disaster in our hands.

"We are talking of the future of our land, so if we allow them to waste their lives, we will be the ultimate losers. We have to start now and it's the town unions that will lead this fight.

"We can't wait for government on this. We must fight this fight ourselves. We must use the cane to whip out the evil spirit in our youths.

"So any child that refuses to listen to good counsel, his body will listen to flogging."

Failure

Speaking in the same vein, a youth leader and Convener of Movement for Grassroots Governance, Comrade Ebelechukwu Ngini, blamed government at all levels for the calamity that has befallen Igbo youths, even as he supported the various measures adopted by communities to fight the scourge including flogging.

Ngini said: "Shaming the drug abusers is getting positive results so far. This may not be the best international practice but it is pragmatic.

"We don't have the luxury of basic mental health facilities, what do you expect us to do? Speak beautiful grammar and fantasize on lofty psychiatric know how?

"No, we must do something to save a generation. So far, flogging has been discouraging many would-have-been users whilst a lot more dropped the habit automatically after such treatment.

"What other results do you want to see? The flogging more than anything brought the menace of this drug to the front burner of discussion now. We can get better but for now, the flogging continues. Don't want to get flogged publicly? Avoid Mkpårå mmiri.

"I am beyond worried. I am much afraid that our greatest asset as a people is being destroyed before our very eyes. The future of every race is their youth and here we are talking about young, even teenage boys and girls getting illicit drugs easily and abusing them.

'I cringe to imagine what will become of us if this plague is not nipped in the bud. The worrisome question is how come meth litters our streets such that even 11-year-olds easily access them like it is Vitamin C? What makes the supply chain this thick and seamless? A question I believe the NDLEA should answer.

State of Emergency

"The cause is primarily the failure of government keeping to their side of the social contract with the people.

"Parents should stop making excuses for errant children and treat children tilting towards bad gangs dispassionately for a stitch in time saves nine.

"That said, I believe we, rather than passing the buck now, ought to declare a state of emergency on the menace.

"I unequivocally commend Anambra youths who have taken it upon ourselves to tackle this hydra-headed monster head-on.

"We must give our best to end the abuse of Mkpårå mmiri before it ends us.

"Many of users turn out to be the worst kind of criminals; gory stories of their escapades are legion. One beheaded his father the other day in Adazi. Many robberies and prostitution there are in a bid to support the illicit drug habit".

Francisca Ike-Nebeolisa, another concerned Igbo, supported Ngini's stance, saying: "Hunting them and treating them as criminals have helped so many of them. That is the reason most communities are adopting this means.

"Whatever means any community adopts to curtail the sale of this killer drug and reduce the rate people take it should be encouraged because, once people are unable to access the substance, it will reduce its spread.

Testimony

Giving credence to the assertions of those in support public shaming, one of the victims, in a testimonial video, stated that the flogging and beating he received saved him from destroying himself and made him a better person.

Ugochukwu, a native of Osumenyi in Anambra, revealed that he was one of those who received severe beatings for indulging in Mkpuru mmiri.

"My town's youth association apprehended me, tied me up and gave me almost 100 strokes of the cane. That was how the drugs left him", he explained.

In the video, he professed his newfound life, stressing that he is now humble and working as an apprentice in a barber's shop.

The victim thanked the youths for dispensing those life-saving strokes and encouraged them to fish out other young boys in need of the therapy that saved him.

Asian Treatment

An anonymous commentator, who claimed that the situation was worse in Imo, his home state, said dealers should receive stiffer punishment.

"Many guys in Imo are mad right now due to Mkpuru mmiri. Government and communities must go after the dealers", he said.

"Imo, like Anambra, is also flogging them. A lot of our brothers who are drug peddlers and who usually travel to other countries to destroy their youths are now home destroying Igbo youths.

"If anyone should be flogged, it should be the dealers. I am even advocating death penalty for the dealers and sellers in our land just like it is done in some countries in Asia. "I will never feel sorry for anyone given life or 50 years in prison or the death penalty for carrying drugs in Asia and other nations. They did not want their youths destroyed. Now I know why."

Depression

Experts have attributed the rate at which people abuse drugs to depression.

According to them, the rate of people who suffer from depression is very high these days, and this makes them indulge in anything that seems to make them happy even when some of them are fully aware of the consequences.

Knowing the addicted

According to WebMD, some of the signs of someone with serious meth addiction include tattered dressing and shabby looks, always picking at hair or skin, loss of appetite and weight, frequent moving of eyes, strange sleeping patterns (staying up for days or even weeks at a time), talkativeness (nonstop talking), insolvency leading to selling of possessions or stealing, angry outbursts or mood swings, and psychotic behaviour such as paranoia and hallucinations.

