Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Chukwuemeka Ezeife: Reminiscing On Death – The Okwadike Factor

By Ihechukwu Madubuike

 There is no gainsaying it. The death of a loved one is a difficult challenge. Truth is that we cannot take the pains totally away, no matter how we grieve in the short term. Yet we must show solidarity, for death is the lot of all of us, for as the Igbo say, ”when we bury one we are also burying ourselves. The Holy book puts it this way: We must not grieve like those without hope.

*Ezeife

Some five years ago, I celebrated the 80th birthday of His Excellency Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife along with other distinguished Nigerians. I gave a speech, which I have already upgraded to a chapter in a forthcoming book, titled Aka Ekpuchi Onwa  with a sobriquet. You cannot hide a  silver fish.

As you are no doubt aware  “Life of great men all remind us /we can make our own lives sublime/ And departing leaves behind us/Foot prints on the sands of time.” That’s according to the American poet, Henry Wardsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). That poem is a metaphor of life’s possibilities.

Okwadike Chukwuemeka P. Ezeifedikwa (the wealthy king)--that’s the full name-- left glowing footprints and inspirations worthy of emulation and worthy of celebration. His was a life of aspiration and inspiration writ large.

Okwadike-the trumpet of heroes, Anu kporo nku na eju onu

Agbawo Dike izu Agba  ya ugboro abuo

Anu an-a gba egbe, ya na-ata ahihia

Oje mba enwe Iro

Ono na-Mba aza oku.

Garkuwan Fika

Akintolugboye of Egbaland.

Your friends and well -wishers Greet you.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) gave us one of the best known statements in the world, as relevant today as it was in the 16th century when the greatest writer in the English language intoned as follows in Twelfth Night :

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some have greatness thrust upon them Some achieve greatness” .This is but one of the fifty quotes on life from this immortal writer and incomparable artist. He had other words on marble about life, like this one by King Macbeth:

"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.

When on Friday, the 15th of December 2023, Rob Ezeife, Okwadike’s immediate younger brother , announced in a Press Release on behalf of the Ezeife dynasty ‘the promotion to glory of our most distinguished son, Okwadike, Dr Chukwuemeka  Ezeife, a former  Federal Permanent Secretary, the first Executive Governor of Anambra State, a former Political Adviser to the President Political Adviser and former Presidential Aspirant..” the full weight of the seeming absurdity of life set up an emotional swirl in my mind. I had tried to speak with him on the preceding Wednesday but the wife who received the phone call had assured me that they would be back from the hospital on Friday or Saturday. They did come back but without the family head. 

Marcus Aurelius, a former Roman Emperor (AD 121-AD 180) had philosophised  that “the very act of dying is one of the acts of life”. "The Methodist prelate, had told me when I was about to bury my mother in 2015: "Remember that others have lost and buried their mothers too”. It was not a consolation. But it was the truth.

However, viewed, the living will never willingly welcome death, no matter how it comes, and this despite our rationalizations and or Christian principles. Consolation, rationalization are the way out of what cannot be remedied. And part of our prayer is that God, who made living and dying a permanent resource, should teach us how to accept what we cannot change.

Why Okwadike Matters.

Okwadike is a mindset, a philosophy arising from a view of life and how to respond to  dysfunctional situations. He saw a window of opportunity where naysayers and pessimists saw obstacles. Early in life he dreamt dreams and saw visions. 

Wrote his biographer, Claver Obi: “From the very beginning of his educational career, Chukwuemeka was destined to wrestle with many conflicts”. P. 21). Am sure you are aware of the odds that prevented him from going through the formal processes of acquiring  secondary school  education and the attendant Cambridge School certificate at his time.

