IBUSA COMMUNITY HOLDS A NIGHT OF TRIBUTES FOR BUCHI EMECHETA

It was indeed a night of emotions as encomiums, panegyrics and soul-touching tributes poured out in their torrents on the night of Sunday, 12th February, 2017 at Ibusa, Delta State. By 4pm, literary enthusiasts beseeched the expanse Ogbeowelle Hall in their droves. They include Principal emeritus, Pa AWO Inugonum, JP, a seasoned educationist who taught Buchi Emecheta’s novel “The Joys of Motherhood” to literature students for many years. He rattled the audience with a scintillating biographical posture of Buchi Emecheta, while berating the dearth of reading culture in our society today. Thus, reducing the relevance of the pedantic morals that the numerous novels of Buchi teaches.

The occasion began with a brief exhortation by Hon. Stephen Okocha titled: “Where is Your Hope”? He took his text from I Thes. 4:13-14, reflecting on the life and journey of the literary icon. He reminded all present on the need to live a life worthy of emulation on earth. His gospel which was lined on the garb of sober reflection sent ardent listeners pondering on every word that fell out of the preacher.

Reading a biography of Buchi Emecheta titled “The Moon That Illuminates the World” with a rider “…she bloomed like the luscious flower”, the anchorman of the event and also the convener, Philip Ngozi Ifechukwude reeled out a long odyssey of his romance with Buchi’s works. He narrated the serendipity that pitched him on a research of Buchi Emecheta’s “The Joys of Motherhood” during his project work at the university as a graduating student. He went down memory lane into the life and times of the late author and what she represented.

Students of St. Thomas’s College, Ibusa opened the night of fun with a spice of dance drama that preached the essence of unity in the country.

The first tribute of the night was read by Dr. Benjamin Nonso Ajufo. It was titled: “Buchi: That Ibusa Girl that Conquered the World” written and sent in by Dr. Peter Anene Nzekwue, an Ibusa-born literati and publisher of Xclusive Magazine based in Dublin, Ireland. On his own, Dr, Ajufo presented his own tribute which he titled: “The Priestess of Ogwugwu Afor. He used the poem to eulogize the writing prowess of Buchi Emecheta with the symbol of Ogwugwu Afor deity which later became the name of her publishing firm.

Dr. Austin Izagbo, the President-General of Ibusa Community Development Union (ICDU-Worldwide) had earlier written a wonderful tribute which was published in the Sunday Guardian of 5th February, 2017. The same tribute was read at the event by the publisher of the Frontline News, Dr. Dike Awana. Another spice of the evening was a poem titled: Yellow Sisi written by Philip Ifechukwude and was presented by Miss Gloria Ogechi Idegwu. This was followed by a tribute which she titled: “Tribute to a Golden Mother”. It was the turn of Mrs. Edith Peter-Egbuchua to deliver this tribute. 

The climax of the evening was a drama presentation titled: ‘The Trials of African Woman’ written and directed by Austin Ajufo. The troupe had Ms. Christie Bendu Achakpo as the narrator as she reeled out the travails of the African woman which was in sync with what the life of Buchi Emecheta depicted. Other casts were Angel Ojeikere, Moses Oraegbu, Chukwuma Obah, Gloria Idegwu, Sylvester Obah, Emmanuel Lotobi, Rose Okolie, little Miss Kansy Ifechukwude, Wisdom and Sarah Isoh. At the end, the audience was left to near tears with the melancholy which the entire setting and theme revolved around.

A tribute written by a patriotic Anioma son, Frank Ofili titled: “Buchi was an Advocate of Woman Emancipation” was presented by Prince Charles Obah, while Emeka Esogbue’s tribute, “The Mountain Whose Top the World is Seen” was read by the president of Ibusa Youth Council, Sir. Alfred Isoh.

Reading a compendium of tributes written by top academics and erudite personalities, Prof. Austin Uwandulu, the initiator of the entire project stole the show by demonstrating through the remarks of people like Prof. Niyi Osundare, Prof. Femi Osofisan, Denja Abdulahi, the current president of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and another prolific writer, Prof. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo. He equally fleshed these tributes by pouring series of panegyrics to the late Ibusa-born matriarch.

