Saturday, the 5th of November 2016 was and will remain memorable to Egbu
\npeople of Imo State who played host to one of Nigeria’s young and finest
\nadministrators, public servant per excellence and orator of uncommon
\nwisdom, Chief Osita Chidoka OFR, Ike Obosi, as a Guest Lecturer during the
\nthird session of the Seventh Synod held at St. Mark’s Anglican Church,
\nDiocese of Egbu.<\/p>\n
His deep and sound Anglican background came to fore when he regaled the
\ndistinguished audience with brief but rich Anglican history.
\nIn his opening remarks, prior to the lecture proper, the former Aviation
\nMinister expressed enthusiasm on the honor and privilege offered him to
\nspeak on a topic he long cherished and still holds very dear to his heart
\nwhich he said, will be localized to Ndi Igbo which he termed “Uche, Uchu
\nna Egwu Chukwu” Restoring & promoting the values for the twenty first
\ncentury – the role of the church”.<\/p>\n
According to him, the choice of his message (lecture) stems from the fact
\nthat lots must have been said of Politics, the condition of the country,
\nthe promises, the gap between the promises and performance of Nigeria.
\nIn his well delivered message, Chidoka dissected the topic to the utmost
\nunderstanding of even a child. His core message was encapsulated on
\nrestoration of values of Ndi Igbo. He reiterated the fact that the Igbos
\nare reputed for common sense, wisdom, discretion, intellect, knowledge &
\nof course, innovation (Uche), doggedness (uchu) and respect for life &
\nfear of God (egwu Chukwu).<\/p>\n
Chidoka noted that today\u2019s world is a world that has changed so much. He
\nsaid during one of his discussions with his father who turns 90 years on
\nthe 12thNovember he told him that from when he was born in 1926 up till
\n1940s the difference in time and scope was very little, but as from 1970
\nto 2016 \u201cthe world seem to have changed in quantum leaps.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThings that were unimaginable have happened, things you couldn\u2019t think
\nabout or conceptualize in your brain now come to pass. And that is the
\nspirit of the twenty first century. We have seen the world move in great
\nstrides. We have seen the world change so much that technology has made
\nthings we considered inconceivable now present with us.\u201d He said.<\/p>\n
Chidoka said: \u201cBut in all of these changes something has remained very
\nsignificant, there are timeless unchanging values that support these
\nchanges we are seeing. That is why when the Igbos gather and complain
\nabout marginalization, deprivation, bad state of roads, I say to them, it
\nis because we as a people have somehow departed from the values that made
\nus who we are\u201d. \u201cI say before we think about external issues affecting us,
\nwe have to come back to the issues that are within us and the ones that
\nare within our control\u201d.<\/p>\n
He tasked Ndi Igbo to imbibe those values that made it possible for Nnamdi
\nAzikiwe to go to America, come back from America with nobody to work with,
\nhe sent a group of eight (8) young Igbo people abroad, waited for them to
\nreturn and by the time they came back, it took Igbos twenty years to cover
\nthe gap between them and the Yorubas in Engineering, law, public service &
\nother professions. He noted that in the 1960s, the South East region was
\nthe fastest growing regions in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. The South
\nEast of Nnamdi Azikiwe which he handed over to Michael Okpara was the
\nSouth East which was reputed to have built universities, built palm
\nplantations from palm kernel. The major export then was palm kernel. This
\nwas possible because the Igbo’s of then relied on Uche, Uchu & Egwu
\nChukwu,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The deep soul searching message came with intermittent references to some
\nevents from the book, Arrow of God written by Chinua Achebe. While
\nbuttressing the point on “Uche”, he made particular reference to why
\nEzeulu in Arrow of God sent one of his sons to school to learn the white
\nman\u2019s language sensing that the white men may be in their town for a long
\nperiod of time. Ezeulu by sending his son to learn the white man\u2019s
\nlanguage wanted to make sure his family was not cheated or schemed out on
\nany privilege from the white men by the few who understood the white man\u2019s
\nlanguage.
