PAGE 28—SUNDAY VANGUARD, JUNE 3, 2012
Life Is A Tragedy For Those Who Feel, And A Comedy For Those Who Think —JEAN DE LA BRUYERE
I defied religious sentiment to become Anambra gov — Ezeife z ‘I fabricated the car pin in the spare parts business’ zOn Third Term: Obasanjo dealt with me for opposing him BY BASHIR ADEFAKA Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife is a political icon and most of the things people know about him revolve around politics. He was a civilian governor of Anambra State, a presidential aspirant on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD) and presidential adviser on political matters, during the Obasanjo presidency. Before his foray into politics, he was a permanent secretary in the Federal Civil Service. But the preoccupation here is to get him to speak about his life outside politics. And we succeeded largely in doing that. was not as good as the white man’s. Do you know why? Because it never got spoilt. The white man would do its own in a way that it got spoilt so that you could come and buy again. My own was Igbomade and so it was always there. At that point in time, I was enjoying life with my master and I learnt many household things, but it didn’t appear to me that it was my calling. So I said I was going back to the village to teach. And it just occurred to me and I took permission from my master to allow me go for Easter and he allowed me to go. Igboukwu is my village, which is supposedly one of the oldest towns in the world, where Noah’s Ark landed after the flood. When I reached home at Igboukwu, I was serving with a ‘major ’ and we answered military ranks. The ‘officer ’, ‘Major Opiah’ told me to go and ‘escort’ a white man who was living in Agunleri, but coming to our town. I went. On our way coming with the white man in his car, I told him that I wanted
to be a teacher and so, I wanted to go back to school. We got to Igboukwu and I had already told the ‘officer’ I was working with. So it was; I didn’t really have to go back to Aba. I was instantly given
,
T
here is no how an achiever is discussed without delving into his past. How did you start out in life? First of all, the grace of God was surplus to me. I came from a family that was well to do in terms of situation of those days having many factories and a lot of parcels of land. There was a Salvation Army School near my house and I attended that school, for my primary education and there I did well. I then went to Anglican School where I did Standard Five and Six. I took entrance examination into a secondary school, but my father was not ready to take me to secondary school. Then I went for apprenticeship, first of all in medicine (selling) and thereafter in motor spare parts at Aba. There I was successful and, as I told you, the grace of God was surplus to me that when I was about 13 years old, I fabricated something called pinion shaft. It was just like a pin; something you put in the differential in car. My own
said, “Officer, please allow me to go.” He said, “Okay, you can go. You won’t pass anyway.” I went but against his insinuation, and by the grace of God, I passed very well and then I went to teachers’ training college. It was a two years correspondence programme. So it was while at the teachers’ training college that God really was merciful to me because I sauntered into the power of God. How do you mean? I went to one teacher who was a friend of mine. I saw some papers on his table and on some of them was written
At that point in time, I was enjoying life with my master and I learnt many household things, but it didn’t appear to me that it was my calling
a teaching appointment with my Standard Six. That was 1954, 55. So, I became a public teacher and I enjoyed every bit of it. But if you had to be a teacher, you needed to go for training for two years.
T
here was an examination for teachers’ training college and I had to complete three years before going. I
,
‘Rapid Result College, London’. I asked him: “What are these things for?” He said, “Rapid Result College teaches you by correspondence to take GCE from preliminary to Advanced Level.” Then I asked what GCE was and he explained to me that GCE meant General Certificate in Education. I said how would I go about it and he said, “First, you take preliminary level, if you pass,
you get to Ordinary Level and if you pass Ordinary Level you go to Advanced Level.” Therefore, in January 1959, I took GCE qualifying test and I passed and went to Ordinary Level. In 1960 January, I took GCE Ordinary Level; you know, it was done year by year, I passed and I was very grateful to God. In 1961 January, I took GCE Advanced Level, I passed in three papers and I was walking in the air. As I told you, I sauntered into powers that I didn’t know. Now because those powers were guiding me, when I received the envelope containing the three results of the GCE Advanced Level, I went to church. I knew what was there was already there, but I just went to church and knelt down and said, “God, if what is inside here is bad, give me the courage to go back to do it again.” When I opened the envelopes, the results were fantastic and I was like a drunken man; very happy! My father and mother were happy about it.
I
n 19060/61, I was headmaster. Then, in regular practice in the evening, even during the night, what I did was to take my lamp, go into the bush to read my correspondence books. What that meant was that in the Christmas of 1960, I was left alone in Onitsha while my people had gone home for Christmas. That is the background of how I got to UCI, University College, Ibadan in October 1961. If you look back at the era you were doing all that, which could best be described as your formative period in life?; it was the period of independence. How did that play out in that part of your life? Well, I had no direct relationship, but I was involved in the jubilations welcoming Nigeria’s independence as a young man. So, at independence, I was in a neighbouring town and, on the night of the independence, I led a Carol, moving from place to place in the night celebrating the arrival of independent Nigeria. I was full of hope because, as a black person, we, early in life, realised as black people that Nigeria was going to teach the white people sense. And has Nigeria even been well positioned to teach the white people any sense? Well, contrary to expectation, Nigeria became
Continues on page 29