Politics Of Bitterness, Cause Of Crisis In Igbo land; Way Out —Igbo Stakeholders

Igbo should reject self-serving, greedy politicians

•Less emphasis should be laid on money politics — Bishop Onuoha

•INEC should play according to rules —Ahamba, SAN

•Winners, losers should embrace dialogue — Abia CAN scribe

•Winners take all should be discouraged — Cleric

•S-East should go for only men of honour — Ex-commissioner

•Politicians should know they must return to the people after political tenure —Enugu monarch

•Politics should not be seen as do-or-die affair — Ebonyi monarch



By Anayo Okoli, Chimaobi Nwaiwu, Peter Okutu, Ugochukwu Alaribe, Chinedu Adonu, Chinonso Alozie, Ikechukwu Odu, Steve Oko & Emmanuel Iheaka

IGBO SOUTH EAST (VANGUARD) -- The security crisis in Imo State and by extension, the South-East region, has unarguably been narrowed down to be politically induced. From some confirmed accounts of political disagreements and power tussle among politicians and bad governance from the political leaders, it is safe to conclude that the cause is rooted in politics of bitterness.

It was, however, unfortunate that some traditional rulers were caught in the crossfire in the fight between politicians and they became part of the victims.

Perhaps, it could be as a result of their sycophantic nature; playing politics against their prescribed role of being apolitical. As we approach another political season and election year, what would Igbo politicians and people do to get it right and avoid politics of bitterness, see it as game not a do-or-die affair?

According to a prominent Ebonyi monarch, Eze Moses Okafor Ngele, the traditional ruler of Ishiagu Kingdom, Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, politicians should not see and treat politics as do-or-die affair but a friendly battle between brothers and sisters. If it does not favour you this time, it could be your luck next time.

‘Politics should not be seen as do-or-die affair’

“We need to be careful and play politics with wisdom and the right counsel from the elders. Politics is an important aspect of humanity. Through the game of politics, leaders at different levels emerge at various seasons and times.

“We should oppose the politics of do-or-die. We are all brothers and sisters created by God in His own image. We should play politics with the mindset that one day, we will also return and reside among and interact with those we have led.

“As monarchs, when politicians come to us stating their political ambition, our own is to advise and pray for them. There is need for us to be apolitical.

“Many crisis and killings going on in the South-East could be seen as politically motivated. So, we need to be careful and play politics with wisdom and the counselling of the elders,” Eze Ngele said.

A clergy, Pastor Brutus Edafe, in his view, faulted the manner some politicians go about the business. He said some of them employ high-handedness, overbearing nature and nefarious activities in their art of politicking, actions that most times, put them at logger heads with their people. He advised politicians to know that there is life after politics.

“We are encouraged to join politics so that we can contribute to leadership and development and cause a change in our society. However, politicians need to play the game according to the rule.

“Some politicians can no longer travel to their respective villages and states because of the evil they committed while playing politics. Politicians need to know that their people are watching them.

“So, they need to know that there is life after politics. 2023 election is not the end of life or the world. There is no need for killing, kidnapping and other evils associated with politics, to be unleashed on the electorate.

“I advise them to be cautious of their actions, be mindful of their language and avoid anything that could cause crisis in their communities, local government areas and states because of the approaching 2023 general elections,” Edafe admonished.

Misplaced priority

The Methodist Archbishop of Okigwe Archdiocese, His Grace, Most Rev. Biereonwu Livinus Onuagha, in his response blamed the problem on misplaced priority, saying that Nigeria has made politics the easiest way to become rich, doing little or nothing. He lamented that Nigerians now see politics as the most lucrative and easiest job anyone can do in Nigeria.

According to Bishop Onuagha, because of that, anybody, including criminals and idiots do everything possible, foul or fair, to go into politics as they see it as the only way they can make money quickly and effortlessly, for that matter.



“Unfortunately, almost everything in Nigeria is possible; through any dubious means, one can become anything. Academic excellence is no longer tolerated, it is no longer valid, because a politician can come up tomorrow within one or two years, he becomes a lawyer, becomes anything people struggle and read for years to become, just because he can throw money around. So there is no more regard for excellence in this nation, and that has affected our political landscape terribly.

“Politics in the truest sense of it is to serve the people and not to serve individuals. Unfortunately, Nigeria politics is self-serving or serving few individuals and not the people.

Only few states in Nigeria are serving their people, the rest are filled with people who are serving themselves and unfortunately too, they are clinging to power without letting go.

“The worst part of it is that our traditional rulers who are supposed to be custodians of traditional principles, are bought over by these greedy and money-minded politicians and they simply compromised and could no longer exercise their traditional authority over the politicians.

The politicians threaten their thrones with all manner of insults, ranging from suspension and sack which ordinarily is not in the powers and duties of politicians. That is why what is happening in Imo State is politically-masterminded.

“When people accuse the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, of having hand in the crises in Imo State and other states in the South- East, I laugh. I have to tell you this that IPOB is 100% free from whatever is happening in Imo State and other states in the South- East. I say it again that IPOB is 100% free from whatever is happening in Imo State; what is rather happening in Imo State is just politicians who want to hold sway, feeding their boys and arming them to keep them perpetually in power. They saw IPOB agitation for the restoration of the State of Biafra as an opportunity and propaganda to cover their evils by pointing accusing fingers at IPOB. But their accusations are no more tenable, they don’t hold water any longer as they have started exposing themselves and the roles their compromised security personnel are playing in the crises in Imo and other South-East states.

“IPOB has long defined their aims and objectives; and that is simply, agitating for the restoration of Biafra and they are not for political activities. Even when you talk about governorship and everything, they don’t want it; they will rather ask their people not to be part of it. You talk about Presidency, they don’t want it, so anybody who is talking about IPOB having a hand in what is currently happening in Imo State is only trying to blackmail Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB.

“Every right thinking Igbo man will always understand and have already understood; that it is a game plan by those greedy and money-minded, power-drunk politicians to accuse IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu as a cover, to get whatever they are looking for in the states and at Abuja. Unfortunately, it will surely boomerang one day; some people say it is already boomeranging.

Less emphasis should be laid on money politics — Bishop Onuoha

“So, for me, if there will be peace or if they want peace to reign in Imo State, South-East and by extension, Nigeria, less emphasis should be placed on money politics. America plays money politics but it has not destroyed democracy; it does not destroy individuals, communities and their states. Everybody who is into politics in America is there to serve the people and when you don’t serve the people, you are removed immediately. But in our own case, whatever you do in office as far as you are loyal and friendly to the powers-that-be in Abuja and throw money around, you are there untouched and free to commit anything unlawful and unacceptable, you are covered.

“They have employed divide and rule tactics and sowed seed of discord in the various tribes. Unfortunately, they have divided us to the point that anybody trying to get us together will be seen as an enemy and non-performer and therefore, it will be difficult for us to come together again. But one day, Nigerians will come together against those greedy and self-serving politicians, and that is the day our emancipation will begin.

“However, for the people in Imo State and politicians in Imo State and South-East at large, they should think and work for the people otherwise, I urge the people to sack them. The Imo people, if they know what is good for them and their state, should sack all those politicians causing them sleepless nights, they do not deserve the offices they are occupying.

“Power is in the hands of the people and they should use it against bad politicians, those bad eggs occupying seats in the states and at the federal level; they have the weapons in their votes and they should use it wisely against the politicians and render them perpetually powerless. If they allow the politicians to take away the powers in their votes, they will become slaves forever in the hands of those politicians, if they want to remain slaves to the corrupt and greedy politicians in Imo State and Igbo land, let them continue to remain slaves,” Bishop Onuagha charged.

INEC should play according to rules— Ahamba, SAN

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ahamba, in his opinion, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to be strict and follow diligently its rules in conducting elections and avoid anyboy manipulating them.

He was of the view that politicians who could not win elections forced themselves on the people by bribing INEC officials to write results for them. The senior lawyer said if the INEC officials refused to be induced with bribes, it would go a long way in curbing the excesses of politicians.

“What I can say, you remember that some people say there will be no election in Anambra State and there was an election. When the time comes, the situation will sort itself out.

“If you are playing and if you see the election as a game, you must stick to the rules for it to be peaceful. The people playing the game and the referee which is the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, must act according to the rules.

“Once that is done, there will be no problem; even when somebody knows he is not good enough; he knows he will not win, what he does is to go to INEC, to write results and declare him winner.

“The point is that if people can play according to the rules, and the law dealing with people who do not, then we don’t need much time to get it to what we all desire on how it should be done right,” Ahamba said.

Contributing, the Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Abia State chapter, Dr. Okey Mgbeahuru, called for the spirit of brotherhood among politicians, urging winners and losers in every election to embrace dialogue to resolve differences between them.

Winners, losers should embrace dialogue —Abia CAN scribe

He explained that the winner-takes-it-all syndrome has continued to bring bitterness and rancour between contenders in every election. To boost peace and smooth governance, Mgbeahuru called on the winner to extend a hand of fellowship to the loser who should also embrace such a gesture and assist the winner in governance.

He further charged the political class to always play politics by the rules and shun violence in a bid to acquire power.

In his word: “In every political game, there must be a winner and a loser. The winner should extend a hand of fellowship to the loser, while the loser on the other hand, should embrace such a gesture and assist the winner in governance, rather than resort to war and strife. We should remain one even after elections because no one has the monopoly of knowledge. No one should be thrown away in the scheme of governance, for two good heads are better than one. We should play the politics of today to see tomorrow.