In another display of patriotism, Dr. Tony Nwaezeigwe took the stage to read Prof. Pat Utomi’s tribute titled: “Heroine with a Cause”. As a proxy, he narrated the detailed relationship that existed between Prof. Pat Utomi and the woman he always referred to as a dear sister. The erudite historian and lecturer at the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka then went on a solemn trip to describe Buchi as the woman with unparalleled love for her birthplace, Ibusa.

A creative ride with the title of Buchi Emecheta’s works composed by Philip Ifechukwude was aptly delivered by the senior prefect of St. Thomas’s College, Wisdom Ogini. This was immediately followed by another heart-rending encounter of a mother and child relationship that existed between the late Buchi and Barr. Amaechi Nwaenie, the Uwolo of Ibusa. The piece was read by Mrs. Patricia Oyana who took time to lead us into the affinity and love shared by this mother and son. Ideally, he chipped in such praises like adieu, nwa edeogu, ada ukwu eshimeshi!

The night was not complete without a literary display of upcoming literary minds in Ibusa who, from their performances, showed that though Buchi Emecheta is no more, the literary lacuna she has created will be filled in no distant time. They were the recitation of poems like “The Woman, Her Chronicles” written by Augustine Ogechukwu Nwulia, “I am My Father’s Son” and “The Fall of Bloom” by Maxwell Ajufo and the pantomime display of the poem “My Sojourn in the Evil Forest” by Austin Eloka Ajufo.

Basically, it rained like a holocaust as the night was replete with sweet memories of the life and times of a woman many described as a lioness. In his tribute, Dr. Austin Obidi, not left out, was satisfied with the whole display that characterized the event, adjudging that such has proven that Buchi’s soul will be smiling wherever she may be at the moment. He was emphatic in his remark that despite what we are encountering at the moment as a people, there is still hope for the town with what he saw of the many rising Buchis.

The vote of thanks was given by Peter Egbuchua, while Dr. Dike Awana said the closing prayer. Other people who graced the event were students from various secondary schools among whom were Trinity College, Ibusa, Omu Boys Secondary School, also in Ibusa.

ICDU Eulogizes Buchi Emecheta

Buchi Emecheta: The Ibusa Girl Who Conquered the World

The story of Onyebuchi Emecheta whom the world knew as Buchi, is at the same time that of a personal and communal triumph; the triumph of the personal will and communal efforts over the vicissitudes of life.

Much has been said about her deprivations at childhood. Without meaning to water that down in any way, I would wish to place it in its truest perspective. She grew up in the 1940s; a time of widespread social change in Nigeria. Primary school education was still sipping into many parts of the Nigerian hinterland, starting from the litoral areas such as Lagos and Calabar where the first white Christian evangelists first established their schools.

By the 1940s, poverty was still widespread in Nigeria and the urban centres were still few and far between. While primary school education was within the reach of any child whose parents were forward looking, or who had embraced Christianity, the Christian missionary schools that were coming up even in the villages, secondary school education were open only for the most fortunate few.

Buchi Emecheta, who by this time was already living in Nigeria’s greatest metropolis, Lagos, was among the fortunate few. Her father, a veteran who had fought in Burma during the Second World War on the side of Britain, had an uncommon exposure that opened up several doors. No wonder, he was working in the then elite work force of Nigeria; the railways. So, Buchi had a life of promise before her.

Then tragedy struck! Her father died. She was barely eight years old by then. Despite all the promise of the life of the intellect ahead of her, despite her visible intelligence due to the top-flight results she must have earned in the primary school classes she may have attended. That her father died would have spelt the end of the road for Buchi Emechete but for something that has remained a major plank of the progress, the remarkable progress, the unstoppable progress, the celebratory progress that has set Ibusa apart as a domain of progress and development.