He read for their equivalents –the General Certificates of Education, ordinary and advanced levels at home—which enabled him to proceed to the University at Ibadan to pursue a degree course. From there he moved on and ended with a PhD at one of the foremost universities in the world-The Harvard University ,in Cambridge Massachusetts. By doing this he gave essence to living. That’s why I described him as a symbol of both aspiration and inspiration/ He achieved greatness  not by ascription but by the dint of hard work. In other words, Chukwuemeka Ezeife did not have greatness thrust upon him, nor did he have it by inheritance. Many who have achieved such a glowing status through  other means have not always managed them well. Our man of the moment was an excellent manager of men and materials and an exemplar and a poster boy of industry and success. Wrote Peter Claver Obi:

“Great men and minds are not born, they are self-made. Like his contemporaries and colleagues who had at one time or another, proved to be as sought after, as criticized, as hated, as loved, as condemned, as praised as well as enigmatic, Dr Eeife himself is self made”.

Death is a personal thing. Everybody will die. It may come sooner or later. It may come by disease, by accident, or by old age. But do not remind me that I am old. It is none of your duty or that I will die.

I celebrated death in my book of poetry in 2010, titled , Die Oh Death: The musings of a Split Conscience and Other Poems. 

Part of it reads :"When I kick The bucket”. A section describes Death as a "solo:”: It is a solo/...

The journey to forever land is initiation across the seven seas/Seven deities and seven days/

There is a section on Heavensward:  ‘The paradox is that/ to go heavensward/ you must go downward/ He that must go up/ Must first go down.

There is also the Abdication, The Surrender/. Now that the battle is fought and won/ Now that the sword of war is down/Lord of Mercy /Lead like the twinkling star/The wise men of old followed / through the seamless tracks of life/In the thick and thin of battles ahead/Christward we must go/.

Then the 3 epitaphs. The last reads. "I hope when you pass by my tomb/You will not turn away in fear /Nor cast a scornful look at it/For me the staff of hatred is broken/No malice, no envy can reach me now/Resting in the bosom of my Maker/Heaven’s celestial choir with anthems/Welcome a tested Pilgrim./.

Epitaph 2:”HERE lies a man of his time/He came ,saw and did his best/Blazed a trail for others to follow/Raised the bar to inspire to dare/He was of the purest breed –Rare a few confessed-/A noble man in words and deeds/A heroic and grand benefactor who loved/

This hilly sand and gave his all for it.

Okwadike dreamt of a free Nigeria, a great country that would be the pride of the world, of a Black Pluriverse that will, to use his words, fulfil “its Manifest Destiny” in his generation. It was his sing song, a swan song, a patriotic vision, a credo beyond a transient dream. It never happened. But it can happen if we , his friends, work towards its realization. It reminds me of Olubode George, a former governor ,and the Atona Odua of Yoruba land,who, in his speech  in 2012 paid a glowing tribute to the foremost   Nigerian leader, the great and charismatic Nnamdi Azikiwe of the blessed memory. His words:

“Finally, our journey is still far. The road to national salvation is still rough and tortuous. But there is redemption at the end of the horizon. But only if we endure. Only if we work hard. Only if we show commitment and absolute faith in ourselves and in our nation. The challenge is now before all of us: we must now choose between the ennobling ideal of painful self sacrifice or the quick and petty shortcut of personal gains. We must choose between the crass love for riches or the more redeeming love for our nation. The choice is ours. We dare not choose wrongly…”

This speech and prayer were rendered some twelve years ago. We are still far from the dream land. God, no doubt, has blessed us. But we need to bless ourselves. That is the ultimate challenge.

Okwadike might not have attained the political height of Nnamdi Azikiwe or of Governor Ibiam. But all were intellectual soul mates. They all died with their goals for a great Nigeria unrealized. We know why: elite squabbles and leadership myopia, among other socio-political dysfunctionalities. Before he passed on Ezeife called for their resolution and even offered himself to be at the fountain head of this ideal.