“The year, 2023 is another remarkable year in the annals of our country, Nigeria. Its significance is not just the number, but it is an election year. It means that Nigeria has successfully completed another four years of democratic rule and set for another general election to elect leaders from different political parties.

“This change in leadership is solely determined by the people. Regrettably, the context of general election in Nigeria is practised on the contrary. The political class heats up the polity with animosity, hatred, malice, bitterness and rancour.

“The assumed elite political class stops at nothing to ensure that their desired objectives are met. In a bid to acquire power, they sponsor thugs who resort to destruction of lives and property of their opponents. But they forget that, according to the scriptures, leaders are made by God. This is evidenced by His choice of leaders during the Old Testament era in the Bible.

“Leadership, politically, is now a do-or-die affair in most countries of the world, contrary to the tenets of the game. Democratic leadership should be the obvious choice of the people and not through the use of force.”

Also, a renowned politician and chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Chris Ejike Uche, believes that only men of honour can see politics as an opportunity to serve and not a do-or-die affair and admonished that such men should be elected to govern the people.

S-East should go for only men of honour — Ex-commissioner

Uche, an erstwhile Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development in Imo State, described as worrisome what he termed political animosity in South-East Zone, and charged the people of the zone and Nigerians in general to go for professionals with proven track record of leadership training and honour, saying that it is the only way the political narrative could be changed in the region.

“The dice is cast and the political shenanigans are ongoing. The present situation in the South-East is disturbing. Many see politics as a do-or-die affair. They don’t see it as service. I am calling on them to sheathe their swords.

“If we want Igbo Presidency, then we should come together. We can’t get it by being in disarray. The animosity should be shelved and we should know the right person and support him.

‘Life will surely continue after the elections’

“We must appreciate the fact that we are brothers and that life will surely continue after the elections. We need people with deep knowledge of the economy and international relations.

“Nigerians should be wary of robbers camouflaging as politicians. We don’t need people with no record of leadership training; we need technocrats. We don’t need professional politicians, what we need are professionals in politics, men of honour. That is the only way the tension can reduce and the narrative changed,” he submitted.

In his contribution, the traditional ruler of Iggah Ancient Kingdom in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, Igwe Herbert Ukuta, has cautioned against politics of rancour and bitterness ahead of 2023 elections.

He cautioned violent and bloodthirsty politicians to bear in mind that they would return to their people at the end of their political career, warning that it would not pay them to kill and maim those they were supposed to be leading just to grab political power.

He also frowned at recycling of old politicians in different offices, adding that there should be level-playing field for all political aspirants to contest elections in an atmosphere devoid of intimidation and harassment of any sort.

The monarch also urged the Federal Government to stop interfering with the politics of different states and allow people their fundamental rights to freely choose those that would represent them in political offices.

“What is the point of being violent with your brothers and sisters during elections? It is either you win or lose. If you force yourself into political office, it becomes violence.

“Politicians should remember that their positions are tenured, and that at the end of it, obviously, they must go back to their people. How are they going to live with them if they are turned to enemies in order to force themselves into political office?

“To stop political insecurity in Nigeria, the Federal Government must stop interfering with the politics of the states. Let the elections be free and fair so that the electorate, the people at the grassroots would have a voice because they are the people that suffer the effects of bad governance.

“Another thing that can breed political violence is the politics of recycling political leaders. Nobody has the exclusive right of occupying political office for life. Our politicians should allow level- playing field for all political aspirants because nobody knows who God wants to use for the liberation of His people in politics. Our old politicians should give the younger ones a chance to showcase their political prowess in an atmosphere devoid of intimidation of any kind.

“The violent stock is not supposed to be in politics because one cannot be killing and maiming those he is supposed to be leading. We need serious political orientation in this country for things to work out well. The Ministry of Information and the National Orientation Agency are no longer at their best in their respective duties.

“INEC should also go back and study the meaning of being independent. It cannot continue writing election results in the parlor of any politician who bribed the commission, thereby stealing the people’s mandate; that is another cause of political violence, especially, if the people knew that they didn’t vote the person who was declared winner,” the monarch explained.

‘Politicians should sign a peace agreement’

The Co-Chair of Interfaith Peace and Dialogue Forum, Bishop Sunday Onuoha, stressing on the Imo situation, said there is need for President Muhammadu Buhari to summon all political gladiators in the state to Aso Rock and compel them to sign a peace pact as part of measures to lessen the killings in the state.

The cleric who described the killings as senseless and unacceptable said time had come to hold the political elite in the state accountable.

His words: “These killings are evil and unacceptable. I call on the President to invite all the political gladiators in Imo to the Villa, and not allow them to leave until they sign a peace agreement.”

Bishop Onuoha also challenged faith leaders with unquestionable character to step in and broker peace among the political warlords in the state.

He argued that since the gladiators are members of various faith organizations, faith leaders should help to call them to order.

Still speaking on Imo situation, the National President of the Prime Ministers Association of Nigeria, High Chief Uche Akwukwuegbu, appealed to politicians in Imo to sheath their swords especially as the election come nearer.

He also urged the political players in Imo State to allow the incumbent Governor Hope Uzodinma, a chance to govern, arguing that there can be only one governor at a time.

“The political elite should give the governor a chance to rule. You can’t have two governors at the same time. They should allow him to govern and complete his tenure no matter how he came in”.

Chief Akwukwuegbu advised politicians to eschew politics of rancour and bitterness.

Renowned political scientist, Prof Obasi Igwe, in his opinion, urged politicians to shun hiring youths for political thugs and embrace free and fair election to maintain peace and progress after elections.

He also tasked the youths to learn to hold leaders accountable, condemn and refuse to participate in cultism, bribery and corruption, kidnapping and other social ills.

“Register to vote and be voted for and ensure that the vote counts. The youths must spearhead the struggle for a modern democratic secular state of equal civilized laws and equal applications, a single judicial system based on Common Law and insistence that crimes of any sort, especially those that are electoral or related to corruption, life and property, are severely punished.

“Above all, short of a violent revolution, the youths must insist on good governance, including free and quality education, and well remunerated jobs, as the ultimate guarantors of security in any part of the East and beyond”, he said.

INTERVIEW: It Was Easy For Mum To Pocket Lots Of Money At NAFDAC But – Late Dora Akunyili's Daughter Chidiogo

BY GODFREY GEORGE

PUNCH INTERVIEW

Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr. Image via Ndini

Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr is a daughter of the late former Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Dora Akunyili. She speaks to GODFREY GEORGE about her mother’s personality and core values as well as the recent passing of her surgeon father, Dr Chike Akunyili

Please tell us a bit about yourself and your work.

My name is Chidiogo Blessing Akunyili-Parr. Akunyili means ‘my cup overflows’. Chidiogo means ‘God is gracious’. My middle name is Blessing. So, my name in full means: God is gracious with blessings and my cup overflows. I am one of the six children of the late Dora Akunyili, a former Director-General of NAFDAC (National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control) and Minister of Information, and the late Dr Chike Akunyili. I am an author, speaker, and consultant with a passion for human development and connection.

I attended Queens College, Yaba, Lagos. I left Nigeria after graduating in 2001 to study International Relations and French at the University of Pennsylvania, US. I studied in Paris at Sciences Po, where I majored in International Economics. I spent the years between undergrad and master’s working internationally in Germany, China and Italy. I got a master’s in International Development and Economics from SAIS John Hopkins. This was followed by working at the World Economic Forum managing the global shapers community across Africa and the Middle East. It was in this time that I received a master’s in Global Leadership with certificates from INSEAD, Columbia University, Wharton School, London Business School, China Europe International Business School and Cornell Tech.

Having lived and worked across five continents, I speak seven of the world’s languages – Chinese, English, French, German, Igbo, Italian and Spanish. I am a fellow at the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, an Atlantic Dialogue Emerging Leader and an Associate Fellow of Nigerian Leadership Initiative.

I run an initiative, She ROARs, which supports women across the world, mostly women of colour, to connect to their intuition and purpose, and we do this via coaching sessions for women to get to know and trust themselves to delve more into their power. I am always drawn to supporting women with a trust in their potential to impact the world around them. I love to inspire women to be their best selves guided by the power of their own inner voices.

What was your experience growing up with your mother, the late Dora Akunyili?

Dora Akunyili was a mother to many more people than just us, her children. In many ways, who the country saw at the peak of her strength, starting with when she went to NAFDAC, was a woman we had experienced all through our lives as mummy. We had the privilege of so many wonderful years knowing her beauty, grace and mothering ability. At the same time, it was really beautiful to witness everybody getting to know her. She was very approachable; one who didn’t take any nonsense. She was very focused and clear on her values. She was clear on what she considered to be the right thing. She supported everyone around her to find the truth of this in themselves. I was and I’m still very proud of her achievements. Being her daughter was and continues to be a blessing. I hope that sharing her story creates ripples in the pond that will keep growing as others read and react to it. Her life and mission are being given renewed energy by its being told.

As a public office holder, it’s given that she would be quite busy. Did that, in any way, affect her role in the family?