Quit Notices

While some Igbo communities have started dealing with drug dealers, others are issuing quit warnings to unscrupulous elements. One of the notices read: "With a heart full of sorrow, Nteje Youths have begun a check on those selling and those buying this hard drug called 'Mkpuru mmiri' (ICE)... because it has caused more harm than good to the youths of our land and those involved must be brought to book... "

A public service announcement from Umudioka Improvement Union, Anambra State and signed by the President-General, Hon. Chike Odoji, reads: "This to announce to all indigenes of Umudioka and non-indigenes living in Umudioka that, henceforth, consumption, smoking and sales of Mkpuru mmiri - methamphetamine, Isi na Awa Agu - Colorado (High-level Marijuana), Aju Achu Enwe - Arisona (SK), Stonch - Mkpuru ogwu, Indian Hemp - Marijuana and other substances/illicit drugs have been proscribed in Umudioka and environs.

"Soonest, UIU, in conjunction with NDLEA, anti-cult and other relevant law enforcement agencies, will commence a manhunt for all dealers and consumers within Umudioka.

"You are therefore advised to stay away from any known bunk that deals on the above-prohibited items. We will not spare anyone once apprehended no matter how highly placed."

Blame Judges

Worried about the high rate of drug abuse in the country, Sen. Dimka Hezekiah (Plateau) has sponsored a bill to amend the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) law to check the incidence of light sentencing for drug offenders.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap. N 30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 provides for stringent penalties for persons involved in the importation and exportation of hard drugs such as cocaine or heroin.

These penalties range from life imprisonment to 15 years in jail.

Hezekiah, however, raised concerns that although the Supreme Court had held that the minimum penalty for those dealing in hard drugs was a term of 15 years, some judges of the Federal High Court had continued to pass ridiculously light and illegal sentences on convicts.

"Rather than a term of imprisonment of 15 years, the maximum sentence passed on any convict was a term of 3 years for heroin", the lawmaker said.

"Some of these have been as low as four months imprisonment for 1.44 kg of cocaine.

"Worse still is the fact that when some of the judges pass these light terms of imprisonment, the convicts are further given options of fines, which are not provided for under the NDLEA Act."

Hezekiah further said that the arbitrariness that was being perpetrated by the trial judges by not following the provisions of the Act could lead to corrupt practices and encouragement of the drug trade.

He added that the proposed amendment would close any loopholes by having a clear, unambiguous and unequivocal provision that judges could not vary the sentences provided by the Act.

Generation at Risk

Supporting the bill, Sen. Istifanus Dung (PDP-Plateau) said the prevalence and menace of drugs and their destructive effects on the lives of citizens, particularly youths, had attained an alarming stage.

"A whole generation is at risk of being lost to drugs. The production and sale of illicit drugs require strong regulation and enforcement powered by NDLEA", Dung said.

"And this bill is seeking to strengthen and stiffen the sanctions against drug abuse in such a way that it will end in breaking and ending the destructive drug trade."

Scary Situation

Also speaking, Sen. Abba Moro (PDP-Benue) said: "The bill is germane to the circumstances in which we find ourselves here.

"The scary situation in which we find ourselves in this country today emanates partly from a combination of factors of the proliferation of firearms and light weapons. "The second dimension to our very scary security situation is the question of drugs."

A Ravaging Epidemic - Marwa, NDLEA boss

Meanwhile, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Gen. Buba Marwa, has described the problem of drugs in Nigeria as "a ravaging epidemic", stressing that "it is for this reason that we remained upstanding to do our best with what we have and with the support we have been receiving from the Federal Government.

Marwa, in a recent report, stated that with the support from the Federal Government, foreign partners and stakeholders, Nigeria would win the war against drug abuse and trafficking.

"We plan to go to local governments for sensitisation; we are constrained at this moment with the size of our workforce but with the approval of the President, we have recruited more personnel to increase our size to enable us to go into the local governments so that each local government will eventually have its special command", he said.

According to him, the Federal Government had produced the improved fourth edition of the National Drug Control Master Plan 2021-2025 with the technical support from the UNODC and EU funding.

The document, according to the NDLEA boss, comprehensively addresses four thematic pillars of Supply Reduction, Demand Reduction, Access to Controlled Medicines for Medical Purposes, and Coordination and Governance.

Addicts Need Help

Continuing, Marwa said: "I must say that the use of drugs is an illness, especially when it gets to addiction. They (addicts) can't help themselves, they need to be helped. The efforts will not be towards criminalising or penalising them but to help them to be treated, so we encourage those under drugs to seek treatment. Twenty per cent of the drug users in Nigeria have drug use disorder. They need help and we encourage that."

