Saturday, the 5th of November 2016 was and will remain memorable to Egbu
people of Imo State who played host to one of Nigeria’s young and finest
administrators, public servant per excellence and orator of uncommon
wisdom, Chief Osita Chidoka OFR, Ike Obosi, as a Guest Lecturer during the
third session of the Seventh Synod held at St. Mark’s Anglican Church,
Diocese of Egbu.
His deep and sound Anglican background came to fore when he regaled the
distinguished audience with brief but rich Anglican history.
In his opening remarks, prior to the lecture proper, the former Aviation
Minister expressed enthusiasm on the honor and privilege offered him to
speak on a topic he long cherished and still holds very dear to his heart
which he said, will be localized to Ndi Igbo which he termed “Uche, Uchu
na Egwu Chukwu” Restoring & promoting the values for the twenty first
century – the role of the church”.
According to him, the choice of his message (lecture) stems from the fact
that lots must have been said of Politics, the condition of the country,
the promises, the gap between the promises and performance of Nigeria.
In his well delivered message, Chidoka dissected the topic to the utmost
understanding of even a child. His core message was encapsulated on
restoration of values of Ndi Igbo. He reiterated the fact that the Igbos
are reputed for common sense, wisdom, discretion, intellect, knowledge &
of course, innovation (Uche), doggedness (uchu) and respect for life &
fear of God (egwu Chukwu).
Chidoka noted that today’s world is a world that has changed so much. He
said during one of his discussions with his father who turns 90 years on
the 12thNovember he told him that from when he was born in 1926 up till
1940s the difference in time and scope was very little, but as from 1970
to 2016 “the world seem to have changed in quantum leaps.”
“Things that were unimaginable have happened, things you couldn’t think
about or conceptualize in your brain now come to pass. And that is the
spirit of the twenty first century. We have seen the world move in great
strides. We have seen the world change so much that technology has made
things we considered inconceivable now present with us.” He said.
Chidoka said: “But in all of these changes something has remained very
significant, there are timeless unchanging values that support these
changes we are seeing. That is why when the Igbos gather and complain
about marginalization, deprivation, bad state of roads, I say to them, it
is because we as a people have somehow departed from the values that made
us who we are”. “I say before we think about external issues affecting us,
we have to come back to the issues that are within us and the ones that
are within our control”.
He tasked Ndi Igbo to imbibe those values that made it possible for Nnamdi
Azikiwe to go to America, come back from America with nobody to work with,
he sent a group of eight (8) young Igbo people abroad, waited for them to
return and by the time they came back, it took Igbos twenty years to cover
the gap between them and the Yorubas in Engineering, law, public service &
other professions. He noted that in the 1960s, the South East region was
the fastest growing regions in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. The South
East of Nnamdi Azikiwe which he handed over to Michael Okpara was the
South East which was reputed to have built universities, built palm
plantations from palm kernel. The major export then was palm kernel. This
was possible because the Igbo’s of then relied on Uche, Uchu & Egwu
Chukwu,” he said.
The deep soul searching message came with intermittent references to some
events from the book, Arrow of God written by Chinua Achebe. While
buttressing the point on “Uche”, he made particular reference to why
Ezeulu in Arrow of God sent one of his sons to school to learn the white
man’s language sensing that the white men may be in their town for a long
period of time. Ezeulu by sending his son to learn the white man’s
language wanted to make sure his family was not cheated or schemed out on
any privilege from the white men by the few who understood the white man’s
language.
Chief Osita Chidoka went on to state that ‘uche’ common sense has been the
major driver of technology, growth and innovation.
Continuing he said: “Igbos were very skillful that when they got to some
part of America they were the ones that were able to plant and tend
tobacco because they came with skills of yam planting”. Igbos are reputed
for hard work ‘Uchu’.
The former Minister noted that the Igbos are not known for violence, he
said: “In Igbo land it’s an abomination to spill blood, it’s equally an
abomination to steal yam in most parts of Igbo land. The Igbos hold sacred
so many principles, we have natural fear and respect for the unknown such
that when Christianity came it was easy for us to accept it because
Christianity reaffirmed our love and respect for human life, it reaffirmed
our respect for that which is unseen, it reaffirmed our respect for fellow
human beings. And that is the fear of God, which was why the Igbos didn’t
know the word corruption and till now there is no Igbo word for corruption
simply because it is alien to us, the Igbos”. He said.
Chidoka maintained that the church has a critical role to playin restoring
the true Igbo values, pointing out that “our true value of ‘uche’ (common
sense) has been replaced today with respect for ‘ndi nnukwu nmanwu’ (the
wealthy).” “We have stopped respecting the hard work of our hands and now
respect riches/fame, irrespective of the means such sudden wealth was
acquired.”
The former Minister in his lecture made references to the songs of both
Late Chief Osita Osadebe and Oliver De Coque. “Osadebe in the 1970s
released an album titled ‘Peoples Club of Nigeria’, in the album Osadebe
likened members of peoples club to men with good and exemplary characters
in Nigeria, he never mentioned that they were rich men.” He said.
“All the businessmen Osadebe mentioned in that album were men with
credible source of livelihood. It was until Oliver De Coque came that the
praise of people with dubious and suspicious characters took over with his
album ‘enwere nnukwu nmanwu new otinkpu, nnukwu nmanwu puta obodo enwelu
oso, otinkpu anaeti gidigi bu ugwueze’ then he will start naming all the
419ners and calling them ‘obu nnukwu nmanwu’. So the ‘nnukwu nmanwu’
phenomenon came into Igbo land, then we saw 419 people become House of
Assembly members, we saw them become Sirs and Knights in churches, we saw
them become example of what the Igbos are not, we saw them detract from
the principles that propelled us.” So the church has serious
responsibility to restoring the good values of Igbos.” He added.
“Look at governance in the South East, the southeast has no business
waiting for federal allocation every month to run the south east. Before
the civil war, eastern region as the fastest growing economy was paying
the salary of his workers, was building roads.” “When Ukpabi Asika came
back in 1970 after the war and set up the government, he was running it
from the resources of the east central state then as it was and with
little help from the rehabilitation efforts. It was the federal
government’s appropriation of the mineral resources of the country that
led to this new federal allocation syndrome.”
Chidoka said those in Igbo land who feel that Nigeria has not treated them
well should hold their leaders accountable. He said: “instead of us
turning the monthly allocations to a capital for developing the state, we
turned it into a consumption capital, security vote, build bridges to
nowhere and to load their pockets with that which has been received as the
seed capital.” “When a farmer receives yam seedlings and ends up eating
the head of the yam, he will definitely not have yam to plant during the
next farming season”.
“So we were eating the capital and we are thinking how the south east can
develop. There is no reason why the south east regional zone should not be
the first to build an internal rail system to be moving our people and
their goods around. There is no reason why the south eastern region would
not be the first to ask the federal government to hands-off the federal
roads in the south east and allow us to build our roads for the survival
of our own people, I’m saying this because at the end of the day our value
system is one that promotes merit, equity and growth.”
In conclusion Chief Chidoka who graced the occasion as a guest lecturer to
the synod with his wife Iyom Chidinma said: “What we need in Igbo land
today is not the ‘nnukwu nmanwu’ syndrome but the ‘ndi eziomume’ syndrome.
He however called on the church to take up the responsibility as the
prophet of the Old Testament in vision.