She was busy. The work, including her dedication to NAFDAC, took all of her. I consider it lucky for us because we (her children) were a bit grown when she went into NAFDAC. This was especially as she dedicated so much of herself to it. I, for example, was in my last year of secondary school, so I was old enough to allow her to fly without feeling like I was losing her or feeling the strain of her absence.

It was good that she could have the time to focus on the work and this did not affect the relationship we had with her. It was a thing of pride and beauty to watch her blossom into the woman that she was, and to see how she stayed strong. At some point, she was even awarded ‘Man of the Year’.

She was loved because of the staunchness of her belief and her dedication to the work that was at hand; the belief that every life matters and that we have a responsibility to each other; and that supporting the well-being of one person is supporting the well-being of everyone. She lived her life by this, hence the title of her memoir: ‘I Am Because We Are’, capturing her belief and dedication to being her brothers’ and sisters’ keeper.

What lessons did you learn from her that has shaped you into the woman you have become?

This is a great question. Witnessing my mother’s life has been a lesson on knowing yourself and knowing what your beliefs are, and never compromising. She taught us to know and trust in the importance of the work we want to do, so we are not swayed by the wind. Even though the world may want you to compromise; even though they may have a different idea of how you should behave or who you should be, the list extends to bribery and corruption, it is important that you know yourself and know what matters. This is the truth of my mother’s lessons. She taught us to have deep trust in ourselves as God’s creation. She was very strong in knowing herself, and trusting the hand of God in her life and how God was guiding her in the work that she did. We have to trust that our work matters, no matter how small; and even if you think nobody will see the goodness or integrity of what we do. Think of the money she returned in London. It is important to do the right thing even if nobody sees it. It was very easy for her to have pocketed a lot of money at NAFDAC and nobody would ever know. They would still see her as a great woman who did a good job. But she would always say to us: “Even if no one saw it, God sees!” She was not interested in doing anything that went against who she was or against her God, which would, in turn, negatively impact the work that she did.

During the course of her career, she confronted some powerful forces, whose interests conflicted with her own mandate. Were you at any point scared for her life?

Truly, we all were. It is a lot to have your mother shot at by armed men. We were behind her in the convoy that day when she was shot. It was a very scary day for us. But while everybody else was scared for her, she was not afraid. It was a fascinating thing. If anything, her only fear was when my little brother was threatened by some potential kidnappers who went to his school. One time, too, her brother was kidnapped and it was linked to her. These were what I think scared her. But when it came to her safety, she trusted that God would protect her, because what she was doing was in line with what God commands. This trust was also founded on having gone through many near-death experiences in her life, and each time God would show up and rescue her. She believed truly in God’s favour.

Would you say she covered much ground before her passing in June 2014?

Only 59 years of age at the time of her passing, she was indeed very young. One thing I can say was that she wasn’t ready to die. She really struggled with death because she believed that her work was not done. This was a very important point for her, that she had a lot of work to do in Nigeria, and she wasn’t done with this. She wanted to stay alive much longer to do this, but God had other reasons. I hope and believe that her memoir, “I Am Because We Are,” is God’s answer to her prayers and a continuation of her work. I also hope that its message reaches the good people of Nigeria who need now, more than ever, to once again be inspired.

There were some controversies around her death. Some said she was too educated not to be aware that she had cancer; others thought it was black magic…

I think it is one thing to be diagnosed while it is another to hope for the best. We hoped and trusted that she would be healed. That was something that she was communicating publicly. She had deep trust that she would be healed. Ultimately, that didn’t happen. I am not sure what the controversy per se was but I would say there was a desire to live, and that was something that she communicated till her passing. I think that this whole juju narrative came from the fact that people did try to kill her for so many years and didn’t achieve their goals. There were people who tried to reach her in ways like black magic, so to say. So, I understand why people would say things like that. There is no truth in that being the cause of her death. My mother’s own juju was the Holy Spirit and her holy water coupled with her pure spirit and clean hands, which I think were stronger than anything out there. She knew that she was protected. She died, not naturally, because cancer is not the natural way of dying. She was unwell; she battled with cancer and finally succumbed to it.

In what ways has her name opened doors for you?

The doors that I see opening are those of people’s hearts she touched. I think very few people can say that they have touched so many people on such a large scale as she did. Once there is openness to people’s hearts, there is this openness to be brother and sister to them. It is a really special experience for me and my siblings.

I have met people who I don’t know but regard me as a sister. They regard us, Dora’s children, as their siblings, because they regarded my mother as mother and as someone they loved and genuinely cared for. That door is priceless. It is such a beautiful gift to have a human connection with another, especially someone you don’t know. It is deeper than anything. I trust that this book can allow a deepening of these connections that exist in people’s hearts, so the tress she planted would germinate and bloom.

Was she an early riser?

Yes, she was an early riser. She would wake up, pray with her rosary, and wherever possible, go to mass. She had a routine of taking a walk or doing some stretches followed by getting ready for the day, which would begin with her reading the newspaper over a drink of orange juice. She hardly ate breakfast.

Did she tell you about her love story with your dad, the late Chike Akunyili?

(Laughs) It was my dad who shared their love story with me as part of capturing the story of my mother and writing her memoir. I had a beautiful interview with my father about their love before his unfortunate passing, and I am so grateful for this because you don’t always know your parents’ love story and I might never have. I had my dad tell me for long hours about the story of how they met and all the years they spent together. They had a really beautiful life together. There were struggles, but at the core, they had a beautiful friendship. I am so grateful for the journey of writing the book to capture this story. It is indeed sad that my father had to pass but I am just very trusting that this book can honour his life.

Last year, we witnessed the passing of your father in very gruesome circumstances. How did you feel knowing that all he ever did was serve Nigeria?

Undoubtedly, it is one of the most awful things that anyone would ever have to experience, not least of all, my father. I don’t think that pain would ever go away. I’d like to think that his death might have touched something in our hearts to really understand that we are at the edge and would topple over if we keep going at this sad trajectory. In his death, he gave a gift of deep warning, a warning for the country. This is not a sacrifice that he was willing to give, or a gift that he gave willingly, but ultimately that is what his death has been in the way that I have seen it. I hope and pray that his death is not in vain, and I know that if we take that deep look at ourselves and why this is happening and find the part of us that is ‘Good people, a great nation!’ We must recognise that there are some aspects of our leadership that suggest otherwise. But it is not the full story of who we are. There is something very special about the Nigerian spirit of resilience and capacity as people. This is something I have not seen in many places. We have all these blessings, and it is not by accident that it is Nigeria that has a Wizkid, Chimamanda (Ngozi Adichie), Wole Soyinka, (Chinua) Achebe, Ngozi (Okonjo Iweala), Dora Akunyili and other incredible people coming from this one country. We are better than our current reality allows for us to see and experience.

What kind of a father was he to you?

My father was a typical Igbo father. He was a disciplinarian. He was also very generous with his time and attention. He himself was a very disciplined person. He would never let any ball drop. He was a very caring man; he loved my mother deeply. He was so proud of all of us and he showed it. He was a proud father. He was someone who dedicated himself, just like my mom, to serve his community as a health care provider working as a surgeon for many decades. All my life, I have known him at the hospital. I knew him as one who did his work with a smile and he was very wise too. A lot of people leaned on his wisdom.

What is the inspiration for your new book, I Am Because We Are, which is centred around your mother’s life?

At the core, I believe in the power of stories, they help us to understand each other. I believe that stories can heal and support the inspiration that we need to step into our full potential. It gives us the necessary support, especially to the extent that my mother’s life was dedicated to the betterment of Nigeria. Her story even after death continues to carry the inspiration and the possibility for this work, which she started, to continue. That is why I wanted to tell her story because she dedicated her life to something that she felt she didn’t see through. This was a heavy burden on her shoulders on her deathbed as she continued to bemoan that she had still so much work to do for the people. In telling her story, I am empowering others to find the Dora in themselves, because we need a million Doras for us to truly shift the country in a way that we can bequeath to our children a better Nigeria. Writing this book, for me, was a way of empowering my mother in a way that time didn’t allow. This is a continuation of her work. I really hope that this book is received with the intention with which it was written – that it should serve the country the way that my mother, Dora Akunyili, did.

Why the title “I Am Because We Are”?

The title of the book really guided the essence of what guided my mother. It was the belief that everyone is sacred and everyone matters. It is about the philosophy of Ubuntu, which is something I spoke about in my John’s Hopkins graduation speech. My mother had listened to it then, and I remember her singing and dancing to the title, ‘I Am Because We Are’. So, that stayed with me. At the core, this is a philosophy of our shared humanity. It is a reminder of our interconnectedness. It is something that my mother held very dear. It encapsulates her life.

Looking at Nigeria of today, would you say your mother would be pleased with the state of the nation?

It is a tough question because I love that I am part of a country that honours those that did the work. I am glad for Nigeria on how it honours my mother even in her death and how it honoured my father with his passing. I feel sure that her life’s work can inspire us, the younger generation, to keep going, because giving up will be us accepting that we failed as a people. That is not just the option that is available to us at all. We have no reason to take that route, and I think that her life was an example to show us the way.

Would you say the country is where your mother would have loved it to be?