Imo Lawmaker Calls for Action

In a related development, the lawmaker representing Ideato North in Imo State House of Assembly, Hon. Innocent Egwim, has voiced his concerns that if nothing was done to checkmate the ugly trend and get the youths of the state to say no to the consumption of Mkpuru mmiri and other such drugs, the future of the state would be in jeopardy.

In a motion titled, 'To Curb the Menace of Consumption of Mkpuru Mmiri and Other Killer Hard Drugs Among the Youths of Imo State', and co-sponsored by seven other lawmakers, Egwim said: "The menace of the consumption of Mkpuru mmiri, among others, by the youths of this state is too obvious to be ignored as the non-affordability of the psychoactive hard drugs such cocaine, barbiturate, tramadol, codeine and others has led most of our youths to consume a more deadly, tough and cheaper substance, which they christened Mkpuru mmiri or Guzoro."

The lawmaker explained that the habitual consumption of Mkpuru mmiri has rendered some of "our youths useless by making them mad and sending some to their early graves as its consumption is often associated with health hazards and risks such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular-related illness, mental health problems, sleep deprivation, brain damage and anorexia to list a few.

"Therefore, if nothing is done to checkmate the ugly trend and get the youths of this state to say no to the consumption of Mkpuru mmiri and other such drugs, the future of the state is in jeopardy in terms of getting good pedigree of youths for leadership succession".

Egwim urged the House to prevail on Governor Hope Uzodinma to take appropriate steps to address the situation in Imo before it gets out of hand.

Ndigbo And Fallacy Of Power Not Served A La Carte

BY IKECHUKWU AMAECHI

VANGUARD

NIGERIANS love clichés to bits. But if there is anything they love more than clichés, it is their penchant to determine the fate of Ndigbo based on pre-conceived notions. As the curtain is slowly but inexorably being drawn on the Muhammadu Buhari presidency and the political silly season is, once again, upon us, those two tendencies are manifest.

As 2023 beckons, the buzz phrase these days is the fallacy that power is not served a la carte. Interestingly, that banality is only voiced in reference to the legitimate clamour for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction.

You often hear people speaking tongue-in-cheek that “power is taken and not given”, ostensibly latching onto Gloria Steinem’s phrase that “nobody gives you power; you have to grab it,” without putting it in context as Steinem, an American feminist journalist and social political activist, did.

For instance, fielding questions on Arise Television on August 4, 2020, elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, former Liaison Officer to former President Shehu Shagari, said: “Igbos should not expect power to be served on them, they should build bridges if they want a president of Southeast extraction.” Yakasai insisted that “power is taken and not given.”

While the nature of power in itself involves contestation, the idea that it must always be taken and not given is not true. In Nigeria, power has always been served a la carte since independence in 1960.

When Shehu Shagari became president on October 1, 1979, he did not take power, it was given to him because his ambition was to become a senator before he was handed the presidential ticket of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, at the party’s national convention held at the Casino Cinema, Yaba, on December 12, 1978.

Having been adopted by the Northern political establishment, he easily defeated other more flamboyant, wealthier and politically-astute aspirants like Maitama Sule, Adamu Ciroma, Dr. Olusola Saraki, Joseph Tarka and Professor Muhammed Iyi Abubakar in the primaries. He became Nigeria’s first executive president on a platter of group endorsement, and in spite of himself, having been served power a la carte.

Olusegun Obasanjo was in prison when the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was founded in August 1998 by former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, and other members of the G-34. Yet, in deciding who the party’s presidential candidate would be, Ekwueme, who rallied round the most potent opposition against General Sani Abacha’s transmutation agenda was by-passed for a reluctant Obasanjo. He was served power a la carte.

Having been adopted by the Northern political establishment, he easily defeated other more flamboyant, wealthier and politically-astute aspirants like Maitama Sule, Adamu Ciroma, Dr. Olusola Saraki, Joseph Tarka and Professor Muhammed Iyi Abubakar in the primaries. He became Nigeria’s first executive president on a platter of group endorsement, and in spite of himself, having been served power a la carte.

The late President Umaru Yar’Adua wanted to return to Ahmadu Bello University as a lecturer after his eight-year tour of duty in Katsina State as governor. He neither had the gumption, war-chest nor even the national name recognition to propel him to Aso Rock. Yet, he became president without any struggle. Simply put, he was handed the presidency on a platter of Obasanjo’s whims.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who had run on his own steam three times, only made it to Aso Rock when most Northerners felt that President Goodluck Jonathan’s quest for a second term was not only greed for power taken too far but an unpardonable breach of the rotation principle which favoured the North at the time.

Even members of the PDP from the North, including the then National Chairman, Adamu Mu`azu, worked against Jonathan. In Bauchi State, where Mu’azu was governor for eight years, PDP lost the 2015 presidential election to APC, scoring only 86,085 votes, a paltry 8.4 per cent as against 931,598 polled by APC.

