Tears For Christy Essien Igbokwe

By Chuks OLUIGBO

The sad news of the death of Nigeria’s Lady of Songs, Chief Mrs Christy Essien Igbokwe, MON, was announced on Thursday, June 30, 2011. She died at a private hospital in Lagos after being ill for three days, according to reports, at the age of 51. The actual cause of her death is not known, but reports say the singer/actress was diagnosed with a hole in the heart during her first pregnancy, but she was quoted to have said that it got healed miraculously. 

The late Christy Essien Igbokwe

Born on November 11, 1960 in the present day Akwa-Ibom State, South-South Nigeria, Essien had a hard start in life. Having lost her mother at age 13, she spent her teen years under the tutelage of her mother’s friend, Mrs Maria Chukwu, who hailed from Isuochi, Abia State. It was Mrs Chukwu who encouraged her singing career and bought her a fairly used cassette player to record her songs.

She began her musical career as a secondary school girl, singing at various clubs in Aba, Abia State such as Uka Onu’s Club and Unikoko. She would later feature in ‘Now Sound’, a musical programme on NTA Aba.

When Chika Okpala’s (Chief Zebrudaya) sensational situational comedy, ‘The New Masquerade’, hit the airwaves, Essien was in the cast. She played Apena, wife of Jegede Shokoya (played by Claude Eke who died in 2002). Her appearance on the cast of the drama series was providential. As at the time she was featuring on ‘Now Sound’, ‘The New Masquerade’ was also airing on NTA Aba. During one of the recordings, she noticed that a cast member was rehearsing his lines incorrectly and corrected him. Unknown to her, she had landed herself a role in the series. She would later feature in a number of Nollywood movies, prominent among which was “Flesh and Blood” produced by Ameze Imahriagbe.

Essien Igbokwe’s first album, ‘Freedom’, was released in 1976, when she was only 16. She followed it up with ‘Patience’ and ‘Time Waits for No One’ in 1978, ‘One Understanding’ (1979), and ‘Give Me A Chance’ (1980). She had over ten albums in her kitty. However, music critics say her hit album, ‘Ever Liked My Person’, released in 1981, remains her best LP. The album, released under the London-based Lagos International Records, which promoted Nigerian pop music in Europe and America in the 1980s, featured production from one of Nigeria’s top producers, Lemmy Jackson, who was often referred to as Nigeria’s Quincy Jones. Some of her popular songs include ‘Omo Mi Seun Re Re’, which was so popular that a number of African countries sang their own version, ‘Hear the Call’, and ‘Tete Nu Na Ula’, a wake-up call for the Igbo of South-Eastern Nigeria.

Christy

In 1987, the year Akwa-Ibom State was created, she composed and performed 'Akwa-Ibom Mmi' (My Akwa-Ibom). That composition would later become some sort of state anthem. She ran an NGO, Essential Child Care Foundation, which is involved in child welfare needs and rights, as well as an entertainment outfit, Soul Train Entertainment Limited.

A rare mixture of talent, skills, brain, guts, and enormous inner strength, she once described her brand of music as universal music, which she said cuts across all segments of the society and appeals to all tribes; and her musical career as “great and wonderful”. She, no doubt, was a born singer. As she once affirmed: “Music chose me. In all my years in music, I never struggled to do anything – write songs, play the instruments as well as produce the music. Everything comes naturally – the lyrics, bass, guitar and piano lines.”

Essien, though Ibibio by birth, spoke many Nigerian languages fluently and sang in the three major Nigerian languages - Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa – as well as her native dialect, and her songs drew heavily from culture and tradition. This earned her an appeal which cut across tribal lines. Nation building, peace and tolerance, and moral uprightness remained recurring themes in many of her songs.

As the first female president of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, PMAN, she had outlined ways to fight piracy in Nigeria’s music industry, including partnering with the government, corporate bodies and individuals, but things did not work out because the government of the day lacked the will power.

Her stage appearances were numerous. Some of the recent ones include the Inspire Africa Benefit Concert (January 2009), where she performed alongside her son Kaka, who is a hip hop artiste and producer, and the MTN Musical Festival, a musical show of old and new-breed musicians, also in 2009.

Unarguably one of Nigeria’s finest and foremost female singers, Christy Essien Igbokwe garnered many awards in the course of her musical career. These include Nigerian Lady of Songs Award, which was unanimously given to her by all entertainment journalists in Nigeria in recognition of her enormous musical talent, International Special Achievement Award (Mexico 1983), Africa Music Mother Award (1984), World Song Festival Award (Los Angeles), Queen of Music International Award, Association of Theatre Arts Practitioners Award (Lagos 1996), Outstanding Achievement in Female Uplifting, and the National Honours of Member of the Order of the Niger, MON (2002).