We can understand why in his book, Remaking Nigeria with Progressivism , republished in 2018, Okwadike, dedicated the book to the “twain of Zik and Ogunsanya and those Nigerians who share their vision of Nigeria as one United World Super Power, under God; and to all persons who loathe to see their neighbours hurt, physically or psychologically.”

OKWADIKE, may your soul continue to rest in Peace and may those you inspired never betray your ideals.

*Omenma Prof. IHECHUKWU MADUBUIKE, PhD. OON. (Enyi Abia) is a former Minister of Education, and later Health, Nigeria.

Friday, April 19, 2024

Electricity Tariff Hike: Civilised Nations Don’t Pauperise Their Citizens

 By Olu Fasan

A nation is civilised not because of its aesthetic, its beautiful architecture. Rather, a nation is civilised because of how it treats its citizens, because of the duration and quality of life of its citizens. That’s why social security or safety net for the poor is a badge of the heathy society. However, Nigeria creates billionaires but eviscerates the middle classes and makes everyone else poorer without meaningful state support. 

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo once bragged that he created many billionaires while in government. “My aim when I was in government was to create 50 billionaires,” Obasanjo said. “Unfortunately, I failed. I created only 25.” But how? Well, he banned imports of certain products, allowing some manufacturers to enjoy a protected domestic market and rake in billions; he granted waivers of import tariffs to favoured people, who imported large shipments of consumer products, such as rice, tariff-free and sold them expensively, thereby becoming billionaires; and he gave oil blocs to a select few, turning them into billionaires. It’s crony capitalism, a rentier state. Capitalism is rigged to favour a small elite.

How Tinubu’s Fuel Energy Policy Is Deepening Poverty

 By Adekunle Adekoya

It is no longer news that electricity tariff has been hiked, ostensibly for users in what many now know as Band A areas, though in reality the tariff was hiked across all bands. I can support this assertion with readings from the bill sent to me by Ikeja DISCO, or IKEDC. I live in a part of Lagos classified to be under Band E. That is Egan, Igando in the Ikotun-Igando LCDA area.  That is part of the larger old Alimosho Local Government. 

In our area, we have remained on estimated billing to date; very few houses have pre-paid metres installed. We actually are not sure which band we are in, the bill sometimes read Band D or Band E. I will explain shortly. Prior to the tariff hike announcement, my bill for January 2024, sent by SMS, stated that the tariff is E-Non MD, with current charges of N1,679.15. 

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Not So, Mr. President, Nigeria Must First Love Her Citizens!

 By Banji Ojewale

The security and welfare of the people (of Nigeria) shall be the primary purpose of government The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

*Tinubu

In 1976, the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo sought to stir the patriotic instincts of our young citizens by decreeing the National Pledge into our lives. It must be recited in all Nigerian schools, the junta said. The general’s martial mind given to governing by fiat and force led him through only one route to patriotism: a mental enslavement of the boys and girls through feeding on the pledge would lead, willy-nilly, to their loyalty to the state and its agents and agencies. If they voiced it out many times over the years, their impressionable minds would give way to deeds of loyalty and love for the land, even if they were under an oppressive, objectionable and off-putting government.

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Lagos-Calabar Highway Robbery

 By Ugo Onuoha

The intention may have been noble when the former President, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo sowed the seed of the Lagos – Calabar Coastal Highway in 2006. For those who may not know or are unable to connect the dots, the notorious East- West road in the Niger Delta region of our country was actually conceptualized and designed to be constructed as a phase of the project that has metamorphosed as the Lagos – Calabar Coastal Highway.

 The problem was that the lack of clarity, purpose, buy-in and transparency that dogged the Obasanjo East – West road now appears to be afflicting the current President, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Lagos – Calabar Coastal Highway. But this one is dripping with a carefully crafted fraud.