Even during the military era, power was served a la carte to Yakubu Gowon after the bloody July 29, 1966 counter-coup by Northern military officers. He didn’t struggle to become Head of State.

The junior officers who overthrew Gowon in a palace coup d’état on July 29, 1975 handed power over to General Murtala Muhammed. General Joseph Garba, one of the architects of the coup who later became Minister of External Affairs, narrated how Murtala even gave them conditions for accepting the offer.

When Murtala was assassinated on February 13, 1976, reports had it that General Olusegun Obasanjo, his second in command, was reluctant stepping into his shoes. Rather than struggle for power, he was persuaded. So, why will it be different now simply because there is clamour for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction?

Yakasai talked about Ndigbo building bridges. Isn’t that what they have been doing even before the idea of Nigeria became a reality? There is hardly any Igbo leader of the old generation that was born in the South-East.

Both Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu were born in Zungeru, a town in Niger State, which was the capital of the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria from 1902 until 1916.

Presently, there is no community in Nigeria’s 774 local governments, no matter how remote, that you won’t find a resident Igbo. So, why is the bar being raised so high simply because Ndigbo are laying a claim to the national political diadem?

Before now, the question has been: where are the Igbo candidates? Now that some Igbo aspirants, including Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, a renowned pharmacist, founder and former CEO of Neimeth Pharmaceutical, former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, foundation president of the West African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, former Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria; and Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, a lawyer, who became Senate president at the young age of 39, and also served as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, have raised their hands to be counted, the story is changing.

Suddenly, zoning of political offices has become a taboo to some political actors. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who obviously wants to run again for the presidency in 2023, is now repudiating the PDP zoning principle.

Speaking at the 94th National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the PDP on Thursday, October 7, Atiku urged the party to be guided by the spirit of fairness and equity rather than zoning in determining the presidential candidate.

“Where the President comes from has never been the problem of Nigeria. It will not be the solution to the problems of Nigeria. There is no such thing as a president from Southern Nigeria or a president from Northern Nigeria.

There is only one president, a President of Nigeria, for Nigeria and by Nigerians,” he said. On the face value, there is nothing wrong with his position. But juxtapose it with his stance on the same issue at the 2011 PDP Convention when he squared against Jonathan, the hypocrisy jumps out.

Hear him then: “The founders of this party, in their wisdom, devised rules for the rotation of power between North and South in response to cries of marginalisation and domination. We wanted peace and justice to reign. And we put it in our Constitution (Section 7.2.c), and we all know what a Constitution means.

“That provision has not been altered. In 2002, an expanded caucus of our great party met and reaffirmed that policy…. I have always put Nigeria first before my personal interests and ambitions.”

So, what has changed? If rotation of power between North and South was desirable in 2011, what makes it undesirable in 2023? Truth be told, equity, fairness and social justice demands a Nigerian president of South-East extraction in 2023.

In which case, after eight years of a Muhammadu Buhari presidency, power should gravitate to the South. And it will be unconscionable for the South-West that has held the presidency and vice presidency for 16 solid years in a period of 24 years or the South-South that was there for five years to deny Ndigbo the opportunity.

But even if the only criterion for determining who becomes president in 2023 is competence, South-East has a glut of competent people. Fortunately, all those who have declared interest so far are not running because they are Igbo, but because they are competent, knowledgeable and proficient Nigerians, who possess the requisite skill sets to save their beloved country from implosion.

INTERVIEW: Anaekwe: Why We Prioritise Stakeholders’ Needs, Expectations

Aishat Anaekwe. Image: This Day

THIS DAY INTERVIEW

Aishat Anaekwe is the Senior Brand Manager, Life Continental Beer and 33 Export Lager. In this interview she speaks on issues around the brands and their market acceptability. Dike Onwuamaze brings the excerpts:

Life Continental Beer has been known to drive Progress and Success. How is Turu Ugo Lota amplifying this notion?

As is widely known among the Igbos, hard work and success are symbols of leadership and respect. Life Continental Beer is amplifying these highly laudable attributes of the east through the Turo Ugo Lota campaign; to showcase the resilient spirit of Igbos to Nigeria and the rest of Africa, celebrating an ancient heritage of the people and the region. It is indeed a great joy for Life Beer to tell this story and as such, uphold the trust of the East.

How does Life Continental Beer bring life and zest to its stakeholders?

At every point in time, our stakeholders, host communities, loyal retailers and end consumers are king. We prioritise their needs and expectations regarding the brand, creating avenues for partnerships and empowerment often. For decades, Life Beer has supported the progress and success of easterners. Our Life Beer Empowerment scheme alone has utilised over a hundred million to empower and strengthen their business small businesses. As we grow our loyal customers and partners grow with us, across the nation.