She is survived by her husband, Chief Edwin Igbokwe, former Executive Director of Punch newspaper and publisher of Glamour Trends, whom she married in 1979, and four children. But she is mourned by all Nigerians.

Adieu, Nigeria’s Lady of Songs. We will miss you, but your melodious voice will be a constant reminder that you once walked these paths. May your soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.

Okorocha Promises To Complete All Abandoned Projects

Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has promised that his administration will complete all ongoing and abandoned projects initiated by the past administration, saying that his administration will not jump into initiating new projects at the detriment of the uncompleted ones that are spread all over the state.

He stated this in Owerri, the Imo State capital, Wednesday, June 29, after inspecting the secretariats of Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers and Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, both under construction.

“Let me reiterate that all the ongoing projects will be completed by this administration. This government will not subscribe to the euphoria of 100 days in office which often leads to embarking on and rushing new projects, thus compromising standard. I will rather prefer to settle down and plan for the betterment of the state,” Okorocha maintained.

The governor, who was visibly angry with the poor level of work done by the contractor handling both projects, also sounded it clear to all government contractors that his government will not compromise shady and poor quality of jobs. He therefore advised the contractors to improve on the quality so that both projects will meet the required standard.

Barth Nnaji: The Modern-Day Energy Reforms Champion

By Benjamin UDODIGBO

Barth Nnaji

When in June 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan announced his choice of Prof Barth Nnaji as the Special Adviser on Power, applause trailed the appointment because it was one of those rare round-peg-in-a-round-hole moments in Nigerian public administration. Across a broad spectrum of Nigerians, it was generally agreed that Prof Barth Nnaji’s acceptance to serve was indeed a demonstration of the kind of love for country that only true patriots possessed. He promptly reported for duty, rolled his sleeves and got busy with the mandate he was given.

 

For the records, his appointment came on the heels of a rock-solid suitability and qualification for the office, having served as Nigeria’s Minister for Science and Technology in the past. Bartholomew Nnaji, the Nkanu, Enugu State native, is a distinguished professor of mechanical engineering at the Universities of Massachusetts and Pittsburgh in the United States of America. There is no gainsaying that he is a renowned global expert in robotics engineering. With degrees in physics, industrial engineering and operations research, and honours as varied as United States’ Secretary of State’s Distinguished Public Service award 1995, Fellowships of Institute of Industrial Engineers and Nigerian Academy of Sciences, he is as much sought-after in the United States of America as he is in Nigeria, his home country.

In demonstration of his belief in and unalloyed faith in the Nigerian project, he envisioned, initiated and founded Geometric Power Limited to complement the power generation needs of dear fatherland. This indeed is a practical attestation to his oft-stated policy of ‘walking the talk’ as opposed to luxuriating in the ambient comfort of easier climes thousands of kilometres away while throwing jibes at the government of the day.

The job of advising the President on power is indeed one of the most challenging in the country, not only because it interfaces directly with the aspirations of every Nigerian to have regular electricity supply in order to stimulate our industrial transformation, but also because it contends with one of the most potent bastions of corruption in the country. It was this same bulwark of corruption that stood in the way and made nonsense of the clearly-stated mission of our very own Bola Ige to deliver steady electricity to Nigerians within six months of assuming office as Minister of Power and Steel in 1999.

In Prof Nnaji’s own words, “The President said that we should go and drive the Power Reform Act, to see electricity Power Reform Act 2005 implemented and in doing that, we are to work with various agencies of government responsible for that.” He was also charged along with other members of the task force to fast-track power improvement in the short term, and fully address power delivery in the long term. His team and himself have already dug in and are carrying out the President’s mandate, but a motley crowd of malcontents including agents of the old order, generator and candle importers, diesel marketers, ‘general contractors’, and indolent staff of PHCN have vowed to ensure they do not succeed because of a rabid fear of becoming redundant. What this tribe of traducers fail to grasp, however, is that with the quantity of resources at their disposal, they could afford to invest in power generation, distribution or even marketing. And having keyed into the national aspirations of the country, they become patriots.