\nChief Osita Chidoka went on to state that \u2018uche\u2019 common sense has been the
\nmajor driver of technology, growth and innovation.<\/p>\n
Continuing he said: “Igbos were very skillful that when they got to some
\npart of America they were the ones that were able to plant and tend
\ntobacco because they came with skills of yam planting”. Igbos are reputed
\nfor hard work \u2018Uchu\u2019.<\/p>\n
The former Minister noted that the Igbos are not known for violence, he
\nsaid: \u201cIn Igbo land it\u2019s an abomination to spill blood, it\u2019s equally an
\nabomination to steal yam in most parts of Igbo land. The Igbos hold sacred
\nso many principles, we have natural fear and respect for the unknown such
\nthat when Christianity came it was easy for us to accept it because
\nChristianity reaffirmed our love and respect for human life, it reaffirmed
\nour respect for that which is unseen, it reaffirmed our respect for fellow
\nhuman beings. And that is the fear of God, which was why the Igbos didn\u2019t
\nknow the word corruption and till now there is no Igbo word for corruption
\nsimply because it is alien to us, the Igbos\u201d. He said.<\/p>\n
Chidoka maintained that the church has a critical role to playin restoring
\nthe true Igbo values, pointing out that \u201cour true value of \u2018uche\u2019 (common
\nsense) has been replaced today with respect for \u2018ndi nnukwu nmanwu\u2019 (the
\nwealthy).\u201d \u201cWe have stopped respecting the hard work of our hands and now
\nrespect riches\/fame, irrespective of the means such sudden wealth was
\nacquired.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Minister in his lecture made references to the songs of both
\nLate Chief Osita Osadebe and Oliver De Coque. \u201cOsadebe in the 1970s
\nreleased an album titled \u2018Peoples Club of Nigeria\u2019, in the album Osadebe
\nlikened members of peoples club to men with good and exemplary characters
\nin Nigeria, he never mentioned that they were rich men.\u201d He said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the businessmen Osadebe mentioned in that album were men with
\ncredible source of livelihood. It was until Oliver De Coque came that the
\npraise of people with dubious and suspicious characters took over with his
\nalbum \u2018enwere nnukwu nmanwu new otinkpu, nnukwu nmanwu puta obodo enwelu
\noso, otinkpu anaeti gidigi bu ugwueze\u2019 then he will start naming all the
\n419ners and calling them \u2018obu nnukwu nmanwu\u2019. So the \u2018nnukwu nmanwu\u2019
\nphenomenon came into Igbo land, then we saw 419 people become House of
\nAssembly members, we saw them become Sirs and Knights in churches, we saw
\nthem become example of what the Igbos are not, we saw them detract from
\nthe principles that propelled us.\u201d So the church has serious
\nresponsibility to restoring the good values of Igbos.\u201d He added.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at governance in the South East, the southeast has no business
\nwaiting for federal allocation every month to run the south east. Before
\nthe civil war, eastern region as the fastest growing economy was paying
\nthe salary of his workers, was building roads.\u201d \u201cWhen Ukpabi Asika came
\nback in 1970 after the war and set up the government, he was running it
\nfrom the resources of the east central state then as it was and with
\nlittle help from the rehabilitation efforts. It was the federal
\ngovernment\u2019s appropriation of the mineral resources of the country that
\nled to this new federal allocation syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chidoka said those in Igbo land who feel that Nigeria has not treated them
\nwell should hold their leaders accountable. He said: \u201cinstead of us
\nturning the monthly allocations to a capital for developing the state, we
\nturned it into a consumption capital, security vote, build bridges to
\nnowhere and to load their pockets with that which has been received as the
\nseed capital.\u201d \u201cWhen a farmer receives yam seedlings and ends up eating
\nthe head of the yam, he will definitely not have yam to plant during the
\nnext farming season\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we were eating the capital and we are thinking how the south east can
\ndevelop. There is no reason why the south east regional zone should not be
\nthe first to build an internal rail system to be moving our people and
\ntheir goods around. There is no reason why the south eastern region would
\nnot be the first to ask the federal government to hands-off the federal
\nroads in the south east and allow us to build our roads for the survival
\nof our own people, I\u2019m saying this because at the end of the day our value
\nsystem is one that promotes merit, equity and growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
In conclusion Chief Chidoka who graced the occasion as a guest lecturer to
\nthe synod with his wife Iyom Chidinma said: \u201cWhat we need in Igbo land
\ntoday is not the \u2018nnukwu nmanwu\u2019 syndrome but the \u2018ndi eziomume\u2019 syndrome.
\nHe however called on the church to take up the responsibility as the
\nprophet of the Old Testament in vision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n