That thing is communal effort. In Ibusa town, the saying that “it takes a village to train a child”, is still coming true today as it did when Buchi Emechieta was a girl child in need of financial help in the 1940s. When words reached Mr. Hallim, a then senior civil service staff of the old Western Region Civil Service at Ibadan, that there was a prodigiously gifted girl who has exhibited a splash of brilliance in her short stint at school, like a meteor streaking through the night sky, he reacted like the average Ibusa man or woman; that the young Buchi must return to school. We may never know how Mr. Halim came about that fateful knowledge; was it discussed at a meeting attended by Ibusa people? Or was the issue raised by friends of Buchi’s late father? Well, what is important is the result; Buchi returned to school because an Ibusa man who was not her real father treated her as though she were his own real daughter.

From there, Onyebuchi opened up her wings and soared like the eagle. From there, she studied voraciously. From there she became the Buchi that was known and celebrated across the globe. From there, she became the Buchi that the world has joined Ibusa town to mourn today.
There is the other Buchi, the product of hard work; the single mother who raised five children and still found the time to author 21 books. The challenges she faced and overcame were fully reflected in Buchi’s often-autobiographical literary harvest.

Somebody wrote about her that: “The main source of inspiration for her writing, however, was Africa, and in particular the villages of Ibusa in (Delta State) Nigeria where her family came from. Even though she had spent a relatively brief period of her childhood there, the villages and the stories she heard on her visits with her mother left an indelible mark on the impressionable young girl and became the lodestone for all she wrote.

In The Slave Girl (1977, for which she won the New Statesman’s jock Campbell award), The Bride Price (1976), and the ironically titled The Joys of Motherhood (1979), she poignantly captured, in a manner reminiscent of her male contemporary Chinua Achebe, a vanishing Igbo culture in the process of transition to modernity”. Mr. Sylvester Onwordi, the man who wrote those words should know Buchi intimately because he is her very own son. And not surprisingly, he is a writer too!
So, even though Buchi Emecheta left Ibusa very early in life, Ibusa never left her for a minute. She remained a true Ibusa daughter, giving her literary creativity sustenance from Ibusa. She not only identified with the Ibusa, she flew the Ibusa flag to the farthest corners of Planet Earth for wherever her books were ever read, the blog on the book covers always announced the name of her home town as though she always felt the duty to pay homage to the place of her birth. Her son wrote: “A constant refrain throughout my childhood was that she would one day return to Ibusa – a place that took on an almost mythical significance for us within the family.

She made many plans to return over many years, even building a house in the village while working as professor at the University of Calabar – an experience that formed the basis for her novel Double Yoke (1983). But having lived in the UK for so many years, she found it increasingly difficult to adapt to life in modern Nigeria. And Ibusa, in her long absence, was transforming itself into a town and a conurbation that she barely recognized any more”. Just like Buchi the girl that left Ibusa in her childhood changed, so too did her dear town also changed for change is the only constant in life. None can begrudge her not returning to live fully in Ibusa, no that would be asking for too much. That she knew and cherished where she came from, is enough for us. What has never been in doubt is her love for Ibusa.

Although the first reaction, upon hearing of her death, is to mourn, this is not dirge. Instead, I hereby raise a hymn of celebration to thank God for sending to Ibusa such a wonderfully gifted writer. Instead of mourning, I hereby celebrate her focus in life and the hard work behind all she achieved.
Yes, I celebrate Onyebuchi Emecheta, the Ibusa girl who conquered the world. She lived a life of great productivity that she lifted herself to the pantheon of the immortals with the Chinua Achebes; for as long as her books continue to be read, for that long is she alive.

Buchi Emecheta, we can never forget you for you have given us so much to remember you by. Rest in perfect peace our daughter, our mother, our aunt. Rest in perfect peace dear true success story that will continue to serve as a role model to every girl child all over the world. Rest in perfect peace dear daughter of Ibusa, “Ezigbo ada Igbuzo nodu nma”.

–– Dr. Austin Izagbo, the President – General, Ibusa Community Development Union

James Ibori Returns to Nigeria

Chief James Ibori, former governor of Delta state, has returned to Nigeria, six years after he was arrested in Dubai – Interpol operatives nabbed him on May 13, 2010 – and he was subsequently extradited to the UK.