The good professor was accused of not being fit for the office, being an operator of an independent power plant (IPP). Perhaps upon realising that his participation as a stakeholder in the industry prepared him adequately with the requisite information and skills needed to drive the reform agenda (after all when you need a surgery to be done, you seek a surgeon and not a physician), they have suddenly changed their swansong to the fact that his Geometric Power Limited is yet to take off. The question is, how patriotic can a man be to please Nigerians? The man decides not to allow for a clash of interests since his job at the moment involves monitoring and regulations, and the detractors are already in town!

Discerning Nigerians, however, are not lost on the true mission of the critics. President Goodluck Jonathan has taken his time since inauguration to studiously seek and assemble a crack team of able and capable Nigerians to drive the goals of his administration. The campaigners only desire to hurt the prospects of this brilliant reformer in place of another business-as-usual fellow so that PHCN will remain the market place it has always been.

At this very crucial time in our national development, President Goodluck Jonathan must be encouraged by well-meaning Nigerians not to give in to any attempts, overt or covert, to intimidate and derail his desire to completely reform the economy starting with the power sector, a task which he has already started but needs to actively pursue now in the spirit of continuity and consistency. In this connection, Prof Barth Nnaji is most suited to drive the power sector ambitions of the new administration. This is one appointment for which Nigerians in due time will remain very grateful to Mr President.

Their Lies Will Catch Up With Them

By Modestus OKAFOR

If one accepts what one reads on the internet and newspapers, sees on the television, and hears on the radio about Nigeria, one is bound to conclude that Nigeria is a haven. This is because Nigerian governments are specialists in recruiting professional liars whose sole duty it is to feed the populace with false information. At the federal, state and local government levels, government agents tell us what they want us to believe because we do not even have any means to verify whatever they tell us. And so, they feed us lies.

They tell us that all roads in the country have been fixed, all railroads have been re-activated, pipe-borne water now flows to every home, education has been made very affordable and reachable to 150 million Nigerians, security of lives and property has been beefed up, food sufficiency has been guaranteed by government, the nation’s reserves have been increased, and health facilities have been made available to all. Nigerians also hear of government interventions in the health and education sector, but these institutions remain deplorable such that the wealthy have abandoned them for private and foreign ones, leaving a greater number of the Nigerian poor to languish in poor health and ignorance. We also see pictorials where efforts to guarantee sufficient power and petroleum supply had reached concluding stages, where all industries had received a facelift, where adequate artilleries and soldiers had been provided to protect the country’s sovereignty, and where government had secured adequate social security for its citizenry. Yet majority of Nigerians live primitive lives of drudgery, deprivations and lack.

At the end of every Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting, there are briefings telling Nigerians that all their problems have been deliberated upon and would soon be solved. We hear such long sentences like: “Council had deliberated on the sufferings and plight of the eastern-bound travellers from Lagos occasioned by the deplorable condition of the Lagos-Ibadan-Ore Expressway and has approved the reconstruction of the road to Messrs ABC at the cost of $XYX.” The speaker, often the minister of information, would add, “This is in tune with the desire of the federal government to make every part of the country accessible and promote business and communication”. Several times too we have heard the FG announce that the Ajaokuta Steel Company is being refurbished as contract for its re-vitalization has been awarded to a foreign company, yet the company has remained unproductive. The second Niger Bridge which successive governments had repeatedly announced that it had been awarded, and sometimes that it was nearing completion, still remained one of the cardinal campaign promises of President Goodluck Jonathan to the South-East. Ironical indeed!

The state and local governments are not left out in this festival of deception. While the citizenry groan under poverty, they spend millions of naira posting fake beautiful pictures on the pages of newspapers and on the internet, announcing their ‘giant strides’. These helmsmen also crisscross the length and breadth of the country to receive well publicized awards and accolades from self-serving organizations while their people feel no impact of good governance at home. Regularly we see moribund facilities constructed in the 1970s and 80s repainted; we see state governors install make-shift power generating sets and invite the president who punctiliously commission such only for it to stop work the next day. Because they believe Nigerians are fools, they cow everyone into submission and send their foot-soldiers and very few beneficiaries to shut everyone up. And when it is time for re-election, they intensity their ruse in the media and cast aspersions on anyone bold enough to challenge their deceits.