I just had my father killed, so I think the answer is clearly a no. I don’t think any Nigerian alive would tell you that we have done enough. That is why I am talking about planting seeds. We need to reject the mediocrity of our current situation and our leadership behind it. The failures are just too much. Too much is going wrong to say Nigeria has done enough. Which matrix are we using for that? I trust that we have the capacity to do better. We have to truly know that we are that change. What can you do? What can you support? What can you say no to? What should you say yes to? How can we show up for each other? It is a drop in a pond that makes an ocean. I know that we are a massive country, and each person steps into their potential, unlocking their truest selves, a lot can happen.

You just became a mother to a lovely daughter late last year. What lessons would you love her to learn from your mother’s life?

Oh my! It is such a gift! A friend had told me how being a mother would allow me to better write my mother’s story. Becoming a mother, coupled with my experience with loss and grief has allowed for a depth in connecting with my mother even in death. Motherhood is a beautiful reminder of the connections that exist between us all, including between me and my mother, my father and our ancestors. It is such a beautiful thing to realise that all those that were here before us are with us. I see all that in the eyes of my daughter. I am grateful that she gets to be in a world where we are beginning to rewrite our own stories and challenge the status quo. I would love that my daughter learns to honour who she is. This is something my mother always did. I want her to know that she can make any change no matter how people might say it is not possible. She can do the impossible if she is called to do so. She should trust her passion and be guided by her spirit/her inner guidance and God, and be true to who she is. No matter what, she should not let anybody compromise her. This is something I think she (mother) would have loved for her.

What inspired your mother’s fashion sense?

My mother over time overwent an evolution in her fashion. In the 90s, she used to wear western suits and the like. At a point, we saw that she found her truest self in our native attire, and she popularised it. Her favourite was a long skirt with a three-quarter length tops; always very colourful, never dark colours and complimenting jewellery and perfume. She loved her African wax fabrics and supported many tailors (laughs).

What was her favourite meal?

My mother liked fish pepper soup. She liked roasted snails and softly roasted corn with ube (pear).

How about your dad?

My father liked groundnut and banana mix as a snack. He loved ‘point-and-kill’ and suya, which he always got us as a treat. He also enjoyed his soups.

Did you always know that you would be a writer?

The inspiration to write my mother’s book is the first thing before the ‘being a writer part’. I heard a voice that felt like my mother’s with the inspiration to ‘write my story!’ I felt it and said yes to it. But then the questions and fears arose. Do I know how to write a book? Do I have the time? Will it be good enough? I have always written as a means of expression, but never on such a scale. I always honour when the spirit guides me. This felt like such a moment. As such I leaned into trusting in this. I am so grateful that this is a book that I got to write. I cannot imagine a more beautiful tribute to a woman who gave so much to so many people.

Would you say that your mother was a feminist?

I think her generation did not use that word but she was someone whose record shows her to be a strong proponent of women. She had a conversation in a BBC interview where she was not shy, despite the pushback from the interviewer, to share that she experienced women as less corruptible than men. As such, she always believed in uplifting and entrusting as many women as possible with positions of power. She saw the capacity of women as incredible agents of change. She might not have used that language, but she imbibed it in the way she empowered women and the way she ran NAFDAC, the ministry and all the spaces in between. She was very conscious of women’s visibility. She made sure she nurtured and rewarded the potential that women have. This is her enduring legacy and I am proud and happy that the ‘Women Development Centre’ in Anambra Sstate bears her name.

Community Key In Nigerian Memoir

BY SUSAN HUEBERT

Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr. Image via Chidiogo

Everyone has a back story, a series of events that led to potentially life-changing choices. In I Am Because We Are, Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr tells the story of her mother Dora’s life as a Nigerian politician and activist working to combat the trade in fraudulent drugs, and finally as a dying woman in need of medical care. Throughout the story runs the African principle of ubuntu, which holds the importance of the community over the individual.

Akunyili-Parr is currently based in Toronto, where she works as a writer, consultant and speaker. She is also the founder of the community organization She ROARS, which is dedicated to helping women of colour achieve their objectives. Much of her work revolves around the principle of ubuntu.

I Am Because We Are is written in the first person, mainly from the perspective of Dora Akunyili and then from her daughter Chidiogo’s viewpoint. The book covers many important aspects of Dora’s life, including her experiences during the Biafran War and the consequences, positive and negative, of her parents’ decision to send her to live with her grandmother. Although many aspects of her life were hard, these experiences also helped to shape the person she became.

Many of the choices that Dora Akunyili made were responses to the circumstances she encountered. Knowing that Nigeria is the source of many fraudulent drugs, she decided to become a pharmacist so she could help explore alternatives to contaminated and often weakened pharmaceuticals. When her younger sister, a diabetic, died from taking tainted insulin, she decided that counterfeit drugs would be the focus of her work.

Taking on the task of ridding Nigeria of this problem involved making people aware of the issue and then trying to make changes at a high level. For many years, Akunyili worked with NAFDAC, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, in Nigeria. Government positions followed, together with death threats and an assassination attempt. Finally, Akunyili found herself needing medical care and treatment herself in her struggle with cancer.

Throughout the book is a strong thread of family and community. While her marriage was flawed, Akunyili’s relationships with her six children remained strong, even as the family dispersed to the United States and other parts of the world. Her connections with some of her siblings also helped to give her strength in difficult times, including both successes and failures.

Dora Akunyili narrates her own life and death before the perspective shifts to the narrative of her youngest daughter, Chidiogo. Dora draws in the perspectives of her siblings, as well as the traditions of the Igbo tribe, to which the family belonged, and her Christian faith.

Chidiogo’s narrative in the final chapters includes musings both on how the book came together and on her siblings’ reactions to their mother’s death. In accordance with her mother’s wishes, the story is also about healing, both physical and emotional, that people need in the situations they encounter.

I Am Because We Are is a compelling story, especially for readers interested in international politics and campaigns. Some of Dora Akunyili’s speeches are included in the book, giving readers a sense of the ideals that drove her.

Even for those who may not be overly interested in politics, I Am Because We Are is an engaging family story with enough twists and turns to keep readers motivated to continue to the last page.

-----------------------------THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Ifeyinwa Joy Chiamonwu, “Genesis” At 24th Street. Jack Shainman Gallery

ETEL ADNAN, GALERIE LELONG & CO

Image courtesy of Shainman Gallery
 

Iam a vessel of my Igbo ancestors.

I am here to tell our stories and to preserve the rich cultural identity and traditions of our people. I do not take for granted, this responsibility. This is a journey of a lifetime. This exhibition is the first page to a thousand pages of historical Igbo testaments.

The exhibition is an introduction to the visions of the vessel and the ancestors that speak through her.

-Ifeyinwa Joy Chiamonwu, December 2021


Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to present Genesis, Ifeyinwa Joy Chiamonwu’s first exhibition with the gallery.

Growing up in the Anambra state of Nigeria, Chiamonwu was taught that tradition, community, and most importantly, family were values to be placed above all others. Chiamonwu has chosen to highlight these same priorities in Genesis, her first solo exhibition, a grouping of works on paper and canvas showcasing her family members and close friends as representations of mythological Igbo deities, customs, and cultural beliefs both past and present.

Born in 1995, Chiamonwu recounts witnessing the recession of many of her close-knit, Igbo community’s tribal traditions and cultural practices, and in response has shaped her practice in order to preserve them. The range of Igbo identities worldwide is vast, and Chiamonwu has chosen to focus her expression on the kinds of physical, tribal objects and cultural figures that played such a large role in her childhood and are close to her heart when she thinks of her community. Over the years she has made an effort to spend time with local elders; to listen to and protect their stories through her artwork so that she can subsequently share them with this and future generations, locally and around the world.

Paintings like Nne Mmiri (Igbo Water Goddess) demonstrate the kinds of rich myths and histories that Chiamonwu seeks to embody. As queen of the marine world, Nne Mmiri is thought to be the embodiment of beauty, fertility, and wealth. She holds her realm in her hands, sparkling and beautiful with vivacity. Accompanying her is a python; her messenger and a symbol of her strength. Along with Igbo deities, Chiamonwu also portrays quieter, more domestic aspects of her culture, such as in Umunne (Siblings). Featuring her own brother and sister as models, she contrasts their brightly colorful Ankara wrappers and adornments with the serene composure of her siblings. Most striking is the sense of their ease, contentment, and security with each other, in a way that often only comes from a life-long, nurtured bond.

Chiamonwu’s remarkable skill is entirely self-taught. Though she studied Education in college, a longstanding fascination with art since her youth led her to devote innumerable hours to developing the meticulous technique she uses today. The verisimilitude is striking, so much so that the subjects seem to exit the picture plane and enter our world as near-tangible figures imbued with warmth and life. The discipline and effort evident in each drawing and painting ultimately echoes the love and respect she has for each figure in her own life. In this way, Genesis is not only a preservation of Chiamonwu’s Igbo culture, but also a tribute to personal relationships and the unique history one has with those around them.

Opening January 13th at our 513 West 20th Street space is Down Here Below, an exhibition of work by Carrie Mae Weems, and This Tender, Fragile Thing opening at The School | Jack Shainman Gallery on January 15, 2022. Upcoming exhibitions include Barkley L. Hendricks, In the Paint at our 513 West 20th Street gallery, and Claudette Schreuders at our 524 West 24th Street space, both opening February 24, 2022.