The Cable understands that the British Airways flight Ibori boarded from London arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport, Abuja, at 4:30am.

His arrival took many of his associates by surprise.

“He said he did not want any crowd,” one of his associates told The Cable, saying Ibori was “evasive” on when he would return to the country “up till Friday night”.

When he was released in December, there was outrage at the public display of solidarity by his friends and associates.

He is expected to return to the UK to keep his February 17 date with the Southwark Crown Court in the ongoing asset seizure hearing.

A UK court convicted him of fraud in 2012 and handed him a 13-year jail sentence.

He regained freedom in December, after serving four and the half years and agreeing to be deported from the UK.

On Friday, Ibori appeared before a court for confiscation trial. The trial was presided over by David Tomlinson, a justice at Southwark Crown court.

The ongoing trial is to determine if his assets should be seized after serving his jail term.
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, had earlier said the only condition for deporting him is handing over the “proceeds of crime”.

On Tuesday, his suit against the secretary of state (home office), seeking to stop the UK government from further detaining him any further, was heard by Justice Garnham of the Royal Court of Justice, Fleet Street, London.

Ibori’s lawyers led by Richard Murkin, had argued that the Crown was trying to delay the suit and pushed for the court to rule that government was abusing its powers by seeking to detain Ibori any further on the premise that his assets confiscation case remained undecided.

He asked the judge to award compensation to Ibori for “unlawful detention”.

Speaking outside the court on Tuesday, Ibori told BBC’s Mark Eastman that he was planning to appeal his conviction and return to Nigeria.

When asked how soon his trip home would be, he said “as soon as possible, may be in a matter of days.”

Ibori was mobbed by a large number of Nigerians who came to identify with him in his travails. He shook hands with many of them, exchanging pleasantries.

He was governor of Delta State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) between 1999 and 2007.

It was a carnival-like atmosphere in Oghara, his hometown in Delta, when the news of his release went round in December. As at presstime, Osubi Airport, Warri is agog with his people and teeming supporters awaiting to receive him.

The situation there at the moment can only be imagined.

IBUSA – OKPANAM LINK ROAD: Neglecting the Many Benefits

Ibusa is the largest town in Oshimili North Local Government even though the administrative headquarters is at Akwukwu-Igbo. But for the purpose of this article, the bureaucracy that prominently played out in the anomalies that elicited the location is better reserved for another pedestal. Despite the aforementioned population status, the town also hosts the largest work force of the Delta civil service. Okpanam, another town in the local government populates another major horde of the economic relevance in the Delta State capital outside Asaba. Most of the stakeholders that control the ace in the state capital reside and prides as property owners at Okpanam. Together, the three towns control a major influence as far as the state capital development indices are concerned. It is however an affront that the case is a matter of ‘it would have been’. The geographical conurbation and master plan in the entire planning is nothing to write home about.

Methinks that at the establishment of ACDA at the dawn of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration that the first development plan is to link up the three towns into an economic friendly holus bolus. But unfortunately, it is appalling that connecting other towns in the same local government, a traveller from Ibusa must connect another local government. Either it is Oshimili South through Asaba, or Aniocha South through Ogwashi-Uku. This means that the only link that would have connected  Ibusa and her nearest local government brother, Okpanam remain a neglected narrow footpath farm way only meant for peasant farmers, grazers and thus causing a great security threat to them most times. Quite disgusting is that for many years of successive PDP-controlled government, not a thought ever flashed their minds regarding this shortcoming. Or could it be that it has severally been awarded and only abandoned with the funds meant for it diverted or misappropriated? More surprising is the fact that the local government has been actively represented in these administrations in all cadres. 

Basically, I really do not want to see the continuous neglect of this all important road as a means to disparage the people of Oshimili North Local Government Area. Presently, the Ibusa end of that road has been inhumanly converted to a refuse dump. As a result, I see a timely attention to that road warding off this act of inhumanity, especially with the present road construction and rehabilitation agenda of Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa. This clarion therefore becomes necessary because Ibusa is also part of the Asaba capital territory.

