Monday, May 27, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Teaching Sexual Immorality In Nigerian Schools!
If anyone had told me a few years ago that a
time will come in Nigeria
Not too long ago, I
was shown the topics being treated under the subject called “Sexuality Education” or “Sex
Education” which tender
kids in both junior and secondary schools in Nigeria
When I first raised
alarm on this issue in my weekly column not too long ago, a concerned parent
wrote me to say that the ‘Teacher’s Guide’ given to the Integrated Science
teachers (who handle this subject) mandates them “to teach the children that religious
teachings on issues like pre-marital sex, contraception, homosexuality,
abortion and gender relations are mere opinions and myths! They are also to teach the students
how to masturbate and use chemical contraceptives (designed for women in their
30s). The ‘Teachers Guide’ equally
lays a big emphasis on values clarification; this empowers teenage children to
decide which moral values to choose since the ones parents teach them at home
are mere options.”
It is difficult to
imagine that anyone outside a mental home could have the mind to design such a
subject even for the children of his worst enemy! In my view, this clearly
qualifies as child abuse, which, sadly, has been endorsed by the authorities.
I have reasons to suspect that what some of the teachers would be giving out
would be targeted more at titillating their tender victims than educating them!
I can imagine how easy it would now become for a teacher who has been
targeting a female student to use his creative elaboration of this subject, to
get the girl so overwhelmed she would become easy meat.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Tribute To Chinua Achebe (Ikejimba; 1930-2013)
By Chike Momah
[This tribute is
a second revision of a piece (REFLECTIONS ON CHINUA ACHEBE) which I
wrote in 2000, and revised in 2007. His passing, in the third week of March
2013, has necessitated this revision.]
Chinua Achebe was a compelling figure, straight out of a Biblical saga. He was also, rather more prosaically, a friend who was so close, he was like a brother. A few hours after his death was blazed around the world, I received a condolence call from a member of our Dallas, TX Igbo community. This friend asked me if I was sure Chinua and I did not share an umbilical cord. Another person, this time a Reverend gentleman, expressed his condolences in rather more risqué language. “Your friendship with Chinua,” he said, “reminds me of the biblical story of David and Jonathan.”
I would be lying through my teeth if I said I was not flattered by the language in which the two condolences were couched. But while I gloried in the way my friendship with Chinua was perceived by these two gentlemen, two things struck me about the manner their perceptions were expressed.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Office Bullies
By Moses Obroku
If you haven’t experienced working under a cantankerous, highly
irritable, generally obnoxious boss, believe me, fate has been extremely kind
to you as you have been spared one of life’s greatest trauma. To the people whose lot in life it is right now to be working with
such bosses, I can only hope that something happens about that situation real
soon before permanent damage is done to whatever is left of your dignity.
*Moses Obroku
And as you know too well by now, this special breed that your boss is,
do not need any external stimulus for him/her to get real nasty with you. On
their own, they can generate a negative energy minefield to ensure your every
work day of the week is unbearable for you.
Often times, they create unnecessary tension around them at the work
place. They seem to hold this twisted view that the boss has to be stern
looking with this ‘don’t –joke-with me’, ‘I -am- tough’ kind of disposition;
like that is when they can command respect quickly. These bosses do not realize
that when subordinates work with the apprehension of being given verbal jabs
indiscriminately, they end up making more mistakes as the fear of what is
anticipated soon materializes.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
New York Senate Passes Resolution On Chinua Achebe
J1186-2013: LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION Mourning The Death Of Paramount Novelist Chinua Achebe, Founder And Pioneer Of African literature
+Cover-pix-By-Ugochukwu+Ejinkeonye.JPG)
A Nigerian National Newspaper Reports
Achebe's Passing (pix:Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye (2013))
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to pay tribute to the lives of those esteemed individuals of international renown who distinguished themselves through their life's work; and
WHEREAS, Foremost novelist, Professor Chinua Achebe, died on Thursday, March 21, 2013, at the age of 82; and
WHEREAS, Born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, on November 16, 1930,
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic; he was
best known for his 1958 novel, THINGS FALL APART, selling over 12
million copies around the world, and having been translated into 50 languages,
making him the most paraphrased African writer of all time; and
+Cover-pix-By-Ugochukwu+Ejinkeonye.JPG)
A Nigerian National Newspaper Reports
Achebe's Passing (pix:Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye (2013))
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to pay tribute to the lives of those esteemed individuals of international renown who distinguished themselves through their life's work; and
WHEREAS, Foremost novelist, Professor Chinua Achebe, died on Thursday, March 21, 2013, at the age of 82; and
WHEREAS, Born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, on November 16, 1930,
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic; he was
best known for his 1958 novel, THINGS FALL APART, selling over 12
million copies around the world, and having been translated into 50 languages,
making him the most paraphrased African writer of all time; and
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Achebe Bestrides Generations And Geographies - Ngugi
Chinua Achebe’s Passing Marks The Beginning Of The End Of An Epoch In African Writing
By Ngugi wa
Thiong'o
Chinua Achebe
I first met Chinua Achebe in 1961 at Makerere, Kampala. His novel, Things Fall Apart, had come out two years before. I was then a second year student, the author of just one story, Mugumo, published in Penpoint, the literary magazine of the English Department. At my request, he looked at the story and made some encouraging remarks.
