As Nnamani sets stage for national dialogue

For some inexplicable or extraneous political circumstances, a former governor of Enugu State and serving senator, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani, was forced into a seeming political oblivion for almost 12 years.

Like a good strategist, he reasoned that he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. Besides, it is not a weakness of character but indeed strength to avoid trouble. So, he went into “political exile.” He was barely remembered for the period except for some of his legacies as a governor and the few loyalists of the Ebeano political dynasty he nurtured and midwifed in the coal city state. His intermittent incursion into the politics of Enugu State for the period of exclusion met brick walls. Senator Nnamani was almost out politically.

By some uncommon but divine intervention and indeed a twist of history, Senator Nnamani made his way back into the political reckoning through the benevolence of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (aka GburuGburu) who facilitated his return. Except relying on documentation or archives, no one but history remembered the intellectual giant in Nnamani which he espoused through the Ebeano lecture series. His lectures unarguably enriched the political discourse of that era.

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Today, Nnamani is back to the Senate with the sole mission to serve his constituents and the nation faithfully and diligently. He affirmed his commitment to participate in the making of the Nigerian project, where every citizen has the opportunity to aspire and achieve his God-given potential in a free, fair and mutually respectful manner.

The thrust of this narrative, however, is to bring to the fore the return of the Ebeano leadership and lecture series, in which Nnamani discussed burning national issues, the peace and unity of Nigeria and how to make the country a better place.

In his first lecture marking his return, Nnamani believed that Nigeria would not just be the giant of Africa but the world if we are able to get our priorities right by harnessing the nation’s human and material resources appropriately and efficiently. So, in a lecture with the title, Dike Nwanyi-Igbo (Amazons as leaders) delivered at the 43rd graduation anniversary and second reunion of class of 1976 Anglican Girls Grammar School, Awkunanaw, Enugu State, Nnamani traced the history of women struggle for liberation against obnoxious cultural practices, political and economic emancipation, and the overall interest of building a home, nay the nation. He went down memory lane from the pre-colonial era, slave trade, independence struggle, the unfortunate Nigeria/Biafra fratricidal civil war, to the present day of how women now constitute the pillar on the home front and the needed elixir for the men to accomplish their task.

He paid glowing tributes to the late Mrs Nwanyeruwa, who spearheaded the famous Aba Women riot of 1929, who he described as a legendary and iconic woman. According to Nnamani, she led the first documented Igbo women resistance that defined the character, integrity, poise and defiance of the Igbo race beyond masculine parochialism.

Nnamani named a foremost professor of History and author of the University of Jos, Elizabeth AlloIsichei, who authored Igbo Worlds: An Anthology of Oral Histories and Historical Descriptions; the Nigerian filmmaker and broadcasting executive, Amaka Igwe; Flora Nwanzuruahu Nwapa of the Efuru fame and the first female commissioner for health and social welfare in the defunct East Central State in the 1970s, Oyibo Ekwulo Odinamadu, who pioneered the Women’s Cultural and Philanthropic Organisation (WCPO) in Enugu, in 1958 to educate women on the imperatives of voluntary , charitable and non-profit making organisation and activities. It is of importance that the Odinamadu-led WCPO played a mediatory role during the civil war.

In all, he clarified that it was not by any means an attempt to compare the powers and effects of the genders but “to celebrate the womenfolk of my era, as they always stood on to fill vital gaps when men were either too busy, heavily threatened or distracted in many ways. In other words, I am more inclined to celebrate the synergy and fusion of the powers and potentials in men and women.”

He prayed to be a source of light and goodness wherever he goes. He believed that a good leader was always set apart by certain attributes, with a promise: “I will not only care, give and provide but I will humbly serve.”

Lady Oduah said the dilapidation and deterioration of infrastructure in the school required immediate attention. “We were moved to tears when we visited our alma mater. From the hostels to the classrooms and laboratories, it is a pitiable sight. We must collectively do the needful to remedy the situation,” Nnamani stated. On his part, the host on the occasion, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi maintained a dignified silence in apparent total approval to give education a priority attention as the bedrock of any meaningful progress and development of the society.

The chairman of the event, Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN) praised the intellectual prowess of Nnamani, which he brought to bear to turn Enugu State around during his tenure as governor, while the Anglican Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Dr Emmanuel Chukwuma urged the government at all levels to give proper attention to education if the nation must witness the needed progress and transformation.

 

Mumeh wrote from Enugu, Nigeria.