More so, one thing the state government has failed to realize is the abundant benefits accruable with the construction of the link road coupled with the economic factors attached. Overtime, I wonder what any government economic policy will be if not to think about harnessing and utilizing the resources inherent within the state. To think that among the avalanche of SSAs and SAs on the pay roll of the governor, none have ever thought of investing to harvest. I mean that opening up this link road is an investment waiting to be harvested.

Apart from linking up road to connect the two towns, is it not right to believe that the road holds a lot of economic potentials in terms of development vis a vis its proximity to the airport? There is no doubt that the speed at which development is springing up in Okpanam and Ibusa that a government school sited at equidistance can serve the two towns. Presently, the cosmopolitan status of Ibusa has grown beyond the present site of Ashia Eke market in the town. Hence, the siting of a bigger and more organized market can serve a myriad of purposes that will muster big revenue drive not only to the local government, but the state at a larger scale.

The possibilities of an expanse dualized road link between Ibusa and Okpanam will checkmate the incessant threat of Fulani herdsmen on our bushes. A quick indices on the attacks are rife that their operational environment routes to bushes around this axis. By the time structures begins to spring up along the road and the adjoining links to Azagba-Ogwashi and Iselle-Azagba, the surrounding bushes that house their hideouts will be exposed. This done, another victory against their menace will be achieved in no distant time.

Importantly, a journey that would have lasted more in terms of financial cost and risky in terms of connection will last not more than five minutes to achieve at a lesser cost for any traveler connecting the two towns. With full development activity of the agency within the capital territory, I feel it is wise to consider this lingering connecting link road for a speedy construction and utter development of the capital territory and give it a befitting status it deserves.

The governor, without doubt, is doing well in terms of road construction and rehabilitation. Evidences on ground have proven beyond bounds that he is really ‘talk and do’ indeed. The recent assurance on the upgrading of the Asaba International Airport, which will equally serve as a unique connector and open up economic activities within this link road, when constructed, is enough pointer. Hence, the numerous benefits attached to the opening of this road remain unparalleled as elucidated.

In conclusion, it is expedient on the relevant authorities to look into; if there have been previous cases of contract award on this road. If not, a serious consideration of this piece becomes a sine qua non. The contributions of the local government both to the socio-political and socio-economic relevance of the state are also enough consideration to give a look into this appeal.

 by Philip Ng. Ifechukwude

The Buchi I know - A Trubute

Tribute to Buchi Emecheta

      At the twilight of my undergraduate career at the university, I proposed three topics for my project as an English language – language stress student. The first was ‘Challenges of Men in Nigerian Family System’, citing Buchi Emecheta’s ‘The Joys of Motherhood’ and Chimamanda Adichie’s ‘Purple Hibiscus’. Secondly, I proposed ‘Bad Leadership and Corruption in Post-Independence Africa’ in Ayi Kwei Amah’s ‘The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born’. Lastly, I proposed to look into ‘Women’s Influence in Politics of Nigeria’ using the works of Ola Rotimi’s ‘Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again’ and Emeka Nwabueze’s ‘Parliament of Vultures’. But my supervisor was to rephrase the first topic to ‘Gender Inequality in Emecheta’s ‘Joys of Motherhood’ and Adichie’s ‘Purple Hibiscus’, while approving same.

      I would not know the reason behind this change and subsequent approval. But I was happy the exercise was going to give me ample opportunity to take a critical insight of the work of an author, not only from my hometown but a woman I have come to admire overtime through her works even though we have not met. I think her first work I encountered was ‘The Bride Price’. I could recall in my tender observation when I came across the name of my town in a book for the first time, I had this narcissist feeling at the time. Subsequent years exposed me to the other of her works like ‘Second-Class Citizen’, ‘The Slave Girl’, ‘The Rape of Shavi’, ‘Destination Biafra’ and eventually ‘The Joys of Motherhood’.

     

Reading any of the works of Buchi Emecheta takes the reader into the author’s world. Although, almost all her works are autobiographical accounts of her personal experiences. Her simple diction reflects contemporary work of arts and the realities of our modern and traditional African society. She preaches womanhood and woman emancipation. The bane of total subjugation from the largely patriarchal society is expressed in her works. These, she relived in a most simplistic and free-minded disposition.