How is Life Beer’s performance considering that there are other options available in the market?

Life Beer is currently dominating the beer category in the south-east and has grown to become a dominant beer brand in the country. We are driving the penetration of Life beer into other regions and ensuring we sustain the legacy of good will among these host communities and our partners there.

What are some of the campaigns that have stood out in your engagement with loyal consumers?

For almost a decade now, we have been transfixed on telling compelling brand stories to not only build equity for the brand but engender an awakening among our partners and loyal consumers. In 2014, we rolled out the PROGRESS FOREVER campaign to connect with our core market but the campaign that stood out the most would be that of last year 2020. This unforgettable year, Covid-19 squared up everyone; throwing health, economic and security challenges at all and sundry and the NDU KA campaign was basically to remind our south eastern consumers (Igbos) that they’re a very resilient bunch and also motivate the rest of our audience to stay hopeful and optimistic about the future.

What is the concept behind Turu Ugo Lota and why is it different from other campaigns previously embarked upon?

The Turu Ugo Lota campaign is a story of progress. In line with the brand’s core message, we sought to tell a story about the resilience of our core consumers. Nigerians, specifically people of the South East, have experienced a lot. Coming out of the Covid-19 lockdown, the brand understood it was important to motivate them. We did this by reminding them of their come-back story. Turu Ugo Lota seeks to inspire an attitude to succeed, not just for our target audience but also anybody who is touched by the campaign. It stands out from other campaigns because we went back to the basics in a unique way. It was also the first time we used Nollywood father and son duo, Pete and Yul Edochie as our ambassadors.

With the Turu Ugo Lota campaign, what is your expected response from the market and what is the campaign expected to achieve overall?

We expect people to connect with our brand in a deeper way. Our campaign is relatable and calls out the cultural heritage of the typical Igbo consumer. To create more meaningful associations with our audience we will continue to inspire them in positive ways.

How do you intend to leverage the resilient spirit of the Igbos in achieving increased market penetration?

The Life brand already has its original platforms created to channel this resilience. Through the Progress Booster, which is an initiative to support up and coming entrepreneurs, we sponsor startups by training and issuing them grants to grow their business. It is our own way of encouraging enterprise in the region.

In what way is Life Continental Beer seeking to further collaborate with host communities in facilitating progress and success?

I mentioned the Progress Booster earlier. Another initiative is the Hi-Life Fest, a platform that celebrates the unique sound and dance techniques of the Igbos in various communities. The event discovers relatively unknown talents and pits them in an entertaining musical tournament. The winners are rewarded and sponsored onto bigger stages where they receive wider exposure for their music. We also partake heavily in major cultural events such as the New Yam Festivals, Ofala festivals and more.

Earlier this year, Life Continental Beer was conferred with the title “Mmanya Oganiru of Igboland”. What does the title mean and how has it impacted on the brand?

The Title “Mmanya Oganiru” simply means the “Beer for Progress”. For us, the title is a validation of our brand purpose which is “Progress” and an indication that all our efforts and commitment towards the progress of the Igbo community and Nigeria in general has not gone unnoticed by the people. It especially holds significant meaning for us because the title was conferred upon the brand at Nri, Anambra state. Nri is significant for the Igbos because it is widely regarded as the Cradle of Igboland. So being recognised at such a historic location by respected traditional rulers from across the Eastern region means a lot to us because it tells us that we are making significant impact in affecting the community positively.

Why is Life Continental Beer the preferred Lager of the eastern region?

It’s easy. We have been around long enough to cultivate that impact that has cut through generations of sociable South Easterners who enjoy a finely brewed lager beer. More so, our brand aligns well with the culture of the people and they appreciate a beer that encourages them to succeed despite all odds

Another moment that stands out when discussing Life Continental Beer is the lighting up of the iconic Niger Bridge. Can you shed more light on this?

The lighting up of the Niger Bridge was done in the year 2020. That was at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the initiative was just our way of offering a beacon of hope to our people and encouraging them to continue enjoying Life but in a responsible manner in line with all COVID-19 safety precautions.

The recent Egedege video has been a commercial success. Can you tell us the role that Life Continental Beer played in this video?

As the biggest Beer brand in the Eastern market, we are passionate about promoting the Igbo culture. That is why we have the biggest names from the South East in music and movies, Flavour, Phyno, Pete and Yul Edochie as our brand ambassadors. Theresa Onoruah and Larry Gaaga are also icons in their own right and so we decided to identify with the song which has become a phenomenon in pop culture.