Friday, April 12, 2024

Electricity Tariff Hike As Maltreatment Of Nigerians

 By Adekunle Adekoya

I have zeroed in on electricity in the last few editions of this column because of the anxiety I harbour that our dear country, Nigeria, needs to get it right as soon as possible; before those that have gotten it right transmogrify into behemoths that can swallow us up. I had finished writing the last edition, with the headline: ‘Frequent national grid collapse: Time we took another hard look’, when the Federal Government empowered the electricity sector to announce new tariffs, ostensibly for affluent users, those said to be in Band A.

Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, had earlier in the year hinted of this development when he said that subsidy payments in the electricity sector by the Federal Government is not sustainable. I disagreed with him, because that would mean Nigerians will be paying higher prices for a service that at best, for the majority, remains epileptic. In addition, Nigerians are yet to see any initiative on the part of government that indicates we can expect better, improved services in terms of power supply. 

Tinubu’s Spending Spree Fuels CBN’s Aggressive Interventions

 By Olu Fasan

Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president, is gloating. The economy “is looking much better”, he says, and wants Nigerians to start rejoicing because their woes will soon be over. In his Easter message, Tinubu told Nigerians that “the seeds of patience, which they have sown, are beginning to sprout and will in no time bring forth an abundance of good fruits.” Abundance of good fruits?

*Tinubu, Shettima and their wives 

Would that mean huge falls in Nigeria’s unemployment and poverty rates, which are among the highest in the world? Harold Macmillan, former British prime minister, famously said: “The central aim of domestic policy must be to tackle unemployment and poverty.” Indeed, one of the core mandates of the US Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, is “to promote maximum employment.” 

Monday, April 8, 2024

When Power DISCOS Dance On Graves Of Poor Nigerians

 By Tajudeen Kareem 

As Nigerians grapple with the latest hike in electricity tariffs, soaring from N66 to N225 per kilowatt, concerns arise regarding its implications on the effective delivery of essential public services.


 How will the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission  (NERC) classify public health and educational institutions providing social services to communities across the country but are unable to charge economic rates?

Creeping Media Clampdown In Nigeria!

 By Ugo Onuoha

Three things happened in the past week that signpost the looming frosty relationship between the press and the regime of Nigeria’s President, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The government is already struggling with the widespread deleterious effects of its own policy missteps of the removal of the so-called petrol subsidy and the ‘floating’ of Nigeria’s national currency, the naira.

In their different ways the ill-conceived and badly implemented policies have ensured the destruction of the Naira, spiralling inflation and pauperization of more Nigerians than at any other given period in our 53-year history as an Independent country.

Friday, April 5, 2024

Pastor W.F. Kumuyi And A 60-Year Old Story

By Banji Ojewale

Except a man be born again…he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.-Jesus Christ.   

*Kumuyi

Dateline: Ijebu–Ode, Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria, Sunday, April, 5, 1964.

A preacher is delivering a message in a church. Among those he’s addressing is William Folorunso Kumuyi, 23. The lad is ‘’almost like a moralist’’, as he listens and watches the cleric. The preacher is unrelenting as he insists that it isn’t just our actions that make us unacceptable to God.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

ANA Congratulates Distinguished Poet, Chiedu Ezeanah, At 60

PRESS RELEASE


I am delighted to convey the unreserved felicitations of the Association of Nigeria Authors (ANA) to Mr. Chiedu Ezeanah on his 60th Birthday. 

At this auspicious moment, ANA deeply appreciates the immense contributions of Chiedu Ezeanah to the promotion, sustenance and advancement of the creative industry and writing in Nigeria. 

He is a journalist, newspaper editor and poet of note. He is the editor, The Mosaic Reference: African Writing Online: Many Literatures, One Voice, no.4 ISSN, 1754-6672 and the Publisher/CEO of Paradigm-City Publishing Ltd, Asoskoro, Abuja. 

His Creative Outputs include Air-Borne, Phrases In The Air, and Meteor, all from the collection, Endsongs. 

To crown it all, Chiedu Ezeanah is a two-time winner of the Music Society of Nigeria Festival Poetry Competition for 1999 and 2001. 