      Buchi was a self made woman and epitomized the strength of a woman in no great measures. She is a model to the girl child education owing to a childhood experience that almost denied her basic education in life. Buchi Emecheta was born as Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta on August 14, 1944 in Lagos.  She has Mid-western Ibo parents who hail from Ibusa in the present Delta State.  She grew up in a colonial family where her father was a railway worker in the 1940s and her mother, a full-time housewife. Her early education saw her through Ladilak School and Reagan Memorial Baptist School in Yaba, Lagos. But the death of her father when she was nine threw a cog in her educational wheel. It was only by dint of divine providence that she was given scholarship to continue her secondary education by the missionaries at Methodist Girls School. Quite earlier, her resilience and ability to convince her father on the numerous benefits of education saw her early tutelage.

      In fulfillment of her life desire as a woman, on concluding her secondary school career at age 16, she got married to a man she had been engaged since she was eleven years old. Her husband, Sylvester Onwordi immediately left to London to further his education.  Buchi joined him in 1962 and bore him five children in six years.  But the marriage was ruled by a lot of problems.  Buchi wrote a lot during her spare time in order to keep her sanity; however, her husband was deeply suspicious of her writing, and he ultimately burnt her first manuscript. At the age of twenty-two, both parties parted ways.  Buchi earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology at the University of London, while she also worked alone to keep her five children. This feat came with a lot of challenges, a carking one at that. At a time, the preference for the welfare of her children became uppermost in her mind and she did not care a hoot about her decision. This was when from 1965 to 1969, Emecheta worked as a library officer for the British Museum in London. From 1969 to 1976 she was a youth worker and sociologist for the Inner London Education Authority, and from 1976 to 1978 she was a community worker.

     She blossomed in her writing career with some notable novels like In the Ditch (1972); Second-class Citizen (1974); The Bride Price (1976); The Joys of Motherhood (1979); Destination Biafra (1982); among others.  She has also written TV plays like A Kind of Marriage and Family Bargain, and children novels.  Some of which are Titch the Cat (1979), The Wrestling Match (1980), etc.

      Buchi Emecheta has published articles like “The Black Scholar”, (November-December 1985), New York Times book review, April 29, 1990; World Literature Today, Autumn 1994.  Together with the son, she runs Ogwugwu Afor Publishing Company under which most of her works have been published. She won the Jack Campbell Award in 1979 with her novel, The Slave Girl (1977).  She also has the Arts Council of Great Britain between 1982-3.

      Her themes of child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education won her considerable critical acclaim and honours, including an Order of the British Empire in 2005. Emecheta once described her stories as "stories of the world where women face the universal problems of poverty and oppression, and the longer they stay, no matter where they have come from originally, the more the problems become identical." She has been characterized as "the first successful black woman novelist living in Britain after 1948".

     Generally, the life and times of a woman who felt the brunt of life under a most convoluted atmosphere, was crowned with a mixture of sorrow and gladness. Towards the twilight of her life, she was taken to the nursing home, yet her lively disposition of a writer held sway. She was ever lively and always relives memories of her humble beginning and cultural background. She was a lover of culture and never failed to relish in the intrigues of her Ibusa tradition anytime she was in the midst of her people. As a community builder, she was staunch and her advocacy towards the development of her town through the umbrella body of Ibusa Women Community Development Union (IWCDU), London chapter was unparalleled.

       Most of these attributes were what made the thematic carriage in her novels unique. Her style and employment of Igbo proverbs and adages in her works are apt. The mark of which makes a tropical writer. Her works reflects feminism but she vehemently opposed being a feminist. The high themes reflected in ‘The Joys of Motherhood’ gave credence to the book’s recommendation in the school certificate curriculum in Nigeria.

      Buchi classes as one of the authors with the highest number of published novels and highest in the women fold in sub-Saharan Africa. She has indeed set a standard that will be hard to fill. As we celebrate this writer who has impacted in the lives of many with her works, the many comments and accolades pouring out are testimony to this fact. She had a way of mirroring the society through her personal experiences.