The song has an appeal that cuts across cultural barriers and this was reflected in its acceptance by the general public. Within the first few days of its release, it recorded over a million views on YouTube and has been topping all major music charts. So for us at Life Continental Beer, our heritage is about “progress” in all areas of life, be it supporting businesses through our Life Progress Booster initiative or promoting the Igbo culture through our Hi-Life Music Fest, we ensure that our message of “Progress” cuts across everything we do.

Blues, Jazz, Electronica: It All flows Through Ben LaMar Gay

BY ANDY BETA

WASHINGTON POST

 

Ben LeMar Gay Image Via Wikimedia Commons

Ben LaMar Gay's musical loves range far and wide. Steeped in the blues of his hometown of Chicago and an integral figure in his local jazz community, the cornetist and composer embraces a wide range of music, sounding it all through his horn across his vibrant, mercurial songs. And he also loves "The Alphabet Song." Like, really loves it.

"Man, it's the baddest s--- in the world!" he enthuses from a video call in his kitchen on Chicago's South Side. "The end of it, 'Now I know my A-B-Cs, next time won't you sing with me?' You're inviting someone to learn the building blocks of communication. It's so simple, yet so beautiful." Such enthusiasm soon spills over into musings on the liberation of learning another language, how the body acts as a sonic resonator ("oxygen going through this machine!") and his recent travels through Nigeria and Rwanda. More often than not, he refers to music as a portal to a new world.

The new "Open Arms to Open Us" leaps across all sorts of portals, dipping into the dawn of jazz right on through its vibrant present moment, with glints of woozy hip-hop, Prince-ly funk, wordless ululations, Tropicália and gospel yips thrown in for good measure. Fittingly, it also features Gay's own version of an alphabet song, sung in Igbo by performing artist, choreographer, administrator and educator Onye Ozuzu. "It's powerful to hear the alphabet of a different language, the things that build language," he says. "Onye is half Igbo and didn't even speak her father's language."

Despite over a decade on the Chicago scene, working with dance choreographers and as a member of the city's venerated Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), "Open Arms" could be considered his first proper album. Previously, he had recorded some seven albums' worth of music, "imagining that I had a public that would listen to it - and I really didn't care if they heard it." In 2018, International Anthem cherry-picked tracks for the far-ranging "Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun." (The label has since made these full albums available online.)

Gay credits his musical magpie approach to his father's record collection and loving that music. His father's family goes back generations in the Windy City, while his mother's family came up north from Alabama during the Great Migration of the 20th century. "As soon as he was gone to work, man, I'd get the JBLs cranking and just start exploring," he says, adding that his father's records became "portals for seeing the world and hearing the world." He also learned by example, in that his father's love for music expressed itself in informal jam sessions with friends and cousins on the weekend: "He gathered with his friends and had this festive environment for these amateurs to come drink, party, smoke and jam, and just make a sound together. People that work hard jobs, it's like, all right, it's Saturday. Saturdays were amazing."

Gay, like many music-fiending kids of his generation, got into beatmaking first, before pivoting to trumpet in high school. About 13 years back, he switched to cornet. At a certain point, Gay became disenchanted with life in Chicago and decamped to Brazil, whose music had always served as "the first portal to the world, to the real world, outside of the bubble United States." He fell in with local players and was reminded of his upbringing by the Brazilian notion of samba de mesa, of playing music "when everyone's at the table, the vibe, the nucleus of the party is at the table." He lived in Brazil for three years, until an invite to participate in the Red Bull Music Academy drew him back stateside.

That playful informality, that quality of playing with friends without being the focal point, continues through his solo work. It's Gay's name on "Open Arms to Open Us," but he's just as quick to cede the spotlight to a wide array of voices and instruments. George Lewis, the avant-garde jazz trombonist and tireless electronics innovator and educator, recently caught one of Gay's shows.

"He performed on cornet and various electronic objects, but the piece was not about him standing out," Lewis says. "Rather, he distributed sonic agency among the eight ensemble members and himself to produce a supple and limpid psychic counterpoint."


Opener "Sometimes I Forget How Summer Looks On You" starts with a gurgle of synths and quicksilver drum rolls, Gay's voice purring against the teeming backdrop, as nonchalant as a murmured bossa nova. But Gay is quick to add that he's actually drawing on Chicago's own blues tradition, always pulling and pushing against the rhythm. He credits fellow Chicago reedman Roscoe Mitchell and a comment he once made to him: "Don't play on the 1!" It can feel at once like a jazz song, an old Organized Noize beat from the late '90s, or a wobbly pop tune without ever settling on a particular sound. As the song builds to a full boil and an array of sweet pop backing vocals entwine with his own, it bursts into an ecstatic looped shout of "Hallelujah!"