A Reckless Israeli Film Crew In Nigeria And The Igbo Jews Who Paid The Price

Irish missionaries distribute foods to malnourished Biafran children. Image via IMDB/Biafra-Forgotten Mission

BY IMAN SULTANA

In southeastern Nigeria, many Igbo, members of Nigeria’s third-largest tribe, believe they are of Jewish ancestry. Some of their traditions, such as circumcision and menstrual rituals, resemble those of Talmudic Judaism. The Igbo population is estimated at 30 to 35 million. Dozens of communities have become fully practicing Jews, and countless more incorporate elements of Judaism into a syncretic belief system. While the tribe’s origins remain unconfirmed, Igbo Jewish oral tradition traces the Igbo back to an African Hebrew diaspora that resided near the Niger River after the 722 BCE expulsion of the Israelites from the northern kingdom. This predates even the Babylonian exile of 586 BCE.

The Igbo are not accepted as Jews by the Israeli government. Consequently, they remain subject to ongoing threats, including severe persecution in the wake of Nigeria’s liberation from British colonialism. For example, between 1 million and 3 million Igbo were slaughtered en masse during the Nigeria-Biafra war that lasted from 1967 to 1970.

Early last summer, an Israeli filmmaker went to West Africa with a film crew to document Igbos’ stories. While there, the crew was arrested in Ogidi by the Department of State Services (DSS) on July 9 and imprisoned for approximately 20 days without trial. An elderly Igbo woman, who had welcomed them, was also arrested by the DSS and imprisoned alongside the team. After the international community got involved, the filmmakers were released and subsequently returned to Israel. A Nigerian film director and cinematographer was then arrested at the end of July for associating with the filmmakers.

Ambitious filmmaking projects that feature marginalized communities are admirable. However, outsiders must fully understand the specific risks to these communities. They must recognize when their efforts do more harm than good to the locals, lest they endanger them.

This time, heavy press scrutiny and extensive international support mitigated the worst. The filmmakers, who got the lion’s share of attention, were released within three weeks. The locals received far less media coverage, despite being the subjects of the film, and lacked the support of international embassies. Although elderly, the Igbo Jewish woman was detained for a longer period of time. Unlike the Israelis, she was not given hospital visits or Chabad kosher meals.

While the Nigerian government clearly violated basic human rights, the filmmakers also contributed to the fallout. They traveled to Nigeria claiming to aid the locals and while there, frequently posted about their experiences on social media. Some of their posts contained overtly political undertones and disclosed identities of specific Igbo Jews. One Instagram photo showed the filmmaker with Igbo King Eze Chukwuemeka Eri and the following description: “Israel X Igbo are locking arms.”

Irrespective of intent, this and other posts could easily be interpreted as promoting a political alliance between Israel and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) or other groups which are viewed as separatist by the Nigerian government. On paper, freedom of speech is protected under Nigeria’s constitution. In practice, Nigeria typically censors certain types of ideas, including discussions about ethnicity, political diversity, and differing views of morality. In other words, Nigeria is not Israel, the United States, Canada, or Australia; protections surrounding freedom of speech, legal representation, and other rights expected in the developed world are not widely available.

Whether or not this is moral or ideal in our eyes, it is a reality that must be recognized. The Igbo Jews have already suffered immense harm from their own government, as well as from neighboring ethnic groups. The film crew’s reckless actions further risk an already isolated and vulnerable population. Thus, the filming was in direct contradiction of the Talmudic value of communal responsibility toward the well-being of one’s fellow Jew. This is core to the Jews as a nation and a people.

The filmmakers have repeatedly condemned the Nigerian government for the arrests, without taking time to reflect on the ways in which they themselves may have brought harm upon the very community they claim to support. Two local Nigerians are known to have suffered as a result of the film crew’s lack of cultural awareness and sensitivity. The fallout of this incident could cause harm to many more.

Although it may not be possible to reverse this particular situation, it is possible to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. First, this film crew can reflect on the ways in which they acted irresponsibly, as opposed to milking the story on YouTube and painting the Nigerian government as the villain in an attempt to absolve themselves. Second, they can make a public statement acknowledging the specific ways in which they contributed to the situation. Third, they can do their due diligence in educating themselves about their countries of interest to ensure that this kind of voluntourism mentality does not persist, should they continue their work. Far be it for one Jew to add to the suffering of another.

This post was co-authored by Rebecca Sealfon who is a Reconstructionist Jewish writer and social media consultant who lives in New York City. She started and maintains a popular Israel-Palestine peace forum called Unity is Strength, which receives more than 1,000,000 views per year and attracts writers from Israel, Palestine, and all over the world. Rebecca has published in the New York Daily News, Smithsonian magazine, and the Daily Beast, as well as appeared numerous times on national television,

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Iman J. Sultana is completing a Peace and Conflict Studies graduate degree at the University of Waterloo. Her specialty is conflict zones in MENA, including Israel-Palestine, Kurdistan, and Yemen. She is also interested in environmental-based peacebuilding and social entrepreneurship. In her free time, Iman administers online peacebuilding communities.

Fayetteville Law Professor Elected As Lifetime Member Of Foreign Relations Council

Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile

B Y JACOB SMITH

FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. (KNWA/KFTA) — The University of Arkansas announced in a Wednesday, Jan. 5 news release Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile, E.J. Ball Professor of Law, has been elected as a lifetime member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.

Ofodile becomes one of the few Africans and Arkansans to be elected a member of the esteemed organization.

According to the news release, she hopes to use the opportunity to bring attention to pressing issues, including sustainability and climate change; food, nutrition and water insecurity; corporate social responsibility and accountability; global governance issues and challenges; and the risks and opportunities associated with artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

“I am extremely excited by my lifetime election to the Council on Foreign Relations, whose activities I have followed for well over 20 years,” said Ofodile. “I have been inspired by the lives and accomplishments of the council’s esteemed members who are all visionaries and changemakers. I hope that through my involvement in this association, I can impact Africa and the world for the better.”

Ofodile also acknowledged the state’s major and growing role in global affairs, saying Arkansans must “lend their voice to weighty issues of our time from climate change to plastic waste, human trafficking, and artificial intelligence.”

She has numerous achievements on her resume, including being a Senior Fellow at the Harvard School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, as well as an Honorary Fellow of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law in Hong Kong, and an affiliated professor of African and African American Studies, at the University of Arkansas’s J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

She also researches and writes in the areas of intellectual property law, international trade law, international investment law, and international dispute settlement. She has published numerous articles including in journals at Yale, Michigan and Vanderbilt among others.

Ofodile’s colleagues spoke on her election, giving praise to the decision.

Willam Alford, the Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law and vice dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, said, “I am thrilled that professor Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile has been chosen for membership in the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a worldwide leader in scholarship regarding the China-Africa relationship, and as someone who shares this interest, I can say that her work, which commenced long before this subject achieved prominence, is wonderfully creative while deeply rigorous.”

Shontavia Johnson, an alumnus of the law school and former student of Ofodile said, “Professor Ofodile’s scholarship, talks, and lectures around the world firmly solidify her position as both a leader in global discourse and a facilitator of law and policy change at all levels of governance.” Johnson, who is currently the associate vice president for entrepreurship and innovation at Clemson University, added, “At a time when our world faces complex issues and challenges, it is comforting to know that Professor Ofodile is positioned, through her membership in the council, to lend her voice on critical global issues and provide advice on important foreign policy choices facing the U.S. and countries and communities around the world.”

The release says with her election, Ofodile joins an organization whose members are among the most distinguished and most prominent leaders in the foreign policy arena, including top government officials, renowned scholars, business executives, acclaimed journalists, prominent lawyers, and distinguished nonprofit professionals.

Chioma Ebinama: A Spiral Shell At Maureen Paley Gallery, London (Photo Story)

Chioma Ebinama. Image courtesy of Chioma Ebinama

Maureen Paley is pleased to present the first solo exhibition at the gallery by Chioma Ebinama.

Chioma Ebinama (b. 1988, Maryland, USA and lives and works in Athens, Greece) is a Nigerian-American artist who is interested in how animism, mythology, and precolonial philosophies present a space to articulate a vision of freedom outside of Western social and political paradigms.

Raised in the United States by Nigerian Christian immigrants, Ebinama is drawn to the aesthetic of formalised religion for its potential to celebrate inner life. As she seeks to create new mythologies for the African Diaspora, her work is influenced by a myriad of sources, from West African cosmology to folk art of the global South, to the visual language of Western religion and Eastern spiritual traditions.

Her work also reflects on gender and queer identities through a figurative language that is informed by surrealism and Igbo culture among other sources. The collision of aesthetics and presentation techniques is indicative of Ebinama’s nomadic life and in recent years as she carried her practice from Mexico, South Korea, India, Malaysia and now Greece.

Her practice is centred around work on paper, yet in her travels she has collaborated with local artists to make sculptures, textiles and wearable art.

The title A Spiral Shell, is a surprise as there are no shells nor spirals in any of these figurative works. It refers to Italo Calvino’s short story, The Spiral, from his book Cosmocomics. I found this story about a mollusk to be a beautiful metaphor of what drives the desire to make things and how in the act of making we build a protective shell, a careful space for our own vulnerability against the “indiscriminate instability” of the external world.