As Nigerians mourn their loved ones lost in several attacks occasioned by security breaches and as we scamper for safety, we should recall that at several times, government had assured us that it has put everything in place to guarantee the safety of lives and property. They use the available police personnel and weapons to guard themselves, leaving every other Nigerian’s life to chance. We hear in the media how every facility has been put in place to forestall break-down of law and order and also hear top presidential aides telling us that government had approved supply of sophisticated weapons and detectors for the Nigerian Police. Yet at every turn, robbers and other criminals, militant groups and even mobs brandish highly sophisticated weapons that beat the police. Next, same government officials would trade more lies about how a retired Inspector General of Police had embezzled funds and how the Police Equipment Fund had been misappropriated, yet nothing would be done to prosecute such embezzlers. When they tell us that they will fish out those who killed our fathers, our brothers, sisters and kinsmen, we know that such statements are mere colloquium. They promised to fish out the killers of Bola Ige, Funsho Williams, Marshal Harry, Apo Six, and others, yet no clue has been arrived at. Sometimes, to hide their inefficiency, they parade innocent youths as culprits. But the recent blast in the seat of Nigeria’s security outfit has proved that the force has been slumbering.

Now they have promised to unravel those who killed innocent youth corps members in the North in the aftermath of the elections and have set up a committee on this. The committee would be allocated heavy funds and logistics, but as usual, nothing will come out of it. My advice to all who lost their loved ones in the post-election violence is to take solace in the Lord and look up to God for he gives and he takes and knows the process through which everyone would return back to him. Of course, this is why Nigerians are very religious; their lives are not guaranteed naturally.

It is disheartening that in today’s Nigeria, government is of less value to the citizenry – the people provide almost everything they need in life. Government is not helping in agriculture for farmers still embrace the pre-independence skills, till the ground with hoes and cutlasses and harvest the same way their grandfathers did. Many Nigerians still rely on the traditional healthcare, and even those who had embraced the Western system are reverting to the former since they can no longer afford the latter. Government’s supply of power and water is so erratic that Nigerians now rely on generators and privately-developed boreholes. Even in education, those who can afford it take their children to qualitative schools owned by private individuals or groups here and abroad. Government is not providing jobs and not encouraging investments, but is shutting down the existing ones, suffocating financial institutions, and killing research. While millions of Nigerians wallow in poverty, die young and live unfulfilled lives, government officials are busy sharing the proceeds of Nigeria’s oil wealth among themselves.

No doubt, Nigeria needs a true government if it has to make a headway. Sincere individuals occupying leadership positions should champion a complete review of the government system to allow for less corruption and sleaze. Yes, the masses have made the mistake of allowing the iniquitous take seats of power in the past but there are still opportunities ahead to change the tide. They did it in the last election where they chose, in some states, their popular candidates. They must do it again. We need governments that will protect our lives, provide power and water for us, give us good education and health, and create enabling environment where business would thrive. 

Okafor wrote in from Owerri, Imo State. E-mail: modeokafor@yahoo.com

How Gov Okorocha Is Remaking Imo

By Chuks OLUIGBO

That Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha defeated Ikedi Godson Ohakim at the April 26 and May 6, 2011 gubernatorial elections in Imo State to emerge as Imo governor has become part of history. Same with the fact that Okorocha was sworn in on May 29, 2011 as the fifth democratically-elected governor of the Eastern Heartland.

 

The emergence of Rochas Okorocha was widely hailed, not only in Imo State, but all over Nigeria. Many also described it as ‘the Imo Revolution’. And indeed, looking back at the events of those few weeks leading up to the elections, the electoral process itself, and Okorocha’s subsequent victory, one cannot agree less. Imo people stood up in one bunch and chose a man after their hearts.

But the revolution did not end with the elections. In fact, it would be more appropriate to say that the true revolution began after the elections. While many re-elected and newly-elected governors are still basking in the euphoria of post-election victory, Owelle Okorocha has already gone to work, at such speed that some analysts have said that the man is in a haste to move Imo forward.

No doubt, the task ahead of him is enormous. He gave a hint that he understood this in his inaugural speech when he said: “I know you expect so much from me. I know you believe in me. I know you believe I can deliver. And I promise I will deliver.”

In addition to the ‘backward progression’ that Imo has known since after Sam Mbakwe, his predecessor, Ikedi Ohakim, had created more problems for him. In the dying hours of his maladministration, Ohakim had announced free education to Imo children and approved the N18,000 minimum wage for civil servants as recommended by the Federal Government. These were clearly done in bad faith in order to create initial hassles for Okorocha.

But Governor Okorocha was not daunted by these antics. He took up the challenge and, there at the inauguration ground, he promised to exceed the achievements of the Mbakwe administration, considered to be the best Imo has had in its thirty-five years of existence. In practical terms, he announced the granting of free education to Imo children in primary and secondary schools. He also promised to provide jobs for unemployed Imo youths. However, he was silent on the issue of minimum wage.