My next encounter was more dramatic, on my part at least, and would
affect my life and literary career profoundly. It was at the now famous
1962 conference of writers of English expression.
Achebe was among a long line of literary luminaries that included
Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Eski’a Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi and Bloke
Modisane. The East African contingent consisted of Grace Ogot, Jonathan
Kariara, John Nagenda and I. My invitation was on the strength of my short stories published in Penpoint and in Transition.
But what most attracted me was not my being invited there as
‘writer’ but the fact that I would be able to show Achebe the manuscript
of my second novel, what would later become Weep Not, Child. It was very generous of him to agree to look at it because, as I would learn later, he was working on his novel, Arrow of God.
Because of that and his involvement in the conference, he could not
read the whole manuscript, but he read enough to give some useful
suggestions.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
More important, he talked about it to his publisher, William
Heinemann, represented at the conference by June Milne, who expressed an
interest in the work. Weep Not, Child would later be published by Heinemann and the paperback by Heinemann Education Publishers, the fourth in the now famous African Writers series of which Achebe was the Editorial Adviser.
I was working with the Nation newspapers when Weep Not, Child came out. It was April 1964, and Kenya was proud to have its first modern novel in English by a Kenyan African.
Or so I thought, for the novel was well published in the Kenyan
newspapers, the Sunday Nation even carrying my interview by de Villiers,
one of its senior features writers.
I assumed that every educated Kenyan would have heard about the
novel. I was woken to reality when I entered a club, the most frequented
by the new African elite at the time, who all greeted me as their
Kenyan author of Things Fall Apart.
Years later, at Achebe’s 70th birthday celebrations at Bard College
attended by Toni Morrison and Wole Soyinka among others, I told this
story of how Achebe’s name had haunted my life. When Soyinka’s turn to
speak came, he said I had taken the story from his mouth: He had been
similarly mistaken for Achebe.
The fact is Achebe became synonymous with the Heinemann African Writers Series and African writing as a whole. There’s hardly any African writer of my generation who has not been mistaken for Achebe.
I have had a few of such encounters. The last such was in 2010 at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport. Mukoma, the author of Nairobi Heat, and I had been invited for the Kwani? festival whose theme was inter-generational dialogue.
As he and I walked towards the immigration desk, a man came towards
me. His hands were literally trembling as he identified himself as a
professor of literature from Zambia.
“Excuse me Mr Achebe, somebody pointed you out to me. I have long wanted to meet you.”
“No, no I am not the one,” I said, “but here is Mr Achebe,” I added pointing at my son.
I thought the obvious youth of my son would tell him that I was
being facetious. But no, our professor grabbed Mukoma’s hands grateful
that he had at last shaken hands with his hero.
The case of mistaken identity as late as 2010 shows how Achebe had
become a mythical figure, and rightly so. He was the single most
important figure in the development of modern African literature as
writer, editor and quite simply a human being.
His novel, Things Fall Apart, the most widely read novel
in the history of African literature since its publication in 1958
became an inspiring model. As the general editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series, he had a hand in the emergence of many other writers and their publication.
As a person, he embodied wisdom that comes from a commitment to the
middle way between extremes and, of course, courage in the face of
personal tragedy!
Achebe bestrides generations and geographies.
Every country in Africa claims him as their own. Some sayings in
his novels are quoted frequently as proverbs that contain universal
wisdom. His passing marks the beginning of the end of an epoch.
-----------------------
Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a creative writer and distinguished
professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of
California, Irvine.
I first met Chinua Achebe in 1961 at Makerere, Kampala. His novel, Things Fall Apart, had come out two years before. I was then a second year student, the author of just one story, Mugumo, published in Penpoint, the literary magazine of the English Department. At my request, he looked at the story and made some encouraging remarks.
My next encounter was more dramatic, on my part at least, and would affect my life and literary career profoundly. It was at the now famous 1962 conference of writers of English expression.
Achebe was among a long line of literary luminaries that included Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Eski’a Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi and Bloke Modisane. The East African contingent consisted of Grace Ogot, Jonathan Kariara, John Nagenda and I. My invitation was on the strength of my short stories published in Penpoint and in Transition.