Most people who know my work have no idea I’ve spent the past two years living in a complete disconnect from everything familiar. In 2019 I found myself houseless and studio-less. So I decided to wing it and travel. I did a short stay in Mexico and another in London, a lonesome short visit to Athens and several months living an ascetic artist’s life sharing a bed with a friend in Seoul. Somehow, I produced a solo exhibition (Now I only believe in…love, Fortnight Institute, 2020) while living out of a suitcase. At the beginning of the pandemic, I found myself stuck in Athens, which turned out to be a sort of wellspring of good fortune. I found love and decided to stay. But I struggled to make roots. No studio to ground me and no familiar faces, I was surrounded by a language that feels alien to me. Still I produced an entire children’s book (Emile and the Field, available in Spring 2022) and another solo exhibition (mud & butterflies, Catinca Tabacaru, 2021). When I began to make A Spiral Shell, I was paralysed by the fear that I didn’t have a story, unlike my other bodies of work, I had no visions to explore. So I began inward, reflecting on what had brought me to the present and making space for how traumatising change, even change for the better, can feel.

That said, work draws from everywhere. The figure in Petting a bumblebee is adorned in a wrapper decorated with a pattern taken from a Mbari sculpture, a lost tradition of Igbo culture. A Sense of Belonging, was born from the urge to make a hyper-feminine character like the pretty girls of 70s shoujo manga covers. It’s something for my child self. The Empress and The Tower refer to the two tarot cards I saw before beginning what I call my life as a seed in the wind. By sampling and collaging different cultural images, I am building a collection of positive resource states (I think ‘positive resource states’ is a term used in various behavioural therapies to develop healthy coping mechanisms for trauma) in a voice that feels truly my own in the current social climate that seeks to rapidly define blackness and the feminine in a way that is easily consumed. With this honest voice, I am reminding myself of the beauty of uncertainty, as I process my personal experience of rootlessness and change.’

Recent solo exhibitions include mud & butterflies, Catinca Tabacaru, Bucharest, 2021; Now I only believe in…love, Fortnight Institute in New York, Leave the thorns and take the rose, The Breeder Gallery, Athens, 2020 and Anunu: Notes on the Divine Feminine, Boys’ Quarters Project Space, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, 2019. Selected group shows include Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 2021 and Alien Landscape, 303 Gallery, New York. Ebinama has recently illustrated a children’s book Emile and the Field, written by Kevin Young, poetry editor of The New Yorker and director of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History. The book will be released in Spring 2022 with Make Me A World, an imprint of Penguin Random House books curated by artist Christopher Myers.

Exhibition view, Chioma Ebinama: A Spiral Shell at Maureen Paley Gallery, London, 2021

Chioma Ebinama, The Empress, watercolour and sumi ink on paper, 100 × 140 cm, 2021

Chioma Ebinama, Igba Gharie (ambivalence), watercolour, sumi ink and coffee on paper 65 × 45 cm 2021

Images: Maureen Paley Gallery London

Credit: Art Efuse

INTERVIEW: A Survivor’s Tale: How I Ran Mad After Taking Mkpuru Mmiri

By Chioma Okezie-Okeh

Image: Youtube

A 23-year-old young man named Okechukwu Nnorom, and a lucky survivor of the devastating effect of methamphetamine, otherwise known as Mkpuru mmiri in Igbo language, has revealed how he got hooked with the drug. He stated also how he got knocked out in the process, owing to his ignorance and innocence.

It was meant to be a bet worth N10, 000, and he decided to give it a try, he told Saturday Sun. The bet was all about who could take three cubes of the substance and still remain stable. But in less than five minutes after consuming it, Nnorom became restless and began to sweat profusely. The spectators and other competitors advised him to try and vomit out the substance. But he insisted on hanging on despite the dangerous sign, adding that he wanted the N10, 000 bet for keeps.

Twenty minutes after he refused to heed the advice, he switched personality and started exhibiting the traits of an insane person. According to eyewitnesses, it took the efforts of six able-bodied men to hold him down and to tie him up. When they saw that there was no improvement in his condition, after pouring several sachets of water on him, they alerted his family, who came over to pick him up in the football field where he lay helpless after being tied up. Quickly, they rushed him to a private mental rehab facility in Aba, Abia State. There he spent three months getting well.

How I got hooked

When Saturday Sun met him, Nnorom, who is fully back to his senses said that his greatest wish now is to serve God as a pastor. Recalling what he passed through, the much he could remember before he lost his senses, the young man claimed that he was deceived into believing that the Mkpuru Mmiri of a thing was just a regular ice laced with hot drinks.

His account: “I am from Abia State and the first child of my parents. I have four siblings. My uncle and master sells curtain materials. I was asked to live with him after I lost my father in 2019. In fact, he was the one who insisted that I should relocate. That was sometime in October of that year.

“To be sincere, he took good care of me and all his apprentices with whom I lived together in his house. As a young man, I had few friends with whom I used to go to a football field in Aba to play. The little money we got from hustling in the market was used mostly to buy drinks to entertain ourselves especially on Sunday evenings when we did not go to market.

“Among us boys there were always hot drinks, both sachet and small-bottled ones flying about. I refused to take marijuana because I feared that my uncle, who is a Christian, might notice through my mouth or body odour. He had warned me that if I misbehaved, he would send me packing. I don’t have a father and my mother is a petty trader. I had no better option.”

Nnorom said that he continued to keep to this principle till sometime in August when he was challenged to lick a cube of ice and earn some money. “Normally after playing ball, we would be thirsty. One man that sells all sorts of hot drinks was the one who brought this Mkpuru mmiri thing. He told us that he iced some of the hot drinks for those who were thirsty. Initially, I was not moved to join them to have a taste. He shared it among some of the boys. They took it but I did not see them react to the effect.

“It was the following Sunday when the man who we knew and addressed as “Chief” placed a bet that I became interested. The first set took two cubes and the winner won N5000. I saw that as easy. I decided to give it a try when the man increased the bet price to N10, 000.

“But I found out that after taking it, I started sweating very much as my head began to spin as if it didn’t belong to me anymore. They asked me to force myself to vomit. But thinking that it was just a side effect of what I took, I refused to heed their advice. I had hoped that the effect would clear soon and I would win the bet. But as the impact of the hangover continued to increase, I totally lost it. From that point on, I could not recall what happened until I found myself in the hospital. But my mother told me that I was later admitted in the hospital. I am so ashamed of myself. But right now, I am ok. I believe and pray that I will be able to serve God for the rest of my life.”

Excited mother thanks God for son’s ‘deliverance’

His mother could not hide her excitement when she spoke to Saturday Sun. She called her son’s recovery something of a miracle.

“Just like he explained, he left Kaduna to live with his uncle in Aba after the death of his father in 2019. I also relocated to Umuahia because of the increase in insecurity around the area where we lived in Kaduna. The second reason was that my business was no longer booming. All was well until I received a call in August from his uncle that my son has run mad. He said they were able to grab and drag him to the hospital where he was chained. I thank God that he was discovered on time, allowing the doctors the time to battle and save his life. He spent three months at the rehabilitation centre till he was fully recovered. I thank God for his uncle who did not abandon us for all those three months.”

Nnorom’s story is a tip of the iceberg, as regards the incalculable mental havoc that methamphetamine, or Mkpuru mmiri, the mind-bending drug, is causing among Igbo youths. Determined to bring an end to the spread, Saturday Sun learnt that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), is aggressively clamping down on the barons said to be mainly Igbo businessmen. This has led to several arrests, including the recent one at Enugu airport. The suspect, who was en route to Dubai, was found with a large quantity of Meth.

NDLEA reveals brains behind drugs, vows to stamp it out

So far the NDLEA has succeeded in shutting down some of the conduit pipes and frustrating some of the producers. But at the same time, their efforts have driven many of the patrons and barons underground from where they continue to manufacture and market the product to interested buyers, mainly youths.

In an interview with Saturday Sun, the agency’s Director of Intelligence, Sunday Zirangey, revealed that the drug barons started producing Meth in Nigeria in 2009. Investigations, he noted, revealed that it was South Americans, Colombians and their partners in Nigeria that brought them into the country. They were not only producing the meth in Nigeria, setting up clandestine laboratories, they were also training some Nigerians.

“Criminals, you know, always have foresight,” he said. “They want to make money; they want to be in charge. So, they partner with the South Americans to come and produce meth in Nigeria because they know that millions of dollars are involved. They also, in their own ingenuity, didn’t want to be dependent on the South Americans. They said to Nigerian barons, ‘Okay, we can partner with you. They said: ‘You are producing for us today. Can you train some of our people to be doing it?’ And the first Colombian that came, said: ‘if you can pay me what I will charge you, I will do it.’ And how much was it? – $38,000 per week training seven people for a certain period of time, and they were doing it in their hotel, in Ikeja, in Lekki, Lagos. After some time, those people got trained, that is the locals, Nigerians. They were not even pharmacists; they were not trained chemists. But, by combining one chemical with the other, they were able to get meth. They didn’t know the implication of what they were doing. Some of the locals died in the course of trying to learn the meth production because it involved very hazardous chemicals. If you inhale the chemicals, you develop a lot of organ diseases like kidney, heart, and all that.

“Anyway, when we saw this trend, we started working with our counterparts, the Americans. They showed interest, and through intelligence provided by them we uncovered and seized the first Nigerian lab in 2011. Between 2011 and 2019, the agency was to seize 18 methamphetamine laboratories. We’re not looking only at foreigners. In fact, we usually get intelligence when the foreigners are coming in, right from their take-off to arrival.