Gay says that song is about a family member ("a low-key dedication") and most of the other songs on the album serve as portraits put into sound. Each song begins with an idea and whatever instrument is closest at hand. As he works, "sometimes I hear voices that I know, like friends and I place those voices in it and build from there," he says. The assemblage of songs and textures has the feel and flow of a beat tape, never settling in one place for long. Only four of the 17 tracks stretch past the 3:30 mark. Field recordings, electronic squiggles and spoken word bits pop up often. The brief "Mestre Candeia's Denim Hat" weds underwater blips and crisp snares to an unhinged synth solo, while "S'Phisticated Lady" could be lifted directly from a double Dutch chant on playground asphalt. It leads into the triumphant "We Gon Win." Gay roves from the "jungle" cries of Duke Ellington trumpeter Cootie Williams to avant shrieks of the AACM to the stomp of an HBCU marching band, as he and backing vocalists incant the title.

His original intent for the album was to feature a live band, though the pandemic quickly dashed that idea, leaving him to build up each song layer by layer, sometimes with a full band, sometimes with friends sending in their contributions.

The British-Rwandan singer, actress, dancer and choreographer Dorothée Munyaneza first met Gay in 2018 when both were invited to Dance Gathering in Lagos, Nigeria. "We got to improvise together one night, him on the cornet and me singing in Kinyarwanda," she recalls. "It was like he understood the rhythm of my language and the melody; it was a very powerful moment. He has a unique way of extracting sounds out of different types of instruments and objects that displaces me, moves me and inspires me every time."

When Gay reached out to her to contribute vocals to the album, Munyaneza set up in a makeshift studio in her bathroom and recorded the vocals for "Nyuzura." The title translates as "give me light" and Munyaneza sings it in her native tongue. "You're hearing some real deep Rwandan culture in there," Gay says enthusiastically. "She's flowing in Kinyarwanda and then she sticks in a 'yo!' and it's straight-up hip-hop culture. When you hear a "yo!" it's South Bronx." Fittingly, the plucked strings underpinning the track come from a citara Gay bought while traveling through Mexico.

In the notes that accompany the album rollout, Gay mentions a trip back to Alabama to visit his extended family, a great aunt noting while they walked across farmland that she could still hear the hammering of her late father out there, even decades on. That phantasmal sound, that subliminal beat, untethered to time but bound to the Earth, informed Gay's approach to the album. "I've played in small villages in Western Europe, in Africa," he says. "When you go to these small places, especially when you travel with sound, it makes you realize most folk cultures are the same. These people gather up instruments from their environment and try to imitate their environment. "

Ultimately, he sees "Open Arms to Open Us" as something for his nieces to discover when "they're like 40," never mind that they're barely 6 now. The embedded snatches of Igbo, Kinyarwanda, the spoken word interludes and overheard conversations, held together by the voicelike tones Gay elicits on his muted cornet, all speak to an as-yet unnamed future: "When they get older and they become between 35 and 40 and they put this record on like, 'Oh, that's Uncle Benji saying this to me.' It's this little thing for these special people to catch on at a certain time when they may need it."

It's a transmission as simple and universal as A-B-C.

Lessons From Igbo Trans-Generational Entrepreneurship: Why It Matters

BY PROFESSOR NNAMDI MADUCHIE

THE CONVERSATION

 

Computer village, Lagos, is one of those places where Igbo entrepreneurship is practiced and passed on to the next generation. Image: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty

The Igbos are one of Nigeria’s three main ethnic groups in a country of about 200 million. Based in Southeast Nigeria, this industrious and acephalous group has attracted a lot of attention from research in recent years. Most of it has focused on the success of Igbos in artisanal enterprise and informal training. Now their apprenticeship system has become a talking point.

Most of the research on the Igbos’ success in business has been through the traditional cultural lenses of anthropology and sociology. My co-authors and I have sought to move beyond these cultural frames to a business and management lens – notably entrepreneurship.

I have been studying Igbo entrepreneurship since 2008. In my earlier article, my co-authors and I drew the illustrative case of Nnewi culture. This is an Igbo enclave in Southeastern Nigeria renowned for its high incidence of productive entrepreneurship. It is noted for its automates and manufacturing businesses, which at the time of our research had only received limited research attention.

Almost a decade later, I co-authored a paper which highlighted that the “informal apprenticeship system provides entrepreneurial learning that prepares the younger generation to take to business as a way of life.”

The role of family affinity and networks in business has been observed across geographies. The use of family networks this way makes significant contributions to the economic growth of nations.

To understand better the effect of these family networks, my co-authors and I interviewed 25 Igbo entrepreneurs to find out what constituted the catalyst for the business model.
About the study

Our research identifies the key variables associated with trans-generational business legacies and succession. The Igbos, like most other indigenous groups, believe in maintaining a legacy of not just their language but other values, customs and norms. In particular, for the Igbos, business continuity seems paramount as a means to ensuring that there are trans-generational business legacies.

