Marotzke:
Yes you are mistaken. She became permanent secretary in the late eighties, under IBB.

Wrong!! She was appointed a Federal Permanent Secretary in 1975.

Francesca Emanuel was one of the early member of Steve Rhodes Voices.

In this interview conducted her at Victoria Island home, she spoke on how she was able to carry on as a member of the Steve Rhodes Voices in spite of her busy schedules in the Civil Service, a career that saw her become Nigeria's first female Permanent Secretary.

Excerpts from an interview conducted by Bola Adewara _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Your name is often conflictingly spelt. Some people spell it as Emmanuel, featuring two letter M, while others spell it with only one M. Which of the two is right and what is your ancestry like?
My maiden name was Pereira . My husband's name is Manuel but our people have corrupted it to Emmanuel and now what can we do? But we left it as Emanuel, one M. Both of us come from the Lagos Brazilian family. My husband's Emanuel is of the Tokunbo area while my Pereira is of Seteolu Compound, Kakawa street , near Campos Square on Lagos Island.

How did you develop interest in music?
As a little child, I was brought up by my grand mother because my father, Francisco Eugenio Pereira who died in 1986 worked as a Civil Servant in the governor's office. He was always on transfer and mother went with him. I was baptised a Catholic through my maternal grandmother whom I stayed with at Olowogbowo area of Lagos. She was a Ghanaian who was brought into Nigerian at age 13 and married my grandfather, Jonathan Theodore Nelson Caulcrik. My grandfather had a Sierra Leone blood. I am still in touch with some of the ancestry. I took my grandmother back to Ghana when she was 70 and luckily there was one of her contemporaries around who took us round and we also invited them to Nigeria. At the Sierra Leone end, I have no link because that place is too far from Nigeria .

So I started loving music and acting as a child. Many times I caught myself singing and acting alone, fantasising. I used to attend the Sunday school at Olowogbowo Methodist Church where I was a member of Little Stars, a church organisation for little Children and we used to perform in the church.

At what point did you leave Steve Rhodes Voices?
When in was appointed Permanent Secretary in 1975. When I was an Assistant Secretary, I damned all taunting and name calling like “Singing Assistant Secretary”, this and that from people in government and the media. I said to hell with them because I was not doing anything the law of the land and nobody could dictate my life for me.

But when I was appointed, I sat myself down and told myself that at this level of this appointment, my comportment was no longer about Francesca alone. This was Nigerian womanhood. Having been given this opportunity, all eyes are on me and they are going to judge me. Whatever I do will reflect on the chances of those coming behind me, so I must not do anything that will jeopardise the chances of those coming behind me. So I withdrew from Steve Rhodes Voices. http://www.livingprojectslimited.com/steverhodes/francesca-Emmanuel.htm

laudate:


Wrong!! She was appointed a Federal Permanent Secretary in 1975.

yea , you are right. Kind of got it confused. Her time of retirement was confused with the time of her appointment.