We follow them till when they set up the labs and begin to produce. Right from scratch, we started from when they came into the country; we followed them. They went to Enugu, went to Anambra and finally settled in Asaba. This was for a period of 13 months. We followed them without them knowing that they were being monitored. This job is intelligence-driven and takes a lot of painstaking investigation. Our aim is to make sure that the agency is positioned to be able to really rise to the challenge of this time, because the drug traffickers will not stop at anything to make their money; all that matters to them is money.”

Irish Citizen Chebuche Feels Very Much At Home In Kilcash And Carries Nigeria In Her Heart

Chebeuche Anyanwu. Image: Tipperare Live
 

BY BREDA JOYCE

KILCASH, IRELAND (TIPPERARY LIVE) -- Chebeuche Anyanwu was born among the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria. In 2003, she came to Ireland seeking asylum. She now lives in Kilcash with her five children.

Waiting on God’s Time

The Igbo people in eastern Nigeria like to cook a particular leaf which is very bitter and will remain so if you close the lid of the saucepan while cooking. However, if you leave the lid open and do not rush the cooking process, exposing it to the air sweetens it and the taste is no longer so bitter.
I find it strange that Irish people like to keep a lid on issues such as their mental health and cancer.
Irish people are very private, they are slow to admit that all is not well on the inside. Sharing burdens and worries is important among my Igbo people.

If one feels depressed, for instance, one says so openly – there isn’t the same stigma; the person suffering is put in touch with someone else who has suffered from this same illness and come through it.
With time one’s suffering or burden is lessened through exposure and no longer leaves such a bitter taste. People are unable to cope when they try to cope alone. Loneliness is the greatest disease.
When I came to Ireland first, people here didn’t seem happy to me. I felt that people were into themselves, just did their own thing, so I felt the need to put myself in a bottle and close myself in.
My people are very open, they celebrate openly, they are lively and enjoy life, but they are also very loud spoken compared to the Irish.

When I attend parent - teacher meetings, my children tell me, “Mum you are too loud, they will think you are angry.”

They also remind me to smile even if the teacher doesn’t! Yet when I speak to my former classmates on WhatsApp they say, “You’ve become so quiet!”

PAINFUL

Leaving my three small children behind was so painful. My husband and my mum too. I arrived in Ireland in the month of May in 2003. I couldn’t believe how cold it was.

When I woke up in Dublin, I felt lost in this strange place among strangers. There wasn’t much life on the streets or in the markets. I was hungry and there was nothing but sandwiches to eat. I was pregnant and I was heartbroken.

NIGERIA

In Nigeria a grandmother spends the first year with her daughter to help her care for her new-born. I knew my mother would be there for my children, that they would be happy with her.

But through my tears on the plane, I could see their confused little faces looking up at me. I could feel the imprint of their tiny fingers clinging to my legs. I cried every night for those two weeks in the home in Dublin. In Carrick, in Bridgewater House, I was without them for almost a year.

Prayer kept me going, that and talking to them by phone nearly every day.

I was overjoyed when my husband came on a holiday visa for three weeks in 2004 and I saw my children again, they were aged two, three and four and when we all met in Dublin, they met their new baby sister for the first time. The baby was one-year-old by then. I had my five children and my husband in one room; it was wonderful to be together again.

SACRIFICE

It was difficult for us all when my husband went back alone. But we are Christians. We married for better or worse. I made a sacrifice for my children - I want them to have a good education and be independent. I didn’t have those chances myself.

What attracted me to Ireland is that you are a Christian people. Christian values in my country are very important too.

My mum says, “If you talk to God, He will provide the solution to your problems.” When we were small, if we had a headache my mum would pray, and we would be ok. I read the Bible every day and apply it to my life. Sometimes I pray as I walk around but my children give out to me for mumbling. They say, “Stop because my friend will see you mumbling!”

We are Catholic but the Catholic church is very different here.

Nigerian services are much livelier and last about two hours. Children are taught Bible in Nigeria.
Here I take my children to a Pentecostalist church so that they become familiar with it. It is important to me to instill moral and social values in my children though they can be mocked for knowing the Bible.
I used to wake them up at 6am in the morning to study and to pray. I gave them verses to meditate on. But they are too big now and accuse me of mistreating them, making them study the Bible so early in the morning!

I have three boys and two girls, the youngest is 15. My two eldest children enabled me to go to college and to work by looking after their younger brothers and sister.

STRUGGLES

They had no time to play sport as other children did. It is difficult to have to be a mother and a father to them at the same time. They’ve never seen me relax. I tell my kids they must work as well as study. We must work harder than white people for everything. They see my struggles. Now my three older children study politics and economics, medicine, and genetics. The youngest two are still at school.
My first job was in Greenhill Nursing Home. In 2006, I did a Health Care Support certificate course. Then in UCC I did Disability Studies over two years. After that I did an Applied Social Care degree in WIT over four years.

I have a child with special needs which made it very difficult for me to be flexible with social work as I needed to look after him.

I am now working in social care.

My children experience more racism that I do. They know there is racism even if Irish people don’t talk about it.

They experience it in school and in their environment. Too young to stand up for himself, my youngest son asked me, “Why did God not just create one colour?”

My older children can speak up for themselves now. Both of my daughters are feminists, and I am so proud of them.

Racism has made my children become hard workers, and that includes sport too. My son told me that if he shouts and complains that he is not picked for a team, it only brings out negativity, and he won’t be able to play his best.

Sometimes my children advise me, “The person who treated you like that didn’t know what she did was bad. Just leave it there and move on.”

I tell my children that we are not responsible for anyone’s behaviour to us. We just need to work on ourselves and move on. Racism won’t go away.

The way we bring up our children matters a lot. I like my children to have high expectations of themselves. I tell them, “Nobody should tell you that you can’t jump, and if they do, then jump so high that they won’t be able to see you.”

My daughter was told she couldn’t do honours English, but she jumped so high she is now studying medicine.

PEACEFUL AND SAFE

Ireland for now is our home. It is a very peaceful and safe place. Irish people in general are very reserved, very “inside” but very generous.

This is their country. Mostly people are ok, but like everywhere, some are good, some are bad. But there is a lot going on in the background. I might enter a shop and the security man follows me around as if I’m a thief.

It’s important for Irish people to realise that racism is still there; people pretend it isn’t.
Irish people who have travelled are more open. Others are very defensive and closed and insecure. People everywhere have the same worries and needs. The environment we grow up in shapes us, but we should not judge people.

CULTURE

We must learn about the culture of others. As Steve Jobs said, we must believe at every moment in our lives and that will give us hope and take us somewhere.
But it can be hurtful when you are trying so hard to be good. Still, you have to smile and have a positive attitude.

My name Chebeuchechukwu means “waiting on God’s time”.

Good things happen slowly for me. My surname Ogudo signifies strength and the confidence of being unbeatable.

I use our Igbo saying to encourage my children. Isi aro ka eji ama utonsi: the way you work hard and study now and the people you befriend determines your tomorrow.

My husband’s name is Anyanwu. It means “Sunshine”. I really miss him, and my children miss their dad. I haven’t seen him since 2018 when he came on a holiday visa.

NO REGRETS

I miss our extended family too and the friends I grew up with but I’ve no regrets about coming here.
We went back to Nigeria to visit in 2015. My eldest son really wants to go back there to work. He loves the culture but my youngest is big into hurling - he loves it here and has so many friends here now he wants to stay.

FEEL AT HOME

I feel at home here, but I carry Nigeria with me. I make sure my children understand our culture. Every day we eat Nigerian food, and my children love it especially onu-gbu– bitter leaf food.
I would love to go back to Nigeria and live with my Igbo people again one day, perhaps when I’m older and retired. But for now, I’m very happy to be here in Ireland.

GRATEFUL

This country has given us so much – I am so grateful in every way, but I won’t take the weather back home! If my children were in Nigeria now, they would not have the education they have.
My children are settled - they are happy here. I have learned so much from them. When I write something, they rephrase it so that Irish people will understand. My children have become very close to me and are protective of me.

Ireland has changed me for the better. In Nigeria life is all about struggling to live. I appreciate life more now. Though I have to wait for everything, I see the light coming in. Hope is patience. I am waiting on God’s time!

Our Sense of Place

Breda Joyce grew up in county Galway and taught at secondary level in Kenya and in Cahir.
Her poetry has won and been shortlisted for several awards and appears in anthologies and literary journals.

Her first collection, Reshaping the Light, was recently published by Chaffinch Press.

Breda also writes short fiction and memoir.

Reshaping the Light is available to purchase from The Narrow Space and The Bookmarket in Clonmel and from The Tudor Hub, Carrick as well as from online booksellers listed on the Chaffinch Press website.

Mama Roz’s Chronicles: Kidnap, A Widow’s Tale

BY ROZ AMECHI

Emenike Ihekwaba. Image: Twitter

Kidnapping has become an all too familiar evil in our society today and was at some point a way of life in the Eastern part of Nigeria. Many victims made it home safely but sadly some didn’t. Chy’s story takes us through the tragic pain and trauma this experience causes to the family and friends of the victims.