ANA congratulates the literary sage as he marks his 60th year on earth, wishes him long life and greater accomplishments in the years ahead. 

Happy Birthday, Sir. 

Dr. Usman-Oladipo Akanbi

National President, ANA.

 

Monday, March 25, 2024

Nigeria: Bandits As Central Bank

 By Emeka Obasi

Strange things are coming up in our country where the Central Bank sounds like an ocean of free flowing money drowning the economy while those saddled with responsibility fill their mystery and phantom accounts with solid and liquid cash.

 Recently, sixteen persons were abducted by bandits in the Gonin Gora part of the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. What came as a shocker was the 40 trillion naira ransom placed on them. How the poor souls will be able to raise that huge amount is not debatable. Literarily, they have been condemned to death.

Mr President: Only 100,000 People Can Start A Food Revolution!

 By Dele Sobowale

“An activist is not a man who says the river is dirty; an activist is a man who steps forward to clean the river.”  — Chief Gamaliel Onosode.

Very few people now recall that the famed Onosode ran for the Presidency in 2007. Asked why an activist and already accomplished man like him wanted to go into the dirty waters of politics, the quote above was his reply. He did not win the election but he left food for thought or thought for food in that statement which I just re-discovered in my archive, buried since 2007.

The statement gave me an idea which had been developing in my mind for ten years which I once observed working well in India in the 1980s. When the Indian Prime Minister, Nehru, prohibited food importation, he also declared that “India should starve, if India cannot feed herself.” It was a bold measure which made India the largest producer and  second largest exporter of food globally. A nation which could not feed 400 million people now takes care of the food needs of 1.4 billion and still exports to the rest of the world.

Monday, March 18, 2024

Constituency Projects: Legislators Manipulating Nigerians

 By Tonnie Iredia

Federal legislators  in Nigeria especially senators imagine that they are the smartest people in Africa, South of the Sahara and even North of the Equator. Perhaps they are actually smart considering the ease with which they get away with a legion of transparently repulsive allegations. Indeed, no one has been able to hold our senators down to the undesirable financial transactions that people know and see about them as a group.

When analysts raised the alarm many years back that Nigerian legislators were the highest paid in the world, they published their basic salaries which were not excessive but successfully hid their several secret allowances from sundry sources. They allegedly got paid for ghost legislative aides but  no one could prove it beyond reasonable doubt; just as they virtually hypnotised public officers from going public with their dirty oversight functions.  

Nigeria: When The Chief Justice Brings The Judiciary To Ridicule

 By Chidi Odinkalu

On February 27, 2024, Nigeria’s National Judicial Institute, NJI, in Abuja opened a continuing education course for judges. The opening featured an address by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola, who invited the participants to eschew “unethical conduct that could expose the judiciary to ridicule.” Beneath his text, it seemed as if the Chief Justice desired to warn the participants to stay away from interfering with a brief that he has chosen to make entirely his own. Under his watch, judicial appointments in Nigeria have become farcical.

*CJN Olukayode Ariwoola

 The fortnight before this address, it emerged that the CJN’s daughter-in-law, Oluwakemi, was at the top of a list of 12 nominees to fill judicial vacancies in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. In the preceding six months, he had also appointed his son, Kayode Jr., as a judge of the Federal High Court; elevated his nephew, Lateef, to become a Justice of the Court of Appeal; and made his own blood brother, Adebayo, the auditor of the National Judicial Council, NJC, which he chairs in his capacity as the CJN. With this CJN’s retirement from office due on August 22, 2024, the concerted effort to anoint his daughter-in-law to the bench would presumably showcase his credentials for gender equity within his family. Let’s not digress though.

Funding Universities: Prof Obafemi Speaks In UNIJOS, As ASUU Holds Heroes' Day

 Renowned poet, playwright, author and Professor of English and Dramatic Literature, Prof. Olu Obafemi has been chosen to be guest speaker at the public lecture/heroes' day of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the University of Jos (UNIJOS).

