I laugh as I write this article, because I know for sure that it would send signals (wrong signals) to most of my course mates. But I choose not to bother myself with what anybody thinks or says, as everybody is entitled to their opinions. You may not be comfortable with my addressing this great intellectual without the congruent title of Professor. I was present at the 118th inaugural lecture of Uniport which he (Eme Ekekwe) delivered, after which Prof. Joseph Ajienka (the then Vice Chancellor) remarked that some persons are so iconic in their fields that they no longer need a title to their names, and that Eme Ekekwe is one of such; and I totally align myself with that.
When I was a class rep, I learnt a lot from my close interaction with lecturers, and I know what to say of every lecturer I came in contact with. For instance, Dr Jones Odili is very simple, humble, compassionate and considerate; he’s one man who understands that the world is a very small place. Dr Daniel Uranta is a very sincere man; Uranta will tell you what he can do and what he cannot do. Dr Mrs. Gladys Emenike is a very busy woman, she is very dutiful and strict in her duties; she’s a no nonsense woman. I am yet to see any other lecturer that is as earnestly and passionately committed to duty as Prof Nna Johnson is; he truly loves his job (teaching), and he is really an intellectual, one of a kind. As a class rep, I always pestered our lecturers with phone calls and text messages concerning our scheduled lectures, but in Nna Johnson’s case, he would always call me; and he was always very punctual, some times arriving in class even before we did. Frankly, Nna Johnson’s level of passion and commitment to duty humbles me. What I learnt from him is sheer diligence.
I pay rapt attention whenever I am in class where Prof Henry Alapiki himself is teaching. He’s really an intellectual and I learn one thing from his classroom disposition, which is best known to me. Alapiki is a colossus cum disciplinarian. (I was to do him a photo album of my class for his exam, and I delayed. When I learnt that he was not happy about the delay, I hurried off to his office with the album; on my way, just as I got to Management faculty building, it started raining heavily, and I had to stay there for a while. Just as I was there, I got a phone call, and I never knew it was Alapiki because it was not his number I had. He said, “hello”, I replied, “Yea, good day”, he said “am I speaking with the PAS year two course rep?”, I replied “yea, you are.” (I dey form honourable course rep). then he said “this is Prof. Henry Alapiki.” Just by the mention of the name, I became shivery, I quickly replied “ok sir yes sir sorry sir”. And I ran through the rain to his office to deliver the album. The album was wet when I gave it to him). In PAS department of Uniport, the fear of Alapiki is the beginning of discipline.
Now to the man of this piece; Distinguished Professor Eme Ekekwe. My first contact with Ekekwe was when we I became the acting course rep as we were doing our clearance, and he was the Head of Department. Then, I needed to create an interface between my class and the office of the HOD. I had great doubt that the HOD in his very busy schedule would have time to hold a meeting with my class when we were more or less JAMBites. But thanks to my daring character, I did him a letter requesting for a meeting between my class and him. I delivered the letter through his secretary, and as I left the office, before I got to Arena, I received a text message, guess who it was from; Eme Ekekwe himself, the HOD. He invited me over, and asked me to fix the meeting; I refused, I said the fixing of the meeting should suit his convenience; he insisted, he said I should fix the meeting and just let him know the date, time and venue. And so we did hold a meeting with Eme Ekekwe the HOD, after which we held several other meetings with him to address exigent critical issues that were affecting us as a class under my leadership.
I don’t want to bore you with stories about Eme Ekekwe. But I must tell you that I greatly admire him because he is an icon, a phenomenon in Political Science, an internationally renowned one. I come across citation of his works in many reputable books. This man is in the caliber of the late Claude Ake. It is very unfortunate that intellectualism is mostly disregarded in this part of the world; otherwise, persons like Ekekwe should be engaged in the affairs of the State. A saying goes that “a prophet is not regarded in his land”. We may not really understand who Ekekwe is, maybe because he regularly stands before us in class to teach.
To me, the most interesting thing about Eme Ekekwe is his lifestyle of gentleness, humility and simplicity. His lifestyle convinces me further that the greatest men are the simplest men on earth.
THE GREATEST MEN ARE THE SIMPLEST MEN ON EARTH.
Thanks for reading this article.
Kingsley Onwuka (onwukavoice@gmail.com)