But what most attracted me was not my being invited there as ‘writer’ but the fact that I would be able to show Achebe the manuscript of my second novel, what would later become Weep Not, Child. It was very generous of him to agree to look at it because, as I would learn later, he was working on his novel, Arrow of God. Because of that and his involvement in the conference, he could not read the whole manuscript, but he read enough to give some useful suggestions.
 |
| Ngugi wa Thiong'o |
More important, he talked about it to his publisher, William
Heinemann, represented at the conference by June Milne, who expressed an
interest in the work. Weep Not, Child would later be published by Heinemann and the paperback by Heinemann Education Publishers, the fourth in the now famous African Writers series of which Achebe was the Editorial Adviser.
I was working with the Nation newspapers when Weep Not, Child came out. It was April 1964, and Kenya was proud to have its first modern novel in English by a Kenyan African.
Or so I thought, for the novel was well published in the Kenyan
newspapers, the Sunday Nation even carrying my interview by de Villiers,
one of its senior features writers.
I assumed that every educated Kenyan would have heard about the
novel. I was woken to reality when I entered a club, the most frequented
by the new African elite at the time, who all greeted me as their
Kenyan author of Things Fall Apart.
Years later, at Achebe’s 70th birthday celebrations at Bard College attended by Toni Morrison and Wole Soyinka among others, I told this story of how Achebe’s name had haunted my life. When Soyinka’s turn to speak came, he said I had taken the story from his mouth: He had been similarly mistaken for Achebe.
The fact is Achebe became synonymous with the Heinemann African Writers Series and African writing as a whole. There’s hardly any African writer of my generation who has not been mistaken for Achebe.
I have had a few of such encounters. The last such was in 2010 at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport. Mukoma, the author of Nairobi Heat, and I had been invited for the Kwani? festival whose theme was inter-generational dialogue.
As he and I walked towards the immigration desk, a man came towards me. His hands were literally trembling as he identified himself as a professor of literature from Zambia.
“Excuse me Mr Achebe, somebody pointed you out to me. I have long wanted to meet you.”
“No, no I am not the one,” I said, “but here is Mr Achebe,” I added pointing at my son.
I thought the obvious youth of my son would tell him that I was being facetious. But no, our professor grabbed Mukoma’s hands grateful that he had at last shaken hands with his hero.
The case of mistaken identity as late as 2010 shows how Achebe had
become a mythical figure, and rightly so. He was the single most
important figure in the development of modern African literature as
writer, editor and quite simply a human being.
His novel, Things Fall Apart, the most widely read novel
in the history of African literature since its publication in 1958
became an inspiring model. As the general editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series, he had a hand in the emergence of many other writers and their publication.
As a person, he embodied wisdom that comes from a commitment to the middle way between extremes and, of course, courage in the face of personal tragedy!
Achebe bestrides generations and geographies.
Every country in Africa claims him as their own. Some sayings in his novels are quoted frequently as proverbs that contain universal wisdom. His passing marks the beginning of the end of an epoch.
-----------------------
Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a creative writer and distinguished
professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of
California, Irvine.
--Africa Review
Monday, February 18, 2013
Refreshing!
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye At The Very Memorable WCCRM
International Pastors Conference, January 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Enugu Governor Chime Returns After 140 Days
Sullivan Chime
At last, the Governor of
Enugu State, Mr. Sullivan Chime, is back in the country after being away for
140 days reportedly treating an undisclosed ailment. Mr. Chime arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport,
Abuja, this
morning aboard a British Airways flight.
Some reports say he is still in Abuja at
the Enugu State Government Lodge and is expected to come into Enugu on Friday where his protracted absence
has caused considerable disquiet.
Chime had left the country
in September to spend what the Enugu
State Government said was his accumulated leave. Initial reports said he was in India and
critically ill. It was even remoured that he had passed away, a report that was
strongly refuted by the Enugu State Government.
Later, reports confirmed he was in a London hospital.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Happy New Year!
Wishing you and your
family a very Happy New.
May the New Year usher in abundant blessings,
favours,
promotions and flourishing health,
and may it bring with it the
realisation
of all your dreams and aspirations, and
give you joy unspeakable.
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Monday, December 31, 2012
The Kidnapping of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s Mother
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Her
No
matter the very strong views many Nigerians hold about the Minister of Finance
and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, it is
difficult not to sympathize with her and her family on the recent kidnapping of
her mother, Mrs. Kamene Okonjo, by heartless
criminals. Mrs. Okonjo, 82, a retired sociology
professor, is the wife of the Obi of Ogwashi-Uku in Aniocha LGA of Delta State.
Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Her
Mother, Mrs. Kamene Okonjo
The five days Mrs. Okonjo spent with her captors must have been one long
traumatic period for the members of the family. Now that she has been freed and
is back home, I must join several other Nigerians to congratulate the finance minister
and her family on the happy end to this horrible nightmare.
It has been quite difficult to determine how exactly Mrs. Okonjo’s freedom
was secured. The public has merely been
treated to a cocktail of speculations even by those who ought to have the facts.
Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan thinks
that the kidnappers may have been panicked by the sudden, heavy presence of
security agents in the area and so decided to release the woman.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
2012 Chinua Achebe Colloquium On Africa Communique
Being The Communiqué Issued At The End Of The Chinua Achebe Colloquium On
Africa (December 7-9, 2012) At Brown University, Providence,
U.S.A.
The
fourth edition of the Chinua Achebe Colloquium on Africa convened by Nigerian novelist and humanist Chinua Achebe, the David
and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies, was
held at Brown University on December 7-8, 2012, at the Perry and Marty Granoff
Center for the Creative Arts.
With its theme as “Governance, Security and Peace in Africa,” the 2012 colloquium attracted leading experts from academia, business, non-governmental organizations, and governments from Africa, Europe and the United States. The Colloquium was well-attended by delegates who actively participated in two days of intense deliberation and exchange of ideas on the importance of strengthening democracy and peace on the African continent. The Colloquium featured panel discussions which highlighted the complex security issues that confront African nations, security challenges surrounding the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, homegrown terrorism, and the persistence of ethno-religious insurgency. The colloquium noted that these were serious concerns that challenge the establishment of institutions and principles of good governance on the continent.
With its theme as “Governance, Security and Peace in Africa,” the 2012 colloquium attracted leading experts from academia, business, non-governmental organizations, and governments from Africa, Europe and the United States. The Colloquium was well-attended by delegates who actively participated in two days of intense deliberation and exchange of ideas on the importance of strengthening democracy and peace on the African continent. The Colloquium featured panel discussions which highlighted the complex security issues that confront African nations, security challenges surrounding the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, homegrown terrorism, and the persistence of ethno-religious insurgency. The colloquium noted that these were serious concerns that challenge the establishment of institutions and principles of good governance on the continent.
Highlights of the Colloquium
included four keynote addresses by Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, founder of the Mo
Ibrahim Foundation for the promotion of good governance in Africa; Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola,
the executive governor of Lagos State, Nigeria; General Carter F. Ham,
Commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), based in Stuttgart, Germany; Ambassador Bisa Williams, U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Niger;
Professor Emma
Rothschild of Harvard University, and Dr. Mamphela Ramphele,
South African anti-Apartheid activist and former managing director of
the World Bank.
The
Colloquium acknowledges the fact that the main driver of conflict in Africa is poverty originating from the failure of
leadership and governance. Among the resolutions advanced at the Colloquium
are:
Monday, December 10, 2012
Achebe's 'There Was A Country' Discussed At The House Of Commons
Chinua Achebe's There Was A Country: Reflections from the Nigerian Diaspora
DATE: Monday 10 December 2012
TIME: 6.00-9.00pm
VENUE: Committee Room 8, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
(Please allow for at least 15 minutes to clear security when you arrive)
Chinua
Achebe's recently published memoirs, There was a Country: A Personal
History of Biafra, have controversially reopened discussions on
Nigeria's past – especially the events leading up to the first coup and
the aftermath of the Biafran War. These events have had a profound
impact on Nigeria and continue to critically impact developments across
the country today.
Chinua Achebe
This
event aims to bring Nigerians together to debate the key legacies from
the coup and civil war in the context of Nigeria's present realities and
future trajectory, and hopes to explore how the coup and war have:
- adversely affected peacebuilding and state-building across Nigeria (with reference to reconciliation, integration and equality)?
- shaped the relationship between the Nigerian State and ordinary Nigerians?
- influenced broader understanding of how to tackle the deep and growing levels of economic and social inequality polarising Nigeria?
- affected access to justice, transparency and accountability as well as tackling state impunity in Nigeria?Chair: Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science & Digital Infrastructure
Speakers:
- Donu Kogbara, Print and broadcast journalist and Board Member, Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority
- Dipo Salimonu, Eirenicon Africa and founding partner of Ateriba Limited
- Onyekachi Wambu, Director Policy and Engagement, African Foundation for Development (AFFORD)
- Dr Muhammad Jameel Yusha'u, Senior Lecturer in Media and Politics, Northumbria University There are a limited number of places so if you would like to attend, please RSVP by email to: events@fpc.org.uk
Download the report (170 kilobyte PDF)
-----------------------------
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