To show that he was not making empty promises, on June 5, 2011, barely six days after his inauguration, during a thanksgiving Mass in honour of the new administration at Maria Assumpta Cathedral, Owerri, the governor announced a cut in the state’s annual security vote from N6.5 billion to N2.5billion, saying that the difference, N4 billion, would be used to cater for the free education he had promised at inauguration. Earlier, he had said he would also give up his salary for the same purpose. This was in line with his inaugural promise that “if the only reason that I will be poor in this life is to serve my people without being corrupt, then I declare myself a poor man from today onwards”. By that statement and the actions that have followed, he sent a clear signal to those who would work in his government that his isn’t going to be a government of ‘come and chop’.

Also, in his inaugural speech, the governor had sounded a note of warning to Imo workers that his administration would not condone any form of indolence and truancy. “For every worker in the office,” he had said, “there is an unemployed person out there waiting to take up your place.” And just few days into his administration, he took Imo workers by surprise when he arrived unannounced at the Imo State Secretariat complex along Port Harcourt Road, Owerri where most of the state ministries are located. The governor, who arrived there as early as 7:30 am ordered that the gates of the Secretariat be locked at 8 o’clock on the dot. Surprisingly, not many workers were in the office at that time. When the governor began his office to office tour, many workers who got wind of what was happening reportedly scaled the fence to sneak into their offices.

On Monday, June 6, he made his maiden broadcast to Imo people, where he announced the dissolution of the 27 local government councils in the state, something the people had been clamouring for given the hazy circumstances under which the local government administrations came to power. He also dissolved the countless development centres created by former governors, Achike Udenwa and Ikedi Ohakim; the Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers headed by Obi of Obinugwu, His Royal Majesty, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya, who also doubles as chairman, South-East Council of Traditional Rulers; and the interim management board of Adapalm appointed by Ikedi Ohakim and headed by Deacon Kieran Onwuzuruike. He also suspended the Vice-Chancellor of Imo State University, Owerri, Prof O. E. Nwebo and in his place appointed Prof B. E. B. Nwoke, until then Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the same university.

He further put on hold the 10,000 jobs created by the Ohakim administration and set up a committee to review the process and make recommendations. In a quick reaction, the affected employees converged at the Imo State Secretariat to protest what they perceived as gross injustice against them. Some of them who spoke to the press said they were not politicians and so nobody should play politics with their employment. All they asked for, they said, was to be given back their jobs, their only source of livelihood at the moment.

But the government quickly doused their tension. While addressing the aggrieved youths, the Imo deputy governor, Sir Jude Agbaso, assured them that nobody was taking away their jobs from them. Rather, because the process through which they got employed was faulty, they had no real jobs at the moment. As such, the process needed to be reviewed so that they could be given proper employment.

In a related development, some of the 305 councillors in Imo State who were dissolved alongside the chairmen of the 27 local government councils also demonstrated in Owerri, the state capital, to protest their dissolution. They were not allowed anywhere near the Government House, and so took to the major streets. In the process, about 100 of them were nabbed by the police for disturbing the peace of the state.

On their part, the sacked 27 local government chairmen filed a suit against the governor contesting the legality of his dissolution of the councils. In a similar vein, they also pleaded the court to grant them an injunction restraining the governor from dissolving them and from appointing caretaker committees. The plea was struck out by the court on Monday, June 20, 2011 while a new date was fixed for hearing on the substantive suit.

Also, the governor has quickly constituted his cabinet (commissioners and special advisers). The cabinet, which many observers have described as star-studded and designed to meet the developmental needs of the state, parades such personalities as Chief Mike Okiro, former Inspector-General of Police (SA Security), Prof Fabian Osuji, former Minister of Education (SA Education), and Nwankwo Kanu, ex-international soccer star (SA Sports). One of the nominees, Prof Viola Onwuliri, wife of the outgoing Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO, and Ohakim's running mate in the 2011 governorship election, snobbed the nomination and refused to appear before the House of Assembly for screening.

Imo people and Nigerians in general have continued to laud these revolutionary steps by the people’s governor. Their only concern is that these should not turn out to be initial displays intended to impress the people and win their hearts, after which the governor will relapse into inertia, leaving the people who had reposed so much hope on him forlorn and disappointed. Their thinking is that if Imo has to leap and not crawl, if it has to measure up with other states in Nigeria in terms infrastructural and other developments, then the revolution must continue at the pace it has begun.