Chy’s Story

When Chy and Emenike met in June 1987, it was love at first sight. In fact, he proposed to her on that first day and she, mesmerised with this tall, handsome and debonair fellow, quickly accepted. They got married a year later on the 29th of October 1988. Like most marriages, the early days were pure bliss but as the years passed, things began to go sour. Her husband kept late nights, drinking with his friends much to her annoyance and irritation. Chy responded by joining the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI) who taught her how to pray for her husband and marriage. It worked. He gave his life to Christ and joined the FGBMFI rising swiftly to the position of Chapter President. Chy was ecstatic. Her marriage “became new” again, they spoke the same language and their children were happy. Their home had turned into an enviable Christian home and they prayed that they would eventually age and enjoy their grandchildren together. Unfortunately, that was not meant to be.

In the first week of August 2012, the couple sent their children on holiday to the US. Emenike, having risen to the position of Permanent Secretary of the Imo state government, had formed the habit of holidaying abroad with his wife and children. They visited the United Kingdom and the United States as frequently as they could. This year was no different and they had sent the children ahead with the plan that Emenike would join them two weeks later. A week to his travel date, his boss, the Deputy Governor of the state, asked him to postpone his trip as he wanted to travel and the two of them could not be out at the same time so he shifted his dates two more weeks ahead.

On Sunday 26th of August, they had been invited to two events. One was in Mbano for the thanksgiving service of a priest whose ordination they had been unable to attend and the second was a child dedication service in their home church, St Paul’s in Nkwerre. They decided to attend both. Leaving home at 8am, they attended the Mbano service and left at 12 noon for Nkwerre. As they usually did, they stopped briefly at Amaraku market to buy goat meat for Emenike’s favourite pepper soup.

Chy waited in the car whilst Emenike went into the market to buy the meat. It wasn’t long before he returned, with the meat seller who was carrying the meat, to the car. He opened the front door, put the meat in and then went to the back to open the door, when an SUV stopped dramatically in front of their car, blocking their exit route. It all happened so fast. Three hefty young lads in black wearing bullet proof vests with the words “Police” on the front, alighted from the car. Chy was puzzled. She could not imagine what they could have done wrong to justify this aggressive approach and she asked them “what did we do?’. No one answered her. One came towards her door whilst the other two went directly to her husband.

Emenike figured immediately that these were not real policemen and he shouted “Chy run!”. She didn’t need to hear anything else. As if transported by an unseen force, she ducked under the arm of the man by her door and started running. She hadn’t taken two steps before they started shooting. She thought they were shooting at her but she didn’t stop. She just kept running as her husband had told her to. Everyone in the market started running too. There were some women conducting their August meeting nearby, they ran too. It was complete pandemonium. As she ran, her headtie, outer wrapper, bag and slippers all fell but Chy kept running. She saw an open door and went inside. There were people there. She was trembling and her heart was pounding. She didn’t know where Emenike was and she was terrified. After about 15 minutes the shooting stopped and people went back outside again. She asked where the man she was with was, and they told her he had been taken in the boot of the robbers’ car. Hearing that, her heart sank, she fell to the ground and started weeping. Her nightmare had just begun.

A little boy came and gave her back her bag. She looked into their car. Her husband’s phones and wallet were still there. These were clearly not armed robbers so she wondered what their mission really was. Why did they come for Emenike? It also turned out that they didn’t actually shoot at anyone. They just shot at the tyres of all the cars on the street to make sure that no one came after them. A couple of real policemen appeared from nowhere and started interrogating her until one of the bystanders stopped them. “Can’t you see the state she is in? please leave her” he said. They let her go and she returned to Owerri without her husband.

Chy called her brother-in-law who was attending the event in Nkwerre. He went to the scene of the incident. The driver who had also run, had now reappeared and was taken to the police station but a call came from Government House asking the police to release him and the vehicle. So now, all they could do was sit and wait for the kidnappers to make contact. Chy went to the bank and withdrew all her savings. Then she called friends, relatives and colleagues asking them to donate what they could. She wanted to have enough money ready for the kidnappers. She was quite hopeful.

As she sat and waited, she remembered a similar experience she had with her eldest son four years before. It was in September 2009 and armed robbers had come to their house. They took her 14-year-old son and kept him in the bush for 8 days. During that time, she did not eat or sleep a wink. She just sat and prayed; but after they paid one million Naira, she got her son back. She was convinced that the same would happen with Emenike. They would ask for money; she would pay and then he would come home. She never expected things to turn out the way they did.

The kidnappers did not call till the fifth day and when they did, they asked for N50m. Negotiations started at that point. No one had that kind of money and even though he was a government official, the government offered no assistance. It took two weeks, back and forth, and then finally they were given 48 hours to produce N10m. Chy had managed to collect N6m so they had to find the balance. The kidnappers also wanted 3 bottles of Hennessey. They sent instructions about where the money should be dropped off. Chy stared at the GMG bag of money when they finally managed to collect it all. She had never seen so much cash in her life. N10m in cash! She hadn’t even seen N1m. They had strict instructions not to involve the police and they obeyed. The money was taken to them at the drop off spot. Two men on a motor bike appeared and collected the money and her brother-in-law was told to go to Obinze barracks to pick up her husband.

Finally, it was all over. Success at last. They all rejoiced when her brother-in-law called and said he had been given a location. They arranged a clinic for him to go for a check-up. Chy cooked his favourite fish pepper soup with agidi. He was to be picked at 12 noon so by that time, everything was ready and they waited.

At 6pm her brother-in law called to say that he was still waiting and Emenike had not come. Chy was crushed and confused. She couldn’t process that information. Looking back, she remembers that day as the worst day of her life. She had waited for her husband to return from the kidnapper’s den but he never did. Eventually they asked her brother-in-law to come home. It was really all over but it had ended so horribly. They all started wailing. This was not the end they had expected. This could not possibly be the end. But Emenike never came home and Chy never saw her beloved Emy again.

Years passed but her agony did not diminish. She kept wishing and longing to see Emenike; his smiling face and his comforting arms. Every day even now, she looks out for him thinking that by some miracle, he will walk through the door. If he had died, she would have buried him and moved on but this situation offers no closure. The pain, trauma and agony are unimaginable but she has learnt to live with them.

Chy did all she could. She wrote petitions to the First Lady, Dame Patience and her Senator, Chris Anyanwu who contacted the Commissioner of Police but nothing came of it. She paid for policemen to come to Imo state with trackers from Port Harcourt but the required government support was not forthcoming and eventually they left, taking with them all the hope she had.

She suffered from high blood pressure, low blood pressure and heart palpitations but her mother ever by her side, was her rock. She stood by her all those years. She made her strong and taught her how to carry on in spite of all the odds. She herself had also lost her husband when she was only 44 and had buried her son who was to become a reverend father but she overcame those challenges and now encouraged her daughter to do the same.

At the time of the incident none of Chy’s children had graduated but she had to counsel them and tell them they must succeed so that when their father comes home, he would be proud of them. After 7 years she was advised to perform a burial ceremony in his honour. She did that in 2020 and erected a tomb.

Her four children have all graduated now. Her two daughters are married and she has five grandchildren whom Emenike has never seen. Her mother passed away in September 2021 and has since been buried.

In 2014, Emenike turned 60 and was due for retirement. Chy was asked to apply for his benefits and she did, but nothing was paid. She is still pleading with the Imo state government to consider her case and pay the benefits to give her and her children some much needed respite. She is hoping that someone will read this and be moved to reach out to the Imo state government on her behalf.

Ndigbo Urged To Sustain Culture Of Self-Help To Deepen Devt

 

Emeka Wogu. Image: Twitter

BY EMMANUEL UGWU-NWOGO

UMUAHIA (THIS DAY) -- With the ever increasing competition for government attention among the various sections of the country, Ndigbo have been urged to sustain their age-old culture of self-help in order to deepen development in their communities.

Former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, made the call at the weekend in a chat with journalists after inaugurating a road project constructed by a private citizen, Mr. Julius Nwojo Osiri, at Abiriba in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State.


He said the Igbo spirit of self-help was amply demonstrated in the construction of the road, adding that Ndigbo have over the years learnt to depend less on the government.

The former minister recalled that the culture of self-help was well entrenched after the civil war following the failure of the General Yakubu Gowon-led federal government to implement the policy of reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation.

“We are development-inclined, resilience, and we don’t wait for the government to do everything for us,” he said.

To illustrate the power of self-help, Wogu cited Abiriba community fondly called ‘Small London’ because of its level of development, saying over 80 percent of the infrastructures in the community were products of self-help by the people.

However, he pointed out that there is a limit to what could be achieved through self-help, citing construction of highways, hence, the government should not abandon its responsibility to the people. He noted that the cry of marginalisation in the South-east region came about because of the non-implementation of the three Rs promised by Gowon.

The man behind the road project, Osiri, said he was motivated by the spirit of self-help inherent in Abiriba people to build the street in memory of his father, Prince Nwojo Egbebu Osiri, who passed on seven years ago.

“If you can’t do much, you can do a little to positively impact on our environment,” he said, adding that “every little effort counts.”

Osiri, who also dedicated his new house, advised that those who have the means should not hold back in helping to develop their communities, saying: “We shouldn’t be waiting for the government to do everything for us.

“In any direction you find yourself and you know you can impact on the society, please do so,” he said, noting that a little drop of water eventually make a might ocean.