The study also highlighted salient Igbo cultural and community nuances. These include the role of Di-okpara (first son), Umunna (sons of the land), Ikwu (members of a kindred) and Umuada (daughters of the land). These insights inform a contribution to the discourse of ethnic or indigenous entrepreneurship, which has both theoretical and policy implications.

We then developed four themes that serve as the points from which trans-generational entrepreneurship is nurtured among the Igbo. These are:

“Nwaboi” (informal volunteering);

the role of first son (di-okpara), which is closely linked to “afamu-efuna”;

the independent and individualist, but yet communal, that is, “acephalous” nature of the Igbos (“Igbo enwe Eze” – Igbos have no king); and

the entrepreneurship collaborative and cultural initiative – the role of kindred (Umunna).

First, the Nwaboi apprenticeship system assumes two forms, “Imu-Oru Aka” (learning a craft or skill) and “Imu-Ahia” (learning to trade) across all kinds of trading to various crafts and skills.

Second, Igbo businesses survive across generations through the identification and the nurturing of sons who can take over the business. If the first son shows no interest, any other male in the family with potential is trained to take over the business. Indeed, the notion of “Di-okpara” highlights the significance of a male child (normally the first son) to the legacy of the family and any succession plans. It is also linked to the notion “afamu-efuna”, which guarantees the lineage among the Igbos.

Third, there is the moderating role of the Umunna (sons of the land), Umuada (daughters of the land) and Ikwu (members of a kindred). These are the arbiters of family or societal disputes. The decisions of the Umunna are binding on members of the clan. In addition, where family business conflict arises, the elders of the kindred step in to settle the dispute. By resolving disputes internally, the mechanisms help avoid lengthy court processes which are often disruptive to the running of businesses. This makes the role of Umunna very potent.

Just like Umunna, there is also the “Umuada” (Umu means people) of first daughters (Ada). This is an association of influential indigenous women. The group goes beyond the first daughters whose ancestry is traced to a village or town. The Umuada represents the interests of women and serves as a bridge between women and men.

In some cases, the Umuada also serve as checks on the abuse of power by the council of elders. Umuada can, as result of these powers, intercede in any disputes related to business practices. Besides, women sometimes also engage in these business activities.

Generally speaking, arbiters such as Umunna and Umuada have tended to help shape new norms and beliefs. On the other hand, other Igbo structures help facilitate the creation of more effective business processes. These include better financial frameworks. An example is Afam efuna, an equitable “nwaboi” system overseen to some extent by custodians such as Ikwu, Umunna and Umuada. These Igbo structures therefore enable the development of new markets and cultural innovation. They also enable Igbos to maintain trans-generational business legacies and inter-generational succession.

The Igbo culture of entrepreneurship can be traced back to the slave trade in the 15th century. By the 1800s about 320,000 Igbos had been sold to slave traders both within and outside of their communities at Bonny, 50,000 at Calabar and Elem Kalabari.

This process continued until the abolition of slave trade in the 1900s. Unlike most African communities, slaves from the Igbo ethnic group were exposed to entrepreneurship by their owners, including members of their own tribe who traded commodities like spices, sugar, tobacco, cotton for export to the Americas, Europe and Asia. Long before Europeans arrived, Igbos enslaved other Igbos as punishment for crimes, for the payment of debts, and as prisoners of war. The practice differed from slavery in the Americas.

Igbos built on this, venturing into various forms of entrepreneurship during the pre-colonial era. Colonisation found the Igbos already leading craftsmen, traders, merchants and cottage industrialists. They have maintained this culture of entrepreneurship through the structures and mechanisms described above.

Policy implications

The findings from Igbo ethnic entrepreneurship studies cannot necessarily be generalised for all other ethnicities. They also provide realistic and current examples of how African entrepreneurship is embedded in unique cultural phenomena. However, each of the elements of the Igbo entrepreneurial spirit and culture raises different issues, in particular how societies can sustain entrepreneurship across generations.

The lessons from the success of Igbo trans-generational entrepreneurship can certainly be adapted to other socio-cultural settings. American journalist and author Robert Neuwirth hinted at this while talking about the Igbo apprenticeship system.

Taking a cue from the title of the book by the celebrated Chinua Achebe, one of the greatest poets of “Igbo” ancestry, scholars cannot let “Things Fall Apart” in this quest to understand and act upon the dynamics and potential of ethnic groups and their contribution to the global economy.

The Igbo entrepreneurship model has demonstrated, time and again, how to navigate both ethnic and gender discrimination in mainstream society. This has obvious managerial, research and policy implications.

Professor Nnamdi Madichie is affiliated with the Unizik Business School, Awka, Nigeria, Coal City University, Enugu, Nigeria and the Bloomsbury Institute London. His is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.