By Aham Njoku
Poet, biographer, journalist, literary critic, and academic is what the official biography of Professor Obi Nwakanma will show you. However those of us who were with him at Government College Umuahia in his formative years in the class of 1978 to 1983 at that great college often referred to as the ”Eton College” of Eastern Nigeria, fashioned after that famous United Kingdom school know him better than that.
By the way, Eton College, for those who may be interested is a highly prestigious, historic boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 years, known for its strong academic excellence, co-curricular activities, it’s strong alumni and producing future leaders in the United Kingdom.
Nwakanma, almost everybody knew, was a first-class student but his rascality, restlessness, and idealism, which saw him challenge what today may be referred to as bullying, got him on the wrong side of most of his seniors. In Umuahia, where discipline and hierarchical order was sacrosanct, the mantra was ”Obey before complaining.”
From kneeling down, to picking pin, mounting, digging grounds, cutting grass and the famous school runs ( where a student was timed and made to run round a particular distance within the school premises in not more than five minutes) several punishments were available for erring students. These punishments were imposed by fellow students and sometimes by teachers, many of whom were active combatants in the then recently ended Nigerian Civil War. Perhaps this was a carryover of military discipline into a civilian space.
Against this background, Nwakanma became what was called an ”artful dodger.” This was a survival skill which many students developed to navigate the tough terrain of Umuahia, which was like a boot camp or a military formation. He then gave himself, and other students also gave him such sobriquet like Rexmarinus, Drab Curtis, Akioha, etc
Born in Ibadan in 1966, Nwakanma’s path which crossed that of Chinua Achebe and poet laureate Christopher Okigbo, two literary giants who both attended Government College Umuahia and University College, Ibadan can only be viewed from a spiritual telescope.
Nwakanma, who later read English at the University of Jos and graduated in flying colours wanted to play pop music like Chris Okotie whose hit track ”I need someone to love, ” and Jide Obi, whose hit track, ”Front page news, ” were dominating the national radio air waves during that period.
His interest in politics and journalism was not in doubt. In our final year at Umuahia, he and a few other students would sacrifice their pocket money (given to us by our parents to buy snacks) to buy sunday newspapers like Sunday Concord, Sunday Times, Sunday Statesman, Sunday Satellite. etc.
We read views on Nigerian politics by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, President Shehu Shagari, Obafemi Awolowo, Waziri Ibrahim and Aminu Kano. We also watched out for Suleiman Takumar, Ibrahim Tahir, Chuba Okadigbo and of course the bombastic Dr K.O. Mbadiwe.
Mbadiwe regalled us with such words as a ”man of timbre and calibre,” and ”political juggernaut.” Once, he had a political difference with Azikiwe. Journalists went to interview him. Remember that the last letters of Mbadiwe and Azikiwe are ‘iwe.” He told the journalists, ‘If he (Azikiwe) is iwe, I am also iwe!” When asked about the zoning policy of his National Party of Nigeria, he said, ”We are zoning to unzone.” President Shagari, deferring to his bombast, appointed him as an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
Against this background, Nwakanma, the winner of ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize, would go on to work for The Guardian Newspaper, The Sunday Magazine (TSM), West African correspondent of Newsweek (New York) and finally Vanguard Newspaper where he became the Deputy Editor on Sunday before his departure to sojourn abroad and from where even ”at large” he writes his decades long column, ”The Orbit.”
Now that he has finally berthed at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, United States of America, where he teaches English, most of us are not sure of what would happen as he celebrates his birthday. What we are sure of is that he would pull out his favourite drink, Baron Otard. We are also sure that his wife Mira and his two children, Kiran and Priyan would be dotting around him and pandering to his wishes.
▪️Njoku, a lawyer, author, and the National Secretary of Government College Umuahia, Old Boys Association. (2013 to 2017) can be reached at Tel: 0816 741 2614 (By WhatsApp messages only)