*Obafemi 

At the event scheduled for 10am this Friday March 22 2024 at Unity Hall, ASUU Secretariat in Naraguta Campus of UNIJOS, Obafemi would speak on the topic, "Government's Commitment Towards The Funding Of Public Universities In Nigeria: The Past, The Present and The Future."

When The Police Dangles Its Carrot

 By Banji Ojewale

A child stands before a disciplinarian parent he has wronged. There’s considerably safe distance between them. The child could flee if a whip magically leaps into the hands of the offended. But there’s no cane at the moment with the man who is never seen without the opa, (baton). The young fellow sees something else with the man staring at him: a basket of assorted fruits and sweets. He’s inviting him to come closer to take his pick: fresh fruits or sweets? No cane on offer. The lad is surveying the surroundings.

Something isn’t adding up. A rod hidden somewhere? Is the basket a Trojan horse? The older man breaks the ice. He throws his arms wide open, and swings around 360 degrees to assure the calculating boy he has no malevolent agenda. This is fair and transparent, the boy concludes. So, he moves gingerly into the free hands of the man he has always known as the unforgiving rod man. What follows is a feast, a dialogue and the creation of a new world to banish the cat-and-mouse relationship between them.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Obasanjo Foisted Presidentialism On Nigeria; He’s Still Defending The Indefensible!

 By Olu Fasan

As they prepared to return Nigeria to civilian rule in 1979, the military regime, led by General Murtala Muhammed and later by General Olusegun Obasanjo, set up a 49-man committee to draft a new constitution for Nigeria. However, the regime gave the “49 wise men” a red line: they must not return Nigeria to the parliamentary system, practised after independence from 1960 to 1966. Instead, they should adopt the American-style presidential system. After General Murtala’s assassination in 1976, General Obasanjo took over as head of state and put his imprimatur on the draft constitution, inserting nearly 20 amendments.


*Obasanjo 

So, the 1979 Constitution lied when it ascribed itself to “We the people of Nigeria.” In truth, it was Obasanjo’s military regime, aided by a few civilian elites, that imposed the constitution and the presidential system on Nigeria. Today, over 40 years after Nigeria first practised the system, and despite its patent flaws and unsuitability for Nigeria, Obasanjo is still defending it.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Hurrah For Admiral Madueke! The Cat With Nine Lives Is 80 Years Old Today

By Chuks Iloegbunam

An Igbo saying goes like this: If a man’s chi (personal god) is not a party to the scheme, death will not kill him. On the morning of July 30, 1966, Midshipman Alison Madueke, boarded a KLM, Royal Dutch Airline plane for London, via Amsterdam.


He was on his way to officer training at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Devon, England. The plane started taxiing for takeoff. But midway, as it gathered speed, the attempt was aborted. The pilot addressed the passengers through the intercom: “This is the captain speaking. Will the three Naval officers flying to London please alight? They are wanted by the military authorities.” Down on the tarmac, Alison was seized and manhandled by Northern Nigerian military officers and men. The July 29, 1966 countercoup, the bloodiest putsch in African history, was underway.

Monday, March 4, 2024

Nigerians Dying Like Flies Hit By Broom

 By Dele Sobowale

“Many people sold their boys and girls for a little rice…Hunger stalked us…People of all ages began to die….Everyone had to live with half-empty stomachs …People started looting, searching for food”  Bijoykrishna, survivor of the Bengal famine in 1943 (BBC, February 23, 2023)

*Tinubu

The old man talking is reported to be 102 years old and one of the few survivors of the famine which killed millions in Bengal while World War II raged on around them. The savagery of the war and extremely bad weather resulted in horrible harvests. Suddenly, parents were “eating” their kids. Or what do you call selling your children to buy food? It happened in Bengal in 1943; it can happen anywhere – including Nigeria.